PHOTOS 2009

GOOD GROUND

The veg patch

at the back of

64 Main Road

has the best

soil Tom has ever

worked with.

These parsnips

dug on a bright

February day.

SIXTH FORM RETREAT

Students at our local Comprehensive, reading A Level RE, opted to experience a full-blown retreat with Sistercian Nuns in Lancashire, and had the Rector along as minibus driver and kind of 'chaplain'. A deeply formative time for all of us: students, staff, and Tom.

Having joined in the chanting of psalms morning noon and night for two days, we were given the task of choosing one verse from a psalm and expressing our thoughts on it in watercolour. Here's what came of it:

The Friends of

Holy Cross Ryton

plying the punters

with cool drinks

Tombola with

Maureen,

Beryl,

Christa,

Ann,

Maureen.

Wow the sound!

Steel Band

Newcastle

All Stars

Street

Orchestra

did us proud.

Mayor of

Gateshead

practicing

his striking

skills.

More tea Vicar? If it's with Margaret, Audrey and Ruth well of course.

Youth Vigil worship songs

Sunrise of Adoration: every strip someone's declaration of praise to God

Stick a button on a country, and pray for people known or unknown, there.

Flipchart sheets for declarations, questions, longings, fears; sometimes stumbling always heart-felt prayer.

As the days go on, walls plastered with post-its, cards, drawings.

A place of calm, an opportunity for focus, for the expression of what is deep down, offered in honesty and hope.