Worship Sun 26 Dec - Christmas Service

WELCOME and a very merry Christmas to you! Our service is one of story and carols today and I hope it encourages, enriches, and recharges your spiritual batteries...
No announcements - we go straight into worship this week. 
You'll find the WORSHIP LINK HERE

God bless
Nikki
 

Worship - Christmas Eve Watchnight, 2021

WELCOME/ On this holiest of nights, a warm welcome to our online Watchnight service.
You'll find the WORSHIP LINK HERE to go across to our YouTube channel....

Our next service of worship is on Sunday 26th, so join us online or, if you can, socially distanced in the church building.

In the meantime, may I wish you all a blessed and very happy and merry Christmas and Christmastide. May you know the hope, the peace, the joy, and the love of God, this night and always.
God bless

Nikki

Worship Sun 19 Dec - Advent 4: 'love'

WELCOME/ Hello and welcome to  the gateway for our online service of worship. It's the fourth Sunday of Advent and the traditional theme is 'love'. We'll be focusing in on a meeting with cousins Elizabeth and Mary, as they meet together and catch up with each other's news and, we'll hear Mary great song of liberation and love the Magnificat. 
As ever, just for reference, I'll post the church notices below, but if you'd prefer to just go across to our youtube channel and listen to these in our 'welcome', that's fine. You'll find the WORSHIP LINK HERE.

CHURCH NOTICES/
There are quite a few...

Evening worship: there’s worship this evening at 5pm in Leadhills Village Hall – come along for some Christmas carols and some Christmas reflections... music will be provided by some of the members of Leadhills Silver Band.
And, in light of the First Minister's comments this week, just to emphasise that, as we do normally, we’ll be observing social distancing, we’ll have sanitiser at the door, and be operating a one way flow system, as well as wearing face masks – we want to continue to be as Covid-compliant as possible.

Morning tea after worship in the parish church: Given the First Minister’s statement about the need to be a little more vigilant because of the Omicron variant of Covid, we’ve decided to take a wee pause on morning tea through in the hall, just for the time being. We’ll revisit this decision at the end of January, just to see how things are then. However, if you’re willing, we could still have a self-catered version here in the worship part of the building: it’s a bigger space, so were not sitting quite as closely  together, and there’s more ventilation... 

If folk are happy to bring a flask of tea or coffee with them, we can stay for a blether in the [socially distanced] pews for a while after our time of worship has ended - I'll have individually wrapped biscuits separated out on the vestibule table, just pick a couple up as you come in for the service.

Let's get growing project - an update: As I mentioned last week, our ‘let’s get growing’ project has moved from seed potatoes to planting trees: Angela was able to secure 420 wild food tree saplings donated by the Woodland Trust and was wanting to rehome them all before Christmas. Well, just to say, all the trees have now been claimed, so thanks everyone for getting behind the project, and also, helping us to work a little towards reducing our carbon footprint within the parish. Well done.

Pastoral matters: Some sad news to share: which is that our friend and fellow church member, Jeri Crutcher died earlier in the week. Her funeral will be held at Elvanfoot Cemetery at 11am on Wed this week. Please do spare a prayer for Jeri’s family at this hard time.

Christmas worship: a reminder that, given the way Christmas falls this year, we’re not going to have our usual watchnight service in the church building – but I will make a simple online service available. This is because the Kirk Session and I felt it a little unfair to expect anyone to stay back and do deep cleaning after midnight on Christmas, or come in on Christmas day. Had there been a 72 hour gap, we would have been fine.
As it's not our custom to have a service on Christmas Day unless if falls on a Sunday, we'll be celebrating on Sunday the 26th with a bit of a carol-fest, some poems, and a wee story. And, because the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day, we’ll have the opportunity to sing a good few more carols the following week, and think about wise men journeying to Bethlehem from the east.

These are all our notices. I hope this time of worship encourages you on your journey of faith.
God bless
Nikki

Christmas newsletter 2021

Our Christmas newsletter is out...

front page...

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Worship Sun 12 Dec, Advent 3: 'Joy'

WELCOME/ It's the 3rd Sunday of Advent as we continue on our journey to Bethlehem's stable. The traditional theme for this Sunday is 'joy' and we'll be looking for joy as we see the man that John the Baptist has become - last week, just newly born, this week, full grown.
If you want to skip the notices, 
the WORSHIP LINK IS HERE.

CHURCH NOTICES/
Several notices this week, but first, just to note that I try to make a habit of putting them up in print on the blog, as well as on the online service, just for ease of reference, so do feel free to skip ahead and watch the announcements within the online service over on the youtube channel if you prefer!!

Volunteers needed for morning tea duty after our time of worship in the church building. If you do a mix of attending online as well as in person, perhaps you might consider occasionally helping out with this wee job of enabling us to have much-needed cuppa and blether after the service. If you're able to assist, please get in touch with me [Nikki], and I'll pass your name on to Janice Reed.

'Let's get growing project - an update: a wee bit of news. Remember our ‘let’s get growing’ project – and how a number of folk from around the parish had planted potatoes – with a good amount of the yield to be given to the FoodBank? I have a total yield weight for you: it’s a bit of an estimate, but we think it’s close enough – between us, we grew 158kilos, or, in the old money, 348lbs of potatoes – that’s a brilliant effort given it was our first year doing this. So, we’ll see if we can beat that this coming year. Well done everyone.
and...
Wild fruit tree planting: on the ‘let’s get growing’ theme: Angela was able to secure 400ish wild food tree saplings donated by the Woodland Trust and is able to offer them to anyone who would be willing to take one or two (or several!). The trees are Hazel, Blackthorn, Elder, Dog Rose, Rowan and Crab Apple. Please let Angela – 07543 796820 - know how many you would like as soon as possible. Ideally, it would be great if she could get these to new homes before Christmas. I’m hoping we might be able to plant some along the grassy verge by the fence in the car park at church.

Sun 19 Dec. 5pm: Evening worship in Leadhills village hall. Oddly enough, there’ll be a bit of a Christmas feel to the service and a few carols to sing. Music will be provided by some friends from Leadhills Silver Band, and then later, at 7.30 in the Hopetoun Arms, there’s an opportunity to join with the rest of the band for even more carol singing.

Worship Sun 5 Dec - Advent 2 'Peace'

WELCOME/ It's the second week of the season of Advent, and following the traditional Advent themes, our time of worship will reflect on the theme of 'peace' - this, as we hear from Malachi and then from Luke and Zechariah's song.

Just a couple of notices before I put up the worship link, which are:
Volunteers wanted: if you are someone who attends worship at the church building, as well as online, this is a wee request for volunteers to help with post-service morning tea occasionally. We've recently had some folk needing to step down from this particular duty, and we're now a little thin, so if you can offer help, please get in touch with Janice Reed, who's taken on the role of coordinating the coffee rota, or you can contact me. We'd be delighted to hear from you!

'Tidings of comfort and joy' - 2pm Sat 11 Dec: a short service in the building at Abington particularly aimed at those who find this time of year a struggle due to loss and bereavement. All are welcome to attend and, if you know of anyone who you think might benefit from coming along, do let them know. After the service, there'll be time for a cuppa and chat through in the hall.

Parish Christmas newsletter: if you're on the mailing list, you should now have received the latest newsletter. If for any reason you haven't, do let Dee or Nikki know. A copy will go up on the blogsite in due course (apologies, I'd hoped to attend to it this week, but it's been one of those weeks!!).

The Guild meets at 2pm on Wed 8th in the church. Our guest will be Susan Crosby who will be guiding us through some Christmas crafts using ribbon weaving.

Kirk Session meets on Thursday 9th, this week via zoom, at 7pm

These are all the notices. You can find the WORSHIP LINK HERE

As we move closer to Christmas, may this week be an oasis of peace in amidst the preparations and rush all around us.

God bless
Nikki