11 January 2015

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.

Dundee Methodists and Food Banks - updates

• Our continued support for the Dundee Foodbank has again received thank from its organisers.
• Please place items in the large bucket on the upstairs landing - clean plastic bags are also welcome.
• Our thanks to Liz Kay - contact her for more information.

Methodist publications

• The new Scotland District newsletter, “In Touch” has been launched - copies available from the vestibule table.
• A national newsletter, “the connexion” is also being distributed this week, initially on a more restricted basis; online. More details of how to be added to or removed from the mailing list.

Church Credit Union

The Churches' Mutual Credit Union Ltd (CMCU) received formal authorisation from the regulatory authorities on December 16th 2014. This has been a rigorous process undertaken by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority. CMCU now plans to begin to offer its services to those eligible for membership from February 2015.

CMCU has been formed for and with the help of the Church of England, the Methodist Church of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church in Wales.

At first churches and individuals (notably ordained ministers, licensed lay ministers, elders, employees and trustees of churches and church charities and the charities themselves) will be able to become members and benefit from the financial products. Once the Credit Union has built up an established track record, it is intend that CMCU will be open to all church members and extend its denominational base (this would require permission from the regulators to alter the CMCU's common bond). More information.

Scottish Churches Housing Action

The last Sunday of January is observed as Homeless Sunday. SCHA will mark 20 years of its work with an act of worship in Glasgow on Saturday 17th January at St Andrew's Cathedral at 2.30pm. All are welcome to attend this service.

SCHA was among the bodies responding to the post-referendum Smith Commission, stating is position that Scotland should

• have control over the full range of welfare benefits
• be able to borrow to invest in affordable homes
• have its own tax-raising powers.

SCHA remains committed to

• the case for greater commitment to social justice
• the need for an increase in the supply of affordable housing to meet the needs of those whom the market excludes;
• the provision of support to individuals seeking to find routes out of homelessness;
• the case for a more equitable sharing of Scotland's growing prosperity.

Meetings this week

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support via the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in January for work in Armenia.

Our prayerful attention this week is drawn to

• promotion of different user-friendly formats for Biblical material in Algeria;
• completion of new Bible translation for communities in the northern provinces of Argentina where Toba Qom is spoken, also translation of the Old Testament into West Toba;
• funding for publication and translation of Bibles for those speaking the indigenous languages of Australia;
• work with children and teenagers in Austria and also outreach to refugees;
• Bible Society of Rwanda's trauma healing and Good Samaritan projects.

A letter of thanks has been sent giving details of help provided through the Calendar-a-Month Scheme; to individuals in South Sudan, a country deeply affected by civil war, and to those with disability / impairment - a 14-year old in Costa Rica has been provided with Braille scriptures and a Braille typewriter, empowering him in a society which excludes and stigmatises blind people every day.

Tayside Re-Users

This local charity (established 1995) has sent information about its work to encourage re-use and recycling. See their website .

Prayer Points for this week

• The President and Vice-President of Conference in the Channel Islands next weekend;
• Connexional Leaders' Forum, Monday-Tuesday;
• the Scotland ministerial and lay Synod Secretaries;
• our Circuit Invitation Committee;
• the peoples of Iraq, especially those forced to leave their homes (Christian Aid);
• work in Nepal and Uzbekistan (The Leprosy Mission);
• Bible Society work in Armenia;
• work in the Leeds district ( Methodist Homes);
• Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation's community centre (Embrace);
• the isolated people of Kalimantan, Indonesia ( MAF);
• we pray with and for the peoples of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq (WCC);
• we remember fellow Methodists in Ilfracombe and Barnstaple (Plymouth & Exeter District) and our colleagues in Montrose (Angus, Dundee & Perthshire Circuit).

• 4 January 2015
• 18 January 2015

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