A weekend of prayer, community, camping and worship! 23-27 August, for young people aged 16-35. We are hoping to join with other groups from the North East and share a coach to Walsingham and back, this cost should be around £30 return. Youth 2000 run a pay-what-you-can-afford ticket scheme, with their suggested donation being £100 for the 5 day festival including all meals. If you are interested or would like any further information, contact Katie at youth.durhammartyrs@rcdhn.org.uk
All posts by Parish Secretary
An Important notice about Gift Aid
The Parish will soon be submitting its Gift Aid return for the year ending 31st March 2018. If any Gift Aid donors now believe that, whether through changes in personal circumstances or increases in tax allowances, they will not have paid sufficient income tax to cover the Gift Aid on their donations (25p for every £1 donated) then please let Fr Andrew or Andy Doyle know as soon as possible. Also, if any donors have changed address in the last year and have not already informed the Gift Aid team at the Diocesan Offices then, again, let Fr Andrew or Andy Doyle know.
If you are not already part of the Gift Aid scheme and would like to know more, contact Andy Doyle on 0191 3783660 or andydoyle1066@sky.com. Thank you for your generosity.
The Medaille Trust
ARCIC III
After seven years of work, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) has released its first ‘Agreed Statement,’ entitled Walking Together on the Way: Learning to Be the Church – Local, Regional, Universal. This statement has been shaped by the method of Receptive Ecumenism developed at Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies. You can find out more about the part played by the CCS and the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle at www.rcdhn.org.uk
Sheep without a Shepherd
The apostles return from their missionary tour, elated by all that they have done and taught. Jesus looks at the Twelve with compassion, seeing that they are tired and overwrought, and he urges them to come away and rest. But when the crowds follow, Jesus turns his compassionate gaze on them, too. He knows that the people are ‘like sheep without a shepherd,’ lacking leadership and guidance. They flock to Jesus in great numbers, because they see the wisdom of his teaching, and his care for them – unlike the chief priests and scribes, who seem to have little concern for the ordinary people. And so Jesus sets himself to teach the crowds. He offers them the meaning that they are seeking for their lives, by revealing God’s love for them. He is the Good Shepherd. We, too, will only find meaning for our lives in Christ’s teaching.
Job Vacancy
The St Vincent de Paul Society is seeking to recruit an 1833 Research and Project Development Officer to review, re-model, project plan and potentially produce resources for our programme for 18-30 year olds in preparation for a service re-launch in Sept 2019. £27k pa pro rata; 3 days a week; one year contract. Home-based with national travel. Closing date: 10:00am on Wednesday 25th July. Interviews: Thursday 26 July. Start date: Wednesday 29 August. For more details & application pack, please visit the vacancies section of the SVP website: https://www.svp.org.uk/
Children’s Liturgy
Accommodation Needed
Welcomers, Readers and Ministers of Holy Communion
Evening Mass
Throughout the summer, our 6:30 Mass becomes a quieter celebration. However, we do need volunteers to welcome, read, take the collection and minister Holy Communion. If you can help, whether from the parish or chaplaincy community, please sign up on the list on the noticeboards. Please don’t leave it to the few.
Blessed John Ingram and Blessed George Swallowell
Travel Light
Jesus sends the twelve apostles out to preach in the towns and villages. What do they have to say to the people? At this stage of Jesus’ ministry, his death and resurrection, and many of his great miracles, are still in the future. But the apostles can speak of their own encounter with Jesus. They can recount how he has changed their lives. The Twelve preach repentance – a change of heart that leads to the forgiveness of sins. They bring healing to the sick. Their preaching presents the people with a choice: those who reject the Good News are challenged by the prophetic gesture of the apostles shaking off the dust of the place from their feet.
Jesus tells his missionaries to travel light, without money, food or spare clothing, relying on the hospitality of strangers. If we can speak with conviction about how Jesus has touched our lives, then we don’t need to carry a lot of baggage. Our witness is enough.
Events at Ushaw
Concert by Royal Northern Sinfonia: Saturday 21 July at 2.30pm. See www.ushaw.org for details.
Why not enjoy a guided tour of Ushaw? With one of the experienced and knowledgeable guides. Highlights include the stunning Chapels, the beauty of the Refectory and the elegant Professors’ Parlour. Tours last approximately 75 minutes, and you’ll see one of the finest collections of Pugin architecture in the whole of the UK. Guided tours available on Fridays at 2.30pm and Saturdays at 1.30pm or 2.30pm. Prices start from £5 per person. Please see www.ushaw.org for more details and to book.
Sea Sunday
This Sunday, 8 July. We are asked to pray for seafarers, their families and all those who support them. A retiring collection will be taken to support the work of the Apostleship of the Sea. It is a day of remembrance, prayer and celebration, and an opportunity to think about and thank those seafarers who work tirelessly throughout the year bringing us goods we often take for granted. www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk
Since the last Sea Sunday the parishioners and their friends of St Cuthbert’s have donated 156 hats. On one occasion there was only one hat in the store until our contribution arrived. Thank you for your support.
St Cuthbert’s Parish Pastoral Council
They would not accept him
Jesus’ return to his home town is a failure. Even though he has healed the sick, raised the dead and gathered an enthusiastic band of followers, his own people reject him. The people don’t deny the wisdom or the miracles, but they simply cannot accept that God can be working through someone of such humble origins. Who does he think he is?
There is always a reason to reject the Good News. We can criticise the messenger, or the way that the message is presented, as a way to avoid the challenge of Christ’s teaching. The failure of Jesus’ mission among his own people prefigures his ultimate failure, when he is crucified, with the crowd shouting for his death. But that ‘failure’ is the way to salvation for the human race. As disciples of Christ, God calls us not to be successful, but to be faithful.
Walsingham Youth 2000 Festival
A weekend of prayer, community, camping and worship! 23-27 August, for young people aged 16-35. We are hoping to join with other groups from the North East and share a coach to Walsingham and back, this cost should be around £30 return. Youth 2000 run a pay-what-you-can-afford ticket scheme, with their suggested donation being £100 for the 5 day festival including all meals. If you are interested or would like any further information, contact Katie at youth.durhammartyrs@rcdhn.org.uk
Have Faith
In today’s Gospel, we encounter two desperate people. Jairus, the synagogue official, is a man who holds a position of respect in the community. But when he comes to Jesus, he is simply a worried father, seeking help for his sick daughter. The unnamed woman is desperate because she has been suffering for twelve years from a painful complaint that makes her ritually unclean, and so isolates her from family and society. They both approach Jesus in faith, believing that he has the power to help them. And Jesus responds to their faith. The woman is told that her faith has healed her. Jairus’ daughter is restored to him.
These two miracles show us that Jesus is the Lord of Life, who has come so that we may all have life to the full. We may not experience a miraculous physical cure, but we will know the healing that the Lord desires for us, if we turn to him in faith.
Permanent Deacons
The Lord called me before i was born
John the Baptist was chosen by God to play a unique part in the plan of salvation. John would become the prophet who would proclaim to the people of Israel the message of repentance and forgiveness. He would announce the coming of the Saviour, and would witness by the sacrifice of his life.
John’s special mission is foreshadowed in the events around his birth. He was born miraculously, to elderly, childless parents. His coming was foretold by the angel Gabriel, and God gave him the name ‘John,’ meaning ‘God is gracious.’ The words of the prophet Isaiah were fulfilled in him: ‘The Lord called me before I was born, from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name.’ No wonder that people asked, ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ But that question could be asked of any newborn child. Each one of us has been called by God before we were born. Each of us is chosen and named for a special part in God’s plan. Every disciple, in their own way, can be a prophet of the coming of Christ, as John was.