13 December 2009

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.

Christmas Post Box

Cards for 'internal mail' may be posted in the Vestibule; distribution on and after next Sunday.

Broughty Ferry Churches Group

The weekly Christian Aid Lunches in YMCA, Brook St - Fridays will resume on Friday 15th January.

Flower Rota 2010

It would be appreciated if you are arranging your own Flowers to contact Elaine by Wednesday Evening, otherwise she will assume that they are making arrangements to have them done.

The provisional Flower Rota is on the glass-top Vestibule table; any queries, contact Elaine.

Health and Safety

A Dundee City Council “Health and Safety” official visited Marketgait last Monday morning. A report is now in the hands of both Sandy and David E. He was generally happy with the upkeep of the premises but there are two items which must be reported to you all now. Other matters for action will be reported to Finance & Property, and thence to Church Council.

• “Immediate action is required regarding the access arrangements to the cellar of the property ….. no one is permitted to use the cellar ladders until a more substantial form of access has been put in place.”
• Following his advice, we have now locked the electricity meter cupboard. Keys that were stored in there have been moved. If you require access to either the meter cupboard (there are still some tools in there) or the other two rooms, please ask Church Stewards or F&P people, if you do not know where the keys have been put. We are trying to maintain security; hence we are not publishing their whereabouts.

Chaplains for MHA Auchlochan

The following Chaplaincy posts are being advertised for Auchlochan Retirement Village, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire: Chaplaincy Team Leader, & Part-Time Chaplains

Further details / application pack: phone 01332 221831; e-mail : spirituality@mha.org.uk; website www.mha.org.uk. Closing date - 4th Jan; interviews - 14th and 15th Jan 2010.

Support other Organisations

Scottish Churches House Prayer Network

Daily prayers are led at 9.00 - 9.15 am, with Network members particularly asked to join, if possible, on Wednesday mornings.

Prayers are invited for those staying at or holding meetings and events in the House this week, including Senior Citizens Christmas Break (Monday - Thursday); Interim Management Group, Artists Way (Tuesday); Methodist District Team, House Carol Service (Thursday).

Scottish Bible Society

Our support through the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in December for work in Bangladesh. See noticeboard for more information. Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• possible effects of new legalisation on distribution in Kazakhstan;
• outreach initiatives to flood victims in Mozambique;
• opening of new office and shop in Central / North region of Malawi;
• participation by young people in Madagascar at the 180th Anniversary of the first translation (Luke) into Malagasy ;
• translation projects in Democratic Republic of Congo, also publication of Kanyok Bible and Ketiine New Testament.

Give a Bible for Christmas : see library area noticeboard and envelopes on Vestibule table for details of ways to commemorate Christ's birth by gifting a Bible to someone in need elsewhere in the world.

Rotary International Shoe Boxes Appeal

“Many thanks to those who supported the Rotary Shoe Boxes this year. You contributed to the 300 which I organised and they joined 7000 from Scotland which are now on their way to Ukraine, Romania and Croatia. I am sure that will bring Christmas cheer to those who would not normally have much to celebrate.”

Alan Suttie (who emailed from “a cold Louisville, Kentucky, … home of Col Sanders and his fried chicken”!)

Prayer Points for this week

• Connexional Strategy & Resources Committee, Wednesday;
• JIC2 Anglican Methodist Covenant meeting, Thursday;
• continuing process for Stationing in our Circuit;
• schemes in Bolton & Rochdale District (Methodist Homes);
• all living in poverty round the world (Christian Aid);
• Princess Basma Centre for Disabled Children, on the Mount of Olives, (BibleLands);
• The Leprosy Mission's work in Mozambique, Southern Africa and Zimbabwe;
• Bible Society work in Bangladesh;
• we pray with and for the peoples of Benin, CÔte d'Ivoire and Togo (WCC Prayer Calendar);
• we remember fellow Methodists in Ceredigion (South Wales) and in Kilsyth (Glasgow Circuit).

• 6 December 2009
• 20 December 2009

© 2002—2009 Dundee Methodist Church Scottish Charity number: SC037954.