The President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev Loraine Mellor, and the Vice President, Jill Baker, will be based in Strathclyde and Paisley for their visit to the Scotland District this year. They will visit churches in the area during the two days they are with us in the District.
On Tuesday 24th April at 7pm members of the District are invited to join them at Pollokshaws Methodist Church G43 1NY for a celebration service.
The ecumenical Service of Ashes will be held in Our Lady of Good Counsel, Westfield Road, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 14th February. Everyone is warmly welcomed.
Group meetings will take place on Mondays at 10.15am in St Mary’s Episcopal Church and on Tuesdays at 7.30pm in St James, Fort Street. The material chosen this year focuses on The Beatitudes, with the title “Life Attitudes”.
The meetings on ‘Why Methodism?’ have now been scheduled for Wednesdays 21st February, 7th March and 21st March, all at 7pm. Rev Nick Baker will lead us in exploring together what is distinctive about Methodism in the Christian tradition and what we enjoy (and don’t enjoy!) about being Methodist. Each meeting will last an hour and a half.
All are very welcome to attend, even if you can make only some of the dates. You do not need to be a member of the Methodist church, or of any church!
Please email by 9th February 2018 to let Christian Aid you are going .
John Wesley
You are invited to a series of 3 meetings to be held at the church during Lent on the subject ‘Why Methodism?’. Rev Nick Baker will lead us in exploring together what is distinctive about Methodism in the Christian tradition and what we enjoy (and don’t enjoy!) about being Methodist. Each meeting will last an hour and a half.
We hope to hold these meetings at a time that will maximise the number of interested participants. All are very welcome.
If you would like to come, please go to the Doodle poll, where you can indicate when you are free to attend. Alternatively, just email. This would be especially useful if two of you share an email but have different time preferences.
Lent starts on 14th February, so we need to make arrangements quite quickly. Please indicate your availability as soon as possible, but definitely by Friday 2nd February.
The ClothesBank has been going for over a year and has helped around 150 people.
We continue to receive funds from the RagBag collections, and just before Christmas, a generous donation of over £180 from a Frocks and Fizz evening held by the Gate Fellowship, proceeds of which were for “our partner charity, Dundee Clothing Project”.
So we had enough funds to purchase toiletries, gloves, hats and warm leggings. These and about 20 new reversible fleece / waterproof coats that were donated by Allison Stiven, were taken to the Salvation Army premises on Christmas Day, where a splendid Christmas Lunch was being hosted for all those in need.
We still have funds available and plenty of clothing in stock and it has been suggested that we make up packs to be given out at Ninewells Hospital, for those who may arrive via emergency services, without any suitable clothing or toiletries, so we will be doing this in the next week or so.
All donations of clothing, shoes, boots and handbags still very welcome.
On Wednesday 19 March 2017, Starter Packs Dundee won the Volunteer Friendly Award. Pat, Margaret and Karen attended an award ceremony at Dundee City Chambers, hosted by the Lord Provost, Bob Duncan to receive the award on behalf of all those involved with Starter Packs Dundee.
This nationally-recognised award is presented to organisations who demonstrate good practice in relation to their volunteers. As volunteers are so important to many organisations, including Starter Pack projects, it is vital to ensure they are well looked after in every aspect of their work.
Starter Packs Dundee was set up on the initiative of Scottish Churches Housing Action in 2000, the first of its kind in Scotland. It is an interdenominational Christian organisation.
Donations of good, unwanted basic household goods, bed linen and curtains are received from churches in Dundee, other organisations and individuals. They are then re-cycled and made up into ‘starter packs’ by a team of volunteers working on a rota basis.
The Rev Andrew Ashdown is visiting Tayside and Fife to share his experiences and insight from 1st February to 4th February. Our Baptist friends in Broughty Ferry invite us to join them in their premises (St Vincent Street) on Sunday 4th February at 6.30pm for a talk, questions & answers, followed by a Vigil for Syria.
“Revd Andrew Ashdown has [been] building extensive contacts with faith community leaders in the country, Muslim as well as Christian. The good news stories of people working together across faith communities to rebuild their towns and cities are rarely heard in the media.”
(Rev Dr Brian Talbot, Broughty Baptists).
This year’s theme, “That All May Be Free”, is based on Exodus 15, with material prepared in the Caribbean.
The themes of the daily material raise some of the contemporary issues addressed by the churches of the Caribbean.
“The chosen passage allows us to see that the road to unity must often pass through a communal experience of suffering. Although our liberation and salvation is at God’s initiative, human agencies are engaged in their realisation. Christian participate in God’s ministry of reconciliation, yet our divisions hamper our witness to a world in need of God’s healing.”
(from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland)
Broughty Ferry Churches Group invites our support at the Service in St Mary’s SEC on Thursday 25th January 2018 at 12 noon.
The accommodation at the Abbey and Macleod Centre are closed in 2018 for major refurbishment. Instead, the Abbey is running residential programmes in conjunction with the St Columba Hotel.
Kissed-Pierced-Hidden-Revealed: Seeing God’s Passion from Gethsemane to Glory runs from 28th March to 2nd April, and will look at how artists working in all kinds of circumstances – from power to poverty, the mainstream to the margins – have responded to Christ’s passion and resurrection.