On Sunday May 18th - along with 99 others!
In between Sunday services, The Vicar undertook a zip wire slide from high up in The Gallowgate end of Newcastle's St James Park football ground
(TOP LEFT OF PHOTO)
into the goalmouth at the opposing end,
to raise funds for The Army Benevolent Fund,
to aid soldiers and families with needs arising from the current conflicts
generous Berwick Parishioners
sponsored him to the tune of £600
led the St George's Day Parade and TA 100 Celebrations supported by The Civic Party of Berwick Parish News Sunday 27th - Our 2008 Annual General Meeting was held in the Parish the Vicar's report can be found at the base of this page' also major restoration of our historic Pipe Organ - please visit the link to the left of this page.
Berwick Detachment of Northumbria Army Cadet Force
Centre after shortened Parish Communion - thankyou to all who supported
Thanks to the hard work of John and Maureen Burton, our choir thrives and has a healthy number of youngsters. John’s training of choristers has enabled many to achieve their Royal School of Church Music ‘Voice for Life’ qualifications - recent awards include Light Blue ribbon for Joseph Calder, Abigail McCreath and Alana Flatman and Dark Blue for Diana Rowland - as we said when awarding their ribbons at Church, we appreciate all that they bring to our church life.
We are in the middle of addressing the items of church maintenance highlighted during a recent inspection by our architect Christopher Downs. Cracks in masonry,
rotting doors, rusting handrails and downcomers, leaking central heating system - it is estimated that these will cost around £35,000.
Vicar’s Report to Berwick Parish Church Annual Vestry
Meeting Sunday 27th April 2008
Thankyou for all that you do to maintain a ministry from Berwick Parish Church. I would particularlylike to thank The Reverend Richard Carlill, who, not
only provides me with Clergy fellowship, enables me to get away for Holidays and also my Cadet duties.but produces the inside of our weekly sheet and publishes our notices of services.
The major effort this year has been the launch of our Organ Restoration appeal. This has been a herculean task and both Wyndham Rogers-Coltman and Ted Cawthorn have been magnificent in steering us to our present situation.
On the reverse of this sheet I have copied a list which we have put together for purposes of appealing for funds to support our appeal - it lists what we offer the community (please see the 'Community' link page.
This past year, almost 250 services were held in Church, including 30 Baptisms, 5 Weddings, 6 Blessings on Wedding anniversaries and 24 Funerals, including regular members and supporters whose fellowship we have lost:
Bill McCreath Gordon Bell Dorothy Hattle Bill Montgomery Margaret Hickman Frank Tyson Marie Forbes and Edith Middlemass Let us remember them with thankfulness until we share with them in their inheritance.
Our average weekly attendance is around 140 over four services, some are able to worship weekly or twice-weekly, others fortnightly or monthly,. 1043 attendances were registered over Christmas 2007 and 670 Palm Sunday to Easter Day 2008. We have also hosted a number of large School services, prize-givings and concerts.
Thanks to the support of our Church Schools Governors and staff we continue to develop our links with children and parents. Congratulations to both St Marys and Holy Trinity Schools for their excellent Inspection results.
We have created our own Parish Web Site.
The Bishop and Cathedral Chapter have kindly invited me to become an honorary Canon of Newcastle Cathedral. This will involve taking services there and involvement in the deliberations and worship of the College of Canons.
Financially, this has been a difficult year. If you can consider increasing your giving it would help greatly - if you could Covenant your giving and enable us to claim tax it would help greatly. Through our weekly Alms plate, we give on average the equivalent of 10% of Sunday collections to other charitable humanitarian causes.
A repeat from last year’s report - for nothing has changed. No one can ever fully understand pressures which others experience. Whether these arise at work, home or play, when caring for another or experiencing personal illness, challenges, bereavement. Clergy are uniquely privileged to share in other folks lives and are constantly reminded of their own frail mortality. Some days we experience the whole range of human emotions, through sickness visits, baptism or marriage interviews and funerals. We also experience these same events in our own lives and the lives of our own families and friendship groups. Foremost among my many failures in my time at Berwick, has been my inability to form a Ministry Team to fully understand and share in the rich variety of ministry which we offer. Please pray that you may find a way to help me do this.
Well done everyone, have a happy and Blessed 2008.
alan hughes