It’s a blessing for the Mashes at a Microbrewery in Bishop Auckland, at the official opening of the Black Paw brewery by the Bishop of Durham.

In a short ceremony to open the Black Paw Brewery in Bishop Auckland, The Right Revd Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham gave a short address of welcome and comment on the fact that this was only the ninth Micro Brewery he had been to, the previous eight had all been on the same day many years ago on a trip to Basel in Switzerland whilst he worked in the Oil Industry.  

The Bishop was given a short tour of the Bishop Auckland brewery and shown how beer is made from the raw ingredients, through the mash tun, ageing and final barrel filling.

Bishop Justin said: “It's a delight to support local businesses in any way that I can; it particularly nice that this one is one my doorstep. In our current  troubling economic climate it really encouraging to see small businesses starting up and making a go of it. There is so much that small businesses can do to get our economy going both locally and nationally and I welcome this opportunity to support them.”

Brewery Owner Phil Whitfield started the business in mid 2011 when he decided that it was time to quit his then day job in the NHS to give his dream of being a micro-brewer a spin. He said:” I might have seemed like a risky move to start a small business in an economic downturn, but I just felt that I didn’t want to get to retirement age and look back and think what if? He added: “If this country is going to get out of this economic plight that it finds itself in, we will need more small businesses like this to lead the charge; as it is these businesses that form the backbone of our economy. “Bishop Auckland has a really strong local business ethic and I am pleased to be part of it.”

Local CAMRA committee member for mid-Durham Gerry Vickers said: “The Black Paw brewery makes very good, very consistent beer and it is good to see microbreweries being formed and this is an example of one done very well.

An event held in the North East on Friday (June 15) was a rallying cry for people engaged in community social action.

Organised by the Faith in our Community (FIC) Partnership Steering Group, which is backed by the Church of England Diocese of Durham, the event will run at the Hetton & Eppleton Community Hall, Office Place, Hetton-le-Hole, the launch of phase two of the project.

Key Note Speaker Professor Hilary Russell from Liverpool John Moores University addressed the group talking about recent research findings based on a background of the Government’s ‘Big Society’ initiative. She said: “The main purpose of the study was to act as a catalyst in bringing together current best practice in Christian care in local communities with the resources and knowledge base needed to multiply those good works across the country.”

It’s the Church that refused to die and now parishioners at The Church of St James the Great in Darlington are planning confidently for the future after experiencing the loss of their vicar and 55 congregation members. The Church, which is in Albert Hill, was torn apart when a significant number of its congregation left to join the Ordinariate earlier this year. The Ordinariate is a structure within the Roman Catholic Church which allows former Anglicans to join but retain elements of their Anglican tradition.
The Church of St James the Great has an Anglo-Catholic tradition (that is to say a Church which has a tradition of dramatic and formal worship ) since it was built in the 1870s. In early 2011 it became clear that a significant number of parishioners wanted to join the Roman Catholic Ordinariate  Not everyone among the congregation agreed, however, with many parishioners keen for the Church to continue in the way it had since its creation more than 130 years ago.
The result was an inevitable split and the vicar and 55 congregation members, including all but one of the Parish Church Council, left. On February 19 this year, Father Grieves and those who were about to leave offered their final Mass at St James the Great before joining The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, to worship at St Anne’s RC Church, Darlington. Although the split was deeply felt they invited the Bishop of Durham to preach at their final Sunday and left sadly but amicably.
Now, however, those who remained are looking optimistically to the future. The departure of the 55 has left St James the Great with 73 registered in the congregation, including some whom have returned to worship since the split. Numbers at services can reach one hundred.
David Warren, who became Parish Church Council Chair, said: “We knew for a year that they were going to leave and it was a difficult time. We were a congregation divided, some committed to St James the Great, some committed to leaving for the Ordinariate. What happened was difficult at an individual level because some friendships were fractured. Some relationships suffered.
“When the others left, there were times when the viability of the church was questioned but we lost fewer people than we expected and a hard core remained to continue worshipping at St James the Great. We have also seen some people return after having kept away. I sat at the back of a service not long after the split happened and thought ‘this looks pretty much as it looked before’.”
Because of its nature as an Anglo-Catholic Church, which takes in elements of both churches, St James the Great has a congregation comprising one third local people and two thirds who travel from further afield because they are attracted by the tradition of Anglo-Catholicism.
David said the Church’s commitment to the idea remains strong, adding: “When something like this happens you are obliged under the rules to reconsider whether or not you would like to stay as an Anglo-Catholic Church and we have reaffirmed that. We have always been an Anglo-Catholic Church and we wish to remain so.
“We have changed some things. Previously, we had a daily Mass. Now, we have three a week, which are reasonably well attended. The previous ones were not always well attended.
“We see what happened to us as an opportunity and our message is that we are still here. We are open for business.”
Fellow Parish Church Council member Phillip Patterson said: “There is a feeling of optimism now. What happened has been liberating. I think some people are either coming back having previously kept away or are coming for the first time. I am certainly seeing some new faces.”
Along with the new Parish Church Council, leadership of the Church rests with The Venerable Granville Gibson, a highly experienced and respected clergyman who was brought in after the departure of the congregation members.
He said: “There is a real positive feeling about what is happening at the Church. There is an energy and an enthusiasm and I am thrilled to be part of it.”

Stockton Riverside celebrated the arrival of the Olympic Torch with the passing of a Prayer Baton to The Right Revd Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham. The Bishop then said prayers specially composed for the occasion, sending blessing and prayers from the Church of England Diocese of Durham across the waters to the people of the neighbouring Diocese of York.  

The Prayer Baton was passed by Bishop Justin to the Revd Nick Barr-Hamilton of St Barnabus Lynthorpe. Bishop Justin received it from the Revd Jon Burns of Stockton after it travelled throughout the Diocese following the Olympic Torch. The Baton was passed to Durham Diocese by The Right Revd Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle at an event at St Nicholas Cathedral marking the end of the Olympic Torch visit to Newcastle Diocese.

Organised by More Than Gold, the churches' response to the London 2012 Olympics, the Prayer Baton is part of a 70-day cascade of creative prayer the length and breadth of our land.
The Prayer Relay is tracking the same dates and route as the official Torch Relay as a way for individuals and churches to pray for their communities, the Games and the nations.

The Prayer Baton contains prayers and blessings from the previous city that the Olympic Torch has visited en route. These are read and new prayers and blessings are placed inside the baton ready to be passed on to the next city.

Bishop Justin said: “We are delighted that the Church in Durham Diocese has been able to play our part in the welcoming of the Olympic Torch and Prayer Baton. The spirit of community engagement that is demonstrated by both the Torch and the Prayer Baton Relays is simply fantastic and shows that as a society we can come together for the common good and celebrate as one. For the Church of England and particularly for Churches in the North East, this has been a great opportunity for us to engage with the wider community in a shared celebration of our national life within the context of Christian Prayer.”

Among the prayers being said were those commissioned by the Church of England for the Olympic Torch relay.

Two Bishops praised the Queen’s dedication to duty at Jubilee services held in the North East over the Jubilee weekend.
During his Sermon address at the ‘Service of Thanksgiving’ at Durham Cathedral, The Right Reverend Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, on Saturday June 2 said: “The essence of love is service and the reign of the Queen has been the essence of service. Service is what shows that love is a reality. We do not understand the love of another by their words alone, but by their actions. That is how the Israelites understood that God loved the people of Israel. He saved them, an act of love. And that is why the heart of good, even great, monarchy is now not seen in victory in war, and by leading armies, but in the service to the nation that lives out the profoundly religious nature of coronation.

“Let us be clear. The service of coronation was both deeply religious in form and in many ways a sort of ordination. In other words it was not mere symbol and flim flam with fun music and a good occasion to dress up, but something that claimed by its outward form an inner truth, that the Monarch is called and ordained by God. Hands are anointed with oil, a Bible is presented, the sword is from God for justice and so on. At each stage the monarch is also reminded that what they are is a reflection of who God is, and that their duty is to imitate Him.”

He added: “Whatever some people may say or think about monarchy as a principle, the Queen as a person has been the best possible example of what monarchy can and should be.”

At the the ‘Service of Thanksgiving for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’ at St Cuthbert’s, in Darlington, on Sunday June 3, the Right Reverend Mark Bryant, Bishop of Jarrow, will say: “Many of us believe that what the Queen’s Jubilee needs to be about above all else is a real sense of thanksgiving to God for 60 years of extraordinary public service. And it does not hurt to remind ourselves that The Queen does not need to do this. Even a rudimentary knowledge of English history will tell us that comparatively few monarchs have given themselves to be about and with their people in the way that our present Queen has done.

“And at a time when life is quite clearly getting more and more difficult for more and more people we perhaps need that sense of public service in our communities more than ever before.”

Bishop Mark adds: “So as we look ahead to difficult times, what might that idea of ‘public service’ look like? It seems to me that first of all public service is about putting ourselves out. Public service is about a willingness to put ourselves out for other people. Public service has a rare ability to raise people up, to give them a sense of value, a sense of new self-confidence. It gives people sense that in a world that often seems really quite chaotic, they do indeed matter, and they do indeed have meaning. Public service is going to be about putting ourselves out. It is about being there for the long haul, but we may indeed start to wonder if it is perhaps really worth it, if what it does is to raise people up to more than they can be.

“Her Majesty has done much throughout her reign to raise people up to help them realise that what they are doing is important and that they matter. Her countless walkabouts, her visits to schools, to projects great and small have often meant more than it may well be that she can imagine. She has given to the whole nation a remarkable example of public service.”

Both of the services were attended by the Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham, Sir Paul Nicholson along with other civic and public dignitaries.

The Very Reverend Chris Dalliston, Dean of Newcastle welcome the Government announcemnt this week on partially addressing the issue created in the budget announcement to remove VAT exemptions for alteration to listed buildings.   

 In an agreement struct between the government and the Church of England, £30M of extra money will be made available to the £12M already earmarked for the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS).

The Rt Rev Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, called for the Church to stand up for the world’s poor, when he addressed the Anglican Alliance for Development at Bishopthorpe, York, in a keynote speech called 'Good News for the Poor – at home and in the wider world' on Monday 30th April. 

Present at the Seminar hosted by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu was an audience made up of 52 people engaged in Diocesan and other forms of overseas development links and activity. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the work of the Anglican Alliance for Relief, Development, and Advocacy. 

More than 200 people took part in a Passion Play today (Good Friday) as a 19th Century graveyard in a North East quarry was transformed into Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. The Houghton le Spring Passion Play will be staged at Houghton Hillside Cemetery in the Wearside town at 11am on Good Friday (April 6) and the audience will be encouraged to make up the crowd, jostling for a view of Jesus as he drags the Cross.

The Houghton le Spring Passion was staged at Houghton Hillside Cemetery in the Wearside town at 11am with local people in the key roles, supported by a rock band and with the audience playing the part of the crowd.

A veteran flower arranger from Tow Law, in County Durham, has been honoured for his community service by being invited to the Royal Maundy Service is at York Minster.
Norman Deacon, 79, has been invited to represent the Diocese of Durham when the Queen distributes Maundy Money at the Minister on Thursday April 5.

Norman, who has always lived in Tow Law, is being rewarded for many years of service to the local community. A former stonemason who became a builder, and built the house in which he and wife Betty MBE, live, he has a number of passions, including flower arranging.

He became interested in the pastime when the then vicar of St Philip and St James in Tow Law, The Reverend Anthony Driver, asked him to organise a flower festival in the church in the mid-1980s. The event coincided with a conference in Durham which celebrated the church’s most famous vicar, the Reverend Thomas Henry Espinell Compton Espin, a noted astronomer who was born in 1858 and died in 1934, aged 76. The conference coincided with the visit of some of the world’s leading stargazers to Durham.

Norman said: “I had always enjoyed growing flowers. I showed the likes of Chrysanthemums and won some prizes - you have joy and sorrow when it comes to entering shows. However, I had never taken part in flower arranging, although I had seen the work that some of the women did and admired the skills they showed. When I was asked to organise the flower festival, I set out to learn.”

He did that by attending classes at Bishop Auckland Technical College and went on to to teach flower arranging classes both at the College and all over the County.

Norman said: “I like the creative element of flower arranging. It’s a challenge each time. You have to come up with something new and original with each arrangement.”

He is looking forward to the Maundy Thursday event, where he will be accompanied by Betty, who was awarded the MBE in 1997 for 51 years’ of service to the Post Office.

Norman, who has been a church warden at St Philip and St James for 18 years, said: “It was a real surprise to hear I had been invited to the service and I am looking forward to it.”
* Norman also has a long association with Tow Law Football Club, including 35 years on the Committee.

A school chaplain has been licensed by the Bishop of Durham to administer to the spiritual life of students and staff at a Stockton on Tees secondary school in a formal service of recognition and authority.

The Reverend Paul Johnson 55 originally from Middlesbrough was licensed as a School Chaplain in a service held at Ian Ramsey Secondary School by the Bishop of Durham, the Right Rev Justin Welby.