Newcastle Partnership

The Vision

Our Diocesan Visit to Newcastle July 2011

Apart from being at the opposite end of the country, Newcastle and Northumberland have many other contrasts to Winchester and Hampshire – not least the fact that 90% of the population live in the small south-east part of the diocese surrounding the City of Newcastle. This means that the vast majority of the Newcastle Diocese is very sparsely populated and there is a great difference between rural and urban.

Historically the urban areas have been devoted to heavy industry and coal mining, whilst the rural parts have been almost completely owned and run by large private estates, farming arable crops and enormous numbers of sheep. Although there is just as much farming, it employs far fewer people than in years gone by, and almost all the industry and mining has ceased in the urban parts. These trends have presented very many particular challenges which the Church has been working hard to help local people through.

Over our four-day visit from 19^th to 22^nd July, the eight of us from Winchester Diocese saw many inspiring regeneration projects in towns and countryside. We began in the City of Newcastle at a large housing estate called Chapel House. The Church of the Holy Nativity, built through the efforts of local people about 40 years ago, has just completed the building of an ambitious new Parish Centre which can offer up-to-date facilities for both church and community use. Winchester funds have been used, as in other projects we were privileged to visit, as seed corn, with a great deal of hard work and effort to finance the bulk of the impressive development. And the link between our two dioceses was evident in the warmth of welcome and generous hospitality we received. 

The project is entitled ‘Outside In’, which reminds us that the church is not a building but people, called together to offer Christ-like care in a world which can be uncaring, and to do so with open hearts, open hands and open minds. But the greatest lesson I learnt from this project was that of trust, patience and perseverance – demonstrating a deep faith over the 14 years it took for the project to come to fruition, with the many setbacks and challenges that were faced. The congregation are now in a position to minister to all parts of the Chapel House community and, in their words, “together creating inclusive community”.

by Duncan Jennings

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