Good Friday not washed out

April 3, 2015 / admin / 2015, News

Churches Together in North Shields were faced with a rare wet Good Friday this year, but did not let the weather beat us.

A huge crowd of worshippers packed into St Columba’s Church for the service that would have been held in the open air of Northumberland Square. The highlight was the presentation of a Passion drama Voices from the Crowd. This was followed by a walk of witness around the town centre, with umbrellas and banners, led by the band of the Salvation Army. We paused in Bedford Street for a reading and a hymn, before returning to the square, after which many continued to church services or Messy Church.

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Good Friday 2014

April 22, 2014 / admin / 2014, News

The highlight of the open air service on Good Friday was a dramatic presentation on the theme of “What is Truth?” This also reflected the theme of North Tyneside’s contribution to the BBC’s Great North Passion event at South Shields later that morning.

The drama involved movement and speech both by individuals and groups of people, punctuated by sharp taps of wood on wood.

Revd Liz Edwards led the service in Northumberland Square, which was also addressed by Tynemouth MP Alan Campbell, who noted the good work done in the town feeding the hungry and caring for strangers. Singing was led by the Salvation Army, who also led the walk of witness round the town centre, with a stop for a Bible reading halfway down Bedford Street.

Thereafter there were services in various churches. St Columba’s had Messy Church, which included a puppet show. The hall was filled with the noise of happy chatter as children and others engaged in a variety of seasonal craft activities, including making mini Easter gardens, painting with fingertips, decorating Easter cup cakes, making Easter nests, colouring in ‘stained glass windows’, scratching out brightly coloured patterns on to crosses, decorating felt purses to hold a chocolate silver coin, sticking scenes from the life of Jesus onto crosses, decorating cross keyrings, sculpting with playdough, decorating pots and planting poppies.

During Holy Week, St Columba’s was also open for an hour in the mornings for prayer stations. Nine small displays around the church invited visitors to sit, read part of the Easter story from the Bible, hold a tangible object linked to that episode, reflect, and pray. The nine objects were coins, a rooster (although in that case the tangible element was string rather than a farmyard bird), a purple robe, thorns, wood, nails, a sponge, stone, and a white cloth. For those who were able to spend the time, they made for thought-provoking reflections.

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Messy Church

April 4, 2013 / admin / 2013, News

Messy Church returned to St Columba’s this Easter.

Good Friday began with an open air service organised by Churches Together in North Shields in Northumberland Square in front of the church. In spite of the cold and occasional snow flurries (which even led one speaker to wish us all a happy Christmas!), a good crowd gathered in the centre of the square for worship and brief greetings from the MP for Tynemouth and the Deputy Mayor for North Tyneside. In addition to a couple of Easter hymns and a prayer, a short passion play was acted out in first century costume (which must have been very cold for the participants). A procession of witness followed through the town centre, stopping for a Bible reading and another hymn in the middle of Bedford Street shoppers.

Services were then held in various churches around the town.

St Columba’s provided an all-age take on Easter with a session of Messy Church. We began all together to watch puppets singing “Stay close to me”, and then went into the church hall where various activities were offered. Each of these provided a different say of thinking about Easter through doing. These included bracelet-making, playdough, word puzzles, making a floral Easter garden, or woolly lambs, or mini egg nests. In one activity, participants were given a black cross, to represent the sadness of Good Friday, on which they could etch out a pattern through to multicolours below the black, for Easter joy. In another, we coloured in stained glass windows with felt pens on transparent paper, which we could then hold up to see the light shining through, remembering that Jesus is the light of the world. For over an hour the hall was full of young and older people happily absorbed in these activities, and moving round when they had finished each one.

We hope to run Messy Church again at Pentecost.

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Easter

April 25, 2011 / admin / 2011

On Easter Sunday, St Columba’s began early with a “sunrise” service, followed by a fair trade breakfast of muesli, hard-boiled eggs, hot crossed buns or toast and bananas, in the church hall.

The main family service included the “greening of the cross”, where members of the congregation came forwards with a daffodil to be attached to the wooden cross, in memory of a person or situation of concern. Revd Liz Blair used a chocolate Easter egg to illustrate her message of Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb near Jerusalem two thousand years ago – the important thing was what’s inside the packaging, but the egg was simply an empty shell. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell how the first people to visit Jesus’ tomb early on the first Easter Sunday morning found the stone rolled away from the entrance, and the tomb empty. Jesus had risen!

Some of the artwork produced by the children in Good Friday’s Messy Church session was displayed for worshippers to see.

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Easter 2010

April 6, 2010 / admin / 2010

Daffodil Cross

A number of special services were held as part of our Easter celebrations.

On Palm Sunday (28 March), we remembered Jesus’ popularly acclaimed arrival at Jerusalem, marking the start of Holy Week. As the crowds then had waved palm branches, so at St Columba’s, we were given palm leaves woven into the shape of crosses. Our evening worship took to form of songs of praise, with members sharing songs and hymns that were especially meaningful to them.

On Maundy Thursday (1 April), and evening service of tenebrae was held, reflecting on Jesus’ last supper with his disciples at the Passover festival in Jerusalem.

Good Friday (2 April) began with an open-air service in Northumberland Square, organised by Churches Together in North Shields. We were blessed with fine weather, as hundreds gathered for the annual joint service. Revd Liz Edwards introduced the elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley, and Tynemouth MP, Alan Campbell, who both briefly addressed the crowd. Members from St Columba’s and other churches in the town took part in the short service, which this year presented the Good Friday story in song and art. Particularly effective were the rock solo of “There is a Green Hill” sung to the tune of “There is a House in New Orleans”, and the painting of a green hill and two black crosses on a large board, to which was added a wooden cross. Worship continued with a procession of witness around the town centre led by the wooden cross and the band of the Salvation Army. The procession seemed larger this year, after it had been prevented from taking place in 2009. The churches and Sunday schools of North Shields have marched on Good Friday for over a hundred years, with only a few exceptions. This year’s march ended with adult services in four of the town centre churches, and once again “Messy Church” at St Columba’s. The children enjoyed learning about the Easter stories through art and craft, as well as being treated to a puppet show.

Easter Day (4 April) began early with a short Communion service in a semicircle, followed by a fair trade breakfast, and a family service with infant baptism. Our Minister, Revd Liz Blair, spoke about the blessings of new life, both in the form of a new baby in the family, and in relation to the new start that Jesus’ resurrection brings to the world and to each one of us. During the service, we were invited to bring daffodils to the front as part of our prayers for others, and they were arranged onto a wooden cross. Celebrations concluded with an evening Communion.

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