Worship, Sun 27 Dec - Worship with the Moderator

Church of Scotland Moderator - the Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair

Hello everyone.
I hope however you marked it, that your Christmas Day was a good one. Remember, Christmas Day is the traditional 'first day' of Christmas - so don't be packing away the decorations and twinkly lights just yet... you have 'til the 6th of January. Mind, given the year we've had, if the decorations and lights are helping to keep you cheerful, hey, keep them up for as long as you need [tho' perhaps take them down before Easter?!].

This Sunday, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Dr Martin Fair, has put together a service of worship for us all to watch - and to give ministers a wee spell. So, with congregations all around Scotland [and those CofS churches outwith], today we'll be joining together to share in this time of worship. 

In the meantime, I hope this finds you all well, and we'll have one last opportunity for some Christmas music on the following Sunday... where we'll be thinking of Wise Men and stars, and journeying, as we dip our toes into a brand new year.
The worship link for the Moderator's service IS HERE 
Take care and God bless, 
Nikki

Worship, Christmas Eve - Watchnight

 Dear friends, on this Christmas Eve, a wee worship service of readings, music, and poem, to help bring in Christmas. Many thanks to all who helped in various ways, with this service. And to all of you, may the light of Christ stir hope in your hearts, may you know the peace of the Prince of Peace, may the joy of Mary and the rejoicing of the angels be yours, and may the love of God surround you and fill you this Christmas... 
Blessings to you all...
Nikki

Here's the WORSHIP LINK

This coming Sunday, we'll be joining with the Moderator, as he leads us all in worship.

Update on church building reopening

The best laid plans...
given the First Minister's statement on Saturday evening, the Session decided that, as we've waited this long to reopen the building, a little more waiting wouldn't go amiss.
Subject to the lay of the land, as such, we hope to open at the end of January or beginning of February.                   
We'll keep you posted!!

In the meantime, the Watchnight service should be posted online by about 8pm.

Worship, Sun Dec. 20 - Advent, wk 4 'Love'

 WELCOME and CHURCH NOTICES/
Hello and welcome to worship, on this 4^th Sunday of the season of Advent. We’ve been waiting and watching and preparing and soon, very soon, the time of waiting will be over – and we’ll be welcoming and celebrating the birth of Jesus, once more.

Over these last weeks, we’ve followed the traditional Advent themes of hope, peace, and joy, and on this last Sunday of Advent, we add love into the mix, as we think about a young woman – a teenager – from an out of the way backwater, from a family of no particular importance... someone who, in the society she came from, would ordinarily be invisible, unnoticed... and yet, someone seen by God, and chosen to do an extraordinary thing – to carry the long-held hopes of her people within her, and to see that hope born in flesh and blood, in the birth of her son, Jesus... on what was the very first Christmas.

CHURCH NOTICES/
Session news - having met over the course of the year, the Session was minded to invite Janice Reed to become a member of the Session, and having been asked, Janice has agreed, and so I’m delighted to announce that we will be ordaining and admitting her to the eldership. The date for the proposed ordination was to have been 3 January, 2021 - however, in light of the lockdown rules put in place on Saturday evening by the First Minister, this will now be rescheduled to a later time.

Re. the First Minister's statement, Sat evening and opening of church building: 
Given the changed circumstances, an emergency meeting with most of the Session was held on Saturday night.
Although we were to have reopened the church building for worship on Sun 20th Dec., the decision has now been taken to postpone at least until Sun 31st Jan, 2021. Presbytery has been duly informed and has agreed to this change of plan. We will keep you updated.
In the meantime, worship will continue to be provided online, including the Christmas Watchnight service, which will [hopefully] be online by 8pm on Thursday.

Over this coming week, blessings for a joy-filled Christmas.
Take care, stay safe, and God bless,
Nikki
                                          The link to this week's service of worship is HERE

Worship Sun Dec 13: Advent 3 'Joy'

WELCOME/

Hello and welcome to our online service of worship, on this, the third Sunday in Advent.
We follow the traditional Advent themes this year, and having begun with hope, moved to peace,
we turn our thoughts to joy - and, to John the Baptist. An interesting mix, this, given John's reputation for being the fierce, austere prophet in the wilderness who existed on locusts and honey, and wore camel hair garments. Perhaps what we might discover is that joy goes beyond surface cheerfulness -
it is an anchor for our souls in the hard and the dark times. With hope, comes peace, and with peace, joy. 
I hope you enjoy and are encouraged and refreshed by this time of worship. 
You can access the list by clicking on the WORSHIP LINK HERE.
Don't forget to check out our church notices below.

Several notices to flag up:
Church building -
As mentioned last week, the season of waiting has come to an end in one sense at least:
we will be moving back into the church building for worship as of this coming Sunday, the 20^th of December, at our usual time of 10.30.
Due to COVID-19 regulations, and the need for socially-distanced seating...

If you are minded to come, you will need to book a place – 

To book a seat, contact Janet Telfer on 01864 504265.

And a reminder that, if you’re anxious about coming, or are shielding, we’ll continue to provide worship online for you – please do what you need to do in these tricky times – we understand completely.

Newsletter
Just off the pressed, is a wee Christmas newsletter –  not our usual all-singing, all-dancing magazine, given ... well, there's not been a lot on due to lockdown!!
A small team of people are currently stuffing and addressing envelopes to send out in the post to members and friends.
In the newsletter, you’ll find an insert which gives you the guidelines for attending worship –
your safety is our priority, and we are ensuring that we are COVID-compliant.

Free Christmas lunch
Liz Steele – the local community worker in our area, has managed to source funding for those of you who live within the Duneaton villages in the parish – so, Abington, Roberton, Lamington, and Wiston – for a free Christmas Day lunch for anyone who’ll be on their own on the 25^th of December. A hot, two course lunch from the Elphinstone Hotel will be delivered to your door by a volunteer. This is open to any age group and a way of bringing a little extra Christmas cheer, (not to mention, to save cooking). The deadline for booking is Wednesday the 16^th December.
To find out more and to get in contact with Liz, see details just below....

Update on reopening the church building for worship

 The following is an update on reopening of the church building, having been closed for lockdown

...as at 8 December, 2020

In among the many tasks needing to be done to prepare the building for reopening - in order to make it COVID-19 compliant - was the requirement that an extensive electrical survey be undertaken.
All the other tasks having been carried out, this was the only outstanding task remaining.
Upon the electrician doing the inspection, a number of faults were found [not building-threatening, rather, mostly just upgrading needing done due to older fittings no longer compliant with newer regulations].
After some delays, the work was completed on the 2nd December, and notice sent to presbytery that same day.

Presbytery support committee met on the morning of 3rd December and approved our request to reopen the building.

That same evening the Kirk Session met, and, having discussed logistics and timing, decided that we would open once again for worship in the building from 
Sunday 20th December, at the usual time of 10.30am and subsequent Sundays thereafter
(subject to changes in regulations)

If some of you are anxious about coming to the church building for worship, online worship will
continue to be available for the foreseeable future, which you can access from the safety of home.
There is no need at all to feel 'bad' about choosing not to come to worship if you are anxious -
do what you most need to do - it's absolutely okay. 

Your safety is the most important thing.

Once we do open for gathered public worship, there will be certain things that all of us

must and must not do, and that we need to be aware of. 
Below is a checklist to guide us in best practice with regard to safety and COVID-19 regulations...

Worship, Sun Dec 6; Advent 2 'Peace'

 WELCOME/
Hello and welcome to worship, on this second Sunday in the season of Advent. 
The traditional theme for this week is 'peace' and the service will both reflect this as well
as think about a word from the prophet Isaiah - 'comfort'. The prophet proclaims to God's people
that God has heard their cry in the midst of distress, and will bring them comfort.

And now... for some church news:
At last! We will soon be opening the church building once again for worship. The electrical work
is now completed, the report has gone to presbytery, and we were given the green light on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Kirk Session met - via 'zoom', online, we are now getting rather high tech, don't you know! - and, having taken in a variety of factors, the decision was made to open in time for Christmas.
Our first service back in the building will be held at 10.30am, Sunday, 20th December.

Now, a few things:
Online worship will still be provided - so for those of you who are shielding, or are in a vulnerable group, or who are feeling anxious about coming along in person to worship - please make use of that. We respect your choices, we want you to be and to feel safe, and there is no need at all to feel any sense of guilt about not turning up to worship in the building at this particular point in time with these extraordinary circumstances that we’re all living through right now.

For those of you who are members, or those not, but who we know would like a copy, we’re putting together a Christmas newsletter, and this will be posted out to you, giving you more details on guidelines and about what to expect when you come along to worship in the building and these will also be posted on the blog. So, keep a lookout for that. 
One thing to note, however, is that due to the regulations currently in place, numbers will be limited
due to social distancing requirements. Having thought about the best approach on this, we've decided
that phoning to book a seat is the best way forward. But, more on that later.

So, that’s the big piece of news – in the meantime, hope you’ve all been coping with the snow and have been keeping safe and warm!

I hope this time of worship encourages you in the faith, and helps towards your ongoing Advent and
Christmas preparations, as we watch and wait for the Prince of Peace to be reborn in our hearts once more.
You'll find the YouTube WORSHIP LINK HERE