From the Registers
Brandon Parish Magazine
January 2015
Those who have died
Funeral at John’s
18th December Barry Troman
St. John’s Church, Brandon
St. Catherine’s Church, New Brancepeth
Funerals at the Crematorium
4th December John Kidd
22nd December John Turnbull
Events
Prayer for our churches, 9.30 pm Tues. 20 Jan, at St. John’s
PCC
Special meeting to consider Church Hall, 6.00 pm, 6th Jan. with the architect
Normal meeting, 6.30 pm, 26th January.
St John’s, Brandon
Event for hall/church funds Saturday, 21st February 2014, 1.30 to 3.30,
details to follow.
St. Catherine’s, New Brancepeth
Race Night in February at New Brancepeth Club, further details nearer the
time.
St. Catherine’s Church Restoration
We are in the process of applying for a Faculty for the refurbishment of the
kitchen, vestry, entrance lobby and replacing the heating pipes in the main
church body, together with complete redecoration.
Sunday services
St. John’s
- 9.45 am Holy Eucharist
St. Catherine’s - 8:45 am Holy Eucharist
Weekday services – followed by tea/coffee
Wed. 9.00 am St. John’s – Holy Eucharist
Thurs. 9.30 am St. Catherine’s – Holy Eucharist
Evening Service: Mon. 7.00 pm St. John’s – Holy Eucharist
Revd. Carl Peters, The Clergy House, Sawmill Lane, Brandon,
Durham, DH7 8NS. Tel: 0191 6803875
Other Contact Telephone Numbers
St. John’s: David (Churchwarden) – 3789718; Win-3781156:
St. Catherine’s: Joe (Churchwarden) – 3739927; Liz-3731554
website http://www.brandonparish.org.uk/Welcome.htm
email - Webmaster@brandonparish.org.uk
https://www.facebook.com/StJohnTheEvangelistChurchBrandon
https://www.facebook.com/StCatherinesChurchNewBrancepeth
https://www.facebook.com/Stjohnschurchhallmeadowfield
From our Priest
In writing this message for the New Year, we are still in the Christmas Season
and I hope you’ve all had a peaceful and holy Christmas.
Throughout the year in some way or other our lives change with different
experiences and circumstances that come our way and none of us are exactly
as we were one year ago. For some of us the changes have been slight as life
has ticked along and for others of us there may have been greater changes in
2014. But as I mentioned in a Christmas sermon, the reality of the birth of
the Christ Child is the same last year as it is this year and next year.
It’s good to have something constant in our lives and in the world with all the
changes that happen; a bit like a well-loved programme on the telly or a
favourite food. A bit like a well-loved walk we do that doesn’t require much
attention.
A bit like the wonder that takes place when the church gathers
together and Jesus comes to us in a very special way in words
of scripture and in bread and wine.
God comes to us in different kinds of ways. He is with us when we enter into
his presence in prayer. He is with us in the things that are familiar in our lives
and in the changes of our lives and the sometimes downright unfamiliar. God
is with us when we suffer in whatever way. He comes to us when we feel
near to him and he will come to us when we feel he is far away.
And that’s because God is a God who travels. He makes the effort to be by
his children. In Jesus the word made flesh, God was prepared to come all the
way from heaven to take our human nature and experience ordinary life.
Still in the womb it was a journey that took Jesus with Mary and Joseph to
Bethlehem. It was a journey that took the infant Jesus to Egypt when Joseph
was warned in a dream to take the Holy Family away from danger. It was a
journey that led him to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and experienced the
joys of life, the ordinariness of life and the sufferings of life. Ultimately Jesus
suffering would be in his persecution and broken body on the cross.
But not before he came to people in their varying situations of good and bad.
Goodness and sinfulness. Life, illness and death. Yes Jesus is constant, but in
the very earthiness of the incarnation, he knows what it’s like for life to
change and move along through his own experiences and the experiences he
encountered with others.
Because Jesus still wants to be with us, he still comes to us in the changing
scenes of our life, like the sun continues to burst its rays into the world in the
changing days and seasons.
My prayer is that we all feel the love of God in our lives as the year unfolds in
front of us.
May 2015 be for all of you a year where the constancy of Jesus meets you
where you have been, where you are at and where you will be.
Happy New Year to all of you. Fr Carl Peters
At the Gate of the Year
One of the best known yet least known poems was published over 100 years
ago. It is the poem quoted by King George VI in his Christmas Day broadcast
in 1939 as Britain faced the first Christmas of the Second World War. It came
at the end of the nine-minute broadcast. He said:
‘I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines
which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you:
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the
hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."
May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.’
These words were by Minnie Haskins (1875-1957). They came from a poem
of hers called "God Knows", in a collection, The Desert, published in
1908. Neither the poem nor its author was well known.
Immediately after the lines that George VI quoted, the verse continues:
So I went forth,
And finding the hand of God,
Trod gladly into the night....
(From ‘The Telegraph’ website)