Everyone has their cross to bear, whether it's supporting a football side through thick and thin or walking across hot coals.

AS if acknowledging her new gaffer's avowed allegiance to Newcastle United, Canon Lyn Jamieson turned up at Tuesday's press conference to announce Canon Tom Wright's appointment as Bishop of Durham wrapped in an old-fashioned black and white scarf.

Canon Jamieson, the Bishop's senior chaplain and press officer, denied the muffled suggestion that it was something to do with first impressions, however.

Though born in Liverpool, where her four brothers divided equally between red and blue, she has been a St James's Park season ticket holder for years, was given the non-clerical scarf shortly after becoming a curate in Gateshead and wears it, she insists, all the time.

A former chaplain at the MetroCentre, Canon Jamieson had been at the Arsenal match two days earlier. "We've a very good side now but the speed of Arsenal's play is incredible," she said.

Michael Turnbull, the retiring bishop, developed an affection for Sunderland, as has the Rt Rev John Pritchard, the newish Bishop of Jarrow.

Bishop John, preparing to walk 20 feet over hot coals in aid of St Cuthbert's hospice in Durham - "I'm sure there must be a knack," he said - insists that he has nothing against the Magpies.

"Right now, though, Sunderland need my support rather more."

ANOTHER step on the road to redemption, Graham Carter and Leo Osborn - the region's two most senior Methodist ministers - have agreed to take part in a five day walk to boost Christian Aid.

It's from Allendale, in Northumberland, to Richmond, North Yorkshire, and might be said to be in the footsteps of John Wesley had not Methodism's chief mover always travelled on horseback.

The poor horses, if contemporary images are reliable, seemed not always to have appreciated the honour.

Mr Carter and Mr Osborn, chairmen respectively of the Darlington and Newcastle districts of the Methodist church, will be joined among others by the Rev Michael Faulkner, Christian Aid's regional director and a former minister at Middleton-in- Teesdale.

"It's about 61 or 62 miles," says Mr Faulkner who, challenged that the figure seems suspiciously low, concedes that it might be "a mile or two more." The walk is in the last week of May.

The first day's hoofing will take them from Keenley, near Allendale - where Wesley's marriage plans were said to have been thwarted by his brother Charles - to High House chapel at Ireshopeburn, built in 1760.

The indefatigable Wesley is said to have visited that top end of Weardale 13 times.

The following night they'll be at Newbiggin in Teesdale - the oldest Methodist chapel in continuous use - where chapel stalwart Mary Lowes is said to be planning one of her "lead mining and chapel folk" evenings.

Thereafter the walkers will be up and over The Stang and down into Swaledale. "It's a chance to explore Wesley's heritage and generally look at what the church is up to," says Mr Faulkner.

John Wesley, who preached at 5am and at several other spiritual refreshment breaks en route, did the same journey in June 1761 in two days. Usually, he noted, it rained.

THIS year is the tercentenary of Wesley's birth, an occasion marked by a fascinating special edition of the Wesley Historical Society's North-East branch magazine.

Among its little gems is a piece by Peter Bowes on George Watson - sometimes Geordie, sometimes Cuddy - a 19th century lead miner and Methodist local preacher in upper Weardale.

Even when trapped underground by a rock fall, he urged rescuers not to risk their own lives for him. "If my life is lost my soul is saved," he called through the rubble. They got him out, anyway.

Nearing his last, he was visited by his sister - the family anxious that she should stay all night.

While she made excuses and tried to leave, the 64-year-old Geordie raised himself from his bed. "Thou might'st stop t'neet," he said. "Ah nivver deed afore."

Praising God, he passed on the following morning.

l Copies of the magazine are available for £2, inclusive of postage, from Mr and Mrs G Milburn, 8 Ashbrooke Mount, Sunderland SR2 7SD. Cheques to the Society.

THEN there was Brother George, the delightful and wholly dedicated monk who died on Tuesday, aged 92.

Though the press gang loved him and his lookalike collecting boxes, though a fellow Brother once remarked that he'd been photographed more times than Sydney Opera House, George retained a healthy mistrust of the media.

"They take all those photographs and then put in the worst one," he grumbled.

His funeral is at 11am on Saturday at the Church of St John of God in Scorton, near Richmond, the order he served faithfully for 70 years.

We shall have to think of something nice to say.

IT'S coincidence, honest, that Susan Jaleel is herself a Methodist local preacher. It's about the rather splendid medal she bought at auction which she writes.

It's quite large, weighty and probably made of copper. SD&NY Show is presumably South Durham & North Yorkshire; the makers' inscription on the rim is Ord & Maddison.

Susan, who's in Darlington, would much appreciate more information. We'll pass it on.