It is exciting to be a member of Mothers’ Union, a four million strong community in 84 countries around the world, with the aims of empowering women and strengthening families and communities through love, faith and fellowship. Its mission is to work with people of all faiths and none to support communities and advocate for positive change. We are focused on ending violence, poverty and injustice, striving to create a better tomorrow for all, where everyone can thrive.

Here at St Gabriel’s, we have an active group of 26 members and we are always very happy to welcome new ones. We meet monthly on Thursday afternoons at 2pm in the Parish Centre. Do contact the Parish Office like to know more and maybe come along to one or two meetings to see if you would be interested in joining us.

In September we thought and talked about preparing for autumn, touching on the beauty in nature, how our home menus change with the seasons so we are now making soups and cooking hot vegetables instead of salads, changing into warmer clothes, getting the winter duvets out and having the central heating boilers serviced. We read some autumn poetry, thought about how animals prepare for the colder weather ahead, how trees shed their leaves in a spectacular and colourful display and also mentioned the harvest time, from collecting apples and blackberries for delicious crumble puddings to being thankful for all we enjoy.

Our meeting in October was an inspiring visit to The Lighthouse Project in Byker, thanks to Victoria Screen’s kind invitation. Victoria is the Youth and Community Hub Manager there. After a warm welcome and refreshments, Victoria showed us round this wonderful set of rooms and resources developed from St Michael’s Church, which still uses part of the original church building. The Lighthouse Project’s main community space and the areas off it are beautiful, open, flexible and becoming very well used by young people and the wider community for a variety of activities including sport, dance, music, cooking, art and crafts. 

On Saturday morning, October 25th, we held a coffee morning in the vestry to raise funds for the work of the Mothers’ Union locally, nationally and internationally. It was a happy and successful event, raising a total of £285 on the day from the small number of generous people there, and the following morning at Parish Breakfast. Grateful thanks to all those who helped in any way.