10 January 2016

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

Cumbria 2015 Flood Appeal

The total raised through the recent Retiring Offerings is £111.65. Many thanks!

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: 18-25 Jan 2016

This year's theme is “Salt of the Earth” with material prepared by Christians in Latvia. It is based around the verses of 1 Peter 2, 9-10 with “encouragement to the newly baptised to live holy lives and to answer the calling shared by all the baptised to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord.”

Latvia is described as “a crossroads where Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox regions meet” and thus “home to Christians of many different traditions, but no single one of them is dominant.”

Material for the WPCU is developed each year by an International Committee, composed of members of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This material is then used as a basis for national resources developed by a representative group of writers on behalf of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI).

Download the booklet or find more information.

Weekly Giving

Anyone wishing to join or have information about the Weekly Envelope Scheme or Gift Aid is invited to contact Mary Foster. The “Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme” also allows us to claim Gift Aid on regular donations, including those through envelopes in the weekly offering plate offerings for people who cannot sign up to Gift Aid, provided they are not in the form of a cheque or do not exceed £20 in any one envelope. So if you have not signed up for Gift Aid, have missed a few Sundays and the amount being given is in excess of £20, please use more than one envelope.

The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office

The SCPO was created in 1999 with the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament, as a non-denominational and non-partisan organisation, to build fruitful relationships between the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and religious groups in Scotland. In 2005, this remit was extended to support the churches' engagement with the UK Parliament and Government in Westminster

The SCPO seeks to enable Scotland's churches to

• engage effectively in political processes
• translate their commitment to the welfare of Scotland into Parliamentary debate
• contribute the range and depth of their experience and their faith reflection on that experience to the decision-making process.

This is effected through updates and briefings to Parliamentarians, faith groups, and by bringing people together for dialogue. It is often done in partnership with other groups in Scottish civil society.

The SCPO is located within the Church of Scotland Offices, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN; tel: 0131 240 22776.

The Officer, Chloe Clemmons, can be contacted via chloe@actsparl.org. She is supported by Irene MacKinnon as Research and Resource Officer.

Action of Churches Together in Scotland

ACTS came into being in 1990 as one of the Ecumenical Instruments in Britain and Ireland, together with Churches Together in England (CTE), CYTUN ('Churches Together in Wales') and the Irish Council of Churches, relating to each other through CTBI.

The member churches of ACTS are the Church of Scotland, the Congregational Federation, the Methodist Church, the Religious Society of Friends, the Roman Catholic Church, the Salvation Army , the Scottish Episcopal Church, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the United Reformed Church.

The ACTS office is now located in Jubilee House, Forthside Way, Stirling, FK8 1QZ (ie within the premises of Volunteer Scotland); tel: 01259 216980. The General Secretary is the Rev Matthew Ross.

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support via the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in January for work in The Gulf States. Our prayerful attention this week is drawn to

• literacy work by the Bible Society in Bolivia for Aymara children;
• the new Board of Directors at the Bible Society in Brazil;
• United Bible Societies meeting in Portugal for General Secretaries in Europe and the Middle East Areas;
• Bangladesh Bible Society's production of Scriptures for the Bakgalagagri people;
• the in-coming General Secretary of the Belgium Bible Society;
• the Bible Society of South Africa's production of literature for pre-school to Grade-2 children.

Prayer Points for this week

• the President and Vice-President of Conference at the Parliamentary Covenant Service, Westminster, Monday;
• Connexional Leaders' Forum, District Chairs' Meeting, Monday - Tuesday; Stationing Matching Group 3, Wednesday;
• work in the Darlington District (Methodist Homes);
• rebuilding after natural disasters (Christian Aid);
• internally-displaced people within Syria (Embrace);
• work in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda (The Leprosy Mission); work in Chad and Kenya (MAF);
• Bible Society work in The Gulf States;
• we pray with and for the peoples of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey (WCC);

we remember fellow Methodists in the Nottingham East Circuit (Nottingham and Derby District) and in Inverness (Inverness Circuit)

• 3 January 2016
• 17 January 2016

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