Building ‘Bricks and Mortals’ for 100 Years

Church is “bricks and mortals being built together for the glory of God”, so said Rt Revd Mark Wroe, Bishop of Berwick and acting Bishop of Newcastle, in his sermon to mark the opening of the Centenary Exhibition at Holy Trinity Church in Jesmond.

Bricks and mortals is an important phrase to use in the context of Holy Trinity because there is a real sense that the people who worship here and take the Good News of Jesus out with them are very much Living Stones, a phrase which came up several times in the special service.

He spoke of how the building was completed in a turbulent time coloured by war and hardship. When the church was consecrated in 1922 the world was still coming to terms with The Great War and the effects of Spanish Flu.

“We continue to be impacted by the good news and the hope of Jesus Christ in a turbulent time, coloured by war and by hardship, and our answer is to continue to build the Church. To continue to build a community full of hope in Jesus Christ, full of love for the people and the community that it serves, full of life because we are living stones built upon THE Living Stone. True churches are never finished because the Living Stone is never finished with us. Never finished building us up, never finished breathing life and hope through His Spirit into you and into me,” he said.

The service was held to mark the opening of a Centenary Exhibition which will run until September, when a Centenary Service will be held on the weekend closest to the day on which the church was consecrated.

Margaret Nicholson, Chair of the Centenary Planning Group, explained that it consists of 30 exhibition boards outlining a little of the history of the area and how the church came to be built, but also looking at what goes on today in terms, for example, of music and outreach.

“There are also a number of boards which look at how people came to faith and the impact that has on them as well as films looking at how members of the congregation have coped with Covid,” she said.

“We wanted to open out to people in our parish and our community to tell them about God’s love and faithfulness over 100 years. To tell them what goes on here and why it goes on here and to make sure they didn’t think the centenary was just about the building but about the community, the living stones as we have been told in our service today. We just want to celebrate all God’s goodness and all of the wonderful things that God has allowed us to do here at Holy Trinity.”

These sentiments were reflected by Revd Tim Sanderson, Vicar of Holy Trinity.

“I think people will think that our centenary is all about a building, and the whole point of the exhibition is to blow people’s minds and say it is not just about the building, it is more about the people in the building and God’s faithfulness to us,” he said.

“You see plaques on walls of buildings telling people how old they are. and it is boring and doesn’t mean anything, so we wanted to do an exhibition that teases out that this place is about life and vibrancy, because we are a community of faith. If people can get hold of that when they come in, they will be far more interested than just that we are another building that has reached 100.”

Tim also hopes that the exhibition will have a big impact on people who are not churchgoers.

“I hope we will get people who have never set foot inside a church before and I hope when they come in, they will see there is more to life than they currently have.

“I hope that our faith boards do that. There are people in the videos talking about how they coped with Covid. What I am hoping is that all of these things bridge across to people with very little church experience and helps them to think maybe there is more out there than they think and that God is real and living and can change their lives too.”

The Holy Trinity Exhibition runs until September and is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am to 1pm and on Sundays from 1pm to 3pm. Admission is free and there are activities for children as well as a pop-up café.

by Ian Farrimond