Kirkcudbright Parish Church


News

Coffee Morning for Street Dweller Project

There will be a Coffee Morning on Saturday 24th July in the Church Hall, to raise funds for the Street Dweller Project, Bangladesh. A minimum donation of £2.00 is requested.  There will be plenty of tea, coffee, cakes and company, as well as a bring and buy stall so come along and join us. If you can donate a cake, scones or tray bake we would be most appreciative. If you have continued to collect your small change since ‘Counting Blessings’ in Lent, then please

bring those along too. We look forward to seeing you on 24th July. 

 

Calling all primary age children

This year the holiday club will be “casting the net” in “Rocky’s Plaice.”  If you don’t want to miss out on the action come along to Kirkcudbright Primary School from 16-20 August from 10am till 12 noon.  Fun, games, crafts, stories and adventure for all!  For more information contact the church office (330489) or Mhairi on 01557 860381.

 

Sunday School

This Sunday 27th June is the last Sunday of the year for our Sunday School.  The children are involved in running the service with some very profound questions to ask the congregation. In the past we have stopped over the summer but next Sunday 4th July is the first Sunday of our new year!  The leaders got together and agreed that we would continue with Sunday School over the holidays because the groups are growing and we do not want to lose the children we have.  We now have 3 groups - Creche in the church vestry, P1-3 in upper room at the hall & P4-7 in hall as well.  We could really do with some more leaders in all of the groups. Please could you have a think and a prayer and could you consider helping us.  It is roughly once a month you would need to be involved.  If you are interested in helping please contact Sarah Phillips (01557 830272) in the first instance as he is the Disclosure Scotland person for our Church.  We invite any visiting children to join us any Sunday.  They will be made very welcome.  They can be collected from the hall after the service and while you enjoy a coffee & a chat. 

 

The BIG Sing

The BBC’s Songs of Praise “Big Sing” will be held in the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday 12th September 2010, with tickets priced £10 a head.  Consideration is being given to a number of us going down to take part.  If you would like to do so, please contact Irene Robertson on 01557 331234.

 

Reviewing our giving to Christ

With no other volunteers coming forward despite numerous appeals, Andy Bain has taken over again as Church Treasurer following Peter Butler’s resignation.  Peter was thanked at the May Meeting of the Congregational Board for his diligence over the past months.  Andy Bain’s own work as a Scenes of Crime Officer is demanding and he cannot devote all the time needed to do the treasurer’s work.  In practice Andy will be supervising a large part of the treasurer’s work which is to be carried out on a day to day basis by the Stewartry Council of Voluntary Services, with the designated member of staff being Anne Corson, contactable on 01557 331346.  Under the agreement entered into between the Church and SCVS for SCVS to provide book-keeping and accountancy services to the Church, SCVS will attend to all book-keeping, banking and handling of cash on a day-to-day basis, prepare cheques and settle accounts, write up income and expenditure accounts, reconcile bank statements, prepare monthly reports for the Congregational Board and carry out all work to enable the auditors to finalise the annual accounts.  Concurrent with these local developments, there will be renewed focus on making appeal to our own membership for a review of individual giving.  In this regard, nationally, it was reported to the General Assembly in May that congregations who have made use of the Church of Scotland’s own Stewardship and Finance Office Appeal Scheme have reported impressive results.  The sixteen churches who participated in the Scheme all saw increases in their offerings last year, with one congregation's giving increasing by a staggering 44 per cent - a particularly creditable rise given the credit crunch.  Our last major appeal to the Congregation on the givings front was in the Spring of 2006. We did this ourselves without outside help.  Following this appeal, congregational income rose appreciably.  This was largely due to an increase in the number of gift aid contributors, who make their regular offering for the work of the Kingdom either through envelopes put in the offering plate on Sundays or through direct debit.  With the loss last year of a sizable number of gift aid contributors, mainly through death, total congregational giving is down by £10,000 on last year and so we make appeal to our readers to individually review at this time their giving to Christ.  Additionally, tax payers are encouraged to sign a declaration to the effect that they wish their offerings – enveloped or by direct debit – treated as gift aid.  Due to underuse, pink Free Will Offering envelopes are being phased out and from next year all regular contributors by filled envelopes will be issued with blue envelopes currently issued only to gift aid contributors.  Our gift aid administrator Valerie Blandy will be happy to hear from members and friends of the congregation with an enquiry about gift aid contributions and generally concerning regularly giving to the Church to see the work of Christ’s Kingdom extended.  Pease speak to Valerie in confidence on 01557 332021.  She would be glad to hear from you confidentially about becoming a gift aid or freewill offering envelopes donor or about increasing your regular giving.  Additionally, and as an alternative, our Church offers the membership opportunity to further Christ’s Kingdom work through giving in kind, through giving of your time and talents, with many opportunities to serve.  In this connection, you may like to speak to talk in the first instance to the new leader of our Pastoral and Social Care Group, Irene Robertson on 01557 331234.

 

Thank you!

The New Ecumenism?

A hundred years ago this year in Edinburgh there was a World Missionary Conference, a gathering of 160 Missionary Societies represented by 1200 delegates.  It considered the ideal of world evangelisation and led to the closer cooperation between missionary societies from which the ecumenical movement started.  It has taken 100 years to get to where we are now, Christian churches/groups working together but hardly at one in all things.  I recently attended a conference which chose as its subject ‘The New Ecumenism?’  Our guest speakers included Tony Bayfield (a Jewish Rabbi), Racicq Abdulla (a Muslim poet), Alan Race (A Canon in the Church of England) and Ian Bradley of St Andrew’s University who introduced his new book ‘Reclaiming Liberal Theology’.  Our intention was to consider possible links amongst people of faith in our diverse world.  I was moved by the Rabbi’s assertion that the idea of God who intervenes on behalf of his people was blown apart by the Holocaust.  If he could have intervened at Auschwitz why didn’t he?  He held on to a sense of God who weeps with us in our troubles, similar to the Christian understanding of the Crucified God.  With a world population that is going up by a third to 6 billion by 2050, how are we going to living together?  Do we still have to evangelise and aim to make everyone Christian as they thought in 1910? I hope not.  I like the song ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’, yet I feel God is saying to me you’ve got the whole world in your hands, what are you going to do?   An enjoyable and thoughtful conference.

 

David Brown.

 

Kirkcudbright Arts Trail—30 July to 1 August

The Parish Church is included again this year in the venues list for the 2010 Kirkcudbright Arts Trail.  Helen Waddell and the team will again be providing coffees, teas and tray bakes. Help with this will be the subject of an appeal nearer the time.  In the meantime, appeal is made to all our members and friends who displayed paintings, art and craft work last year and to new exhibitors, and you are asked to be in touch with the Church Office if you are willing to do the same again this year. An invitation has been made to the membership of the Wednesday Craft Group to take part. 

 

and — a Silent Auction

Jane Gibson has very kindly donated a framed picture of the church which will be the subject of a Silent Auction during the Craft Trail exhibition weekend.  Funds will be given The Ark Children’s Club.

and — a Craft Sale

In addition, Kim Lowe is hosting a Craft Sale in the Scout Hall, of which 30% of sales will be shared between Women of Action (part of Food for the Hungry) and The Ark Children’s Club. Any exhibitors in the main church exhibition who can make additional items for sale would be welcome to join in with the Craft Sale.

Please contact Kim on 01557 870248 for further details about the Silent Auction or Craft Sale

Prayer Chain

We are privileged in Kirkcudbright Parish Church to have a monthly healing service, requests for which can be left at the organ console at any time.

We also have a small telephone prayer chain with several people on standby to receive prayer requests at any time as these arise.  Anyone in need just needs to lift the phone and call in their request.  This will be treated confidentially and brought to God in prayer by up to seven people, subject to their availability at the time the prayer request is made.

Please feel free to ring Margaret Livestone-Bussell on 01557 860325 with your Prayer Chain requests or for further information.

Atkinson Place – Flat to Let

One bedroom house at 16 Atkinson Place available to let.  Applications are available from D. Haining, 68 St. Mary Street, Kirkcudbright DG6 4EJ and should be lodged in writing by 31st August 2010.

 

A NEW COURSE FOR GALLOWAY – AIG FOIS

For the past three years, Aig Fois, in Kirkcudbright, has been offering Quiet Days which provide a space to reflect on our experience of God and how we might like to respond.  Earlier this year, in collaboration with the Epiphany Group, we organized a Retreat in Daily Life (RDL) for churches in the Galloway area. Following the RDL I was asked what my dreams were for Aig Fois. I didn’t hesitate. I wanted us to host Growth in Prayer and Reflective Living (GPRL) which was a course I did in 2004 in Edinburgh and which was run by the Epiphany Group.  No particular experience of prayer is required, and it is genuinely a course for anyone who has a desire for God. When I did it participants included both ministers of the Church of Scotland and people (like me) who were questioning their faith. I found it a place where my hopes, fears, doubts and dreams could be expressed openly and without judgement. I felt very affirmed.  This course aims to help participants develop and deepen their experience of prayer and live more reflectively. It offers opportunity to explore faith and come to a deeper, closer relationship with God. In doing so, it provides the space to examine our desires and to move towards the fullness of life we all long for.  The purpose of the course is personal faith development and it is complete in itself.  However, it is also the foundation course for training in Spiritual Conversation, which is offered in a number of other Ignatian centres.  The Galloway course team will be led by Alison Moody and Sr Margaret Fielding, both of whom were prayer guides on the Retreat in Daily Life in February 2010. Alison is based in Edinburgh and is Training Co-ordinator for the Epiphany Group. She is very experienced.  Sr Margaret is currently part of the GPRL course team being run at the Glasgow Ignatian spirituality Centre. I’m thrilled that they are both involved.  The monthly sessions, comprising three 2½ hour sessions held on Friday evening and Saturday, will take place in St Ninian’s Church Hall in Castle Douglas. A detailed leaflet with application form will be available in your church from July. For more information please contact Rachel Inglis on 01557 331548 or info@aigfois.co.uk. I am excited that we are able to host this excellent course in Galloway and I look forward to seeing you there.

Rachel Inglis

Thanks You

Christian Aid Week in Kirkcudbright saw us raise another record amount. This time of £3,952.45. It will go to the campaign to end poverty.  This year saw 15 new helpers join the band of collectors.  I wish to thank all of them and also the contributors for their generous support.  There were also 16 people who helped with the count and partook of a soup lunch.  Thank you everyone.

 

Margaret Hughes

Mhairi’s Letter

I don’t know if anyone else has been struck by what a remote controlled nation we’ve become; exercise levels all over the country have plummeted  as we’ve become inert couch potatoes.  We can turn the TV on and off at the press of a button, then  irritate  everyone else by flicking quickly through the channels  at random.  We can use a remote control to choose radio stations, turn the kettle off, open and close gates and garages and we can even record our favourite programme via a mobile phone if we have the right “app” no matter where we are, we don’t even need to be in the same town!!  I read recently that Before long, your mobile phone will also be your wallet, keys, and garage-door opener.  Mobile applications will transform phones into life management devices.”  I for one hope not.

 

Chris  is addicted to all things “gadget”, his most recent acquisition is a soap dispenser that dispenses soap as you pass your hand underneath it!!  (That has to be the ultimate in encouraging laziness.)   Doors open automatically as we approach them (though I’ve found problems with this as I’m too short to be picked up on the sensors so often have to hang about till someone tall comes  along and I sneak in behind them.)  One of the most disconcerting “remote” devices I’ve ever come across was in a friend’s bathroom; when you walked in to the room the light was supposed to come on, but it didn’t for me because I was too short.  “Wave your arms in the air” said Maggie which was all very well till half way through my visit the lights went off  and I was left sitting in the dark!!

 

Washing the car recently I discovered an interesting remote device I hadn’t come across before.  While I was cleaning the dashboard all the wee buttons were going in and out but I paid no attention as the keys weren’t in the ignition.  I got out and closed all the doors which I’d left open to vacuum the car.  When I went back out to the car I discovered that every door was locked and the keys were lying quite visible on the passenger seat (yes one of the buttons that clicked had been the manual locking device which activated when I closed the doors), but then  joy of joys I discovered the back window was open, unfortunately not the whole boot door just the wee window at the top, which was why if anyone was passing they would see me perched precariously on a wheelie bin  lying on it’s side climbing in the back window of the car (not an easy manoeuvre believe me).

 

Remote control living is all very well but it can’t beat the sense of achievement  that you feel when you’ve  actually physically done something and not just clicked your fingers  like Mary Poppins  did in the film and watch everything go into its proper place.

 

Thank goodness Jesus was never remote. He was always in the midst of the crowd reaching out with His hands to touch the untouchable, reaching out with compassion to the desperate.  We are the hands of Jesus on this earth, called to love one another. There are many lonely people in our midst who would appreciate a visit or a summer run in the car.  Let’s reach out as Jesus did to our neighbours and do something practical.  Let’s boycott the remote and bring back the personal touch.

 

Every Blessing

 

Mhairi