SACRE NEWSLETTER SPRING 2016 The Gateshead Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education Members Rev Brian Howell : Church of England Christine Ingle : Roman Catholic Kathleen Farrell : Teacher s Union Representative Rabbi Michael Glickman : Jewish Representative Kirtida Richardson : Hindu (ISKCON) Educational Services Pauline Piddington : Gateshead Council Councillor J McElroy : Gateshead Council Councillor M Foy : Gateshead Council Councillor M Hood : Gateshead Council Councillor P McNally : Gateshead Council Rev Dorothy Snowball : Anglican Representative Pastor Bob Adams : Baptist Representative Cloud Singh : Sikh Representative Representing Schools: Emma Arrowsmith : RE Coordinator - Secondary Katherine Hughes : RE Coordinator - Secondary Natalie Shippey : RE Coordinator - Special Clare Millward : RE Coordinator Primary Les Milne : Humanist Observer Message from the Chair Dear colleagues, Unusually, I have been out of circulation for a while, broken bones in the wake of an accident on the ice. But I m back now, in one piece, and very pleased to be writing to you all once again. There are some things to report about our SACRE in Gateshead. We now have some new members and interested friends working with us. Revd Dorothy Snowball and Pastor Bob Adams, who some of you will know from their work in Church and School, have joined our ranks as representatives of the Anglican and Baptist Churches respectively. We also now have Les Milne, a member of the British Humanist Society and Cloud Singh, a representative of the Sikh Community working with us. We have been very pleased to welcome all of them and we know that they will be able and willing to bring their perspectives and experience to strengthen our efforts in developing Religious Education in Gateshead. We have two news items for this Spring edition. The first is of the work that students at Joseph Swan Academy completed for Holocaust Memorial day. As you ll discover, their art installation is sensitive, evocative and thought provoking. The second is a presentation of the huge variety of work that our Whickham Primary Schools and some other groups produced in response to Holy Week and the celebration of Easter. A big thankyou to our contributing schools. I know I say this every time but it s so true.our young people are remarkable for the breadth of their talent and the depth of their sensibility. Finally, as we have now celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, we have a very brief article about St James who deserves more attention than he usually gets. Perhaps, if you get the chance, you might think about having a look at his Letter. With very best wishes to you all and many thanks for the valuable work you continue to do. Brian Howell Rev d Brian Howell Chair of SACRE
Joseph Swan students remember the Holocaust A single death is a tragedy: a million deaths is a statistic. This saying is attributed to Stalin. He was wrong. On the 27th January 2016 we were called on once more to think of the victims of the Holocaust. Not 1 million people but 11 million people. 6 million of them were Jews and over 1 million of them were children. All of them were unique individuals, precious to someone. To remember these unique people students at Joseph Swan Academy created an Art Installation which focussed on three things which were specific to them as individuals and which, in the exhibits at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, have become symbols of the Holocaust...luggage, shoes and hair. As people arrived at the camps they were cynically told to make sure their luggage was clearly marked. They marked it for later identification that their guards knew would not be needed. Individuals saying, This is mine. It belongs to me. The unique me. Students remembered and made unique luggage tags, imperishable in clay, and each carrying a message for one lost person. When Stalin s troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau they found 43,000 pairs of shoes. Footprints are as personal as fingerprints. For this reason, we immortalise our babies footprints in clay and bronze their first shoes. Created individually by the students, and placed in memory in a corner of the Academy, clay shoes remind us of the individual victims of this very particular crime. We all looked alike... Rich, poor, young, old. We shared the same fate as in no way before. So said Mel, a Czech teenager, remembering how on arriving at the Camp people s hair was cropped. Students at Joseph Swan created uniquely patterned strands to represent and remember the people that this act sought to diminish. A single death is a tragedy. That s true. It is estimated that almost 60 million people died in the Second World War and that since then 50 million more have been killed in countless conflicts around the world. Can they ever be just statistics?
Schools from Whickham Cluster Participate in Spoor Methodist Church s Holy Week Easter Project The primary schools within the Whickham cluster were invited by Rev. Brigitta Steele to contribute to a Holy Week display to be exhibited during the week commencing 14 th March. Open daily to the public, as well as welcoming parties of school children during school hours, the exhibition traced Christ s journey from his entry into Jerusalem and the events leading to the Resurrection. An excellent collection of diorama displays depicting Palm Sunday The Entry into Jerusalem was the first display in the exhibition. Children from an array of ages from Whickham Parochial C of E Aided Primary School created these three dimensional scenes as part of a creative whole school homework challenge, made from a myriad of media, alongside a display of vibrant postcards featuring eyewitness accounts of the event. The two winning diorama from each class were displayed for all to admire. St Mary s Roman Catholic Primary School were allocated The Washing of the Disciples Feet as their theme and put together a highly detailed photomontage of their own Lenten activities and charitable works which had taken place in the six weeks of Lent. These included a whole school Pilgrimage around the local area to encounter God in a new way and visits to Worwick Welcome Homeless Project where children from the school s Mini Vinnies club delivered cans of food donated by parents and carers. The school s 40 minutes sponsored events, which raised substantial funds for their Lenten Appeal, was also featured. Front Street Primary School contributed a poster display about The Last Supper to accompany their carefully created Last Supper Stained Class window design, taking inspiration from the modern window with the same name gracing one of the windows in Durham Cathedral. They also presented photographs in which children s hands creating cruciform shapes and word pictures in a cruciform design as part of their response to the Crucifixion Story.
For the Last Supper display, the children recreated the 'Marks and Spencer' window at Durham Cathedral. Parishioners have enjoyed the window so much, they're thinking of making it a permanent fixture in their Church! Fellside Community Primary School created a large Easter Garden in the school grounds which was featured (in photographs) as part of their table-top display in the church. The children, having produced a timeline of the many events in the Easter story and a study of the geographic route of Jesus last days, could describe the significance of the features included in their own garden the three crosses on Calvary, the garden of the borrowed tomb and the empty tomb itself, with the huge stone boulder which had sealed the entrance rolled aside. They enjoyed explaining these features to their peers, families and carers as their garden in full view created a great deal of interest during playtime and during drop off and picking up times. After an Easter Service at the school, Rev. Steele kindly added the final symbols to their Easter Garden the bandages in the open tomb and the egg shells depicting Christ s resurrection. Given the Garden of Gethsemane as their designated story, Fellside s Year Three went on to paint in watercolour, draw in ink and pencil crayon, assemble collages and use computer graphics to create images of the four symbols which make up the story the garden (symbolising Christ s pressure and stress at this time before his arrest): the cup (an imaginary cup that was filled up with the sins of the world and the suffering Jesus would bear for all humanity); the kiss (symbolising the betrayal by Judas Iscariot) and finally the sword (symbolising the response of men contrasting with Jesus own response at this time which was one of love). The Friday Night Youth Club of Spoor Methodist Church created a delightful three dimensional feathered cockerel who crowed thrice to depict the story, Jesus is Denied, and the members of the Sunday School fashioned a beautiful table top Easter Garden which completed the exhibition depicting the empty tomb and Christ s resurrection the final story.
For the crucifixion display, children took photos of their hands forming the cross, drew crosses composed of words related to their understanding of and response to the story The exhibition proved to be a popular place to be throughout the week where the church opened its doors for all to admire and contemplate the events of Holy Week. Our thanks to Rev. Steele and the Youth and Family worker, Ruth Green from Spoor Methodist Church for coordinating the event and members of the church for supplying refreshments to the visitors.
St James the Just, brother of Jesus Christ After Easter, the next great festival in the Christian Calendar is Pentecost. In the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we are told that after Jesus Ascended into Heaven, Jesus mother with a group of Apostles and other followers, returned to Jerusalem to the upper room where they were staying and joined in continuous prayer waiting to receive the power of the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised them. We are told that this divine inspiration soon came in the form of what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven and something that appeared to them like tongues of fire [and] They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. With this new power and courage the Apostles were ready to begin building the Christian Church. Through the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St Paul we have a record of their ministry abroad. We hear less about the Christian Community that remained in Jerusalem under the leadership of James who is believed by many to have been the brother of Jesus. We are given a glimpse of the early Christian Community in Chapter 4 of Acts where in Verses 32 to 35 we are told: The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all given great respect. None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from them to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any members who might be in need. In Jerusalem James was regarded as an honourable man. He was referred to as James the Just. He was regarded as a living link to Jesus Christ but he also was known for his strict observance of his Jewish faith. There is, in the New Testament, one Epistle which is called The Letter of James and it delivers a very clear message that faith alone cannot be the way to salvation it must be accompanied by good deeds. In Chapter 2 we read: Take the case, my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that; if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead..faith without good deeds is useless. If his advocacy of the poor is clear, so too is his message for the rich: Now an answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them listen to the wages that you kept back, calling out; realise that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart s content. It was you who condemned the innocent and killed them; they offered you no resistance. Perhaps it was this view of the world, and the world to come, that sealed James fate. The story of James death is related in Josephus Antiquities. It happened in 62 C.E. At that time Palestine was in disarray. There was famine, drought, civil unrest, and a power vacuum when the Roman Governor Festus suddenly died and his replacement had not yet come from Rome to restore order. The recently appointed High Priest Ananus reportedly took his chance to settle some scores. Josephus refers to Ananus father as the great hoarder of money. He had initiated action to strip the lower ranking priests of their tithes which had been their sole source of income. So maybe, Ananus saw himself and his kin in some of the statements that James was making. He called the Sanhedrin and brought James the Just, the brother of Jesus, before it to be charged with blasphemy and transgressing the law. He was found guilty and sentenced to be stoned to death. The execution caused outrage among the Jewish community and a group of the city s Jews described by Josephus as most fair-minded and strict in the observance of the law contacted to the incoming Governor, Albinus to tell him
what had happened. The story goes that Albinus intended to take action against Ananas on his arrival but, by the time he reached Jerusalem, the High Priest had already been removed from office. That Josephus even writes this account is an indication of James prominence and importance. Please can you help? The SACRE Syllabus Group has recently started work on producing briefing sheets about different aspects of the Syllabus. As they are completed, they will be posted to an area of the Learning Platform to be made available to anyone who may wish to access them. We would be grateful if you could help with this development by sending any information sheets or worksheets that you have used, either with classes or in preparing to deliver topics, for inclusion on the site. We would also ask if you could please return the SACRE questionnaire that was issued earlier in the year [a second copy is attached should you need it]. We are eager to get a good response so that we can identify sessions that a number of schools would like to attend and put a programme together. Finally, if you are doing some interesting RE work in your school that you would like to share, please let us know about it. You can either simply submit copy or ask us to contact you to put something together for inclusion in the Newsletter. We hope to produce one more edition before the end of this academic year. Many thanks, in advance. All questionnaires, suggestions for articles and information sheets should be returned to Julie Latimer at julielatimer@gateshead.gov.uk
JUNE 1 st Ascension of Jesus Orthodox Christian 3 rd Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Christian 6 th Ramadan begins * - Islam 9 th St Columba of Iona Celtic Christian Ascension of Jesus Orthodox Christian 12-13 th Shavuot * - Jewish 16 th Guru Arjan martyrdom Sikh 19 th New Church Day Swedenborgian Christian Pentecost Orthodox Christian 20 th Solstice First Nations Day Canadian Native People Litha * - Wicca/Pagan northern hemisphere Yule * - Wicca/Pagan southern hemisphere 26 th All Saints Orthodox Christian 29 th Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul - Christian JULY 1st Lailat al Kadr * - Islam 7-9 th Eid al Fitr * - Islam 9 th Martyrdom of the Bab * - Baha i 11 th St Benedict Day Catholic Christian JULY 13-15 th Obon (Ulambana) ** - Buddhist Shinto 15 th St Vladimir the Great Day Orthodox Christian 19 th Asalha Puja Day ** - Buddhist 23 rd Birthday Emperor Haile Selassi Rastafari 24 th Pioneer Day Mormon Christian 25 th St James the Great Day Christian AUGUST 1 st Lammas Christian Lughnassad Imbolc * - Wicca/Pagan Northern and Southern hemispheres Fast in honor of Holy Mother Lord of Jesus Orthodox Christian 5 th Ganesh Chathurthi ** - Hindu 6 th Transfiguration of the Lord Orthodox Christian 14 th Tish ab av * - Jewish 15 th Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Christian Dormition of the Theotokos Orthodox Christian 18 th Raksha Bandhan ** - Hindu 25 th Krishna Janmashtami ** - Hindu 29 th Beheading of St John the Baptist - Christian *Holy days usually begin at sundown the day before this date. **Local or regional customs may use a variation of this date.
SEPTEMBER 1 st Ecclesiastical year begins Orthodox Christian 6-15 th Paryushana Parava Jain 8 th Nativity of Virgin Mary Christian 10 th Waqf al Arafa Hajj Day * - Islam 11-14 th Eid al Adha * - Islam 14 th Elevation of the Life Giving Cross (Holy Cross) Christian 22 nd Equinox Mabon * - Wicca/Pagan northern hemisphere Ostata * - Wicca/Pagan southern hemisphere 29 th Michael and All Angels Christian Meskel Ethiopian Orthodox Christian OCTOBER OCTOBER 12 th Ashura * - Islam Yom Kippur * - Jewish 17-23 rd Sukkot * - Jewish 18 th St Luke, Apostle & Evangelist Christian 20 th Birth of the Bab * - Baha i Installation of Scriptures as Guru Granth Sikh 24 th Shemini Atzeret * - Jewish 25 th Simchat Torah* - Jewish 30 th Diwali Deepavali ** - Hindu Sikh Jain 31 st All Hallows Eve Christian Reformation Day ** - Protestant Christian New Year ** - Jain 1-10 th Navaratri ** - Hindu 2 nd Muharram New Year * - Islam 3-4 th Rosh Hashanah * - Jewish 4 th St Francis Catholic Christian Blessing of the Animals Christian 10 th Thanksgiving Canada Interfaith 11 th Dasara ** - Hindu *Holy days usually begin at sundown the day before this date. **Local or regional customs may use a variation of this date.
NOVEMBER 1 st All Saints Day Christian Samhain Beltane * Wigga/Pagan Northern and southern hemispheres Birth of the Bab Bahi 2 nd All Souls Day Catholic Christian Birth of Baha u llah * - Baha i 14 th Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib Sikh 15 th Nativity Fast begins ends Dec. 24 Orthodox Christian 20 th Christ the King Christian 24 th Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahdur Sikh Thanksgiving Interfaith USA 25 th Day of the Covenant * - Baha i 27 th Advent begins through Dec. 24 Christian Christ the King Christian Ascension of Abdu l-baha * - Baha i 30 th St Andrew s Day - Christian DECEMBER 6 th Saint Nicholas Day Christian 8 th Bodhi Day (Rohatsu) ** - Buddhism Immaculate Conception of Mary Catholic Christian 12 th Feast day Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Christian Mawlid an Nabe * - *Islam 16-25 th Posadas Navidenas Hispanic Christian 14 th Mawlid an Nabi * - Islam 21 st Solstice Yule * - Wicca/Pagan northern hemisphere Litha * - Wicca/Pagan southern hemisphere Yule Christian 24 th Christmas Eve Christian 25 th Christmas * - Christian Feast of the Nativity ** - Orthodox Christian 25-1 st January Hannukkah * - Jewish 26 th Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathrushtra) ** - Zoroastrian St Stephen s Day Christian 28 th Holy Innocents Christian 30 th Holy Family Catholic Christian 31 st Watch Night - Christian *Holy days usually begin at sundown the day before this date. **Local or regional customs may use a variation of this date.