From the Registers
Those who have died
St John’s
Funerals
20th March
20th March
-
Brandon Parish Magazine
April 2014
Kimberley Tait
Reg Burnip
St. John’s church, Brandon
St. Catherine’s church, New Brancepeth
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New Furniture at St. John’s
St. John’s took delivery of some lovely new tables this week. They
will complement the new chairs which were delivered a few
weeks ago. The furniture was bought from the choir fund and
from money which Louise raised from the sale of old items in the
hall. They are to be used at the back of church for refreshments.
Contact Telephone Numbers
St. John’s – Win – 3781156
St. Catherine’s – Liz – 3731554 Joe - 3739927
website http://www.brandonparish.org.uk/Welcome.htm
email - Webmaster@brandonparish.org.uk
https://www.facebook.com/StJohnTheEvangelistChurchBrandon
https://www.facebook.com/StCatherinesChurchNewBrancepeth
Sunday services
St. John’s
- 10 am Holy Eucharist followed by a cuppa
St. Catherine’s - 9 am Holy Eucharist
Weekday services
Wed. 9.30 a.m. St. John’s
Thurs. 9.30 a.m. St. Catherine’s
- World Peace
- New Brancepeth
Parish Office in the vestry at St. John’s – First Monday of
the month from 6-7pm
OR Tel: 0191 3780642 then leave a message and number
Anyone requiring a priest in an emergency :Capt. Ray Bradbury, Church Army – 01388 811430
A Taize Service
will be held at St. John’s on Sunday 6th April at 6pm. This service of
music and reflection should be a really special evening. There will
be refreshments afterwards.
Brandon Parish Annual Parochial General Meeting will take
place on Tuesday 22rd April 2014
The Bishop of Durham
The Right Reverend Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham will visit
Brandon Parish on Palm Sunday – 13th April. The visit will begin
with Morning prayer at St. Catherine’s after which the Bishop will
chat to the congregation.
+Paul will then make his way over to Brandon, stopping outside of
St. Andrew’s Methodist church at Carr Avenue where their
congregation will be waiting to start their Palm Sunday
procession, led by an ass which will be blessed by +Paul.
The visit to Brandon concludes with the Palm Sunday Holy
Eucharist at the Parish church of St. John the Evangelist at the
later time of 10:30am. The service will be followed by
refreshments and a chance for the Bishop to meet the
congregation.
VOLUNTEERS WANTED –
at the Food Bank at Brandon Welfare Hall each Tuesday from 12
noon till 3p.m.
CHURCH HALL – please see the colour supplement. If there are
none left, just ask and more will be printed.
St. Catherine’s Church Roof – we have now applied for a faculty
as we received planning permission to have the
porch/vestry/kitchen roof repaired. We are still awaiting Building
Regulations approval. Joe and David continue trying to get more
grants from various places.
SPRING FAIR – Saturday 12th April, 10am – 1pm
>>Easter Egg Hunt - 11a.m.<<
Face painting, egg decorating and other children’s activities
Cake Stall, Easter Goodies,
Bacon Sandwiches
The Fair takes place on the day before the visit of Bishop Paul so
we must all help to get the church back into good order.
Good Friday – St. Catherine’s will be able to have their own
service on Good Friday which will be on 11th April at 9:30am.
For a while we shared our service with St. Luke’s church but this
year, Revd. Peter Welby has agreed to take the service instead of
the mid-week Thursday service.
The service will be followed by refreshments including Hot Cross
buns, tea and coffee.
Durham Deanery Synod – Growing Churches!

The synod may seem a remote and irrelevant body to our local situation, but the
meeting on 25 Feb. was surprising and encouraging! There were two significant
items:
1. Reports from Durham Churches on Commitments made in January
We were all asked to choose one area (from a list) which we will concentrate on
in 2014. St. John’s and St. Catherine’s chose Community Engagement through
the Messy church, social events and money raising for St. Catherine’s Church
roof and the St. John’s Hall for community use.
2. Church Growth Research. Between 2011 and 2013 a group has been
investigating church growth, and David Goodhew (from St. John’s College) as
one of the group presented some results to us.


There are now 2250 Messy Churches registered, with 350,000 to 550,000
people– there were none in 2004.
Across ten Anglican dioceses there are 477 fresh expressions, whose combined
attendance is 21,000.
Weekly attendance at cathedral services rose by 35% between 2002 and 2012
A
striking
diagram
shows
what
things
encourage
church
growth:
Reports from Durham Churches
This was most encouraging. Nearly all Durham churches reported on how they were
getting on – clearly these commitments are being taken seriously.
A few examples:
 Bearpark – Prayer – by introducing a monthly prayer Diary and prayer updates
in the Parish Magazine.
 Belmont – Prayer – keeping the Church open during afternoons from Lent to
July for prayer with a prayer rota of Streets in the parish.
 St Giles - Community Engagement – starting a new service on Sunday
afternoons once a month aimed at young people. They are giving it top priority.
 St Oswald – Welcoming – have started unlocking the church during daylight
hours. This will continue over the summer for visitors of all types. The church
layout has been changed to allow meet and greet activities to take place and
information panels, leaflets and prayer resources will be available.
 Kimblesworth – Community Engagement –a community café; furthering links
with the youth club and a credit union, and by engaging with the local ‘Task
Force’.
 St John Neville’s Cross – Nurture and Discipleship – planning to run courses,
e.g. a Pilgrim Study Course on how people return or are called to come to
church.
Church Growth Research
In spite of the general impression that churches are declining, there are many signs
of growth. For instance:
 The electoral roll of London diocese grew by over 70% in the two decades to
2010
Can we look at the diagram and think about our churches? As we wait for a new
vicar are there some things we can be considering to help our churches grow?
Justin Welby: his greatest challenge is yet to come
(from The Telegraph online)
It could have been like one of those moments in a country parish
where a trendy new vicar rolls up with plans to rip out the Victorian
pews to make way for a drum-kit and an overhead projector. The
arrival of Justin Welby, a former businessman whose brand of
Christianity is marked with the zeal of the convert, as the 105th
Archbishop of Canterbury had the potential to ruffle more than a few
feathers in the established Church.
Within months of his enthronement, a year ago, he seemed on course
to do just that. He had overhauled his staff, with a series of new
appointments. He had persuaded rival factions to take part in
something akin to drama therapy sessions to confront their differences
over women bishops, and he had delivered a blistering address to the
General Synod on how it needed to face up to a sexual “revolution”.
But a year into the job – which combines the work of a medieval
prelate, a FTSE chief executive and a world-weary inner-city rector – he
has scored a series of successes that would have seemed unthinkable
in the past. After decades of argument and years of tortuous legislative
twists and turns, the Church of England is on the brink of finally
approving the admission of women into the episcopate.
Instead of attracting the usual headlines about an embattled primate
seeking to quell divisions, he has successfully shifted attention, at
home at least, to matters such as payday lenders and food banks.
Remarkably, in a country where fewer and fewer inhabitants profess
any religious faith, his views on everything from banking reform to
military action in distant countries is actively sought out and reported.
Even what might have been his first major public gaffe – the revelation
that the Church had an investment in Wonga, the lender he publicly
pledged to try to put out of business – he turned to his advantage with
a plain-spoken admission of embarrassment.
Many once-vehement opponents of women bishops have recently
softened their stance precisely because they are keeping their powder
dry for a bigger fight to come. In just over a week, the first gay
weddings will take place in England, something senior clerics said
would amount to the redefinition of a timeless institution. Despite
their own disagreements over the issue, the Church’s bishops have
circled the wagons and last month issued a joint “pastoral statement”
effectively banning gay clergy from marrying. But within hours, it was
clear that a handful of clerics were preparing openly to defy the ban,
with little sign that the Church will stand in their way.
Meanwhile, the Church of England itself is beginning a lengthy
consultation process about its own stance on homosexuality, including
the possibility of public blessing-style services for same-sex couples.
These developments combined have left the Archbishop facing the
biggest challenge of his tenure.
Although drawn from the evangelical wing of the Church, with its
strong line on questions of sin, Archbishop Welby has made clear he is
reassessing his own views on homosexuality. But any perceived shift in
the Church’s stance will be read across the Communion as little short
of apostasy.
The Archbishop’s planned solution is summed up in two of his favourite
buzzwords at the moment: the phrases “good disagreement” and
“mutual flourishing” – meaning that people with seemingly opposite
views can openly discuss their differences and find a way to coexist.
If this sounds like an Anglican version of power sharing in Northern
Ireland, that’s because it is. The Archbishop’s strategy has been heavily
influenced by his “reconciliation” adviser Canon David Porter, a Belfastborn cleric who played a key role in laying the foundations of the peace
process in the province.
The same approach is credited for the apparent breakthrough on
women bishops. But the problem Archbishop Welby faces is that,
viewed from outside England, few of the leaders of the wider Anglican
Church believe that “good disagreement” can last forever.