Our Interim Moderator Karen Hendry’s opening reflection for this week is recorded and available to view below.
Karen says “The Lenten path is not an easy one and has many twists and turns of doubt and fear that beckon us to take a wrong turn off the road.
In Jesus’ call to compassionate and empathic living we learn to carry not just our own but one another’s burdens too, taking it in turn to offer a helping hand when we are strong and trusting ourselves into such a living into the Body of Christ.
May you have a good week that is blessed by such an awareness of the companionship of love.”
As always, if you would like to join in the service, which includes breaking out into rooms for coffee/tea and chat afterwards, please contact Karen who sends out the link on a weekly basis. All are welcome.
Most of us haven’t had the opportunity to be inside Kelvinside Hillhead for a while, but here’s the next best thing: Mairi Russell playing the piano in our beautiful sanctuary as the early spring sunshine streams through the windows.
Our Interim Moderator Karen Hendry’s opening reflection for this week is recorded and available to view below.
Karen says “I hope that you are continuing to bear up under these difficult circumstances. On this first Sunday of Lent the readings for today, of the rainbow promise and Jesus’ journey in the wilderness, seem for me at least to have echoes with our present times.
As Jesus found sustenance in God’s Word in a wilderness place, I hope that you have found something that sustains you through these months that have turned into almost a year now since the beginning of lockdown way back in March 2020.
May whatever it is that so encourages you be as a blessing that points you towards the enduring love and presence of God through all circumstance.”
As always, if you would like to join in the service, which includes breaking out into rooms for coffee/tea and chat afterwards, please contact Karen who sends out the link on a weekly basis. All are welcome.
Our joint evening services at 7pm take place at the moment via Zoom. Everyone is welcome – contact Helen to join the mailing list for the links.
During Lent, our evening worship will rely on the Lent courseStill Standing by Rachel Mann. The study is based on the film Rocketman which depicts the life of Elton John. A controversial choice some may think. Rachel starts from Matthew 18:3 (“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.) and introduces her book as follows:
“Rocketman, the biopic about rock superstar Elton John, might strike some as, at best, a surprising and, at worst, an outrageous choice as the basis for a Lent course. There are no two ways about it, Sir Elton Hercules John has lived a life full of excess and naughtiness that few, even in the world of rock and roll music, can match. It is worth saying, at the outset, that the film on which this course is based is 15 rated, and contains language of the strongest, earthiest sort, and depicts scenes which some will find challenging. So why select this film for a Lent course, if it is likely to upset many people? We, perhaps, because underneath the drug-taking, the bad language, and the random sexual encounters, Rocketman arguably presents the story of a person seeking not only redemption, but what it means to become a little child.” (p. 7)
We hope that you will take up the challenge of this Lent course. There is no need to buy the book (unless you want to) and we will show relevant film excerpts during the evening worship so it does not matter if you know the movie or not.
Once again, Roger Sturrock is running his Lenten bible study. These run on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm and will start tonight, Tuesday 16th February, and thereafter on the 23rd Feb and 2nd, 9th, 17th* and 23rd of March.
(*Note that the 17th March meeting is on a Wednesday)
All meetings are via Zoom. Contact Roger by email, or on 0141 942 8001 for the meeting details.
The studies will be based around the film “The Way” starring Martin Sheen, and the group will be reviewing film clips as an aid to discussion.
Additionally, a bible study booklet is available from Amazon, both in print and in a cheaper Kindle edition. This is completely optional and you don’t have to buy it to participate, but it does contain a wealth of additional material.
Our Interim Moderator Karen Hendry’s opening reflection for this week is recorded and available to view below.
Karen says “Today is Transfiguration Sunday, a day when we look deeper into the reality of our lives. And among us there are signs a plenty of the love and grace that unites us with one another. May this be for you a blessing that lift your spirits during the days that can be difficult when we can sometimes be impatient for this time of lockdown to end.
Know that you are loved and precious in God’s sight and may that be something that is continually revealed among us as we hold with another in prayer and Christian love.“
As always, if you would like to join in the service, which includes breaking out into rooms for coffee/tea and chat afterwards, please contact Karen who sends out the link on a weekly basis. All are welcome.
During these times where we are unable to meet in person, our Interim Moderator, Rev Karen Hendry, hosts a short service of worship for the Yoker and Kelvinside-Hillhead congregations via Zoom on Sunday mornings.
If you would like to join in the service, which includes breaking out into rooms for coffee/tea and chat afterwards, please contact Karen who sends out the link on a weekly basis. All are welcome.
Karen’s opening reflection for this week is recorded and available to view here:
Sion, thy bridal-bower prepare To harbour Christ thy monarch there; And greet thou Mary maid, for why She is the gateway to the sky, And eke, as it is plainly shown, Is made a cherubimic throne.
The King of Glory she doth seat, A cloud of light this virgin sweet, That bears the Son in flesh from far That as before the Morning Star.
Him in his arms took Simeon old, And testified to all, “Behold The Savior of the world,” he saith, “This Bairn is Lord of life and death.”
– St. Cosmas (d. 760) Therese, M. I sing of a maiden: the Mary book of verse. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947.
At 12pm today the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, so join us in making a joyful noise to celebrate the beginning of the end for nuclear weapons.
Bells will be ringing across the nation at 12 noon, and many of us will be standing on our doorsteps with bells and whistles to make a noise in celebration.
The Treaty comprehensively bans nuclear weapons among the countries that have ratified it – 51 so far, with many more to come, as over 80 countries have completed the first stage of signing the Treaty.
We join Scottish CND, the Church of Scotland, and people of all faiths and none across Scotland to hope and pray that the UK will join them.
Detail from a mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
