@stadio.football Santa has visited North Tyneside! Thanks to the elves (!?!) @ryanhunn.bsky.social & @okwonga.bsky.social for new decor for our Cargo Bike from the Social Club

On the eve of the Great O antiphons, posting my metricised versions of the Common Worship texts. Tune: anything in Long Metre, but particularly written with the two tunes for /Come thou redeemer of the earth/ in mind. Intending to sing each verse on its day, either side of a Magnificat at EP.

Go and see this exhibition if you are in the North East! @wobblygoose.bsky.social's work is AMAZING!!!!!

I love how the Lionesses are managed by a woman who looks like she should be riding a cargo bike around my town.

This was front and centre in the post-Mass chat after church this morning. The parish is in an area of @ntcouncilteam.bsky.social where house-building faces tensions with the supply of amenities and access to transport links

Unaccompanied congregational singing this morning at St Aidan’s & St Hilda’s until Dorothy arrived with her Northumbrian Pipes to lead and accompany our voices. Her post-service playing seemed an appropriate accompaniment to this Aidan-themed window @northtyneside.bsky.social

Today marks a decade since ordination to the priesthood at St Augustine’s Queensgate. Thanks be to God. Claire Shirley remembered to take some photos and Rachel Atwell Hudson designed the gift. A very special day.

OK but if we're going to abolish King's somebody else is going to have to step up to do the carol service.

Disability and the Church of England: Tim Goode is always worth hearing on why we need to do so much better viamedia.news/2025/06/12/t...

The Presiding Bishop continues to exceed my expectations. This is a good letter expressing the seriousness of the current situation to the church, and I hope people take it seriously.

It’s bad on all fronts. It’s likely to lead to radicalisation into fringe and dangerous positions, it doesn’t do anything to combat social isolation (which attending a place of worship regularly would do), & it’s bad spiritually. You can’t be a Christian in isolation & it’s usually damaging to try.

Play England launches its new 10-year strategy today, along with the formation of the first-ever All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Play - hopefully both big steps towards a national play strategy. playnation.uk/blog/2025/05... @eugeneminogue.bsky.social

What do kids in Newcastle upon Tyne want from their neighbourhood? 1. Public spaces to meet and play 2. Active travel infrastructures to safely walk and cycle 3. Streets that promote cohesive communities 4. Well designed, maintained & safe places. Excellent participative study.

More #bloomscrolling

Clematis Montana in tiny yard #bloomscrolling

"The gathering of baptized people is therefore not a convocation of those who are privileged, elite and separate, but of those who have accepted what it means to be in the heart of a needy, contaminated, messy world." — Rowan Williams on Baptism

“May the Fourth be with you…” (Anglican siblings respond) “…and also with you” (Photo credit: unknown, but courtesy of FB. Let me know and I’ll add it with thanks)

Every sympathy to Roman Catholic clergy who are having to work out how the rubrics require you to mark the death of the Pope in the octave of Easter. When you’re exhausted by the last week to start off with.

Our Holy Saturday and Cargo Bike crossover

The Bishop of Newcastle(@helenannhartley.bsky.social)'s Chrism Eucharist sermon is now online. In it, she reflects on Holy Week as a time to recommit to prayer, service, and, in the words of Sam Fender, "people watching" once more. 🎸 Read it here: newcastlecathedral.org.uk/bishop-helen... ✝️

"The old empire crumbles and gives way to valleys of refreshment and peace. This is not some naïve hope." Cracking sermon from @helenannhartley.bsky.social at the morning's Chrism Mass. A joy to gather with colleagues and remember our shared calling.

Lenten joys shared as we joined @helenannhartley.bsky.social in welcoming Canon Dr Kelly Brown Douglas to the college of canons @newcastlecathedral.bsky.social this morning. If you’d like to watch the service you can find it here: www.youtube.com/live/BzO5UEF...

Laughter and energy with Canon-designate Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas @newcastlecathedral.bsky.social alongside colleagues from the College of Canons this morning. Exploring a crucified kenosis that attends to justice and privilege

An evening of luminous laughter observing living between eyes open and eyes shut at The Stand this evening courtesy of @robauton.bsky.social - bravo! Including art merch for punters!

Things to remember this evening: You are dust. Kid’s world book day costume. To dust you will return. Bin day.

I think I posted this last year but Sarah Condon can write. "Lent is not telling us to fix what is wrong with us, it is telling us that we cannot." mbird.com/religion/chu...

our common life depends upon each other's toil

In a Saturday morning juxtaposition (distraction?) I am stood in the chill of Whitley Bay ice rink listening to warm cycling vibes from Collignon collignon.bandcamp.com/album/bicicl...

Today sees the release of the Children’s Walking and Cycling Index report - the first of it’s kind - sponsored by Halfords Children are often overlooked by decision-makers and officers in transport, or if they are considered, it's on the school journey.

JOB ALERT! The @BishopNewcastle wishes to appoint a full-time Mission Priest-in-charge for five years to the Benefice of Byker St Michael’s. More / apply 👉 bit.ly/3EWJzSo #ChurchJobs #ClergyJobs #ChristianJobs #NEJobs

New word for me today- Freudenfreude! The opposite of Shadenfreude, meaning genuine rejoicing in another's success (Word discovered in Julia Baird's Phosphorescence) #BookSky

A poem that begins with a jellyfish.

My morning has been enlivened by a phishing scam in which my colleagues and I at the Diocese of Newcastle are the recipients of a grant from the (non-existent) Pontifical Missoi (sic) Society. Lots of typos! Not really my brand of ecumenism!

This greeted us on our street the morning after Valentine’s Day last week.

A damp evening at the coast enlightened by Fiesta & St Paul’s church via the community event “light waves” fiestawb.com/2025/01/29/l... (1/3)

Got to visit the excellent Shieldfield Art Workshop this week. A witness to Methodist engagement in this part of Newcastle enabling local people to create, share and reflect on shaping their community

Sr Corita Kent insisted that “ordinary things shall be signs for us”. Those participating in authorised lay ministry formation are using Corita’s work to consider how prayer as attention (noticing where God is with us and others) might help our diocese’s discerning prayers in our “Year of Seeking”

Came back from Holy Island with this beautiful painting looking south towards Bamburgh at sunrise from Lindisfarne. By the gifted eye of Mary Fleeson

Once again, please don't retweet it. He knew how it would be interpreted. And doing it in clericals is just so upsetting.

Here’s the thing about fascism: it’s actually a spiritual project. That’s why when you say “migration is great for the economy”, fascists don’t care. They think “well, the idea of racial purity is more appealing to my soul than a strong economy, so screw the economy”. That was Hitler’s argument.

Booking is now open for this event @newcastlecathedral.bsky.social in May of this year: www.ticketsource.co.uk/newcastle-ca...

Not really surprised to learn that the estimable Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is a happy bike commuter. "I bike to work whenever I can. ...if it’s not quicker to ride my bike to work [than a car or Metro], it’s a lot more fun." www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2...

I am not as experienced (or determined) as @fatherhilarious.blog in this regard but morning prayer on the way to work this morning included moments of challenge, congruence & beauty (The Fish Quay and the Salt Quay, North Shields).

There’s depth in this @themagnificast.bsky.social episode that raises questions about the demands of a growth agenda and the need to collaborate towards flourishing that celebrates what counts (even when we cannot “count” it)

Clearly our language tuition app decided when I opted to begin learning some basic phrases for work with one of our partner/link dioceses to start me on vocab that a Christian minister should care about…

Joyous gathering of congregation and community in the parish church of Cresswell last weekend to give thanks for building and bells restored after storms across the region. Bells, baptism, prayers of blessing in South-East Northumberland.

“It was evening…” Genesis 1, the first reading for @churchofengland.org evening prayer, Whitley Bay at low tide

6 Jan: Nollaig na mBan #otd - Christmas of Women. St Anne, with her book, Mary & their husbands Joseph & Joachim. On right is Mary's relative Elisabeth with son John the Baptist. Today is the day for women's feasting & men's labouring at home #nollaignamban (Rijksmuseum)

An early modern anti-multi-tasking emblem and slogan... “We cannot all do everything” Jacob Hoefnagel, 1634 (British Museum)