Tynemouth Deanery Festival and Christ Church branch 110 Anniversary Celebration

Tynemouth Deanery Festival and Christ Church branch 110 Anniversary Celebration

The Tynemouth Deanery Festival and 110th Anniversary celebration of Christ Church branch was a celebratory service of thanksgiving abd a wonderful event enjoyed by many. Banners were processed and the service was followed by refreshments and fellowship.


The service was held at Christ Church, North Shields	Dorothy Robinson our vicar and Diocesan President for 1992-98 led the service.

Susan Ogden and Jean Scott talked about the role of women and the life of MU since 1913.	Maureen Fryer and Dawn Meadows previously Enrolling Members led the intercessions

Margy, our President, joined us!	Jean our longest serving member and Brenda Graham,one of our newest,cut the cake.

Events across the Diocese in May

Chris Million gave an interesting and inspirational talk to the members of Holy Saviour's Mother's Union on June 5th about MAF. Mission Aviation Fellowship is a family of organisations which bring physical healing, practical help and spiritual hope to some of the most inaccessible communities on the planet. Using a fleet of over 140 aeroplanes they take food and aid workers to the most remote communities, perform medical emergency airlifts and fly in doctors and medicine to over 37 of the world's most isolated and inaccessible areas..

Chris's talk described and explained the work in an informative and humorous way. He is happy to talk to other groups and can be contacted here.

A group of St John’s Whorlton MU members enjoyed a history tour of Newcastle Cathedral.

Our Volunteer guide Mick provided a lot of interesting information about theCathedral and St Nicholas and highlighted some of the memorials and the beautiful medieval stained glass window showing Mary feeding baby Jesus.

We ended our visit with a lovely lunch in the Cathedral cafe.

Events April 2023

Seaton Hirst Branch in Ashington enjoyed a presentation on Howick Kneelers by Helen Cooper Deanery Leader for Alnwick Deanery

St George's Cullercoats MU held an 'ABC of Teas' followed by a Quiz about teas. Groups were given cards and briefly discussed how MU supports each ’tea’ and then shared their ideas with everyone.

The idea came from a folder given to Anne Lilley when she became branch leader in 2022. The folder was Guidelines for Branch Leaders MU Newcastle Diocese, dated January 2007!

If anyone would like to give it a try the contact Anne.

Venerable Bede have started a new outreach group ' Coffee, Cake & Craft'. It is hoped this group will help non English speaking ladies to have fellowship in a non threatening place as well as helping a variety of other folk. Leahan was supported by MU members as they carry out the decision they made earlier in the year. We made 'fish' with a pipe cleaner and beads.

2023 Diocesan Council Meeting & Annual General Meeting

Diocesan Council March 31st 2023

Members attending Diocesan Council at Kingston Park were greeted as they arrived by the cheery sight of three teddy bears sitting in front of the lectern. These, we were told later by chaplain Anne Marr, were connected to the “Build a bear “ project developed by the Leeds Diocese to help and support families who were affected by transplants. Members were encouraged to support a similar initiative in our diocese.

Our President Margy welcomed everyone, especially those attending council for the first time. She suggested that we all read the Easter letter from our world-wide president, Sheran Harper, which contains a prayer written by a member for our diocese, Margaret Devlin from Holy Saviour’s Tynemouth. She was delighted that it would be read by MU members all around the word.

Julian Brown took us through a look at our finances stressing the need to increase our membership and our funds. (Photo 2)

Anne Marr has developed some new booklets, which she hopes will encourage new and existing vicars and others in our diocese to learn more about the work of Mothers Union. This will stress all the good things which MU does in our area and beyond. A letter of encouragement and support from our incoming bishop will be included in this booklet.

In response to the need to increase fund raising members were asked to come up with ideas . These ranged from a raffle, a 100 club, concerts, and a simpler more effective way of collecting gift aid. Margy hoped that someone would take on the role of “Fund raising lead “to help this.

Members were reminded of the retreat. They were asked to write accounts of some of the successful projects undertaken in the branches and send them to the Journal, the web and Facebook. To help with projects, Mary Sumner house staff have agreed to send out information about important events and projects in good time so that the information can be disseminated to the branches. (Photo 3)

At the end of the meeting there was time to chat to members from other branches face to face instead of on Zoom, before travelling home in almost daylight.

Linda Benneworth.

Documents can be downloaded here

Events in Early 2023

Mothers' Union of Cambois welcomed Anne Blight VP today. We had a lovely service taken by Rev Ian Hennerby followed by shared lunch.

MAKE A MOTHER’S DAY COFFEE MORNING.

The Mothers’ Union branch, St Cuthbert’s Haydon Bridge with Henshaw and Bellingham held their Annual “Make a Mother’s Day” Coffee Morning on 18th March 2023.

This year we chose a new venue, Bardon Mill Village Hall and the event was very successful. It was a very busy and enjoyable morning.

For sale were Cakes, New and Nearly new items, Books, Candles (made by our Branch Chaplain Rev’d Dr John Harrison) and of course a Raffle.

As a result, we were able to donate £500 to projects for mothers.

£250 was spent on “Gifts of Perseverance” to buy gifts from the Make a Mother’s Day Catalogue.

£250 was donated to the AFIA fund to assist with buying holidays and Away Days for families in Newcastle Diocese.

Benwell MU

Members of the Benwell Mothers Union were asked by the clergy to support the team Mothering Sunday Service. We used the St Mellitus template for a service, from the MU website: called to mother in a broken world. Branch members took an active part in the service, doing the prayers, the reading and leading the children's corner. Members of the congregation were invited to place a pebble in a basket at the foot of a Taize cross as a symbol of:

those they have failed to mother or who have failed to mother them
those who have experienced disappointment in relation to their mother or being a mother
thanksgiving for those who have mothered them

We also had an opportunity to explain a little about Mothers Union and the work it does, worldwide, in Newcastle and locally. As is traditional, flowers were distributed to the congregation. Less traditionally, much of the service was bilingual and the sermon was translated into Farsi for the Iranian members of our congregation. It was a really good opportunity for Mothers Union to be more visible and for us to share the valuable work of the organisation.

Holy Saviour

Katie Watson is Head of Chaplaincy Newcastle Hospitals and gave the branch a brief history of her life and work. An amazing lady.

Thank you flowers given by Pauline Lee for Barbara Parker from St John's Church Whorlton after a lovely update on our Link Dioceses. Barbara wore her lovely MU dress that she was given whilst on one of her visits.

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