26 November 2006

We give the assurance of our thoughts and prayers to all who are unwell, awaiting or undergoing treatment, or anxious or grieving for the loss of loved ones.

Pastoral Charge

During the Rev Mary Patterson's sabbatical (ie to the New Year), please notify the Rev David Firth of any request or need for Ministerial pastoral care. Contact may also be made through the Pastoral Secretary (Jenny Easson), Pastoral Visitors, or the Church Stewards. Please note that this week, the Revs Gerald Bostock and Jean Murrie are available in case of special need in David's absence.

Next week's Worship

• read leaflet for details of arrangements over the next month - contact 'tricia about practical aspects;
• note that next Sunday's worship includes reflection on 'people', including an introduction, opportunity for congregational participation, and liturgy. Please bring along any pictures or items for the display next week - thye may be retrieved after the service!

Growing From the Inside Out

After a positive informal “feedback” process, Paddy, for all the Church Stewards, has requested the Rev David Firth to consult with Grahame Lockhart and Jean Murrie about arrangements for holding this course in Dundee. As the preferred time appeared to be a Sunday, this may mean looking ahead to the March-May Plan, but it is hoped that dates will be known well in advance to be “put in diaries”.

“Momentum”

Copies of the latest issue of the Connexional newspaper are now here - please uplift from the Vestibule table if you do not already have one. Please also distribute to those who cannot come to Marketgait.

Preaching Plans

Plans for December - March are now available, free, on the (glass) Vestibule table.

Please also note that requests or information for the next Plan (March-May) should be notified by or soon after 5th December to the Superintendent Minster, Rev David Firth, or Heather, who is a member of the Plan-making Team as Circuit Preachers' Secretary.

Christmas Tags

Clare reminds us that these are available on the Vestibule table: help church funds - support recycling - save a tree!

Link Club News

At the request of a member, the Club supported the annual BBC Children in Need appeal this week : the “hoop-la competition” raised £40.

Fire Hazard!

There are a lot of unknown and out-of-date things in the upstairs cloakroom, some of which present a fire hazard.

Please check to see if any of these are yours and still wanted.

Any unclaimed or unlabelled items will be cleared away after the end of November (Property Stewards).

Meetings this week

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support through the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in November for work in Russia and in December for work in China. See library area noticeboard.

Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• successful distribution in Croatia of Children's Bibles with a daily newspaper, also contacts with orphanages;
• priority given to a 'revised Bible' in Macedonia;
• annual production of millions of Bibles by Amity Press in China;
• distribution in Kosovo amid continuing tension between Serbs and Albanians.

NCH

• Margaret represented us at the Celebration hosted by the Lord Provost in the City Cambers last Wednesday to mark the 10th Anniversary of the (much commended) Dundee Families Project.
• NCH News - 2 copies on the Vestibule table: borrow, read, return ….

Caring Christmas Trees

Caring Christmas Trees 2006 is now open for business.

The trees are fantastic quality, the same price you'd pay elsewhere and are as fresh and environmentally friendly as you can get. Choose your size, date and location, then just turn up and take your pick from the selection of trees on the day.

All trees sold in Fife will fund Bethany's work with homeless and vulnerable people in Fife. Over 4,000 people came to Bethany for help in Fife last year. We reckon that Fifers (and, no doubt, others - Eds!) are well up for a bit of festive kind-hearted support.

For more details, visit http://www.caringchristmastrees.com, email info@caringchristmastrees.com, telephone: 0845 111 TREE (8733)” or ask Heather who brings this to our notice.

Habitat for Humanity

Laurent & Joe left copies of the Interfaith Project report, “Turning Hope into Homes”, after last Sunday's most interesting visit - please ask to see one.

Also see www.hope-into-homes.org.uk; www.habitat.elcat.kg.

Forthcoming events

Prayer Points for this week

• The President of Conference in India, Wednesday - Monday;
• Stationing Matching Group meeting, Tuesday - Thursday;
• Scotland District administration, based in Dunblane;
• the Circuit's support of Methodist Homes for the Aged, especially at Gowan Park, Arbroath;
• World AIDS Day on Friday (1st December) (Christian Aid);
• The Leprosy Mission's work in South India - Kerala, Tamil Nadu;
• theological training by The Seminario Biblico de Vitoria in Brazil (Feed The Minds);
• Bible Society work in Russia and in China;
• we pray with and for the peoples of Afghanistan and of Pakistan;
• we remember fellow Methodists in the North Shields and Whitley Bay Circuit (Newcastle-upon-Tyne District), and in Banff (North of Scotland Mission Circuit).

• 19 November 2006
• 03 December 2006

© 2002—2006 Dundee Methodist Church.