Steel production in Cleveland - Statement of concern by Northern Church Leaders

North East Churches Acting Together

6^th  October 2015

A message from the Church leaders concerning the future of the SSI plant in Redcar.

The people of Teesside remain deeply uncertain and concerned about the potential for future steel production in the region. In recent days we have watched and listened as discussions have unfolded around the future of steel production on Teesside, but nothing has been said that would allay the uncertainty as to whether the Redcar plant will be mothballed, or closed completely.

What we do know is that this will have a profound effect on the people of Teesside.  1700 posts will be made redundant directly from the steel works, 500 from the coking works and other businesses will be both directly and indirectly affected.  Families and local businesses will suffer as income in the region drops.  We know that this sort of economic impact on a community has far more reaching effects on relationships, health, child poverty and employment.  This in an area that is already struggling with the effects of austerity measures that are hitting Teesside very hard.

We welcome the Government's offer of £80 million to support the community. We hope that this, in partnership with others, is part of a long term commitment to support a community that has been committed to making steel production work on Teesside.   Whilst acknowledging that the global economy is challenging for steel production and being appreciative of recent statements of support by the Business minister, many in this region would have hoped for more direct support for the industry at a time when much publicity is being given to the Northern Powerhouse and the economy of the North east. We would urge that there be strategic and forward looking thinking and planning for the region and for other areas of the country suffering from the continuing decline of heavy industry.

Local churches have already responded and will continue to pray, offer pastoral care, assist those affected in material and practical ways and work with others to seek outcomes that lead to a flourishing Teesside    

Please join us in praying for the people of Teesside.

Dr. Mark Bonnington (New and Independent Churches in the North East) Chair of North East Churches Acting Together

Rt Revd Paul Butler (Bishop of Durham)

Revd John Claydon (Regional Minister, Northern Baptist Association)

Rt Revd Seamus Cunningham (Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle)

Bishop Terry Drainey (Bishop of Middlesbrough)

Rt Revd Paul Ferguson (Bishop of Whitby)

Revd Ruth Gee (Chair of the Darlington District of the Methodist Church)

Revd Stephen Lindridge (Chair of the Newcastle District of the Methodist Church)

Majors Denis and Olive Lomax (Divisional Commanders, Northern Salvation Army)

Revd Lis Mullen (Moderator of the Northern Synod of the United Reformed Church)

Revd Paul Revill (Regional Minister, Northern Baptist Association)

Rt Revd Frank White (Assistant Bishop of Newcastle Diocese)

Harvest of steel

copyright Ruth M Gee

This week-end many churches will be celebrating harvest. As you give thanks for the abundance of the harvest please take a moment to remember the families of steelworkers on Teesside as they live through another crisis. The closure of the steelworks will affect thousands in an area that is already struggling, where 81% of the population depend on tax credits.

The harvest of prime quality steel in this area may end.

Pray for us.


The picture was taken when visiting the coke ovens in March 2010. It is essential to keep the coke ovens working if there is to be hope to re-open the site for production. There is a ship waiting to deliver coal but the money is not available to pay for it, without more coal supplies the ovens can only work for a few more days.

A resilient people and their steel

(Copyright Ruth M Gee March 2010)

For the second time in 5 years the blast furnace and steel production on Teesside is to be mothballed. SSI have said this will be for up to 5 years. 1700 posts will be made redundant, 1700 people will be without work. Families will suffer and other local businesses will suffer as income in the region drops. The food banks will be needed more than ever. Relationships will be strained as some lose their job, perhaps for the second time in 5 years and others are retained to keep the coke ovens and power station in good order so that work can be resumed if that should be possible in the future.

Once again the horizon will change as fewer ships come into Teesport. Once again the horizons of individual lives and the community will change as yet another blow strikes the resilient people of the North East.

The people here are resilient, they have to be. They are so often side-lined in national decision making. The much talked about Northern Powerhouse seems to be focused on the North West. The planned new high speed rail links, HS2 and HS3 will not come to the North East. The continuing cuts in public spending make it impossible to improve the infrastructure in the area. New jobs have been created in the North East but they are outnumbered by those that have been lost because of cuts to public services, and many new jobs are part time or on zero hour contracts.

The steel produced here is of the highest quality and very resilient just like the people.  But the resilience of these people and these communities is being strained.

The churches are responding and will offer support, food, comfort and prayer. We will also respond, as we must, by continuing to challenge those with power to use that power to the benefit of the people in the North East. We will continue to stand with and speak for the marginalised.

Please pray for the people of Teesside.

You can find a call to prayer from the local Methodist Minister here

A walk in the park - new perspectives

South Park, in Darlington is a favourite place for families on a sunny Saturday afternoon - just like today. I have often walked to and around the park and enjoyed the exercise and the scenery, it is a familiar place.

This afternoon I went to South Park with Robert (my husband) but today it was different because I am temporarily unable to put any weight on my right leg due to a broken bone. This meant that I was not walking but being pushed in a wheelchair, kindly loaned by Barnard Castle Methodist Church. For me, this is temporary, but I have seen a walk in the park from a new perspective and it has been a learning experience.

I learned about the need to trust because I had to trust Robert. In one way this was not difficult or new, I do trust him implicitly and have done so through 38 years of marriage. I trust him but I was still nervous when we went down fairly steep slopes or towards the lake or over bumpy ground. I was very aware that I had no control, I couldn't even put my feet on the ground to slow things down and I am not used to having no control. 

I learned about guilt and the futility of it in this instance. I felt guilty when we went uphill. I have lost a lot of weight recently but even so it was an effort to push me uphill. I wanted to help and thought leaning forward might do it - but it made no difference - so I had to accept that Robert was expending energy and getting a work-out for my benefit and all without complaint. I am grateful.

I was reminded of the sheer fun of being in a park.  I found that I was at eye-level with the children we met and it was fantastic! They were smiling at me, talking to me and laughing with me. What a privilege, I enjoyed it immensely. On the other hand, I was not at eye-level with the adults in the park. Sometimes our eyes met, usually because their children had spoken to me but otherwise I was fairly invisible to them. Today, through the children around me, I was enjoying scooters and playing hide and seek and riding tricycles rather than walking briskly to make sure I did 10,000 or more steps and used up a few hundred calories!

I am not pretending or claiming to have gained great insights into what it is like to be in a wheelchair but the new perspectives on a walk in the park have been a cause for reflection.

I could go on to reflect on trust in God and playing in God's presence but I won't - I will leave for you to do - if you want to.

Lament for Aylan

Lament for Aylan

So small, so still

So beautiful in life

So unbearable in death

Carried by the sea

Carried by our tears

Carried gently in strong arms.

O God

Open the eyes of those with power

To  see  your children in their desperate need;

Open the arms of those in government

To welcome those who come to our shores;

Open the hearts of each one of us -

Move us to sorrow, anger and action

That the salt sea of sorrow

May be turned to soothing waters

And that tears of desperation

May become tears of joy.

O God, help your people.

Aylan Kurdi, aged 3, from Kobani was washed up on a Turkish beach near Bodrum in September 2015. He was just one of thousands fleeing for safety from Syria and other parts of the world.

The local fisherman who discovered his body among others on the beach said, "I came to the sea and I was scared. My heart is broken."

Sing it, shout it, whisper it and live it

I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone!*

If you have ever played the angel in a nativity play, you will have said those words, or something very  like them. Announcing, not just good news, but the greatest news ever - the birth of Jesus, the birth of the saviour.

It is wonderful to be able to give good news to people. To tell some-one that they have been accepted for a job they really wanted. To tell some-one that their calling has been affirmed. To share the news that a couple are to be married. To share the news that a child has been born.

Yesterday I was watching the trailer for the film, The Theory of Everything" which is being released in the UK in January. It is an account of the life of Stephen Hawking, the well-known theoretical-physicist who wrote the must-have book "A Brief History of Time" which decorated many coffee tables in the 1990s.

Stephen Hawking lives with ALS, a degenerative motor neurone disease. He is now almost completely paralysed.  He was diagnosed with ALS while at university and, in the film there is a brief exchange between the doctor and the young Stephen Hawking. The doctor tells him that he has ALS and what that will mean. Stephen Hawking then says, "The brain, what about the brain?" and the answer is "The brain is not affected. Your thoughts won't change, it's just no-one will know what they are." 

Stephen Hawking is still able to communicate his thoughts with the aid of advanced and expensive technology, because not to communicate his ideas would be unbearable for him and a loss for the world. Important ideas and insights are to be shared - or they die unnoticed.

And the angels said, "I bring you the most joyful news ever announced."

At Christmas we sing of tidings of great joy.

We sing of the baby born in Bethlehem.

We sing of the birth of the saviour.

We sing of good news for all people.

The news is just too good, too important to be kept to ourselves.

It is not enough to know about it, we have to share it.

We have to share it through our words, through our actions, through our very being.

We have to share it with family and friends, with neighbours and colleagues.

We have to share it with those who have never heard it before.

Thomas Herbert O'Driscoll writes these beautiful words in the final verse of his hymn "Sing of a God in majestic divinity" (Singing the Faith 13)

Sing of this God who in glory and mystery

chooses to lie in humanity's womb,

enters the prison and pain of our history,

rises triumphant and opens the tomb.

This news has to be shared.

Will you share the good news this Christmas, and throughout the year?

Will you sing it, shout it, whisper it and live it?

It is too important to let yourself be silenced.

Have a blessed and happy Christmas and share the good news!

This message can be heard here

* Luke 2:10, Living Bible

Speak out!

I've just read another document, a report from an inspirational event, in which people are quoted as saying, "Church Leaders should speak out more."
There is rarely a meeting where this phrase is not used and, as one designated a Church Leader I need to hear it and I do.

My immediate response is to think of the many times that I have spoken out, as have others, about a variety of issues. Sometimes this has been reported in the media. Sometimes I have blogged. Sometimes I have spoken at public meetings. Most often I have preached - I hope prophetically where necessary and appropriate. The same is true of other church leaders. Some are reported more often by the media - that is the way of things - but we do speak out.

However, my immediate response could be described as (and possibly is) too defensive.

The challenge is there.
"Church leaders should speak out more."
Speak out about injustice.
    Speak out about discrimination.
        Speak out about abusive behaviour.
            Speak out about war and peace.
                Speak out about love.
 
Speak out about God.

So I will continue to try to speak out more.

I will continue to speak out about all the issues above and others.
I will continue to speak out about them whether they are issues in the wider community or issues in the church. For, make no mistake, there are issues of injustice, discrimination, abuse, war and peace within the church as well as in wider society. The church needs to hear about God too. All of us need to be reminded of our calling as disciples.

All of us need to speak out more.

I will continue to speak out - will you?

"A voice crying in the wilderness

Prepare the way of the Lord"