PARISH REGISTER. Funerals

Transcription

1 MARCH Parish Register 3 Gift Aid & Fund Raising 4 Women s Association 5 Diary Dates 6 Minister s Message 8 Treasurer s Report 11 Youth Section 12 World Mission

2 PARISH REGISTER Funerals James Kent,42 Elizabeth Avenue,Grangemouth. d Robert Riley,22 Zetland Drive, Laurieston. d Nancy McGillivray,48 Cromwell Road Falkirk. d Mary (May) Gray, 78 Abbots Road,Grangemouth. d John Nicol, Flat 2, Symington Drive, Bainsford. d Isabella (Isabel) Wardlaw, 190 Almond Street, Grangemouth. d

3 Gift Aid Last year, January to December, we received in recovered tax. Anyone who is a taxpayer and has not applied for Gift Aid, see me on a Sunday. All you have to do is sign a declaration form that s it no information needed about your finances. Under Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, charities can claim on donations up to 20. This means that for members who are not taxpayers, their offerings and donations can be included in claims to HMRC without having to complete a declaration form. This will cover offerings, open plate, small donations and giving day. If you have a change of circumstances i.e. change of address / name / no longer a taxpayer, please let me know keeps my records up to date. Elspeth Irvine, Gift Aid Convenor Giving Day Sunday 5 th June 2016 Fund Raising Once again we are holding our Nearly New Shop at 71 La Porte Precinct, Grangemouth from Monday 1 st to Saturday 6 th August As usual no clothes, shoes, food, videos or cassettes. Electrical goods must be in good working order. If possible please show sizes for curtains and bedlinen. Hours 10-12, 12-2, 2-4 (Monday to Friday) and noon (Saturday). We are looking for willing helpers for front/back shop. Please give names to Elspeth Irvine. Donations welcome and can be handed in on a Wednesday morning (10-12 noon). More information nearer the time. 3

4 Women s Association As we are now into our New Year of 2016 I would like to invite you to share in the plans we have for the Syllabus January to April. When writing this report we can look back to January when we had a Welcome Back Night of quizzes and a time to catch up with all our Christmas Holiday news. 13th January we shared a very interesting talk from the Vine Trust. 20th January - an evening of food tasting from Wiltshire Farm Foods. 27th January we celebrated Burns Night Now into February 3rd February an evening with the Rev Kay Brown 10th February Beetle Night 17th February Our Hospitality Night, we look forward to welcoming the ladies from all the churches in Grangemouth. Our guests that evening will be David Robertson and the children from the Salvation Army. 24th February Fundraiser with Jacqui Foley who will bring along items for sale. March 2nd Owl Sanctuary with Niccy and friends 9th Tom Sneddon and Gardening 16th A.G.M. and 54th Birthday Tea 23rd Holy Week No Meeting 30th Dolly Mixtures with Bernadette Deans April 6th Jean Armstrong with Love Letters from the Bible 13th Scottish Tapestry Jan Young 20th - Closing Concert 27th Outing I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members at the Association for their support and to the committee for their dedication in the various roles they undertake. May the Women s Association continue to bring everyone together as we share in faith and friendship on a Wednesday evening. Mary Wood President 4

5 DIARY DATES Friday 4 th March World Day of Prayer St Mary s Espiscopal Church 7.30pm Sunday 6 th March Communion 11am & 6.15pm Sunday 27 th March Easter Communion 11am Sunday 15 th May Pentecost Service St Mary s Episcopal Church 7pm Sunday 5 th June Communion 11am & 6.15pm Giving Day 5

6 Minister s Message 2016 began as last year, with a trip to the alligators in Florida (who are now on first name terms with me) and it was a chance for me to catch up with colleagues and friends in a warmer environment that what was endured back here. It s hard to think back to the beginning of last year and all the visits I was expected to make as Moderator around Presbytery, and it gave me pause to think of the demands made on the Moderator of the Assembly as he visits countries around the world representing the Kirk. This year I have been excused active duty on committees of Presbytery (until mid-june) but am still expected to take on mentoring duties for those thinking of answering God s call to some form of ministry. By the time the magazine goes out, the Bible Study group will have embarked on a 100 reading challenge. Essential Jesus is the book we are following and the challenge is to follow these readings in a hundred days or however long it takes us. Each reading will be centred on Jesus and they will help us get to know God s Son even better. If you are up for the challenge it isn t too late to join in! Simply let me know that you are interested and we can help you catch up. 6 Why would we take on such a challenge? Psalm 119 reads that Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (verse 105) It is a motto verse for Scripture Union and for the Girls Brigade too. The pages of the Bible, when read in an informed way, shed light on our lives and help us to be better Disciples of Christ. The passages in this challenge are quite short in length and doing the daily studies only takes about minutes, depending on how much and how deep you want to take your thinking. Having this discipline will help deepen our faith and it will make us more faithful in living out our faith so that others may be drawn to Christ. It s when we know our Bibles a bit better that we can be ready for those who misquote Scripture for their own ends and mislead God s people.

7 Paul s second letter to Timothy warns of teachers who tell people what they want to hear, rather than being faithful to the rest of the Bible. It s a discipline the Reformers would have approved of. Remember that they fought for the Bible to be in the language of the people and for schools to be there in every parish of the land so that ordinary people could read for themselves, and that meant, in those days, the Bible. Today, most homes will have a copy of the Bible and it will probably be a King James version in very small print. As beautiful as Shakespearian English can be, to the modern ear it would sound a bit odd, and there are many different versions available in a form of English that we can read easily. The Good News (the one we use in church), The New International, The Revised English, to name but three, are readily available in bookshops or online. You can sometimes get them free for devices like Kindle. There is no excuse really. But that is the rub (as Shakespeare might say). We can come up with plenty of excuses when the truth is we really don t want to do it. There was a curious incident reported on the news recently of a civilian woman in Florida who chased down a policeman for speeding without his lights. His excuses sounded very familiar, and ended with a sorry, I won t do it again! Maybe the time for excuses are over, and we need to face our need to read a bit more of God s Word. Are you up for the challenge? Every blessing, David 7

8 Treasurer s Report Firstly, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous I hope you all enjoyed your festive season. As treasurer, my first role of the year tends to be getting the previous year s accounts prepared, and this year is no different. I should have a summary of the accounts printed and available soon, which will be a little easier to follow than the accounts I have to present for audit. If you would like to see either this summary or indeed the full accounts, please let me know. It is a legal requirement that I must make the accounts available to anyone who wishes to see them, and I am also quite happy to answer any questions that you may have about the church finances. The main headline from 2015 is that we were unable to pay our congregational payments in full, and will increase our shortfall (debt to 121 George Street) by just over 8000 to At first glance, this seemed quite strange, as each of the elements of our income have been pretty consistent compared to 2014, and it is a similar story for the elements of expenditure. However, the opening balance in 2014 for the church General Fund was a little healthier ( 2400 more) and there were Gift-Aid claims outstanding from 2013 ( 4500) which were received in 2014, which would explain why we were not as successful this year. I am not sure how we will manage the shortfalls going forward, as our level of expected contribution for 2016 hasn t reduced much from last year - we are being asked to pay just under 36k in Unless something drastic happens, there is no reason to suspect our levels of income or expenditure will change significantly enough to be able to pay this total. Please let me emphasis at this point that the situation we find ourselves in is in no way down to a dropping of levels of generosity in the church members. On the contrary, considering that our numbers continue to dwindle, it is an exceptional effort from you all to maintain our levels of offerings, donations, and fundraising. This is borne out by the comparison between this year and 2014, which is shown below. In closing, may I thank you all for your help in 2015, and I look forward to working together with you all in

9 Income WFO - Book 1 13, , WFO - Book 2 10, , WFO - Direct Debits 6, , Fabric - (Book 3) 4, , Boxes Open Plate 3, , HMRC - Gift Aid Claims 7, , Donation-Women s Assoc 1, , Donation-Sen. Members Miscellaneous Donations 1, , Weddings Funerals Hall Lets 4, , Life & Work Shop 1, , Fundraising Valentine Coffee Morning Pamper Day Christmas Sparkle , Giving Day 2, , Pulpit Supply Refund Donation - Baptisms

10 Expenditure Minister's Expenses 1, , Presbytery Dues Council Tax 2, , Organist Cheque 3, , Cleaners 3, , Cleaning Materials Electricity Gas 2, , Insurance 2, , Telephone - Manse Photocopier Maintenance 1, , Copyright Grasscutting Garden Maintenance 2, , Stationery 1, , Postage Window Cleaning Life & Work Grmth Council of Churches Pulpit Supply Gifts Training Congregational Payments 28, , Janitor 1, , Easter Expenses Maintenance Organ Christmas Expenses Church Equipment Stuart Blackwood Treasurer 10

11 Youth Section Does being a good neighbour still matter in the modern world? This is a question that has been on my mind a lot recently and I started to think about the church in a wider sense. Some think the church is old fashioned and boring and I got thinking Jesus wasn't boring or oldfashioned. In fact he was a bit of a revolutionary. Some may even say he was a bit of a rebel! Jesus also practised what he preached. He told people to go and preach the good news, to help others less fortunate and to be a good neighbour. People today still ask but who is my neighbour and the answer is still the same now as much as it was in Jesus day. We all know the story about the man who was robbed on his way to Jericho where he was injured and pretty much left for dead. He is over looked by a priest and a Levite. Then comes along a Samaritan. He didn t overlook the man but washed his wounds and found him somewhere to stay. He then turns to the innkeeper and says Take care of him, and whatever money is spent, I will repay you when I come back. Jesus finishes the story there. He doesn t say if the man came back, he doesn t say if they crossed paths ever again after that. He turned to the man who asked him the question of who is my neighbour and says now which one of the three proved to be a good neighbour?. The man replied with the one who showed him mercy Jesus then not only replies but instructs now you go do likewise. The teachers in the temple I can imagine being furious as well as any Levites in the crowd there. Jesus told stories like this for a reason. They all have a hidden meaning. This one is a prime example and is as relevant today as it was when Jesus first preached it. To be a good neighbour you must show people mercy, you must be kind and show heart. I often find it difficult to see how to be a good neighbour sometimes but one of my favourite lyrics by a band called Flyleaf (who are Christian) is Save me grace, I'm sick of saving face, Will You hold me close? You're all I want to know. Anymore and for me it means to show heart and not just show face. 11

12 Going back to my point of Jesus being a bit of a rebel is shown by how he was treated by the people who hated him. In a reading we heard that Jesus was going to be thrown off a cliff but instead just walks through the crowd and continues on his way. The people don t stop him. I think if I was in that crowd I would be questioning why they took him to that place and then let him go. Did they really hate him? Or did they just not understand what he meant? So does being a good neighbour still matter in the modern world? I think so. Hazel (21) WORLD MISSION COUNCIL Fair Trade is the main subject of the February/March magazine. The readers are encouraged to support products marked with the Fair Trade Labels. Tea, Coffee, Porridge and Bananas. Food that can be easily locally bought. Samples of how Fair Trading can affect farmers, a water tank funded by Fair Trade tea sales enabled Teresa to water her kitchen garden during the dry season to grow vegetables for her family. Another example used is the development of organic olive oil, not as popular as bananas but a good example of different enterprises to support farmers. Mohammad works within a co-operative which not only provides the normal fair trade advantages but also fights for the right of Palestinian farmers to have access to their own land and trees. He no longer has to look for local traders who paid low rates and conditions. He says he is now his own boss. Hadeel is wholly owned by the Scottish charity Palcrafts and works along with Fair Trade importing crafts from Palestine, building long lasting trading relationships and providing vital income for artisans whose traditional customers have disappeared and routes to market blocked. Hadeel shop can be visited at 123 George Street Edinburgh not forgetting One World Shop which has moved from St John s Church to 25 Nicolson Square Edinburgh. 12