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.”

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 Rt Rev Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, today (Wednesday May 16) delivered his House of Lords Maiden Speech in which he praised the North East’s sense of innovation but appealed for more to be done to boost business confidence and for the region to be given more support in areas such as construction and skills. His comments include references to ‘the Gracious Speech,’ which is the speech delivered to Parliament by the Queen on behalf of the Government, and the ‘Budget Red Book‘, which contains Government budgetary proposals.
He said: “The North East was a centre of regeneration and human flourishing in the Dark Ages, a light across northern Europe of learning and the re-founding of knowledge. It has been, over the centuries, one of the centres of the economic life of this country and if it has one significant problem today it is that people begin too many sentences with, “the trouble with the North East”, when, in fact, it is not a problem to be solved but one of the great assets of the country.

“It is an area of innovation and exporting, the only region with a balance of trade surplus. In recent months we have seen the growth of the car plant at Nissan, which with the latest investment announced a few weeks back will employ 6,000 people. Last year Hitachi announced a train assembly plant within a few miles of where Stephenson built the Rocket. A few weeks back steel production began again on Teesside at the SSI plant, where it had stopped last year, finding jobs again for up to 1,500 people. But all this takes place against the grim economic background which the Gracious Speech recognises and which was the context of the Budget Red Book.”

He said that action was needed to encourage companies which had funds to invest, adding: “It is being hoarded not because it is needed imminently to repay debt but out of lack of confidence. Both the Gracious Speech and the Budget Red Book emphasise the importance of exports and investment, but the major constraints in the North East are not imagination or determination to achieve those ends, but confidence and skills. Already with even the very marginal recovery in export led manufacturing of the last two years, skill shortages are emerging in engineering. Skills are taught not in classrooms alone but by the motivation of job observation and work experience combined with technical teaching and vocational learning. “I have the privilege of being patron of the Northern Echo’s ‘Jobs Campaign ‘, which aims to create and find a thousand apprenticeships and internships over the next 12 months in the Darlington Region for exactly this reason. Confidence is not something that comes from words alone, but from signs of action that enable others to feel that if they don’t get moving they will get behind.”

Calling for more investment in construction, in areas such as renovations of listed buildings, he said: “Here, and in areas of the public service, there are what President Obama calls ‘shovel ready projects’, which could be brought rapidly into reality if a certain amount of money were allocated to projects where contracts could be started within six months. Cranes build confidence as well as buildings.

He said: “ This morning I was talking to the Chief Executive of the Northeast Chamber of Commerce and was delighted to learn of a regional company in the Subsea sector manufacturing remotely operated vehicles who created 500 jobs over the last 5 years.”

In the preparation notes for today’s maiden speech [attached] Bishop Justin further commented: “Some weeks ago I attended a ceremony in Newton Aycliffe where the owner of EBAC, a major manufacturer of water coolers and other office equipment, gave his company to a Trust, which will be to the benefit of the community and its staff to ensure its continued existence. That company is worth approximately £30 Million, exhibiting the kind of flourishing of community that comes from confidence.” Summing up his maiden speech he concluded: “Such flourishing is the most effective answer to the differentials in life expectancy, to the issues of family life, to the numbers of people dependant on food banks, to the issues of mental health and of human well-being that are faced across our region. The Gracious Speech focuses much on the need for renewed growth and vitality in our economy. They will not come through exhortation alone but must come through action and leadership.”

Students at a Darlington Academy are being encouraged to learn about sport from the referee’s viewpoint. 

As part of the Junior Athlete Education Programme at St Aidan‘s Church of England Academy, gifted and talented PE students have been taking part in a programme of sessions in coaching, umpiring and refereeing in sports including football and basketball. 

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. 

Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, today (April 10th) commented on the excellent news of Nissans announcement of further expansion plans to produce its new hatchback at its Sunderland plant expressing his delight and support for this important milestone in the regeneration of the North East economy.  

In his statement Bishop Justin said: "I was very pleased to learn of this great piece of news this morning, this is a very positive affirmation of the skills and abilities of the people and economy of the North East to compete on a world stage and to be truly World Class. 

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.

The Right Revd. Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham confirmed today (March 29th) that he will be the Patron of the North East Call to Action on Global Poverty and Climate Change (NE-CAP).

 Speaking about the announcement Bishop Justin said: " I am delighted to have been asked to continue to support this worthy initiative as was the case with the previous Bishop of Durham The Right Revd Tom Wright. 

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.