St Cuthbert’s Parish Pastoral Council will meet on Thursday 21st March. If there are any matters that you would like the PPC to discuss, please contact the Secretary, Susan Penswick, or Fr Andrew.
All posts by Parish Secretary
Lenten Vespers and Stations of the Cross
On the Friday evenings of Lent, we shall be praying Lenten Vespers (Evening Prayer) at 6:10pm, followed by Stations of the Cross at 6:30pm. If anybody from the parish or chaplaincy community would like to suggest and/or lead a version of Stations, please let Fr Andrew or Andy Doyle know as soon as possible.
CAFOD Big Walk 2024
Cafod Big Walk 2024 – starting 2pm-meet outside church on Saturday 23rd March – In partnership with parishioners from other local churches a walk of about 5km to raise money for Charity. Participants are requested to make a donation. For anyone wishing to get sponsors for Cafod the form can be downloaded from the link below. Scroll down to ‘Resources’. https://cafod.org.uk/fundraise/sponsored-challenge-events/community-big-lent-walk.
Spring Clean for Holy Week
Diocesan Lent Reflections
St Leonard’s Spring Concert
The Source
The Source is back! Our diocesan event for young people in school Year 9 and upwards. Thursday 21st March at 7.00pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle. With music, speakers, prayer and food, including Catholic artists Adenike Adewale and Ela Kalicka. See ‘Youth Ministry Team’ on social media for details.
Church Reopening
Additional stewards would be welcome to help resume opening to the public on Fridays and Saturday mornings. The new rota will start after Easter. Stewards are DBS screened and serve with a partner; sharing conversation and coffee means the two hour shifts (10.00-12.00 or 13.00 -15.00) every two or three weeks are not very onerous. If you could help, please contact Ciara (office@stcuthberts-durham.org.uk) or Susan Penswick (scpenswick@hotmail.co.uk)
God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son
In today’s Gospel Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people, who comes to him at night to talk in secret. Jesus’ message is good news. He tells Nicodemus that God has sent his Son into the world to save the world and not to condemn it. Jesus is the Light of the World who promises us eternal life. But we have a choice to make; to accept or reject the Good News. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus in the darkness, has to decide whether he will come out into the light.
St Paul says, ‘We are God’s work of art.’ God created us and he takes delight in us. We are saved by the gift of God’s grace, given to us freely. But we have to choose to accept God’s gift.
Nicodemus did become a disciple; he helped to bury Jesus’ body after his death. He chose to come into the light of faith. As we reach the halfway point in the season of Lent, it’s time to reflect on whether we are choosing the light of Christ and living the truth. Are we ready to receive God’s gift?
Mother’s Day
Centre for Catholic Studies Franciscan Conference
Diocesan Job Vacancies
Summary of Listening Exercises, Result of Questionnaire and Bishop Stephen’s Response
On our diocesan website https://diocesehn.org.uk/ you will find all the summaries from the various listening exercises that have been running since the summer of 2023, and the results of the Questionnaire for the Dicastery of Bishops Report from March 2023. These are together with Bishop Stephen’s response to what has been presented to him. He reflects on the past, present and our future together. The documentation is necessarily lengthy – too lengthy for a pastoral letter. If you wish to have hard copies of all or parts of the suite of documents, then please contact the parish office.
Year of Prayer
In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year ‘Pilgrims of Hope‘, 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer. Find out more at https://diocesehn.org.uk/living-the-faith/the-year-of-prayer-2024/
Come and See
Priestly Vocation Discernment Evenings 2024
Men aged 18+ who think God may be calling them to serve in our Diocese are invited to come and explore their vocation with the Diocesan Priestly Vocations Team. Meetings started in January and continue each month until December.
For more information, please call the vocations Promoter on 012087 299012, or email vocations promoter@diocesehn.org.uk
Take all this out of here!
Jesus is the Son of God. He is also truly human and feels the same emotions that we do. In today’s Gospel we see Jesus moved by passion and anger. The Temple in Jerusalem was God’s house on earth; a holy place where all God’s people could go to worship and offer sacrifice. But they could only sacrifice animals that were approved by the Temple authorities and to buy the approved animals, they first had to change their money for special Temple coins. The holy place had been turned into a marketplace and the People of God were being exploited. This, it seems, is the cause of Jesus’ anger; this is what moves him to turn over the tables and drive out the animals and the money changers. The symbolic action shows his disciples that Jesus is full of zeal for his Father’s house.
We should note that, although Jesus is angry, he does not use violence and no one is hurt by his actions. We never see Jesus harm anyone. When he is asked for a sign to justify what he has done, he replies, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ As John explains, Jesus is foretelling his own suffering and death. The Son of God comes into our world not to do violence but to suffer violence and to give his life for us.
Mission Appeal
Northern Cross
The March edition of our diocesan newspaper is now on sale, price £1.50, or you can read the paper online at www.northerncross.org.uk Please consider taking out a subscription (print or online) to support the Northern Cross.
Catholic Theology Research Seminar
Language, desire and creation in the context of Laudato Si’ by Prof Tina Beattie. Thursday 7th March, 5.00-6.30pm in Abbey House, Palace Green, Durham and online. Details and booking at https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/catholic-studies/about-us/events/ctrs—14-mar-2024—tina-beattie/
Durham Singers: Dona Nobis Pacem, a concert for peace
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully and more devotedly than ever before.” So said Leonard Bernstein, who in his Chichester Psalms draws on his faith to do just that, “for thou art with me”. In the première of Tarney’s Canticle of Elzabeth, Elizabeth finds peace in the bearing of a child who heralds the dawn of salvation. Then Vaughan Williams sets a recurring plaintive cry for peace in Dona Nobis Pacem. If you can, please come and join us in our concert for peace. Saturday 9 March 2024, 7.30pm, Durham Cathedral. Tickets from the Durham Cathedral website.
See: https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/calendar?date=2024-03-09