30 April 2017

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.

Keith Pearson's 50 years as a Local Preacher

A Circuit Service is to be held on Sunday 14th May in Marketgait at 3pm to mark the 50th anniversary of Keith's Recognition as a Methodist Local Preacher and his ministry over these years.

The Service will be followed by refreshments and the Church Stewards request offers to assist with this event. Please contact Jenny Easson to offer help:

• catering - sandwiches, home bakes, …
• help for Paddy in the kitchen & serving
• general support for stewarding and hosting.

Methodist ClothesBank

Mondays 10am -12 noon (i/c Liz)

Thursdays 1pm - 3pm (i/c Sue)

Volunteers please contact Sue or Liz

More clothing is still needed; please have a good spring clean of your wardrobes. Anything is welcome. We will

• keep good adult clothing for the clothesbank;
• send good clothing for children and teenagers to “Togs from Tots to Teens”;
• recycle clothes that are not suitable for either; we can raise money in this way.

Please take a collecting bag from the table at the top of the stairs or ask a helper for one.

Methodist-URC meeting

On Wednesday, Nick, Sue M-J and Jenny met with the Rev Alan McGougan and two members of the Salem Chapel URC congregation (59 Constitution Road, Dundee) to start exploring the possibilities of closer working and worshiping together. We shared the realities of our own circumstances, locally & nationally, and agreed that the way head lies in developing closer ties, with the intention of seeing whether and how these may lead to some form of agreed partnership. This is still at the exploratory stage but we are agreed that “this is the way to follow at present”. Our next conversation will be on Wednesday 17th May.

“In Touch” - Methodist Scotland District newsletter

Copies of the Spring 2017 (issue 8) edition are on the vestibule table; please take, uplift for handing to others, recommend - and read & note the contents!

Please send any contributions for the next newsletter to Fiona Inglis via the District Office in Dunblane fiona@methodistchurch.plus.com, Old Churches House, Kirk Street, Dunblane FK15 0AJ (01786 820295).

Faith in Community Dundee

This organisation, especially through its Development Officer, Jackie Close, has been very helpful in the establishment of the ClothesBank based in our premises. It is a part of Faith in Community Scotland, the financial wing of which is the Faiths in Scotland Community Action Fund (FiSCAF) to which our May Communion offering is allocated. For a year, David Easson served as the Methodist rep on this national funding body and was succeeded by the Rev John Butterfield until he moved to Orkney. FiSCAF replaced SCCT (the Scottish Churches Community Trust), which was the Scottish equivalent of our own Mission Alongside the Poor Programme, and Scottish Methodists were told that the SCCT would be the organisation to apply for grants from rather than MAPP. So we have a long connection with this organisation.

Faith in Community Dundee, whose offices are in Derwent Avenue (01382 825351), works with faith communities across the city, mainly aiming to tackle issues of poverty and exclusion. The aim is to build the capacity of local people to be more able to create an inclusive community where people can achieve more.

The Dundee Drop In (to which Dundee Methodists now go) is a group of church-based projects involved in crisis intervention providing basic resources, information, and welcoming 'safe space', often for people on the margins of society in Dundee.

The FiCD Team currently consists of a Community Worker, a Music Group Development Worker, a Community Development Worker, and Jackie Close as the Community Development Officer.

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support via the Bible-a-Month Partnership is invited in May for work in Scotland.

Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• Bibleworld books, new SBS children's resources for church-based after-school clubs;
• Bible Society of Egypt's outreach to pre-school and older children through videos;
• Estonian Bible Society's planning of conferences, worship, exhibitions, and a series of weekly radio programmes;
• German Bible Society's recent Basic Bible New Testament and work now beginning on the Old Testament “in the language of today”.

Forthcoming events

Prayer Points for this week

• the President and Vice-President of Conference at the Diaconal Convocation, Tuesday - Friday;
• the Vice-President designate of Conference, Jill Baker (Strathclyde Circuit);
• Connexional Allowances Committee, Thursday;
• ecumenical partners in Scotland and those present in our local communities;
• work in the Leeds District (Methodist Homes);
• Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation's work with disabled people (Embrace ME);
• Vision 2020 whose principle is 'my future is bound up with your future' (Christian Aid);
• work in Madagascar and Mozambique (MAF);
• Bible Society work in China and in Scotland;
• research projects and partners (The Leprosy Mission);
• we pray with and for the peoples of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (WCC);
• we remember fellow Methodists in the Mid-Lincolnshire Circuit (Lincolnshire District) and in Clydebank (Strathclyde Circuit).

• 23 April 2017
• 7 May 2017

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