Category: News

Taketime sessions on Mark’s Gospel

Taketime meditations use your imagination to provide a calm, comfortable space in which to meet God. Anyone can use these meditations, regardless of background or religion, and you can meditate anywhere you like.

The Learning Network is organising monthly facilitated sessions using sections of Mark’s Gospel, tying in with this year’s Bible Month. Sessions will run on the last Friday of the month at 12.30pm – 1.30pm, starting on Friday 29th Jan 2021. This will use the story from Mark 2:1-12 of the paralysed man being lowered through the roof.

Book through Eventbrite (free) to receive the link to the sessions. All are welcome.

Science, Faith and the Meaning of Life

Heriot-Watt University Chaplaincy’s 2021 Annual Public Lecture will be given by Professor Alister McGrath on the topic “SCIENCE, FAITH & THE MEANING OF LIFE: Comparing Richard Dawkins and Albert Einstein.” It will be live-streamed via Microsoft Teams Live on Monday 8 February at 7.30 pm. Professor McGrath is the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, and the lecture will be based on his current unpublished research. We are delighted that he has agreed to join us as part of our bi-centenary celebrations marking the founding of Heriot-Watt’s predecessor institution, the world’s first Mechanics Institute. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Please register via Eventbrite to receive access details: Science, Faith and the Meaning of Life (Heriot-Watt University Chaplaincy) Registration, Mon 8 Feb 2021 at 19:30 | Eventbrite

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

This is traditionally observed ‘during the octave of St Peter and St Paul’, and this year is 18 to 25 January. Materials may be found on the Methodist website.

The materials for 2021 have been prepared by the Monastic Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland. Their theme is, “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit”, based on John 15: 1-17. It expresses Grandchamp Community’s vocation to prayer, reconciliation and unity in the Church and the human family.

Christian Aid Scotland Supporter Gathering

We might not be able to gather in person quite yet, but we’ve discovered how much we can do online! Join us on Tuesday 16th February – 10 am to 12 noon – to hear about some of our amazing partner work at the virtual Gathering.

We’re delighted to welcome staff from Christian Aid Ethiopia. Netsanet Feleke and Solomon Woldetsadik will speak to us about the impact of climate change, locusts, and conflict on vulnerable communities.

We’re also excited to find out about new ways of celebrating Christian Aid Week. We’ll hear from supporters who tried new ways of fundraising in 2020. We’ll look forward to COP and think about how we can all be involved in the fight against climate change. And you’ll meet some of the new faces on the Christian Aid Scotland team.

This will be an interactive session with lots of opportunities to ask questions of our staff and other supporters.

Please do save the date and invite others to join us.

Email edinburgh@christian-aid.org to register and receive the joining instructions.

New Christmas Songs from Fishy Music

Fischy Music have produced a new Christmas song video for you to watch, use and share in your Christmas celebrations and services!

‘Even in the strangest times’ recognises that it’s going to be a very different kind of Christmas, so we’ve had a bit of fun coming up with a song to help us get some of that out, reconnect with the Christmas story and find joy in this season.

See also their other new Christmas songs

Prayers for the Prayer Handbook

The theme for the Methodist Prayer Handbook 2021/2022 is ‘a place for all’.

A Place for All

No one was excluded from Jesus’ table and eating with him was a sign of the kingdom of heaven and an invitation to meet God and to be transformed. We recognise that we do not always offer such generous welcome or listen to the voices on the margins.

As the Church strives to be God’s people in a world changed by a global pandemic, we invite prayers of thanksgiving and intercession, penitence and resolve that, with God’s help, we may recognise and repent of our exclusivity, and that then we may be reconciling, open to all and ready to listen to all voices equally. Together, we pray to become a more inclusive and diverse Church, creating communities of greater respect and compassion.

In addition to prayers on the theme of the Handbook, we invite prayers of thanksgiving, adoration and confession and prayers on the themes of justice, times of life and times of day and the comforting presence of God for the opening pages of the Handbook.

Prayers must be no longer than 120 words.

Please also email photographs that will help to bring our theme to life. Photographs with people in are particularly welcome. Photographs should be sent in their original size. Please provide a caption and state where the photograph was taken.

The deadline for submission of prayers and photos is 11 January 2021.

The exception to this is prayers and photos from schools. For schools only the deadline is 29 January.

Please send contributions to: prayerhandbook@methodistchurch.org.uk. Please also provide your name, postal address and how you would like to be described.

Before sending contributions, please read the full submission guidelines at: www.methodist.org.uk/prayerhandbook