KINGSWELLS PARISH CHURCH

Transcription

1 KINGSWELLS PARISH CHURCH Autumn 2010 NEWSLETTER

2 Harvest Thanksgiving Our harvest thanksgiving service will take place on Sunday 3 rd October 2010 This year we would be delighted to receive gifts of Fruit or Flowers To be taken from the harvest table to members of the congregation or Tinned or Dried Goods which will be gifted to the Cyrenians Sacrament of Holy Communion will be celebrated on Sunday 10 th October at 11a.m. The Lord s Table is open to all Taste and see that the Lord is good. 2

3 From the Manse Very quickly the holidays are over and another church year has begun. This autumn I have been bombarded with information about Back to Church Sunday an initiative which sets aside one Sunday to encourage anyone who hasn t been for a while to come to worship. I m never sure whether these initiatives are helpful or not, let me explain. It reminded me of Bob Sinclair, a retired policeman who I used to work with. Like many of his colleagues he was a very safe pair of hands and so easily gained employment as a bank messenger in the city centre. Bob was lovely; he bought me a buttery on my first day at work, an action no less diminished when I found out that he did this for all the school leavers who started off under his watchful eyes. He came to mind because of the story he told us about his son s first day at school. An excited wee boy got up in the morning and dressed in his school uniform real shoes and in those days a tie of course. Fairly confident, off he went and thankfully when he returned home he was still bright and happy. That was until his dad came home - How was school son? It was good dad, I liked it. Did you play with your friends? Yeah. And did you eat you dinner? Yeah. So are you looking forward to going again tomorrow?.. What? I m not going again! This shell-shocked wee boy hadn t realised that school was going to be a permanent fixture in his little life and it came as a real shock to him. We may smile but many of us see church in that way, there for the big occasions, Christmas, Easter, Weddings, Baptisms, and Communion. Rather than have a Back to Church Sunday I d like to encourage us all to ask ourselves, as Bob s son had to, whether our church, or more importantly our faith, should be a permanent feature of our lives? Maybe it is time for a Back to Church Sunday - only maybe we should make that every Sunday.now there s a thought! Dolly 3

4 TREASURER S MESSAGE Freewill Envelopes - we have just reviewed the allocation of these envelopes. Those members who currently have envelopes numbered between 101 and 200 will notice that their numbers will have changed and it is essential that only the new envelopes are used from the first Sunday in October. Church Finances after 8 months of the financial year we have a surplus QUIZ NIGHT On Friday 12 November 7.15 pm for 7.30 pm Wine, Soft Drinks and Refreshments Quiz Sheets also available Excellent prizes Thanks to all those who have already filled tables! of 7,673 on the General Account which thanks to one off reductions in expenditure on heat and light is a slight improvement on the same period last year. However the surplus is around 3,000 down on where we had budgeted to be at this point in the year. The major factor is an apparent decline in congregational giving and we would urge any members who are taxpayers and who are not already giving by way of Gift Aid to consider doing so as their contributions are automatically increased by 28.2%. Members are also encouraged to support some of the fund raising events, one of which is highlighted here. Jim Henderson THE GUILD By now all members should have received a copy of the Syllabus for Extras are available for members-to-be! Please note that there are two events before our opening meeting on 5 th October. SCOTLAND S SAINT S IN SONG & STORY FRIDAY 1 ST OCTOBER 2010 AT 7.30PM A spiritual journey round Scotland illustrated by music, verse and pictures led by the Singing Group. The Audience will be invited to participate in the hymn singing. Refreshments will be served by the Guild. This is a celebration of Scotland s rich religious heritage, and a social and fund-raising event for the Church and Guild Projects - not to be missed! 4

5 Firstly I hope you will all support the singing group who have been practising hard for the concert on Friday 1 st October at 7 pm in the Church. This promises to be an uplifting concert in aid of Church Funds and Guild Projects. Second, on Sunday 3 rd October our Service of Rededication will take place as part of the Harvest Thanksgiving Service. Our friend Mary Notman will open our meeting on Tuesday 5 th October at 7.30 pm. This very popular speaker has the HIV/AIDS Project as her topic which our Guild is supporting this year. I hope you are all refreshed after the summer break and are looking forward to our meeting together again. All new members, both men and women, will be made most welcome. On 28 th August two of our Guild Members joined with members from all over Scotland at the Annual Guild Meeting, again this year, in the Caird Hall in Dundee. The Hall has excellent acoustics and it was a delight to have the worship led by the lovely pipe organ played by the Pastoral Musician of St Paul s Episcopal Cathedral, Stuart Muir. Chairing the meeting was the National Convenor, Helen-May Bayne. Speaking to the theme Grace and Mercy we heard from the Very Rev John Christie, the Moderator. We heard also from Lesley Bilinda, a Christian writer and broadcaster, who had worked for Tearfund in Rowanda and whose husband and other family members and friends were murdered in the 1994 genocide. She now works for the Tutu Foundation in the UK. Elaine, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Bible Society also spoke to us about its work. We greatly enjoyed meeting up with friends including some of our Guild Link ladies. Guild Project Contributions September 2009 to 25 June 2010 CrossReach - On the other side Scotland - 73, HIV/AIDS Project - A New Hunger - Various Countries - 35, International Justice Mission - Terrify No More Cambodia - 50, Ministries Council - A Place for Hope UK - 20, Mission Aviation Fellowship - Mission Run Madagascar - 37, World Mission - Interfaith Support - Israel/Palestine - 20, Total: 238, Jean McBain, Convenor 5

6 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND HIV/AIDS PROJECT -Hits 1 Million Milestone Our Church recently donated to the Project by holding a Sundae Sunday in June an ice cream and strawberry treat after morning worship. The work of the Project has been praised by a group of former Moderators as it hit a 1 million fundraising milestone. Dr McLellan former Moderator and Chief Inspector of HM Prisons in Scotland said: "When people mumble that the church is in crisis this remarkable story needs to be told. "The Project has been encouraging congregations to face up to tough questions on HIV, challenging the church to combat the stigma and discrimination which so often still accompanies an HIV positive diagnosis. "Raising awareness and working with partner churches and other agencies in no fewer than 20 countries, the Church's support has often been a lifeline for people and families living with HIV. "This 1 million has been used to support people infected and affected by HIV, both at home and overseas; and it has been raised by local churches from all over Scotland." In May the Project's report to the General Assembly warned of "disastrous consequences" if governments were to retreat from international funding commitments in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The Kirk agreed it was imperative that the global recession was not used as an excuse for countries to stop contributing to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, which enables developing countries to purchase the necessary antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). From Church of Scotland Web Site Our congregation continues to contribute to this overseas mission agency and the work of our former Church of Scotland Mission Partners, Mike and Jane Fucella by donating 1000 annually. Here are some extracts from a recent Newsletter sent by the Fucella s. Demonstrations During the worst of the violence in Bangkok in May we made the decision to evacuate the small team with our sending agency, including ourselves, who live and work in the red free fire zone (where there were petrol bombs and gunfire going off all the time). We went to the Juniper Tree Guest house for mission workers. It is in idyllic setting by the Dolphin Bay beach. It wasn t a break though, as the adults were 6

7 obsessed with following the news day and night in every version possible. The children received large amounts of school work each day on line as all schools were closed, but did not want to lose official school days. As we write there are many areas of Thailand under a state of emergency. Some countries have recently upped their warnings against travel to Thailand again. On the surface things are fairly calm, despite two bombs going off in Bangkok recently. However, we still seem far from a place of true reconciliation or moving forward, and there is the feeling that more trouble could erupt at any time. Work Work continues apace. The child protection project is expanding its border work to the Thai borders with Cambodia and Laos, helping agencies who care for children to understand the need for an awareness of child protection and actually putting practices in place that protect kids from harm. They continue to work with many agencies on the Burmese border, as well as helping schools and hospitals under the CCT (national church) to see child protection as an important part of what they do. The child protection team is looking forward to biological growth in October when Yuki s wife, Milk, has their first baby. Mike s work in the ecumenical office of the CCT is both challenging and demanding. Over the last few months he has had the privilege of representing the CCT at meetings in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. He is busy preparing for the bi-annual General Assembly which will happen in October. Please pray for this important event in the life of the Thai church, and for the elections of leaders for the CCT which will take place. Annual Conference We have just returned from the annual conference for our mission agency which Jane helped to organise. This year there were nearly one hundred of us including 29 kids. A team from St. Ebbes church in Oxford (where we were married) put on a great children s programme. One of the things we discussed at the conference was the future of leadership in our region. Jane has made the decision to step down from her leadership roles at the end of the year. This is very exciting for us as a family as it will open all sorts of other opportunities as well as giving Jane a little breathing space for the first time in five years. However it has big ramifications for the 40+ people currently on our team here. Please pray that people will be willing and able to step forward and take on leadership roles. The Fucella s are moving house: please pray for wisdom and determination to get rid of stuff! asks Jane. 7

8 CHRISTIAN AID Our Church supports Christian Aid in many ways, not least through the generosity of those in the village who contribute during the Christian Week House-to-House Collection. Below we learn how some of those funds are used to provide aid to those in dire circumstances: in this case about an area that we have not heard a great deal. In northern India s Uttar Pradash state, Christian Aid has provided 50,000 of essential funding to their partners, Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), and Poorvanchal Gramin Vikas Sansthan (PGVS), to assist hundreds of thousands of people whose homes have been washed away. More than 800,000 people s home were submerged in more than 1500 villages in 21 districts of Uttar Pradesh at the end of August. Thousands of homes have been lost and crops destroyed. In Barabanki and Ghonda districts flash floods washed away the homes and livelihoods of up to 250,000 people across 153 villages when heavy rains caused the river Ghaghara to swell and burst its banks on 28 August. There has been little media attention of the disaster both in India and abroad which is limiting the ability of international non-government agencies to mobilise the scale of response that is needed. Christian Aids local partners are there and were able to act immediately. With funds from Christian Aid, they have already begun delivering food, shelter, water and other relief supplies to 18,000 people whose homes and villages were washed away. This is aid that you help to provide through your donations please continue to help and pray for those affected! A Prayer for Those Affected God of all compassion, we commit to you all in your world that is damaged, broken and dying. At this time we hold before you the people of north-west India. We acknowledge the news reports tell of devastation, But that we need to imagine the despair at homes destroyed Livelihoods lost, loved ones missing or killed. Help us to imagine; let our imagination inspire our compassion, And our compassion inspire a response That brings your life and grace to those who are suffering. 8

9 Adult Education There are opportunities to join in activities that will be of interest to many in the congregation. Please join one of the groups as they explore together the issues that confront us as a church and as Christians in the community. THE ALPHA COURSE This takes place each Sunday at 7.00 pm and is an introduction to the Christian Faith for those who wish to know more and for those who wish to reinforce their beliefs. Please contact the Minister for further information. BIBLE STUDY GROUP This group meets every Tuesday at 9.30 am in the Church Halls. It is currently focussing on the Threads Course a course designed by the Church of Scotland based on case studies of church development activities in churches throughout Scotland. THE BIBLE: A HISTORY Based on the Channel 4 series this is an opportunity to re-visit the programmes and to share with others some of your thoughts on the issues raised in the programmes. The first of these gatherings will be on Wednesday 13 October at 7.30 pm. Information leaflets are available. 9

10 Baptisms Jesus said Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven 15 August 2010 Emily Jamima Bruce 12 September 2010 Annabel Bailey Scatterly New Members Mrs Joyce Taylor Derbeth Grange, Kingswells Funerals I am the resurrection and the life 11 th August 2010 George Simpson, Craiglug 10

11 Our Start of Term Outing to Hoodles Play Barn On 22 nd August a group of Jaffa Kids from Kingswells Church went with parents and leaders to the Hoodles Play Barn at Old Meldrum for some exciting play activities and a delicious tea. Here are some of our comments a great time was had by all! Good Crazy Adam The Go-Karts were very, very fun Abbie Bouncy Awesome Beth I liked doing front flips and somersaults on the trampoline Ellen It was fun! Suzanne I liked the twirly slide! I liked the rope swing because it felt like I was swinging across the whole jungle Toyosi My favourite bit was the cakes! Jennifer My favourite bit was when we were all climbing up and down the slide. Natalie 11

12 Kingswells is both an established and growing community and this is evident in the diversity of the age, nationality and life stories of the people who gather together for worship. We look forward to welcoming you. We believe God has called us to: Celebrate the Life of Christ Care for one another Cultivate personal growth, and Communicate the Love of God, by work and action, in our community and in the world. We hope you enjoy exploring our website which is here to give some information and points of contact. Minister Dolly Purnell Session Clerk Lorna Graham 12