Diocese honours local church workers
Alastair Macnaughton, second on left. Robert Arckless standing next to the Bishop of Newcastle (centre)
Two people with local connections were installed as canons in St. Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle on April 21 and parishioners went along to support. The group were treated to tea and cake by Alastair Macnaughton’s daughter Margaret, which gave them the opportunity to renew old acquaintances.
Robert Arckless was baptised at St Cuthbert’s Church, and confirmed at St John’s Chevington and is very much part of the church family in Amble. He has been a Parochial Church Council member and chaired a Parish Assessment. He has served 30 years as a local councillor, been chairman of Northumberland County Council and has served as Amble Town Mayor. He was appointed as an Honorary Alderman by the former Alnwick District Council where he also served as chairman. An honours graduate with a special interest in education, Robert is a long-serving member of the Children’s Services scrutiny committee and since 2008 he has chaired Northumberland’s standing Advisory Council on Religious Education. He was elected lay canon for his work in the community.
The Revd. Alastair Macnaughton served as parish priest in Amble and Cramlington, and before that in the Midlands. He is currently responsible for encouraging and developing learning and discipleship in the North East as part of the staff team of the Lindisfarne Regional Training partnership. Alastair has a particular interest in New Testament studies and spent some time in lndia and Moscow exploring the different approaches church leaders take to scripture. He hopes, over the next few years to translate into English Father Alexander Men’s History of Religion.
Alastair was installed in the seat of St Eadfrid, an honour of particular significance since the Lindisfare Gospels are coming back to the North East.
Eadfrith died in 721 and was Bishop of Lindisfarne, probably from 698 onwards. Some believe he was the scribe and artist responsible for the gospels. They were the product of a single scribe and illustrator, working full-time over a period of about two years. This collates with the period before he became bishop.
Eadfrith oversaw the restoration of the hermitage on Farne where Cuthbert had often lived. When Lindisfarne was abandoned in the late ninth century, Eadfrith’s remains along with St. Cuthbert’s were taken on the community’s long wanderings through Northumbria. They eventually found a new home at Chester-le-Street, where they remained for a century until 995 when they were moved to Durham Cathedral.
Vivienne Dalgliesh
