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The Minister's Page
Guild News Revering God's Word
The Restoration Fund
"Church Humour" Mission Aviation
Seek ye first...
In The Garden
Light of the World Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Minister's
Letter
May 2006
Pultneytown Manse
Wick
Dear Friends,
It was indeed a memorable day when the congregation’s new elders were appointed. All four have been very active in the work of the congregation and clearly have the support and prayers of the membership. The system for the appointment of Elders takes some time and the terminology in the Service is in places a bit dated but there are important principles behind it.
Elders are, collectively, the spiritual leaders in a congregation. They have not only to be wise and experienced but also people who live a life that seeks to commend the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. The growing practice of inviting congregations to nominate people they feel would be suitable leaders is a good one. Before they are appointed the congreg-ation has to be satisfied as to their life and doctrine and is formally given the opportunity to object to an appointment on these grounds.
It is one of the many areas where Christian standards are increasingly different from those accepted in the community at large. We hear many voices saying that it doesn’t matter how a person lives so long as they ‘do their job well’. This is not acceptable for a Christian and particularly for a Christian leader. Jesus said ‘Follow me’ and one of the most remarkable things about His life was that there was a total consistency between what He said and what He did. His followers seek by the grace of God to make sure that ‘the talk’ and ‘the walk’ match up. The new elders are people who seek to do that.
If the system of appointing Elders takes some time then there will be those who think that the system for appointing a new Minister takes an eternity! However, slowly but surely, progress is being made. We are extremely grateful to Mike Gordon and the Property Committee for all the time and energy they have put in to the Manse.
In Uganda a very important development has been taking
place and it is an illustration of what can happen.
In the mean time the congregation is well served by a team of hard working and very committed office-bearers who are ensuring that the work of the congregation continues smoothly. May the Lord richly bless every one of them.
Yours sincerely,
Bill Wallace
New Elders
The following new elders were admitted to the Kirk Session at the morning service on 30th April:
Jean Brock, Burnett Place
Iain MacKillop, Queens Terrace
Maureen MacKillop, Queens Terrace
Anne MacLeod, Bower Court
Please pray for the Kirk Session; that the members would grow together in the love of Christ and would
experience God's wisdom to give effective leadership within the congregation.
Please pray that as a congregation, during the time of vacancy and beyond, we might know the way
forward to release the elders into true ministry to the blessing of us all, and that each of us
individually within the congregation, whether a member, adherent or occassional visitor, would
find what is God's good and perfect plan for our lives individually and corporately.
BAPTISM
Paul Andrew Dordai, Duncan St.
NEW MEMBERS
We are delighted to announce that Charles and Ruth Hulme have now become full members of St. Peter's and St. Andrew's.
FUNERALS
Edward J Fulton, Scaraben Court
Cath Campbell, Queens Court,
Ian W. Adam, Glengolly
Kate Laing, Glengolly (Barrock St.)
Derry Angus, Crosskirk, Forss
We extend our sympathy to those who are struggling to come to terms
with bereavement and pray they will know the help and peace of Jesus
Christ in their time of need.
The Minister's Page
Guild News Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other Asleep
in Church! Mercy Ships The
Vacancy: Update
Guild News
Our last two meetings were very interesting. An evening of Negro Spirituals was enjoyed by all who listened, various historical truths were shared. Father John Stevenson always has a wealth of information about the subject he brings to us.
Our final meeting was our AGM. No change was made with office bearers and three other ladies joined the team two of whom had served on the team before, one new member will be sharing our planning and worship during the next session.
Mrs Morag Miller one of our own congregation was our guest speaker and shared with us very interesting snippets from her work with "Riding for the disabled, a very deserving cause. Our eyes were opened to the dedication of all who worked with these special young people.
Easter Praise was another very spiritual evening with song & verse.
The bag packing in the Co-op made £700 which was sent to Guild Office.
Our "Dare to care" strategy is now finished, and we are looking forward to
the launching of new projects & theme for the next three years. A meeting regarding
Theme & Topic for the next three years was held in Watten recently with
representatives from most branches.
The Guild's new projects for 2006 - 2009, under the strategy
"Let's Live: body, mind and soul." are as follows:
Borderline:
Supporting homeless Scots, London
Christian Aid:
Action for the Adivasi, Bangladesh
CrossReach:
Beyond the Blues, Bluebell Project
Leprosy Mission Scotland:
Walking in the Light, Nigeria
Lydia Project: Miriam:
Changing the World together, Eastern Europe
Scottish Love in Action:
Touching the Untouchables, India
We look forward to a short break before we begin to prepare our plans for next session,
Mary Chalmers (contact person)
Find out more about the Guild's work
at www.churchofscotland.org.uk/boards/guild/
GUILD CALENDAR
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The Summer Rally is to be held on Wednesday 14th June at 7:30 pm. in Bruan Church.
We are trying to combine this with our Guild Outing and information about this will be
circulated once plans are to hand. |
The speaker for the Rally will be the present National Convener, Norah Summer
from Falkirk, whose term of office finishes in May. |
The Guild Annual Meeting for 2006 will be held on Saturday 2nd September at
the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. |
The Minister's Page
Guild News Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other Asleep in Church!
Mercy Ships The Vacancy: Update
THE HOLIDAY CLUB
The Holiday Club, now in its sixth year, is a jointinitiative by Thurso churches. In previous years we have used material designed by Scripture Union programme, this year Alison Sharp has written an exciting programme based on “Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”
Activities all take place in Thurso High School between 10.00am and 12.00 mid day for the week of Monday 3rd to 7th July. The week, as always, will provide music, dance, drama, craft and games for around seventy primary school age children.
Adult helpers are all volunteers from the local churches. There is also a youth team of our own committed young people supported by “Step Out” a group of young people from the Baptist Union; they will also run evening events, including a beach barbecue for ALL young people in Thurso.
There is a nominal charge per session as a contribution towards refreshments and craft materials but the event could not take place without the support of individuals, local churches and organisations all of whom have, in previous years, donated generously. These include: UKAEA, Highland Regional Council, Rotary Club of Thurso, Ladies Circle, Thurso Baptist Church, United Reformed Church, St. Peter’s & St. Andrews Church and Guild.
Whilst we have an active group of helpers, we’re always looking for more!
Anyone interested in helping, or donating, should contact Judy on 894929 or Helen on 831353
The Minister's Page
Guild News Light Factory 2006
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other Asleep in Church!
Mercy Ships The Vacancy: Update
Worship Leaders
In a northern parish, the precentor took heart of grace one Sunday morning and
ventured on the hazardous experiment of trying a new tune.
" Whatna tune was that ye had the day? " inquired one of the elders
after the service.
" Oh, yon was St. Paul's," replied the precentor. "Saunt what?"
" St. Paul's."
" Ye may be very thankfu' Paul himsel' wasna in the kirk to hear ye,
for if he had, he would hae bundled ye oot o' the desk quick. Paul was
a man that couldna, an' what's mair he wouldna, stand the like o' yon.
Dinna affront his memory by singin' the like o' yon tune again."
===================
The Rev. Mr. McDougal, of Paisley, used to tell of his having been accosted by a man one day, when the following colloquy took place:-
" You're Mr. McDougal, I think?"
"Yes; how do you happen to know me?"
" Weel, I'm whiles in your kirk." "Do you live in Paisley?" "No; I leeve in Glesca."
"Then, I suppose, you sometimes stay with friends in Paisley when you come to worship with us there ? "
" No, no; I just walk out on the Sundays."
"That's along walk between Glasgow and Paisley," observed Mr. McDougal, who was beginning to feel proud of
his power of drawing a congregation.
" Do you stay overnight, then, after going to church?"
"No; I just walk back to Glesca again."
" That is indeed a long walk, and says something for the power of the preacher."
"No doubt it's a guid lang walk, but I think an awfu' lot o' your precentor ! "
From "The Kirk and its Worthies" by Nicholas Dickson
The Minister's Page
Guild News
Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other
Praise and Worship
Mercy Ships
Church
A Prayer Like Any Other
It's way past midnight, everyone asleep
Outside the window it's quiet on the street
My bags are packed, my guitar too
Taxi's coming, nothin' I can do
Oh Lord, keep your eye on my friends
I’d just feel better
knowing you're watching them
I've got to roll, take a little spin
While I’m gone, keep your eye on my friends
Gotta get home the only way I know
The long old road, steady and slow
One of these days I’ll come back
If the creek don’t rise and stuff like that
Oh Lord, keep your eye on this place
Keep it warm, keep it safe
You know I depend on your saving grace
While I’m gone keep your eye on this place
This is just a prayer like any other
Nothing more, nothing less
A prayer like any other
One more time could you just say yes
Oh Lord, keep your eye on me
You know how foolish and reckless I can be
Light my way up, so I can see
Oh Lord, keep your eye on me
Oh Lord, keep your eye on my friends
Oh Lord, keep your eye on this place
by Kevin Welch © 2004
Chaos Canyon Songs
The Minister's Page
Guild News
Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other
Praise and Worship
Mercy Ships
Church
Praise and Worship
"It is performed in heaven. Though they who perform
it are
on earth, yet they do it, by faith, in heaven." ( John Owen )
"Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the psaltry and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon the lound cymbals: Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals." (Psalm 150:3-5)
Why Do We Stand When We Sing?
"And the Levites, ... of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high."
(2 Chronicles 20:19)
Why Do We Clap Our Hands?
"0 clap your hands all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph."
(Psalms 47:1)
Why Do We Dance Before the Lord?
"Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs."
(Psalms 150:4)
"Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp."
(Psalms 149:3)
Why Do We Lift Our Hands?
"Thus I will bless Thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in Thy name."
(Psalms 63:4)
"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord."
(Psalms 134:2)
"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."
(1 Timothy 2:8)
Why Do We Have Audible Praise Unto God?
"Bless the Lord, 0 my soul: and all that is within me bless His Holy name."
(Psalms 103:1)
"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth."
(Psalms 34:1)
Why Do We Sing Choruses as Well as Hymns?
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."
(Ephesians 5:18-19)
----------------------------------------------------
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. "
(John 4:23-24)
With thanks to the Evangel Temple, Toronto, Canada
The Minister's Page
Guild News
Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other
Praise and Worship
Mercy Ships
Church
Opening Eyes
Mercy Ships is a global hospital ship charity that provides free medical care, relief aid, community development and long-term sustainable development in the poorest countries in the world. Since its inception in 1978, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 70 countries and impacted more than 5.5million lives through its work on board the ships and through its land-based projects.
Freetown, Sierra Leone, May 3, 2006: Hundreds of patients at a clinic in Sierra Leone will have their lives transformed when they receive wheelchairs refurbished in UK prisons.
The Mercy Ships' New Steps Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, treats people suffering from a variety of medical conditions, including polio, which result in loss of limbs or immobility.
Mercy Ships UK receives refurbished wheelchairs from two other charities: Wheels for the World and Inside Out Trust. Inside Out Trust arranges for wheelchairs to be renovated by prisoners at a number of sites around Britain, where the inmates take them apart, clean them, paint them and rebuild them. Prisoners work for the good of people in need. This boosts their self esteem and develops practical skills, helping them to 'go straight' on release.
Wheels for the World works with partners in developing nations and Mercy Ships will be the distribution partner in this instance, arranging the transport and identifying people who will receive the wheelchairs.The Mercy Ships New Steps Centre recently received 125 of these wheelchairs, and a further 75 are to be delivered later in 2006.
One of the first people in Sierra Leone to receive a free refurbished wheelchair was Kadiatu Barrie. The 23 year old polio patient has been crawling on the ground ever since her previous chair broke a year ago. Kadiatu is especially pleased she'll no longer have to beg the local children to bring her water each day. She'll now be able to make the one mile round trip to the local well on her own.
Justin Watkins, procurement manager for Mercy Ships UK said: "This is a great example of charities working together to serve the poor of West Africa. The wheelchairs are all at the end of their life here in the UK but once they have been refurbished, are in excellent working condition and it is a delight to know that they will be put to very good use.
"When visiting the prisoners, they were all very interested in seeing where their chairs ended up and took pride in their work as it was doing something useful."
One of the biggest needs is for funds to pay for transport. It costs over £4,000 to get a truckload of wheelchairs to the prison for repair and to ship a container full of wheelchairs out to Africa.
You will find more information about the work of the MERCY SHIPS charity at their website.
For further information, please contact Lorna Inglis or Lois Boyle at Media House on 0141 220 6040.
Anyone wishing to donate towards the provision of wheelchairs and other mobility aids or to the
'New Steps Centre' should contact Mercy Ships on 01438 727800,
Email info@mercyships.org.uk or
send a cheque to
Mercy Ships UK,
The Lighthouse,
12 Meadway Court,
Stevenage, Hertfordshire,
SG1 2EF.
The Minister's Page
Guild News
Light Factory Holiday Club
Worship Leaders
A Prayer Like Any Other
Praise and Worship
Mercy Ships
Church
Church
The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously
through an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by
began to nod -- and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless
fire and brimstone and thinned the predestined elect down to a
company so small as to be hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the
pages of the sermon; after church he always knew how many pages
there had been, but he seldom knew anything else about the
discourse. However, this time he was really interested for a
little while. The minister made a grand and moving picture of the
assembling together of the world's hosts at the millennium when
the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a little child
should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of the
great spectacle were lost upon the boy; he only thought of the
conspicuousness of the principal character before the on-looking
nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself
that he wished he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.
After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr.
Sprague turned himself into a bulletin board and read off
'notices' of meetings and societies and things till it seemed that
the list would stretch out to the crack of doom a queer custom
which is still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in
this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is to
justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer, it was, and
went into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little
children of the church; for the other churches of the village; for
the village itself; for the county; for the State; for the State
officers; for the United States; for the churches of the United
States; for Congress; for the President; for the officers of the
Government; for poor sailors, tossed by stormy seas; for the
oppressed millions groaning under the heel of European monarchies
and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light and the good
tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear withal; for
the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with a
supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace
and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time
a grateful harvest of good. Amen. From "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain.
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THE CASTAWAY
A man had been shipwrecked on a remote island in the Pacific, and was alone for 20 years. When a ship finally arrived, his rescuers were impressed with the three buildings he had built and asked him about them.
"Well," the man replied, "this is my house, and that building over there is my church. It's a wonderful church and I hate to leave it."
"And what is the third building yonder?" a rescuer asked.
"Oh, that's the church I used to go to," the man replied.
Author Unknown
Xvxn though my typxwritxr is an old modxl, it works quitx wxll xxcxpt for onx of thx kxys. I havx wishxd many timxs that it workxd pxrfxctly. It is trux that thxrx arx forty-six kxys that function wxll xnough, just onx kxy makxs all thx diffxrxncx.
Somxtimxs it sxxms to mx that thx church is somxwhat likx my typxwritxr - not all thx kxy pxoplx arx working propxrly.
You may say to yoursxlf : " Wxll, I am only onx pxrson. I won't makx or brxak thx church." But it doxs makx a diffxrxnce, bxcausx a church, nxxds thx activx participation of xvxry pxrson.
So, thx nxxt timx you think you arx only onx pxrson, and that your xfforts arx not nxxdxd, rxmxmbxr my typxwritxr and say to yoursxlf : " I am a kxy pxrson in thx congrxgation, and I am nxxdxd vxry much."
From "The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, July 18th 1963
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Edited by Iain MacKillop for the members and friends of
St. Peter's
And St.Andrew's Church Thurso. Many thanks to all
who contributed
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