Learning from Nazareth

We’ve only just started the year, and already I’m having to think about Lent! I always welcome this time of year as one when I can set my rhythm anew, establish a fresh discipline and make the time to listen to what God is saying to me.

On another page I’ve made some suggestions as to the elements of a Lenten discipline that might be helpful to people. It’s often just a matter of tackling those things we know we ought to do – and the period of just over six weeks which Lent takes up gives us that time-frame to do it. Like the 40 days which Jesus spends in the wilderness – you can make a start with a target date already prescribed.

A “Lent Course” can be helpful in this respect. Something where someone has already done the groundwork in helping us think / learn / pray – and where we can join in with other people, so that we know we’re not on our own. But our usual provider of such courses, USPG, doesn’t seem to have come up with one yet – and other offerings as yet seem thin.

So I’m proposing a course which we can’t complete in the five weeks available during Lent – something you might want to carry on for the two further weeks of the course – and beyond. It’s a course based on the book, The City is my Monastery by Richard Carter. It came out of his consideration of what he should be doing at a particular point in his life. Should he leave his work as a parish priest in a busy city parish? Should he join a monastery or move into some other form of the “religious life.” His conclusion was that he needed to continue in the city – but with a fresh rhythm. And it was a way of life he would pursue with others – not alone. From this there has grown the Nazareth Community and a wider dispersed group known as the Companions of Nazareth. They follow a Rule of Life based on 7 S’s – to live with Silence; with Service; with Scripture; with Sacrament; with Sharing; with Sabbath; and “Staying with…” (steadfastness, truth, suffering, love). The book is available for anyone who would like to buy it. But there’s also a course which I can share. I hope you’ll join me in exploring how it might speak to us.  

Martin Jackson

This is the "View from the Vicarage," taken from the February issue of our Parish Magazine - follow the link to read more!

And here's a link to the book on which the course is based.

Christmas at St. Cuthbert's Church, Shotley Bridge

 

Christmas at St. John's Church, Castleside

 

Coming Soon

 

A Holy Door – and where it leads…

Our parish magazine, from which this article is taken, is appearing a bit later than we might have wanted – in large part because I was away when I’d normally be editing it. Finally, in the second half of October, I was able to take two weeks of my annual leave – a rather late summer holiday!

Fortunately, it was pretty warm where I went – back to Italy. You can fly direct to Bergamo, near Milan, from Newcastle if you’re prepared to get up early enough, but we stayed first in Arezzo in Tuscany, then moving on to Rome. Just planning the rail travel entailed was quite exciting – and then travelling at speeds of up to 298 kilometres per hour on the Frecciarossa train. How is it that other countries manage to have an infrastructure that works? – though admittedly our first train was 10 minutes late into Florence so that we missed our rather tight connection there (but the online ticket allowed you to change the connecting train from your phone which we did).

There’s so much that I could say about the holiday – so much that I need to reflect on myself. Should I have gone back to Rome when I was last there less than a year ago? Back in November 2024 there was a lot going on with building works in the city – most of it in preparation for the Jubilee Year which is being celebrated throughout 2025. The Jubilee itself had pushed prices up with more people than ever travelling there, but I wanted to see just what had been accomplished and to experience something of the celebrations. So I was glad that we were able to find somewhere reasonably priced. It was an apartment in an area I’d never been to before, quite a long way from the centre – and entailed travel via two different Metro lines. But having said that it was very near the station from which we emerged, and there were lots of places to eat well and far more cheaply than elsewhere.

We arrived in Rome at the same time as the King, who was there to pray with the Pope in the Sistine Chapel. We weren’t invited! Nor was a friend who works at the Anglican Centre in Rome. We met up with her on the morning of the service. She was actually invited to a service later in the day when the King was to be given a special seat at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls. I’m sorry there wasn’t more coverage of that service which was about re-forging the connection of our country and the monarchy with the Benedictine Community which maintains the life of the Papal Basilica.

But we didn’t have an invitation there either! However, the next day, we took ourselves off to St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. The previous year, the queues had been so long that we hadn’t even tried to get in. This year, there was a massive crowd approaching St. Peter’s Square, but it was well-managed and before long we were through the security checks and in the line for the Basilica. We decided to enter via the Grotto where so many of the Popes are buried. I think the route might have changed, and it was the best visit I’ve paid. We emerged into the church right by the central altar. So many people – but a wonderful sense of prayer. More than that, the route through the Basilica directed visitors to the Holy Door – opened only in Jubilee Years for pilgrims. There was no sense of a rush as we re-entered the church to find ourselves by Michaelangelo’s Pieta, and then chapels and altars set aside for prayer.

On our final day in Rome we went to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore where Pope Francis is buried. Again, huge numbers – but well-handled. All are directed through another Holy Door with bronze reliefs of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. As I walked through I saw that Jesus’ hands extended from the door . It was a natural thing for me to place my hand in his - and what a sense I had of the mercy of God we find in him! So many others had done the same, the dull bronze polished bright by all who had held - and been held - by that hand. It’s a mercy we all need to share… MJ

In the midst of life…

September has been a month of mixed emotions. It’s so good to have been able to celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Consecration of St. Cuthbert’s Church – and we did it on the exact day, 12th September, led in celebration by Bishop Frank White. It was a terrific occasion, so wonderfully prepared for with imagination, skill and much hard work. 

All that we have tried to do in attending to the fabric problems of the church this year has been a testimony to our people’s determination that this building should continue to stand here as a witness for the glory of God – and for celebration and service to others by his people. Much work has been unseen – not least so many days of painstaking labour by Dave Short in renovating the church doors and yet again attending to the peeling paintwork; through all the preparations in decorating the church so beautifully with flowers and with displays depicting the work of so many groups which link us with our wider community; and then the massive work of catering for the Anniversary Reception and Harvest Lunch – with an Autumn Fair thrown into the mix! 

The end result was exhilaration and exhaustion! Thank you to everyone who played their part!

But at the same time we could not but help feel a sense of loss. Claire Bean died just a matter of days before the celebrations began. She has been so much part of our lives – together with Ian, Rachel and Stephen. Their response has been quite remarkable. I was glad that the bell-ringing with which the Anniversary Weekend began was a quarter peal in memory of Claire. I asked if it was going to be “half-muffled” – but the answer was “No. Claire wanted the bells to ring out for all to hear.” And of course the ringing continued – not only before services, but also with a full peal, conducted by Stephen (and Rachel’s first) in record time, and a “date touch,” 1850 changes rung to mark the year of the church’s consecration. In between Stephen went off to Hull for an additional peal!

There are things in life – and in the face of death – which make us question how to make sense of everything. This last month has been one of those times. There’s been the death of Malcolm Bates as well, with all the waiting which Nora and her family have faced. And inevitably the looking back which we have done is a reminder of the losses in which we all share.

But that same looking back also shows that loss is the other side of “gift” – what we have been given by those who have gone before, whose legacy we have inherited, whose lives we have shared. 175 years of the lives of those who built and maintained our church – through all our struggles, but also joys. All those meetings where we have sought the way forward, the search for the resources we need, the encouragement that has grown from a shared life, the worship offered, and our deepening in prayer. And then most recently in those recent bereavements. I reflected on how Claire faced death at much too early an age. Much of the work in that was accomplished simply by the life she lived, and the love and friendship shared. She showed us how important purpose is – and that it’s more than calculation. How to die is very much the same matter as how to live.

This is all rather complex, yet at the same time quite simple. I realise I have more work to do on how I live – and how I face my own mortality. It’s something we all need to work at, though mindful of the grace, mercy and love of God. I hope we can receive all that we find in our hearts after this month that is passed – and do so with gratitude. Martin Jackson

St. Cuthbert's celebrates 175 Years!