Recent Highlights
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Easter Day 2006 - All-age communion and floral display
St Andrew's was packed to the rafters as the whole church gathered to celebrate Jesus' resurrection and share in communion together. Led by Martin and teenager Elliott Beattie, the communion was served jointly by elders and children, and was a moving and a joyful occasion. The members of the Flower Club enhanced the worship environment wonderfully - you can see a selection of their contributions in our Easter Flower Gallery, thanks to the talents of our photographer, Jan Bledowski.
Jan also gave us this photograph of the Kirk Session, taken on that morning.
Sunday 29th January - Homelessness Sunday 2006
This year the focus of our practical action was making a bumper collection of tinned and other longlife food for the Food Parcel Project, which we operate in partnership with Old and Abbey Church. Since it began operating in the middle of 2005, the project has given out about 100 parcels to households in crisis in Arbroath. The project is staffed by over 20 volunteers drawn from both churches.
Sunday 10th April - Tartan Week 2005
3rd-10th April was Tartan Week in Arbroath, centred around the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath on 6th April 1320. The theme of the week was "Welcome Home", and we echoed this in our worship at the end of the week.
Many of the congregation wore some tartan to church, and those who have loved ones who live overseas added their names and in some cases photos to a world map on display at the front of the church. We included these "absent friends" in our prayers of intercession. At the conclusion of the service two pipers led the congregation from the church.
Sunday 30th January - Homelessness Sunday 2005
We
marked this occasion in a number of ways:
Sunday 16th January - Tsunami Appeal
Our retiral offering on this Sunday was £4,000 to aid the tsunami relief effort. Our Sunday Club children added to this amount by sellinga wordsearch and artwork they had done, and in February we sent a cheque for £4,400.
Wednesday 20th October - Launch of Wednesdays @ 7
This new gathering of the St Andrew's congregation for worship, study in groups
based on the sermon for that week, fellowship over tea and coffee and prayer
had a fantastic first session, with about 60 people turning up and lots of positive
comments. We will continue to meet together to learn and pray to help us to
grow in our faith, to minister and to reach out in mission.
Friday 22nd October - Launch of Twilight Zone for P6-P7
Brand new for the new 2004 session, Twilight Zone is from 6.30-8pm on Friday
evenings and is for children in the P6-P7 age range, pre-teens! A coooooool
time to be with friends, listen to music, enjoy pizza and hot dogs or sweets
and drinks from the bar. Twilight Zone is about getting together with friends
and learning more about getting together with God. The leaders were overwhelmed
by the response on the first night - about 70 kids turned up, most of whom have
no connection with the church. Wow!
September - Annual Census Results
Throughout the four weeks of September we conducted our annual census - a review of attendance at our worship services. The main findings:
Riding Lights is a professional theatre company, based in York. They played to a capacity crowd when they visited Arbroath last year and presented "The Fun of the Fair" at Arbroath High School. This performance was just as entertaining and thought-provoking, and hosting a performance at St Andrew's enabled them to perform at HMP Noranside in Angus, one of the two open prisons in the Scottish Prison Service.
To read more about the production and how it developed, visit the company's rehearsal diary on the Riding Lights website.
We followed this up in our service the following Sunday - our guests were Rev Andrew McLellan, HM Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, and Norman Dyce, the Activities and Inclusion Manager at HMP Noranside. Both spoke powerfully about how our congregation can play its part in ministering to the most excluded members of our society.
Congregational Retreat - 28th-30th November
A
group of about 30 people went away for a wonderfully relaxing weekend, which
appropriately included St Andrew's Day! We retreated to Carberry Tower in Musselburgh
(9 miles southeast of Edinburgh), a former stately home set in many acres of
beautiful wooded parkland. You can find out more about this Christian residential
conference centre from their website.
The theme of the weekend was 'All my hope on God is founded'. The programme consisted of various reflections on that theme, times of worship, fellowship and relaxation... and included plenty of free time to explore the surrounding countryside.
Farewell to Elaine Hamilton - Sunday 22nd June
Elaine has been the youth worker at St Andrew's since 1999. Her four-year contract finished in June, and she is now looking for pastures new in other areas of community work. Her farewell on Sunday was a happy, yet emotional occasion, during which many of the young people with whom Elaine worked were able to pay tribute to her ministry. These were good years, much valuable youth work was done and. as a congregation, we learned a tremendous amount.
We wish Elain well in her next step and pray that God will guide her in such
a way as to allow her to serve him as she, very clearly, is equipped to do.
Tom
White: "Gaun Yersel Moses!" - Sunday evening 18th May
This side-splitting evening at St Andrew's was a hilarious journey through
the Old Testament in Glasgowspeak verse. All of the old familiar stories were
included - Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo; Adam and Eve; Noah; Joseph; David
and Goliath; Samson; Jonah; Moses; Jericho - each poem faithful to the original
text but told in a way that had the 150-strong audience in fits of laughter.
Although "Gaun Yersel Moses!" is primarily intended as entertainment,
each poem finishes with a brief moral (also in verse) some of which many have
found to be highly inspirational. The performance therefore, as well as being
a fun time, can act as a very effective channel for spreading the Word, and
so this is a good opportunity to invite a friend along.
Tom has performed this show at Glasgow's West End Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Visit Tom White's website to find out more about how this show came into being.
Christian Aid Week - 11th-17th May
We made our usual door-to-door collections in the parish area, and information about the amount of money collected will be available soon.
Other Christian Aid events in Arbroath that week:
Admission of new members to the congregation - 11th May
St Andrew's was considerably enriched by the admission of twenty new members during the morning service on this day. Several people are "graduates" of our Firm Foundations course, which explains the basics of the Christian faith, and we rejoice with them in their newfound faith in Jesus. Others have come to St Andrew's from other churches as they have relocated to Arbroath.
Whether "new" or "old" in the faith, the congregation was thrilled to welcome all these new members to our continually growing family at St Andrew's.
Ian White in Concert @ St Andrew's - 7.30pm Thursday 24th April
Ian
is a gifted Scottish singer/songwriter, guitarist and worship leader with a
well-deserved international reputation and tour diary. He runs his own recording
label in Perth, Little Misty Music,
and has produced 15 albums to date. It was fantastic to have the chance to hear
someone who can sell out the 3000-seat Clyde Auditiorium in Glasgow, right here
at St Andrew's! As well as many known favourites, Ian introduced us to several
of his new songs, and CD sales at the crowded sales table at interval reflected
how much we'd enjoyed them.
It was a great night of music and worship, and we look forward to a return visit from Ian in the future.
Holiday Club: The Rock Zone - 10am-12 noon Monday 14th-Friday 18th April
Our annual holiday club was a great success, with about 60-70 children and their leaders learning about Peter and having brilliant fun along the way. Games, video, craft, gunge games, stories and more were all on the agenda.
Arbroath Churches Together: Holy Week meetings - 7.30pm Monday 14th-Sunday 20th April
Something different happened in Arbroath this year in the lead up to Easter. Arbroath Churches Together held a well-attended week of meetings, entitled "New Heart". A special guest speaker, Charlie Webster, was the preacher each night. He led us in a series of reflections about the events which led up to the death - and resurrection - of Jesus. From Monday to Wednesday, these meetings were held in the Webster Theatre Assembly Room. From Thursday through to Sunday (omitting Saturday), the venue was our own church. It was a great way for people from different churches to get together and celebrate our common purpose.
Oyster Trust Open Day: 19 Westport - 2-4pm and 7.30-9pm Tuesday 25th March
Oyster Trust is an innovative group of people with a great vision for unlocking the potential of disadvantaged people, both here in Arbroath and abroad. They already run the increasingly popular speciality Fair Trade shop, Oyster Crafts, which is at 21 Westport. For the past few years have been working hard on refurbishing the larger shop next door, with the intention of opening an alcohol-free bar for young adults. All the profits from Oyster Crafts, as well as a variety of grant money and other funding, is being put to good use there, and the Trustees issued an open invitation to supporters and other interested folks to come along and see the progress to date in the development. The Trust is still seeking funding for the final stages, but are looking ahead to the opening. Anyone who is interested in volunteering to work in the bar, help with fundraising or with interior decorating skills, visit Oyster Trust's website to find out more about their work, or contact Fraser or Sheila Dunphy on 873-218.
Fellowship Breakfast - 9.30-10.30am Sunday 23rd March
Our guest on that morning was Diana Kattan. Diana is from Jerusalem; she is a Palestinian Christian... one of an ever-decreasing number. She is currently in Scotland as a "Faith-share" partner with Christian Aid, visiting church groups to give a personal perspective about what daily life is like for Palestinians living in the West Bank. We were very fortunate to have her visit St Andrew's, and her presentation entitled "Holy Land or holey land?" was a disturbing revelation for many of us of the restrictions, humiliations and danger that she and her fellow Palestinians face every day.
As well as our usual Scottish breakfast, we were also treated to a variety of Palestinian food courtesy of St Andrew's member Pat Clegg.
Diana is involved with Christian Aid partner organisation the East Jerusalem YMCA. You can read a recent account on Christian Aid's website of an example of the difficulties that she and her colleagues face.
Concert in Aberdeen - 7.30pm Saturday 15th March
This was a great concert, featuring the New Scottish Choir and Orchestra, singer-songwriter Matt Redman and gifted Christian communicator J. John. So who are these guys?
"The New Scottish, Scotlands national Christian music charity, brings young talent and seasoned professionals together to present musical events of the highest quality sharing the richness of their Christian faith in fresh, exciting and relevant ways."
"The songwriting process is something Matt doesn't take lightly, especially when thinking in terms of worship. "Songwriting is all about revelation," he explains, "and as a songwriter who's writing congregational worship songs, you've got to see before you sing. You've got to have a little fresh insight on some part of divine revelation. So I'm trying to learn that lesson, because I think it's sometimes almost not worth singing out until you've seen something fresh.""
"J.John has been described as refreshing, humorous, passionate, earthy, accessible, dynamic and most of all, ordinary. He believes that a lot of people's understanding of Christianity is a misunderstanding. In his own inimitable style he enables his listeners to understand that Christianity is not only reasonable, but relevant and vitally important."
A busload of St Andrew's people and friends throroughly enjoyed this night out.
Football and Faith - 7pm Sunday 23rd February
Following
on from our very successful evening with Juan Sara from Dundee United, this
was a men-only event! Marvin
Andrews, the Livingstone player from Trinidad & Tobago, joined football
lovers for a meal, a football quiz and some big screen action. Besides his football
talent, Marvin is also a full-on Christian:
"While the vast majority of professional footballers tend to be driven by money, at least in part, Andrews would appear to be a very different beast. Financial considerations come a poor second to spiritual happiness and a sense of purpose, and he revealed that his spiritual relationship with God was key to him coming to planning his footballing future."
Marvin shared what his faith means to him during the evening, and many people took the opportunity to bring along a friend from outside the church - there were about 60 people in the audience.
National Homelessness Sunday - 26th January
The
theme for this special Sunday in 2003 was "A call for change", asking
us to speak up for all those who are affected by homelessness and to work together
to build a caring society where everyone understands that not having a home
is unjust and unnecessary.
Our special guests at this service were Councillor Glennis Middleton (on the
left in the photo), the Convenor of Social Work in Angus Council; Kathy Anderson
(on the right in the photo), project worker at Arbroath Citizens' Advice Bureau
and chairperson of Starter Packs Angus; and the Big Issue vendor in Arbroath
(who asked not to be named or photographed) who spoke about her life and what
it's like to sell the Big Issue in the Abroath High Street.
As an interesting aside, Glennis has also been
in the news lately as she discovered an unusual antidote to drinking anti-freeze....
:-)
Every 5 years a team from Angus Presbytery visit every church in the Presbytery, and during the second half of 2002 it was St Andrew's turn. The team met with Martin and many of the office bearers, and led a combined meeting of the Session and the Congregational Board on 7th January. The report of their findings concluded:
"St Andrew's shows all the elements of being a lively, attractive congregation, accessible to all ages and levels of faith. Much activity goes on and there is widespread involvement of members, those who will take the lead in projects and those who see their service as working quietly in the background. They value and appreciate the leadership that Martin Fair provides and it is clear that he reciprocates these feelings for the congregation as a whole, as there are obvious signs that they work together in a supportive and a trusting way to achieve their goals."
So we think we passed! :-)