Changing pastoral care in our parish

Changing pastoral care in our parish Dear Friends, What is pastoral care and whose responsibility is it? These are always live issues in any church as one of the primary commands of Jesus is to love one another as I have loved you. Pastoral care is the practical outworking of Jesus command. It ensures that we look after and look out for one another and so it involves practical care, friendship, encouragement and, from time to time, challenge. As far as who is responsible for pastoral care, the ultimate responsibility lies with the elders in a local church. In Acts 20:28 the apostle Paul urged the Ephesian elders to: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. However, the responsibility does not lie with the Kirk Session alone. Every Christian has a responsibility to care for one another and the heart of congregational life should be our love and care for each other. Nevertheless there are some people with particular gifts in this area and some people are specifically called to this service. Some years ago our congregation departed from the traditional model of elders districts. Among the reasons for this was a desire to free elders up for other responsibilities, alongside the wish to use people who are not elders who have obvious pastoral gifts, as part of our pastoral care teams. Our overall pastoral care structure has been led by Les. This system is no longer serving its purpose, through no fault of those who have worked conscientiously as pastoral visitors. Les has regularly sought to 1

recruit pastoral visitors but despite his untiring efforts has been unable to recruit sufficient people to keep our system viable. The system has also resulted in some people expressing their perception that elders have become distanced from pastoral care. Whether this is entirely fair might be debatable, but it is important to address the perception. We are grateful to those who have served as pastoral visitors and those who are currently serving and have indicated a willingness to continue serving in this way. We are not setting out to disrupt longstanding and valued pastoral relationships. However, the Kirk Session wants to takes its responsibility for pastoral care seriously and so we are in the process of changing our system of pastoral care. By doing this we hope to go some way to addressing some of the perceived shortcomings of the existing system. Elders will take on pastoral networks which are not geographically based and are not necessarily always dependent on visiting people in their homes. Networks will be groups of people for whom individual elders will take pastoral responsibility. Where possible these networks will be based around existing relationships which may be through small groups, the Guild, children s and youth work etc. We are in the process of working these out and will be doing some Kirk Session training in November and so we hope to have our Pastoral networks in place early in the New Year. Ultimately our pastoral care is not about a particular system but is about us taking responsibility as a congregation to care for one another in Jesus name. Systems are fallible. They need to serve our needs rather than people somehow becoming servants of any particular system. The best pastoral care happens informally because people love one another enough to make sacrifices for each other, look out for one another and even from time to time challenge each other. I have the privilege of knowing that many in our congregation do this naturally, unobtrusively and without any great fanfare. May God help us to continue to take our responsibilities to each other seriously. Your friend and minister, William Wilson. 2

Burnside Blairbeth Guild Go in love WHOSE WE ARE AND WHOM WE SERVE By the time you read this article the opening meeting of the Guild will have taken place, and our new session will be under way. Our next meeting will be on Monday 16 October when we welcome our member and friend, Reverend Esther Ninian, who will expand on our theme for this year Go in love. We look forward to an interesting evening and once again we extend a warm welcome to all members and friends, both male and female, to come and join us. Our baking stall at the community event held in Stonelaw woods in June raised 190. Thank you to everyone who supplied baking and manned the stall. The money was donated to Burnside in Bloom. DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Saturday 18 November Monday 11 December Christmas Fayre Christmas Party More information will follow in the weekly notes. Jean Goldie. New email address for Contact In line with the changes to the church email addresses, the new address is: contact@burnsideblairbeth.church Please update this in your contact details. The old address will be discontinued later this session year. 3

What happens in our buildings during the week? Many different groups use our premises during the week, so it seemed like a good idea to ask them a bit more about what they do, and how we can get involved some featured in last month s Contact here are a couple more. On Fridays in the Burnside building 185 th Scout Group The 185 th Scout Group meets every Friday in the church hall, between 6.30pm and 9.45pm. We cater for boys and girls aged 6-18. Over the past year, we ve offered an exciting programme, which included a Beaver sleepover in the Glasgow Science Centre. The Cubs enjoyed some under canvas camping at The Craig s. While the older Scouts completed seven nights away from home, where they explored Edinburgh for a day out and took part in some exciting site activities such as the 3G swing at Fordell Firs. If you would like to know more about what we do please visit: www. 185scoutgroup.co.uk. Gordon Argo, Group Scout Leader On Monday evenings in the Rodger Memorial building Hall of Fame At Hall of Fame we provide professional training in acting and performance. Initially the company s main objectives will be building the student s confidence and self esteem in a comfortable and friendly environment. The classes will also establish an understanding of teamwork and leadership skills. Gradually the classes will improve the student s communication techniques along with their understanding of language and relationships. These skills and techniques will develop through role play, script writing, improvisation etc. Throughout the year the students will take part in master classes, with professional guest tutors teaching them new skills. Our students will be working towards their ANNUAL PANTOMIME this term. Next term we will be working towards our SUMMER SHOWCASE. This will be a learning curve for the students as they experience events that take place in the professional industry. Master classes, Summer Showcase and Annual Pantomime will all be included in the student s weekly fee. 4

Monday Evenings 5-6pm ages 5-7 5 6-7:30pm ages 8-11 7.50 7.30-9pm ages 12+ 7.50 Facebook : Hall of Fame Acting Academy Rutherglen To enrol or ask any questions please contact using the details above. Caitlin Rae Boyle, Company Director All members of staff at Hall of Fame are Disclosure Scotland checked. www.burnsideblairbeth.church Our new website is now up and running and can be found at the above. The website is designed both to inform the congregation about many aspects of the life of our fellowship, but also to appeal to visitors by letting them know something about us. There is a welcome message, and a statement about what we believe; our aims as a congregation are outlined; forthcoming events, month by month, can be found, and if you click on them you ll get more information about the event. Both Contact and Weekly Notes can be viewed, and there is space for organisations to let people know what they are up to. On the home page you will see a tab marked log in. If you click on this you have the opportunity to register, and once confirmed, you will be able to access an area of the website which will only be visible to our congregation members, adherents, and regular attenders. This area will contain information which we would not want the whole world to have easy access to as it will have contact details for individuals, downloadable forms, and material which is in some way confidential. It s easy to register please take a look. The website is just beginning there is lots of room for creative ways of sharing material. Please email the office if you have any suggestions, or spot any problems! 5

Church weekend away @home During the September weekend, the congregation enjoyed a church weekend away at home. Reverend Mark Malcolm (pictured below right), of Chryston Church, delivered talks over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including Sunday morning worship. There was a quiz on the Friday evening, led by Quizmaster Andrew Polson (left). 6

Members of the congregation enjoyed breakfast together at the Burnside building on Saturday and Sunday morning. There was also a trip to Dumfries House in New Cumnock (left) on the Saturday afternoon. And there was a ceilidh led by our superb musicians (right) on the Saturday evening. A huge thanks must go to Gary and Rachel Wylie, Charles Neil, Andrew, John Gordon, Mark and all the other people involved in organising such a great weekend. Thanks also to Gary for providing the picture for the front cover. 7

Notes from the Kirk Session Meeting on 30 August 2017 The new term got under way with the Kirk Session meeting on 30 August. The practical matter of Fire Training was one of the first items on the agenda and the importance of suitably trained people being available to deal with procedures in the event of a fire occurring in any part of the buildings was noted. Further information about the training that is required will follow in due course. The Moderator reported to the meeting that, following interviews on 12 August, the post of Church Worker had been offered to Andy MacArthur, who would be starting on 15 September. Andy has served as student youth and community worker at Claremont Church in East Kilbride (while doing his degree at International Christian College) and subsequently at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Hamilton. He will be introduced to the congregation on 1 October. The discussion about how we provide Pastoral Care continued. The plans to develop pastoral networks were moving forward, the intention being that these networks would build upon existing connections that elders and pastoral visitors already have within the congregation. The pastoral networks will include those who are part of the congregation but not formally members. The Kirk Session has a conference on 25 November when it will be looking in more depth at what is involved in pastoring within the congregation. On Safeguarding Marjory MacLean advised that there would be an Elders Training event at the Burnside building on Monday 22 January 2018, and elders were encouraged to book places for that training. Marjory is pressing on with ensuring that all those on the Congregational PVG Register have attended the mandatory safeguarding training by the end of the year. Logan Keys, Lorna Allan, Suzanne Usher, Moira Russell, Eileen Packer, James Dalby, Lesley Mackintosh, Sandra Monaghan and Margaret Russell were approved for working with children and vulnerable adults within the congregation, having received the required PVG certificate. Likewise Andy MacArthur was approved, his PVG certificate having been transferred from his previous congregation. The Communication team will be discussing at their next meeting the vision statement for the congregation, to be used on the website and in other literature published by the church. 8

As the congregation will already be aware a series of Link Groups is now taking place on the evenings of 10 and 17 September and 1 and 8 October looking at the subject of Hope. The Operational Risk Register is an important document for us to maintain and review each year as a charity under the supervision of OSCR. The register identifies the various risks than can arise within the operation of a charity focusing primarily on governance and finance. The revised and updated register was presented to the meeting and approved. (Anyone in the congregation who would like to view the register should speak to Alan Thomson) Andrea Thomson has served as the elder with responsibility for Children within the congregation for a long number of years. She has decided to step down and Carolyn Sampson has agreed to take on the responsibility for this role. Our Outreach Worker, Melanie Ziegler, reported under Mission & Evangelism on the various activities that had taken place over the summer months. These included various mums from the crèche at Little Creations taking part in a course entitled Wonderfully Made over about seven weeks; Diana Hudson hosting a social gathering in the hall on four Friday afternoons for folk in the church and others in the community; a picnic in the park that took place in the Rodger Memorial Building due to poor weather; a school uniform exchange also in the Rodger Memorial Building and a games afternoon. She also reported that a CAP course designed to help people manage their money was to be taking place on three Saturdays starting on 9 September and would be run by Gillian Boyle and Lucy Neil. The Moderator advised that he had attended a seminar while at the Keswick Convention at which the speaker had been saying that there was still a place in the life and witness of the church for a congregation to hold a Parish Mission. He proposed that we might undertake such in about October 2018. This will be discussed further by the Outreach Support Team at a meeting early in October. The Finance papers prepared by Alan Robertson for the period to 31 July, together with the current Property report had been circulated prior to the meeting and no questions arose. (If anyone would like to see the Finance report or the Property report please speak to Alan Robertson or David MacDonald, respectively) 9

The Session approved the underwriting of the cost of the Church Weekend Away at Home in the sum of just under 2,000. The next meeting of the Kirk Session is on Wednesday 11 October 2017. Alan Thomson Session Clerk October and November welcome rotas Date Welcome Church Evening officer 8 Oct Ross Galloway Joyce Thornhill Joan McNab Jean Goldie David Paterson Gwen Brown 15 Oct Ross Galloway Joyce Thornhill Joan McNab Bobby McGregor Gavin Murray Alan/Andrea Thomson 22 Oct Ross Galloway Joyce Thornhill Joan McNab Susan McGregor Andrew Todd Linda Suttie 29 Oct Ross Galloway Bill McLellan Joan McNab Joan Low John MacLean Helen Morrison Date Welcome Church Evening officer 5 Nov Marjory MacLean Bill McLellan Elizabeth Cherrie Anne Forrest Derek Allan Chris Mackintosh 12 Nov Marjory MacLean Bill McLellan Elizabeth Cherrie Anne Forrest Chris Mackintosh Marion Boyd 19 Nov Marjory MacLean Bill McLellan Elizabeth Cherrie Anne Forrest Alan Thomson Irene Craigie 26 Nov Marjory MacLean Norma Duncan Elizabeth Cherrie Anne Forrest Dennis Kelly Alan Robertson 10

Get Contact digitally If you would like to receive a digital version of Contact instead of the printed version, you can have it sent by email and it is also available on the church website (see page 5). To change your delivery preference, email the church office: theoffice@burnsideblairbeth.church. CHRISTMAS ISSUE OF CONTACT The deadline for copy is SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER and will be available for distributors on Sunday 26 November Items can be handed in to the church office or e-mailed to the editor, contact@burnsideblairbeth.church Data Protection Act, 1998 It is normal practice to include the names, addresses and telephone numbers of our office-bearers and other individuals in our church publications. If any person does not wish to have their personal details included they should inform the Communications Team Leader. Burnside Blairbeth Church Scottish Charity No. SC006633 Church of Scotland Congregational Reference: 160844 11

Christmas Shoebox Appeal This year we are supporting the Blythswood Care Christmas Shoebox appeal. Blythswood Care is a Scottish-based charity that distributes the shoeboxes to Europe, Africa and Asia. The shoeboxes themselves are not provided by Blythswood Care, so it requires folk taking part to provide a standard sized shoebox to be wrapped in Christmas paper keeping the lid wrapped separately so it can be taken off and on with ease. The shoeboxes can be made up for a child, a teenager, a man or a woman and leaflets will be available so you can have a check-list of things to include. These check-lists require to be ticked and taped on to the outside of the lid to show what is inside the box for customs. It costs 2.50 for the distribution of each box and the money can be put in a sealed envelope with DONATION marked on it and placed inside the box. The lid will require to be secured with rubber bands as custom regulations require Blythswood Care to check each box before despatch. Blythswood Care will also add a Bible storybook for children, a book for teenagers or a calendar for adults. Please join us in sharing with others who have so little, what we take for granted, and bring joy and happiness and Jesus love to those in need this Christmas. The deadline for boxes to be in church ready for collection is Sunday 29 October. Leaflets with the check list and information will be available on the table at the door of the church throughout October. Any further information contact Andrea Thomson or Kay Dalby. 12