BeachcomberFX

Author: David Wynd

  • Where the Lost Things Go : Looking for the Place

    Where the Lost Things Go : Looking for the Place

    Walk : 27th February : 6pm
    Meeting beside Sambuca on Benton Road, NE27 OP (W3W edits.prowling.combines)
    walking to Shiremoor, NE27 SD, (W3W obstinate.tributes.stroke). Approx 2.4 miles 50mins
    round trip.

    GENESIS 28:10-19

    Journeying God, of the lost things

    As we look for the ‘place’ Wander with us.

    When we take a break, when we rest for a while,

    when we sleep and dream.

    In those moments may love be revealed.

    May we wake,
    to mark the moment, the place

    where you met us.

    Amen

    We find Jacob on a journey from one place to another. The starting point and destination don’t matter too much. It is the place where he stops that is our focus today.

    The place was a ‘certain place!’ Not an important one or a specific one. He wasn’t looking for this place. It was just a place he stopped at on his journey when the sun went down and he needed to rest.

    He found a rock for a pillow and promptly fell into a deep and dream-filled sleep. In this dream he saw a stairway to heaven and he heard God speak to him about his future and the future of his descendants. When he awoke he exclaimed ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He then states that this stopping place, this unlooked for place was none other than the house of God, the doorway to heaven. He takes his makeshift pillow and stands it up to mark the place as important, and he names it Bethel which means House of God.

    The places we look at this week in Shiremoor, The Allotment and New York all contained Methodist Chapels at some point in the past. You may see a glimpse of one building that still stands tucked behind a pub in The Allotment but the others have all been demolished and built over. When most of these chapels were built there was very little around them. The big industry in the area was the mines dotted around the countryside that needed workers, who in turn needed places to live, shop, socialise and pray.

    The earliest chapel mentioned in records is The Allotment Primitive Chapel built in 1832. In fact it would have celebrated its 191st birthday on this first Sunday in Lent as it opened on the 26th February in 1832. It is thought the chapel sat in a small building about 18ft by 30ft built by a T Taylor at no cost and was part of a square of mining cottages. It had 43 members and there was no other church close by. They wanted to start a Sunday School up as soon as they could.

    In 1868 we know that a new chapel was created nearby to the first site in a brewery building. This building was converted by an R Prudhoe along with others into the chapel. The building still stands today and if you park in the Sambucca Restaurant car park you will see it. This building only lasted 37 years as a chapel, and when it closed was used as a community centre for the growing village for a short while. A new building was built in 1904 which seated 70 people and lasted until 1998 when it closed.

    Up the road in Shiremoor there are records of two chapels. One was situated right next to Earsdon Colliery and is noted as a United Free Methodist Church (some note it as a Wesleyan Reform). It lasted around 36 years and little else is known of it. Further into Shiremoor we find Percy Street Primitive Methodist, built in 1904 for £760 and seating 120 people.

    The obituary for the Revd Walter William Parsons notes ‘In 1921 Rev Parsons was sent to the Earsdon Church, in the North Shields Circuit, as their first resident minister. He was there at the time of the miners’ strike, and remembered vividly the great spiritual awakening in that area, as a result of the prayer meetings held in the Shiremoor Chapel.’

    Percy Street lasted until at least 1939 and maybe a little longer until it was demolished to build the housing estate that sits on the site today.

    Finally, New York United Methodist Church sat on Coronation Terrace from 1902-1957. It is noted that they moved to Chirton Grange Methodist from this site and the building was demolished.

    The story of these early Methodist Chapels is one of need. As people moved to purpose-built houses that served the mines and farms in the area they also needed other amenities; pubs, shops and places to gather and worship.

    Jacob wasn’t looking for the House of God when on his journey from one place to another. He just discovered that God was in that certain place. Likewise, the people who built and gathered in these places weren’t looking to set up places of worship. Instead they experienced God at work in the world and in turn responded. The chapels were the outworking of God’s grace at work in the hearts of human beings.

    Questions to reflect on

    1.Where is your favourite place in the world?
    2.Where is your favourite place to meet with God?
    3.Do you think it mattered where Jacob stopped that day?
    Would God have appeared to him anywhere or did it have
    to be that specific spot?
    4.Is there a certain place you have met God that was out of
    the ordinary?
    5.Which certain places might God be asking you to respond
    in today? Your street, community, work place?
    6.If you were to build a chapel today to meet a need in your community, where would it be and why?

  • War! Huh what is it good for?

    War! Huh what is it good for?

    I wrote this blog backwards because it got far too long. So there is the short read which should hopefully be enough to take part in the discussion on Sunday (7:30pm Platform 2, Tynemouth).  There is then the questions for our conversation.  After that you will find the extended addition. It is looong but will give a bit more detail and may help with some of the questions and help add a little more depth to the first part.

    War may be good for absolutely nothing but it is hard to escape the fact that we are surrounded by violence.  From a fight in a playground to rival gangs fighting over territory right through to the events taking place in Ukraine right now. The world is at war. As people faith or those trying to work out what life looks like in this world war is a really difficult subject for many reasons. That’s why it is in this A Question of series

    In the later part of this blog in the loooong read you will find four of the western worlds views on war.  These are principles, many of them rooted in the Christian faith that try to find a view or set of ethics for people to hold in the face of war.  You may hold to one of these views, though if you are like me you have probably never had to put it into practice.

    I would want to say I am a Pacifist or a Just Peacemaker right now. There are times in my life when Just War or even Holy War would have been my preferred options.  If someone broke into my house and threatened by family would I hold to my non-violent peacemaking beliefs or switch to Just War fairly sharpish. If another nation invaded my country would I flee to the hills to avoid fighting like the early Christians did in the revolt against Rome or would I defend the oppressed or downtrodden.

    I know none of the answers to these questions because I am not faced with any of these immediate realities.  

    How can I say if it is right for me to stand and say those people who have taken up arms in Ukraine to defend their land against Russia are not justified? How do I know if I would stand alongside the slaves who rose up against their oppressors in the US? Or the resistance fighters who defended the genocide of Jews during the Second World War?

    What we need is a lived theology that finds itself made real in our lived experience and in the face of oppression and violence.  That how we react in a moment or the choice we make when faced with a situation is one born out of our relationship with God and our practices of how we believe we should live. That may mean in that moment we stand and resist non-violently. It may mean that we pick up our sword to defend what is right. Yet which ever it may be we understand that God is with us.

    Questions

    • Have you ever been in a fight before and did you win?
    • What is the first conflict you can remember taking place in your lifetime?
    • If you were to choose a view point which one of Pacifism, Just War, Holy War, Just Peacemaking would you choose?
    • How do you think you would live out your view if someone or something dear to you were threatened?
    • What do you think is a more realistic way of living with the question of war for you and us as a community?

    WARNING – This is a long read!

    When we come to look at the ethics of war, the western world has four theories/viewpoints that have guided it over the centuries. There will be other ethics born out of other world views but as white westerners we have grown up with these four so it seems sensible to start here.

    Let us start with one of the most ancient views and one that is still upheld today in Pacifism.  Many hold pacifism as the standpoint that the early Christians took in the 300 or so years after Jesus’ death.  It basically is the view that all violence is wrong no matter what the circumstance and peaceful means should always be sort to resolve conflict. It is a position upheld by Quakers, Mennonite’s, Some Pentecostal movements, Brethren churches and Franciscans today.  

    The theology of this view is found rooted in Jesus. The cross would be one of the prime examples of Jesus refusal to use violence, instead allowing violence to be done to him.  There is also Jesus’ use of the Hebrew Scriptures in which he often misses out passages that encourage violence when speaking and highlights those passages where peacemaking present.  Elsewhere we have verses like ‘love your neighbour’ and Paul’s encouragement in Romans to ‘overcome evil with good’. In the early church we see pacifism in the Christians flight from Jerusalem during the revolt against Rome instead of staying and fighting alongside others.  There is also evidence that Christians opted out of serving in the Roman army until Christians was adopted as the official religion at which time other interpretations were made to allow Christians to serve as soldiers to.

    In modern times Martin Luther king Jr, Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, Helen Keller and many others are proponents of pacifism and have sort to live out this view in their lives.

    The next view we will look at is Holy War.  On the one hand this view has been tried by the church in the west with horrific consequences and found to be an appalling understanding of what Christians are called to be (See the crusades and Spanish inquisition).  Having said that the US hasn’t quite shaken this view and it can be found increasingly in right wing white evangelical circles.  We also find this view in some extreme Islamist viewpoints as well.  (There is also an argument that the American Civil War, World War 1 and 2 all had holy war elements within them though other non religious issues were much stronger driving forces).

    The Holy war view takes much of its theological underpinning from the Old Testament and particularly the books that deal with the capturing of the promised land.  Time and time again God is found to instruct his people to go to war, handing them victories against their enemies and at times wiping out the enemy on the peoples behalf.  There isn’t much in this theory that finds itself in the life of Jesus though the New Testament does have some passages that have been used to help prop up this view.  The final battles in Revelation are some of these and a quick flick through the many interpretations of these will show many that see a Holy War at the very centre of the end of the world.

    The third view is that of the Just War.  This theory can be found in Ancient Egypt, China and other nations way before the western viewpoint took shape.  For that we start where a lot of Western theology and thinking begins with Saint Augustine.  His ideas were later developed by the likes of Ambrose and Thomas Aquinas and these have been the foundations of this theory in the west through the centuries.  The theory or sometimes practices of Just War set out the conditions for war to take place. These are just cause, comparative justice, competent authority, right intention, probability of success, last resort, proportionality and once a war has begun distinction, proportionality, military necessity, fair treatment, no means and finally to end a war just cause of termination, right intention, public declaration and authority, discrimination, proportionality (wikipedia will give you some detail on all these).

    As you can see that is a long list without the explanations and if you think of any conflict in the last 100 years or indeed ever you will probably struggle to tick every box to say a war has been just. 

    Finally the fourth and most modern of these views is Just Peacemaking.  This view has risen due to the way in which wars are now fought.  In a world where a soldier can sit at a computer 1000s of miles away from the frontline and fly an armed drone into enemy territory and drop a 1000lb bomb on an a supposed enemy hideout makes a mockery out of many of the principles of Just War.  Just Peacemaking sets out an ethic for active war prevention instead of justification and has ten practices.   Support non-violent direct action, take independent initiatives to reduce threat, use co-operative conflict resolution; acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice and seek repentance and forgiveness; advance democracy human rights and religious liberty; foster just and sustainable economic development; work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system; strengthen the UN and international efforts for cooperation and human rights; reduce offensive weapons and weapons trade; encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations.

    For theological underpinning we have Jesus’ instruction to ‘go make peace with your brother or sister…’ or ’to turn the other cheek…’ and lets not forget ‘blessed are the peacemakers’.

    Photo by Markus Winkler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/paper-on-a-vintage-typewriter-12220441/

  • Celebrate : Wor Yem : Day 28

    Celebrate : Wor Yem : Day 28

    Luke 2:16-20

    Who doesn’t like to celebrate? To let your hair down, to party with friends and families or just complete strangers and have a good time. Because life is good or you got that new job or its Friday and why not. Celebrating is a good thing to do. When the shepherds found the baby they had been told about by the angels they went away celebrating. For them this baby was the fulfilment of a promise they and many others had been waiting for. If this child was to be the saviour of their people it would change their lives and the lives of their children for the better. That is definitely something to celebrate. Christmas is a time many use for a celebration. Work Christmas parties, family gathered around the table over the festive period and then New Years Eve celebrations. But what are you celebrating? What are the things you want to give thanks for this year. Looking back over what has been and looking forward to what might be can give us lots to be thankful for and lots to be excited about. So as you celebrate this advent why not take some time to remember what you have to celebrate. No matter how big or how small.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word Celebrate. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Celebrate
    Celebrate the big
    Celebrate the small
    Celebrate

    What are you Celebrating in this season of advent?
    Stop for a moment
    Have a party!

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We have celebrated in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Celebrate – Photo by Marcin Dampc

  • Hearth : Wor Yem : Day 26

    Hearth : Wor Yem : Day 26

    Genesis 18:6

    We don’t speak of a hearth very often now. It is an old word used for a fireplace or the place in a house where the fire was and the family would cook on it and receive the warmth from it. It was the gathering place on cold winters nights where they would sit and eat and talk together. In ancient times you would invite strangers into your home to share your hearth with you as an act of hospitality. In the story that our verse comes from Abraham is visited by three strangers and as they arrive he instructs his wife Sarah to make food for them so they can sit and eat around the fire. This is the welcoming in of strangers. It turns out that these three strangers are angels that Abraham and Sarah are welcoming in. Today we don’t have hearths. At least we don’t use them in the same way as people did in the past. We have kitchens and central heating and so gathering around the hearth is a thing of the past. But maybe we are poorer for that. Maybe we have opportunities to rediscover something of this past welcome of strangers to our hearth today though. In our current energy crisis we have seen buinesses, churches and others open their doors to share this warmth with others. Young and old gathering together for a hot drink, a warm radiator and the opportunity to talk. It shouldn’t really take a crisis like this though to encourage us to open our doors to others. The ancient tradition of welcoming strangers can be one we rediscover today.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word Hearth. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Hearth
    Hearth for warmth
    Hearth for amenity
    Hearth

    There is a hearth for you in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    Welcome each other in this moment.

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We can offer our hearth in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Craig Adderley

  • Flee : Wor Yem : Day 23

    Flee : Wor Yem : Day 23

    Matthew 2:13-18

    There is a lot said about immigration in this country. Words like invasion are tossed around as if millions of people are pouring on to our shores on a daily basis and that there is no land for them to live upon, no food to feed them with and that all our systems are falling to pieces because of this threat. Yet the reality is of a desperate few, who are left with no safe route to our land, risking everything to reconnect with family and friends and to make a better life for themselves and those they love. I sometimes ask myself, if the tables were turned. If I was having to flee from war or persecution, what would I do? The answer is always the same. I would do anything to keep my family safe. In the story of Jesus birth, Joseph has to make this decision. A tyrannical ruler is killing all the male children in the land to make sure he wipes out any threat to his throne. The choice Joseph faces is a difficult one. Stay in his homeland where he has family and friends but risk the life of his child or flee to a foreign land and hope that the kindness of others will mean your family survives. This is the choice those crossing the channel to reach the UK make. Not an invasion but a desperate journey to find safety. Like Jospeh, Mary and Jesus all they want is to be welcomed in and kept safe from those who seek to destroy them.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word Flee. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Flee
    Flee from danger
    Flee to safety
    Flee

    What are you fleeing from in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    You do not need to run from this moment

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We can welcome those who flee in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Matthias Zomer

  • Seeker : Wor Yem : Day 21

    Seeker : Wor Yem : Day 21

    Luke 11:9-10

    We spend a lot of our lives looking for something. Sometimes we are very aware of the thing we are searching for. The perfect job, house, partner, or holiday.  Sometimes the thing that we seek is there but we can’t quite put a finger on what exactly it is we are looking for.  Often these unknown searches that we are on are for the more etherial, hard to pin down, experiences and emotions and spiritual longings we all have.  Happiness, contentment, fulfilment, purpose. There are many others that could sit in this list as well.

    In my short life I have discovered that this second list of things that we seek can be fleeting. We can capture contentment for a while, but then it shifts as we grow comfortable… or uncomfortable and then we need to seek it out again.  Sometimes this is by changing job or moving house but often these things only bring temporary resolutions because they in themselves don’t help us satisfy those deeper longings we have.

    my faith is similar. It is there and is a constant but sometimes there are more questions than answers and more doubts than certainties. That’s what faith is about.

    I have learnt that faith along with other things like happiness, contentment, purpose etc are all things that require constant searching. Once you grasp it you can hold on for a moment before it moves on again and you have to begin to search it again.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word Seeker. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Seeker
    Seeker of lost things
    Seeker of the truth
    Seeker

    We spend our lives searching
    Stop for a moment
    What are you seeking today?

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    What are you seeking in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Tobias Aeppli

  • Remember : Wor Yem : Day 20

    Remember : Wor Yem : Day 20

    Psalm 103:13-16

    Remembering is important, it is how we learn.  Sometimes our remembering is personal.  We experience something and this experience teaches us something that we take with us going forward. From remembering to duck when we walk through that small doorway so we don’t bang our head to the feeling we got when we first fell in love and our desire to hang on to that forever.  Other remembering is handed to us through the wider community we find ourselves apart of.  Our history, culture and traditions are prime examples of this.  We remember because it helps us move forward and make progress, especially when we learn from the mistakes we and others have made.  The Psalmist states that God remembers us. From our very beginning as dust.  When I hear this verse I am reminded that I am no different from anyone else.  All part of the same human race, trying to make my way in the world.  It reminds me that as important as I may think I am, in the grand scheme of things I am like grass or a flower in a field that is here and then is gone and is remembered by very few.  It reminds me to stay grounded.  I doubt I will every change the world and in a thousand  years time be remembered by future generations.  I can change those close to me though. So each day I remember that I can help my children to be better versions of me. I can teach them my mistakes and help them come through the mistakes they make. I hope they will remember these things and use them to change those people they know for the better as well.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word remember. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Remember
    Remember the journey
    Remember the people
    Remember

    There is time to remember in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    Who do you miss?

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We remember that which we miss in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Mehmet Turgut  Kirkgoz

  • Place : Wor Yem : Day 14

    Place : Wor Yem : Day 14

    Matthew 2:1-12

    Where are you as you read these words? Sat at home, in a coffee shop, on a walk. Maybe you are in one of your favourite places or an unfamiliar one that feels a little strange.  In the story of Jesus’ birth we hear of numerous people having to move to new places or seek very specific ones.  Mary and Joseph leave their village to travel to Bethlehem for the census even with Mary due to give birth at any moment. The shepherd are sat in their fields but then get sent to find the new baby. Our verses today introduce the Magi who are looking for the place where a new king will be born.  They natural go to the palace of the current king to find this new child. But this isn’t the right place! The place they need is a much more humble one and not the usual setting for the arrival of a new born king.  These places that appear in the story have become special places for many people, with churches and shrines being built upon them.  That’s because the place where things happen, particularly significant events, hold special memories for people or feel like thin places (that is a place where the gap between us and God feels especially small).  These thin places are where we go when we need space to think or to seek a sense of peace or connectedness with who we are and where we have come from.   Maybe you are sat in your thin place right now!

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word place. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Place
    Place for being
    Place for physicality
    Place

    There is a place for you in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    Where do you call home?

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We have a place in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Tim Mossholder

  • Space : Wor Yem : Day 12

    Space : Wor Yem : Day 12

    John 1:1-5

    The opening of the book of John is an echo of the opening words of the book of Genesis.  In the beginning! In the beginning there was nothing but God and then there was all things. The universe expanding into the mass of stars and planets, galaxies forming and solar systems falling into place. There was skies and seas , mountains and valleys. There was space as far as the eye could see.  I love the outdoors and I love places where I can see for miles. Sometimes that is up a mountain, sometimes staring at the horizon from the sea shore and sometimes looking at the vast blackness of space.  Stopping and staring at the space we inhabit can remind us that we are part of something much, much bigger than ourselves.  It broadens our horizons and fixes our eyes away from the things right in front of our noses that can sometimes take up all our vision.  Maybe that is why John links back to Genesis. Maybe he wants his readers to remember their place in the vastness of space and time. To remind them that this creation is about more than their place in it but the creator who made it all.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word space. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Space
    Space for expanse
    Space for the between
    Space

    There is time to find space in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    How can you find space to survive?

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We have found space in this season of adven
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Stephan Seeber

  • Dust : Wor Yem : Day 9

    Dust : Wor Yem : Day 9

    Matthew 1:1-17

    I am fascinated by family trees. It is partly the detective skills needed to try and work out who is who from the many millions of records available so you can build a picture of where you come from. It is also something about connecting with the past and those that have gone before us which can also lead us to discovering some current family we may never knew existed. Matthews gospel opens with a long family tree which link Jesus with some of the great ancestors of the Israelites.Fourteen generations are listed and contained within are many of the names of the great stories of how God journeyed with his people throughout the years. All this leads me to dust! The amount of dust that settles on something gives us an indication of how long it has been in situ. Those things left for generations, hidden and undiscovered are usually coated in a think layer of dust. It is a sign of its age. As the names of Jesus family tree are read out layers of dust are removed to reveal the importance of the people contained in the story. The names of the woman that appear are particularly important. Woman were not usually listed in family trees in Jesus day, but here Matthew includes them because they reveal truth about who Jesus is. As we blow off the dust of the past we discover the truth that it wants to show us today.

    Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word dust. Use the hashtag #woryem

    Dust
    Dust that covers the past
    Dust that covers the truth
    Dust

    What does the dust hide in this season of advent
    Stop for a moment
    What history and tradition are you rediscovering today?

    We are a community of faith.
    Strandlopers on a journey.
    We have removed the dust of the past and revealed truth in this season of advent
    By God’s grace we go.
    Amen

    Photo by Cojanu Alexandru on Pexels