The Newcastle Upon Tyne District met at Bede Academy in Blyth for their autumn representative session of synod today. The morning started with Revd. Stephen Lindridge welcoming the representatives and especially those presbyters, deacons and supernumeraries who are new to the district as well as those moving between circuits. Revd. Jona Sewell gave a welcome from the North Shields and Whitley Bay circuit and prayed for the day and especially for Stephen as he chaired his first synod.
Synod then spent time in worship led by Revd. Tim Woolley and band as we began our time rooted in praise of the God we love. As well as song and pray this time included an interview with Stephen telling of his journey from early life to his time now as he begins serving as our district chair.
The worship also included an exploration of ‘Calling’ by Stephen and other invited speakers. You can read a summary of this conversation in our post ‘Being Convinced God has Called’. The worship closed with the sharing of bread and wine around our tables with those we had shared the morning with.
After lunch the business section of the agenda was undertaken. This included voting upon new appointments to various committees as well as who will represent the district at Methodist conference. Other items that were talked about include.
- Video highlighting the work of conference. More can be read here on Methodist Conference 2015.
- The 3Generate conference and the good news that 23 young people would be going from the district to this event.
- Report from the Regional Discipleship & Ministries Learning Network and the ongoing vision for their work.
- Report from the Servicing and Resources committee.
- Update from our District Evangelism Enabler, Elaine Lindridge. More details on what was said can be read here.
To summarise the ideas and thoughts of the day, circuit groups were encouraged to discuss these questions.
- How can we earth this morning’s discussions in our circuit?
- How do we intentionally encourage hearing God’s call in all forms of ministry?
- What practical steps might we take to help the current refugee crisis?
Synod closed with it’s final business and finally and most importantly with prayer.
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