The man shook as he told us his story of persecution: we could see the scars on his head and his hands. Another man in the group flinched as someone he didn’t know came into the room. I promised him “You will always be safe here.”  A woman cried as she told me how, as an out and proud Christian lesbian, she had been told she could not become a member of the church that she had been attending for months. “I am so glad to be back here” she said. A charity that works with children hired a room in the building we use, to run an event for LGBT people interested in adoption – “Because we saw you at Pride and thought this would be a good space to hold our event.” These three things all happened in the past month at MCC Newcastle. They are part of what we do, week in, week out. We offer hope and light to our community and beyond. Often it is in small, unseen ways – small gestures of kindness and compassion, such as the regular donations of clothing that people give to the West End Refugee Service. Sometimes we are able to bring hope at big events like Pride and World AIDS Day. People who may never worship with us follow us online and through social media. We are observed at a distance by many individuals, who may turn to us when life changes for them and they need a safe place to be.

A good while ago Mikee preached on Micah 6:8: What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. He suggested that at MCC Newcastle we are good at walking humbly with God – our worship is excellent and we offer many ways to go deeper in our spiritual life. He challenged us to really step up and step out in acting justly and loving mercy. This message has stayed with me and has continued to challenge me ever since. How do we move out beyond our church walls and how do we make it easier for groups to see us as a resource to support them in what they do?

This year’s Annual Congregational Meeting marks a key moment in our response to the challenge to love mercy and to act justly. The Board is proposing only two aims, which will help us to put our faith into action. Firstly, we are now ready to start looking for our own building, choosing a venue that is better suited to our needs and that will give us the flexibility to develop our ministries more fully. Secondly, we are going to focus on developing activities that intentionally reach out and serve those beyond our church walls.  We are called to bring hope and light. This is our time.

God bless

Cecilia    

Have you seen our new church sign? It hangs across the big yellow St James’s sign every Sunday and it reads MCC Newcastle – the church for our community. Underneath it has our mission statement “Be yourself. Find meaning. Know God.” What does it really mean to be “the church for our community”? Let me give you some examples. Being the church for our community means offering our building
for community groups to meet in – we housed the Tyne Trans group when it was first setting up and paid the rent on the church for Proud Northern Voices to get started. Now we host Rainbow Home once a month – our joint project with
MESMAC, to support LGBT folk who are seeking asylum in the UK.

Being the church for our community means that we are out and proud at key events in the life of our community – Pride, IDAHO, World AIDS day. Being the church for our community means that our community know that we are there for them and they can interact with us in a variety of ways. At Pride I chatted with someone. Later that week she contacted me through our Facebook page to say that she had listened to my sermon online and told me a bit about her own faith journey. 
 
Being the church for our community means leaving the comfort of what we want from church, and listening hard to what our community needs from us. Jesus didn’t just sit in a room and wait for folk to find him. He went out there, he looked and listened to the lives of the people around him. He didn’t change who he was in order to serve them. He was authentically who he was, and because of that, people turned to him.

We are at a tipping point in our journey. We can either shrink back or take a big step forward into the next stage of our journey together. Our treasurer Charlotte W has recently challenged us to add the cost of a cup of coffee per week to our monthly giving if we are able. I have already increased my monthly giving by the equivalent of two lattes per month in response to the report Charlotte gave to the Annual Congregational Meeting.  However, since Pride I have become so convinced that we are called to even greater things that I have just increased my monthly giving by another £20 per month.  10% of my income for today’s needs and a further 1% for our future. 

Our community needs us. Let us be their church.

 God bless,

Cecilia

Here I sit, back in the church office for the first time since the end of June. All around me are the signs of all that has been going on in my absence. There is the fantastic artwork from our Messy Church Pride service – “What makes you proud?” – our families have written in hearts what makes them proud – “my two mummies”, “for being my teacher’s top writer”, “my fabulous family and pets”, “singing with the choir”. The powerpoint printout from Sunday’s service sits on my desk, reminding me of our current worship theme
– “Exploring Spiritual Types”. I am SO looking forward to worshipping again with everyone this Sunday! I’ve heard about the wonderful “Write a Psalm” workshop and have caught up with the news from Chill and Grace, our monthly
lunch.

One of the real strengths of MCC Newcastle is that we believe that everyone has a part to play in the ministry of our church. All of these activities, and others besides, are led by members of our congregation, using their gifts and skills.

Of course, the office is full of stuff for Pride this Saturday. Northern Pride is one of our greatest outreach opportunities and this year we have “Fabulous and Beautiful” stickers to give away, as well as everything else. Every year, we have at least one person who starts worshipping with us on a regular basis, because of seeing us at Pride. What is also important is that our presence is part of a “drip-drip” effect. People see us at Pride, at IDAHO, at other events around the region. They repeatedly hear our message of God’s inclusive love and they get a chance to observe – from a safe distance, what we are like as people.

Because of our constant presence at these events, people check out our website, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We might never see these individuals at worship, but they know that we are here if they need us, and some day, some of them will come and find us in person.

All of us have had to walk through the doors of MCC for the first time. For some, it is an instant homecoming, for others it is a scary step into the unknown. When someone comes to MCC Newcastle for the first time, it is great when they can
recognise one or two faces, either from Pride or from our amazing website. It helps to make them feel more at home straight away. If we can offer more activities and events beyond the worship service, we are more able to support
each person in their faith journey and in daily living. It takes all of us to offer a “safe, warm, welcoming home.”

Happy Pride!!

God bless,

Cecilia

Northern Pride is nearly here, despite torrential rain and the threat of drag queens getting their heels stuck in the mud! It takes a large team of people working all year round to make this huge community event happen. These folk give tirelessly of their time and energy to produce a programme of activities which seems to get better each year. Most are volunteers, who manage to fit all this in as well as all the other demands on their time.

Most people, at some point in their lives will be a volunteer or serve others in some way or another – looking after
a relative or keeping an eye on an elderly neighbour. It is a part of human nature to think of others, to reach out and to give of oneself. That is why we can be so shocked and disappointed when we find people who are completely self
absorbed and self centred. These inward looking folk miss out on the rewards that come with serving others – the satisfaction of seeing a job well done, the great feeling when someone takes the time to say “Thank you” and just seeing how even the smallest kindness can really make a difference in someone’s life.

In our worship theme Learning from Jesus, we have been looking at how Jesus lived his life and how that can help us. Sometimes, Jesus was intentional about what he did and where he went. Often though, he just seemed to come across people in the street, as he was going about his own business and started a conversation with them, which often led to healing. Jesus took the time to help those he came across, sometimes just by giving them a chance to express their faith.

Many folk at MCC Newcastle already give of their time and energy in the church through our various ministries and activities. Often, they also volunteer elsewhere as well. However, living like Jesus can be as simple as just saying “Hello” to someone on the street, or listening to someone in a supermarket queue who is lonely and just needs to talk. 
 
May you find a chance this week to give a little time to someone else and help build a little bit of heaven on earth.

 God bless,

 Cecilia 

On my desk sits a useful little book called “Vows and Partings” It was produced by the Methodist Church in response to the ups and downs of life. The prayers contained in this book recognise that relationships can be wonderful and also can end badly. There are prayers to recognise the changes that retirement brings and prayers to help both parents and children through different stages of life. Some of them read like modern day psalms, expressing human confusion and bewilderment.

For so many people who look at the church from the outside, it can seem irrelevant and outdated. It can appear that the pomp and preaching bears no relation to the everyday lives that most people are leading. This is why it is so important that MCC Newcastle gets out and about, in the
places where our people are. This year, as always we will have a strong presence at Northern Pride. We will also march in Sunderland Pride in September. We need to show our people that God is there for them and the church is rightfully theirs.

So what sort of rites and rituals might be more relevant to our community? How can we bring the sacred into the human – just as the prayers in the Methodist book do?

Naming ceremonies for babies are less formal than baptism and don’t require parents and godparents to say things that they don’t really believe. If a child decides to make a commitment to Christ later on, they can always be baptised then.

For people who are transitioning, having a blessing which celebrates their new name and embraces their gender is great way to support and affirm individuals.

How would it be to have a prayer or ritual for couples who are breaking up, especially those who have been together
a long time? Our community is so small, that learning to end relationships well helps us and our friends to live alongside each other without some of the hurt and bad feeling carrying on for years.

Where will you find the sacred in the human this week?

God bless,

 Cecilia