Church links with Seahouses Festival. The cultural and spiritual heritage of Northumberland are to be celebrated as Seahouses looks forward to a blazing weekend 20th to 22nd June - and a renewed focus is on the former United Reformed Church at the centre of the village of North Sunderland....
June 2008 read moreChurches full of Hope. All over the synod area our churches, often working alongside others in the community, have seen Hope 2008 as an opportunity to be grasped....
June 2008 read moreSongs of Praise from Northumberland. St George's United Reformed Church, Morpeth and Ron Forster, its minister played a prominent part in the BBC Songs of Praise broadcast on Sunday May 18th. As the church celebrated a weekend of special events under the title Through all the Changing Scenes of Life, the television programme focused on a journey through the county by Aled Jones...
May 2008 read moreYorkshire Dales Heritage. A set of slides from the early days of colour photography has recently been rediscovered, which sheds new light on the life of our churches in the Yorkshire Dales. The Revd George Curry served as Dales Minister from 1951 to 1965.....
May 2008 read moreSt Columba's hits a high note! Children and children’s workers are once again leading the way in church and community engagement.Over the first weekend in May St Columba’s Church North Shields staged the ‘Wizard of Oz’ ......
May 2008 read moreEmpty tomb at Kingston Park. Visitors to Tesco's at Kingston Park over the Easter weekend will have noticed a large cross and a life-size (more or less) replica tomb that appeared outside St John's church....
April 2008 read moreTelling the story, plain and pearl. Churches are full of great knitters, and over the years they've busied themselves knitting coats for babies, socks for soldiers, and blankets for the elderly. But St George's Hartlepool like to be different - and just now the whole church is united in a new project: they're knitting the Bible!
March 2008 read moreFormer Newcastle minister is new General Secretary. Our four synod representatives on Mission Council heard with delight the news that the Revd Roberta Rominger is to be the new General Secretary of the United Reformed Church. Roberta is well known to many within our synod, where she was minister at Wideopen and Kingston Park from 1991...
March 2008 read morePonteland to Yorkshire - A Date at Dewsbury. The singing was the thing that most got to me. I was quite moved by the power of it for it was a large congregation (some three hundred, I reckon, including a coachload from Kevin’s former church at Ponteland). The enthusiasm and sheer volume of ‘The God of Abram praise’ was uplifting in itself....
March 2008 read moreChurch opens its door on to the High Street. Saturday March 1st 2008 saw a full church at Trinity, Gosforth, as a congregation that had spent a year in the wilderness of a local school found itself back in its refurbished and extended buildings - and all ready for a new ministry of service to the High Street on which it is set...
March 2008 read moreLiving on Fair Trade products. St George's Hartlepool elder Chris Eddowes is well known to many within our synod... And this year Chris and her husband Richard have vowed to spend Fair Trade Fortnight (February 25 - March 9) living exclusively on Fairtrade products.
February 2008 read morePonteland - an Eco-Congregation! Ponteland URC is one of the latest churches to have been awarded the distinction of being an eco-congregation, and the second (after Northallerton) within our Synod. And its minister, Kevin Watson, had to confess "We are one and I didn’t even realise it!"
November 2007 read moreGrindon - messy and pantastic. The children's mural over the door says this is somewhere different. The pictures of "messy church" in the brightly coloured annual report tell the same story. And as the steel band nostalgia music of Pantastic starts up, you know that this is not your average Saturday morning church coffee morning.....
November 2007 read moreFifty years in Billingham Fifty years ago St Columba's Presbyterian Church was opened in Billingham. The core of the congregation looked back to the church founded in Haverton Hill in 1919, drawing its members largely from the families of Scots working in the Furness shipsyard there...
October 2007 read moreSSM has something to sing about Ray Anglesea, one of our ministers, and a community regeneration officer working in the inner city areas of Newcastle upon Tyne with Planning Aid North has something to sing about.....
October 2007 read moreOne baptism? Some thirty people from a variety of Churches over the North East came together to talk about baptism, and to be stimulated in their own understanding of what it means to share with Martin Luther the assurance "I have been baptised".....
October 2007 read moreJackie in Sibiu. Four hungry people in the middle of Romania. It's midnight, and only one of them has local currency. The other URC representatives to the Third European Ecumenical Assembly will have had good reason to be thankful to Jackie Barrett, an elder at our Wooler Church....
October 2007 read moreThankful People Together. It's the season for Harvest Festivals: and at the end of September two of Northumberland's remotest Churches celebrated Harvest together.....
October 2007 read moreMinisters score 49 out of 100. Three former ministers returned to Denewell Avenue Church in Gateshead - as part of the church's centenary celebrations. Together with the present minister they reckoned to have notched up 49 of those 100 years of service...
September 2007 read morePrayer 24/7 at Ryton: At 12 noon on Sunday September 16th a safe place was opened for just one week on behalf of the churches of Ryton at the United Reformed Church. The 24/7 prayer room is designed for all who need time out, safe space, and the right sort of setting to think their own thoughts, listen to their own hearts....
September 2007 read moreCornerstone under new Management: The development of St George's in Hartlepool some years ago led to the setting up of a shop at the street entrance.....
September 2007 read moreSummer 2007 at the St Cuthbert's Centre: As usual August was exhibition time at the St Cuthbert's Centre on Holy Island....
August 2007 read moreLow Row organ back in tune!: In the autumn of 2006 there was no room for an overflow congregation in the small chapel of Low Row United Reformed Church in Swaledale. The gallery was full of organ pipes - and the organ gallery was a empty space!
July 2007 read moreStanley Teenagers on the Fringe: There is more to the URC than many people you realise - and just how young we all are as a denomination was one fact that young people from Stanley Community Sports College hadn't known before. The URC had been invited to participate in a Multicultural Day ......
May 2007 read moreFace 2 Face at St Andrew's Benton: The United Reformed Church is always looking for new ways of being church both locally and nationally. This year it intends to invite children to General Assembly for the very first time, and as a synod we are preparing to take some youngsters to this event in July.
May 2007 read moreDenewell Avenue Centenary: It's just a hundred years since the Revd Joseph Rorke was commissioned by the Presbytery of Newcastle to found a cause in the developing area of Low Fell, Gateshead. A suitable site was bought at price of 7s 6d a square yard...
April 2007. read moreTime for receiving: It’s many years since I spent a full day with teaching about Christian healing so it was interesting to attend this event. Proportionally the URC was very well represented – does this mean that we’re more aware of our own need of healing?
March 2007. read moreBlessings of Unity: Guisborough Bridge Project. Well, it`s not in the league of `Calendar Girls` but the Guisborough Bridge Project have produced an ecumenical calendar for 2007. Proceeds from the sale of calendars have gone towards the work of the Bridge Project
February 2007. read moreFURY Assembly voted a success. Young people from URC congregations all over the country came together for FURY [that's Fellowship of United Reformed Youth] Assembly over a January weekend at the Pioneer Centre near Kidderminster. According to the four young people who made it as our own synod representatives, it was once again a good occasion.
February 2007. read moreHolocaust Memorial Day. Members of our synod were among the many invited from churches and other faith groups in the North East who attended the national commemorative event at the Newcastle Theatre Royal January 28th 2007.
January 2007. read moreSynod welcomes new Moderator. "I have known the presence of God all my life" Rowena Francis told a packed congregation of synod members, leaders of regional churches, and other invited guests who had gathered at St James's Church in central Newcastle on January 13th for her service of Induction ......
January 2007. read moreWith Bob Geldof at the Sage. Wow! What an afternoon it was at the Sage at Gateshead on Monday 8th January. Some of us here in Hartlepool had been lucky enough to obtain seats for the Honorary Degree ceremony of Newcastle University
January 2007. read moreIn a West End Manger lies.... Non-stipendiary minister Ray Anglesea, who works for Planning Aid North, has been involved this past Christmas in a nativity play with a difference. As part of the consultation exercises on the preferred option stage of the Benwell and Scotswood Draft Area Action Plan, Planning Aid North came up with a new idea...
January 2007. read moreTree for Christmas - goats for New Year. Many of our churches have some kind of communal Christmas card that members can sign on the way into church - everyone has a greeting that way...
December 2006. read moreStamfordham returns! If Christmas marks the end of the Advent waiting, Stamfordham must have thought Christmas came early this year. On December 10th 2006 we celebrated our return to our church building after a year being in the village hall.
December 2006. read moreFlesh of our Flesh. "The healthy person needs the touch of the sick person in order to be made whole" was the message of solidarity heard from the preacher John Bell, member of the Iona Community, at a World Aids Day service in Newcastle on December 1st.
December 2006. read more“Has the future got a Church in the North East?” This was the question addressed by the eleventh Forum meeting of North East Christian Churches Together....
November 2006. read morePulling out all the stops at Low Row. We still sing "Loud organs, his glory forth tell in deep tone", but there are fewer and fewer places where it is happening....
October 2006. read moreWorship Day on Holy Island. What you missed by not being there, on the last day of September! It was a day filled with special moments, and hopefully the start of more such events....
October 2006. read moreCities of Culture. "Whose vision? Which agenda?" These were questions asked when number of urban practitioners, ministers, priests, theologians and leading academics came together for a two day conference at Scargill House, Kettlewell, North Yorkshire .....
October 2006. read more
A Heart 4 Children. A year's work and planning came together through this event held at the Bethany Christian Centre, Houghton-le-Spring on the last day of September. This was seen by everyone to be ecumenism at its best, as those who engage with children's ministry in a variety of denominations...
October 2006. read moreSt Cuthbert's comes to Heaton Road. The Newcastle road with the record number of churches woke up to one fewer - but for those who were most involved this was only an occasion for rejoicing....
October 2006. read morePeter meets the Pope. They say that all roads lead to Rome. In May of this year the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham & Newcastle led his fellow Church Leaders on a Pilgirmage to the eternal city....
June 2006. read moreChurch Centre opens. The sun shone brightly on South Shields, and the balloons festooning the entrance tugged violently in the on-shore breeze, as crowds of people from the neighbourhood and from the wider church community came together at the St Paul & St John's Church Centre....
May 2006. read moreBamburgh: Celtic saints and Castles, Iona worship and ecumenism. Bamburgh, beloved of rock poolers, beach combers and pilgrims, has become the well-established home of a monthly service based around that of the Iona Community ....
May 2006. read morePuppets @ Prudhoe. Disappointed by the take-up on a recent “Puppets and Ministry” day, the parish church at Prudhoe looked around for someone else to invite – which is how I came to be there. So far as I was concerned, it was an opportunity to grasp, for I have some puppets of my own...
May 2006. read moreOpen air worship in Swaledale. More than twenty people and a dog were in the congregation that gathered in the ruined chapel high on the hillside above Swaledale on the first Friday evening in May. A glorious warm evening encouraged everyone to linger...
May 2006. read moreReceive this little child of ours.... Recently St Columba’s United Reformed Church in North Shields held a Baptismal Hymn Writing Competition. This followed a successful venture for Advent 2004 when hymns for Advent were asked for.
April 2006. read moreVisit to the Upper Room. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. Children, their parents and any interested church members were invited to come and explore more about the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples.
April 2006. read moreSwaledale welcomes the Moderator. Unique is a word frequently misused, but the visit of the Moderator of General Assembly to Swaledale surely fitted the description perfectly. David Peel is well-known in the area, having ministered in Stockton-on–Tees...
April 2006. read moreFormer Moderator celebrates retirement. 200 members and 60 invited guests congregated at Wilmslow United Reformed Church in Cheshire over the first weekend in April. to celebrate former Northern Synod moderator David Jenkins’ 39 years of ministry.
April 2006. read moreSusan in Romania. Susan Maccoy has left her job as a veterinary nurse and has made a commitment to work with orphan children in Romania for the next six years. A member of our St Margaret’s Church in South Shields, Susan first visited Romania two years ago...
March 2006. read moreFair Trade in Hartlepool. The picture shows Lady Katie, the winner of the Fair Trade Joust...
March 2006. read more5churches4heaton. They chose the coldest night of the year for it – but still people from Heaton turned out for a service on March 2nd to mark the beginning of a Local Ecumenical Partnership Covenant
March 2006. read moreTen Ways to Enthuse People for Engaging With Scripture - and Five Ways to Put Them Off! On Saturday 4th February John Campbell, Principal of Northern College, Manchester addressed a group......
February 2006. read moreLetter from Jamaica. It's nearly four years since three ordinands from Jamaica spent a summer in Northern Synod as part of the the Ordinands' Exchange Course 'Theology and ministers across cultures'. Tamara Smith, James Gibb and Naggie Sterling arrived in 2002...
February 2006. read moreMinister is proud to be one of life's losers. It's the way the punning papers tell them.... But Marathon Minister Jason Askew from Wooler has got himself in the news again with the "proud to be one of life's losers" headline. But it's all in good cause.....
February 2006. read moreMakePovertyHistory hears from Desmond Tutu. Writing to thank all who supported the recent cathedral service, David Golding of MakePovertyHistory North East has shared a message he has received from Archbishop Tutu,
February 2006. read moreNorth-South Trading Success. Jenny Medhurst in a letter of thanks to our Synod reports that the Traidcraft shop in Middlesbrough did better than ever over the Christmas season....
February 2006. read moreBerwick Minister wins Poetry Prize. CONGRATULATIONS to Rodney Ward, minister of our Berwick & Horncliffe congregation, who has received second prize in a national competition that was publicised last year on this website. Just one hundred years ago, on 4th February 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born.....
February 2006. read moreCinema wins Church Award. Erskine United Reformed Church in Belford (North Northumberland) is one of this year’s winners in the prestigious Community Projects Competition organised through the denomination’s monthly magazine Reform.
February 2006. read moreHolocaust Memorial Day was celebrated in Newcastle on January 26th 2006 at the Civic Centre. This event has taken place for some years now but this was the first time that it expanded into the Banqueting Suite....
January 2006. read moreMaking Poverty History. Durham Cathedral hosted the Regional Service of Thanksgiving and Recommitment to MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and I can honestly say that rarely have I been so moved and inspired.
January 2006. read moreBirdhopecraig to Otterburn. Lots of churches promise "A warm welcome to everyone" - but there was something special about the welcome that was offered, that was declared even, at a special service held in Otterburn...
January 2006. read moreKnickers for Christmas! It's headings like that in the church magazine that keep St George's Hartlepool in the news. Just before Christmas there was a prominent article in the Hartlepool Mail...
January 2006. read more
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