Update
28 April 2019
Web: www.carnoustiepanbride.co.uk
E-mail Church Secretary: secretarypanbride@hotmail.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/carnoustiepanbridechurch
Church of Scotland Scottish Charity Number SC004594
OUR VISION: WE ENCOURAGE ALL TO
WORSHIP GOD, FOLLOW CHRIST, SERVE OTHERS
WHAT DID EASTER MEAN TO YOU?
SEE MUSINGS FROM THE MANSE
Did You Know
- During the months of June to August when Sunday morning service is held at Panbride Church a portable ramp will be used at the East door to help ease the difficulty of the high step at the entrance.
- The General Assembly will take place from 18th to 24th May when Rev Colin Sinclair minister of Palmerston Place Church Edinburgh will start his year as Moderator.
- Following the success of last year’s initial trial partnership between CrossReach and The Princes Trust there are plans in 2019 for a further 5-week programme of the ‘Get Into’ initiative. The programme offers young people, aged from 16 – 30, who are unemployed, a chance to explore a career within the Health and Social Care Sector. One of those who took part in the 2018 programme summarised her experience by saying “not only has it opened so many doors for me, it has also made me a better version of myself”
- Musical Memories is held on the last Wednesday of each month in the Kinloch Centre. It is for those living with dementia, their carers and also for those who are living with memory loss. It provides the opportunity to listen and join in singing well known songs.
- Rev Alasdair Graham, Minister at Arbroath West Church, retires at the end of April. He is well known to Panbride members as he was the Interim Moderator at Panbride during the vacancy before Matthew Bicket and our present Minister were appointed. The Kirk Session have agreed that it would be appropriate to mark his retirement and a card will be sent to express our thanks and appreciation for his wise guidance during both vacancies and to express our best wishes to him and his family for their retirement in Perthshire.
Friendship Circle
This year’s Friendship Circle session ended with our bus trip to Brechin Castle Garden Centre. We were lucky with the weather; the sun shone all afternoon and the countryside looked at it’s best. The Garden Centre is certainly worth a visit with plenty to see such as plants, speciality foods, clothes, toys, greeting cards and kitchen ware. Everyone enjoyed the cakes and scones in the café.
Friendship Circle will resume in the autumn; details will be in the magazine and all are welcome.
SW.Missing Tables – can you help resolve the mystery?
Two of the smaller tables kept in Panbride Hall have gone missing in the last few weeks.
If anyone has borrowed them and overlooked returning them could you please do so URGENTLY They are required for the Fund Raising event on Saturday 4th May
If you have any information about the missing tables please contact Mrs Mary Bushnell as soon as possible.
Musings from the Manse
One of the great things about being a parish minister is being invited into the schools to talk to the children. I have the great privilege of doing regular class work at Carlogie Primary School, and I am also invited to the Easter and Christmas Services as well as school assemblies.
At a recent school assembly for Primary 4-7 I used the Scottish Bible Society resource, “A Tale of Two Gardens” telling the Easter story from the events in the Garden of Gethsemane through to the events at the Garden Tomb on that first Easter Sunday morning.
As I was leaving the school, a boy asked me,
“Is that a true story, did that really happen?”
to which I answered “Yes, I believe it to be true, for me it really happened”.
And as I later reflected on this short exchange, I realised how difficult it must be for those who have no church connection or pre-understanding of Easter to believe the events of the Resurrection.
And they would not be the first ones to struggle with the Resurrection.
Remember the account of the Resurrection and how the disciples did not believe the words of the women who told them that Christ had risen from the grave. Instead they thought “their words seemed like nonsense”. Thomas didn’t believe that Christ was alive until he saw for himself, and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus did not recognise the Risen Christ among them until “he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them”. Jesus goes to great lengths to show them that he is real and not a ghost or a hallucination or a vision. He shows them his hands and his feet and invites them to touch him, to feel the marks of the nails. And then he eats a piece of broiled fish. The disciples know that ghosts don’t do that, so Jesus must be alive. It is not just all in their collective imaginations as some would suggest.
Of course, if the Resurrection had happened today in the 21st century there would be all sorts of evidence to prove what had really happened. There would be forensics and evidence from CCTV cameras and no doubt some footage taken on an iPhone would have been uploaded onto Facebook even before Mary and the other women had time to go and tell the other disciples.
But we don’t have any of that in the gospel accounts. What we do have is four accounts which differ slightly just as four eye witnesses at a car accident would give slightly different accounts of what they saw, of what “really happened”.
But we do know that something amazing happened.
Something that changed the disciples from people hiding in fear in the upper room to people who went out into the world telling every nation the good news of the Kingdom of God even when it cost them their own lives.
The Resurrection is fundamental to our faith.
If the Easter story had ended with the crucifixion of Jesus, then he would most likely have been forgotten – another Jew crucified by the Roman Empire at a time when thousands of similar executions were taking place.
There would be perhaps a few lines about him from Josephus, the 1st Century Jewish Historian and some reference to him in Jewish Rabbinic teaching but that would be all.
So, the Resurrection has to be real. It has to be true.
As the apostle Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless
and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14)
But perhaps our job as modern-day disciples is not to try and convince people.
Jim Friedrich, an Episcopal priest, says this:
“Confronted by a room full of people who spend most of their time in secular social ways of thinking, where the dead stay dead and God—if there is one—does not intervene in the natural order, preachers are tempted to mount a defense of the resurrection within what is plausible to the modern mind. In doing so, they tame a dangerous mystery into a manageable—and rather harmless—assumption. They also waste a valuable opportunity to bring the assembly into confrontation with the transformative presence of the living Christ.”
As Christians, the Resurrection is not something we should need to explain with undisputable facts and historical accuracy. It is something we live and breathe.
Blessings,
ANNETTE
Will your anchor hold?
The member who set me these photographs also sent me the following text.
My thought is:
Life is tough and full of hard knocks, some harder, more cruel and heartbreaking than others.
What is there to hold on to, and what is the point in so doing when it seems there is no point.
Have you an anchor? What will be your anchor to hold you fast? Have you an anchor?
Equinoctial storm. Coming on for Beaufort 10 – “Not that bad that it couldn’t get worse” (it is only when it can’t get worse that one questions the anchors).
During Sunday Service, there is at least one eye that locks on to the most easterly of the two stained glass windows behind the altar, noting that His left hand rests upon the top of an anchor shank, and thinks– “He knew about a storm on the Sea of Galilee,
He must have known about anchors …… in a real storm will my anchor hold?”
After the storm, safe haven, and as promised, the sun rises in the east. Thank you Lord.
Treasurers Report
| GIVINGS TO END OF MARCH | 2019
£ |
2018
£ |
| Weekly | 1,090 | 1,253 |
| Monthly | 9,575 | 9,904 |
| Plate | 2,500 | 2,385 |
| Gift Aid | 2,893 | 2,608 |
| TOTAL | 16,058 | 16,150 |
GIFT AID FORMS
A gentle reminder that from the 1 April 2019 the personal tax allowance increases to £12,500 which means a person who has signed a gift aid certificate will need to receive more than this in wages, pensions, interest, dividends etc. please inform us if you no longer pay tax and have signed a gift aid certificate in order that we will cease claiming gift aid in your name.
NEWTON HALL
In January the floor in the Newton Hall was resurfaced which enhanced the appearance, helped by a generous grant from the Carnoustie Golf Links. This hall is now available for hire in the afternoon or evenings. WJW
Tea & Coffee after Morning Worship during Summer
Teas and coffees will be served in Panbride Hall at Newton Church on Sunday 30th June and Sunday 28th July after the morning service in Panbride church.
Thank you to everyone who helps serve the refreshments each week after the Sunday services.
Margaret Jamieson
A Cleaning Team Needs You!
One of the Thursday cleaning teams is short of a team member. Could you be the one to fill the vacancy?
The job involves dusting/vacuuming and just generally tidying the sanctuary and entrance hallways.
This normally takes about an hour and the team is on duty in the afternoon, once every 5 weeks. The job is open to male and female (there already is a male on the team) and you would be made very welcome. You too could become a “Divine Duster”!!
I could also do with having a few more names on the reserve list to cover illness or holidays. If you would like to help or require more information on either of these jobs, please contact me, Pat Taylor on 853919 or see me after the service on a Sunday.
A Cleaning Team Needs You!
Needles and Pins
The group continue to meet fortnightly and we made some Easter chicks and baskets and animal inspired egg cosies. They proved very popular and were all sold at the coffee after Sunday services. We will have a stall at the Strawberry Tea on 8th June. We will then have a break over the summer and new members would be welcome when we resume.
PJT.
Radical Review for General Assembly 2019
In late 2018 a country wide 2-day presbytery conference attended by representatives from Angus was held. Topics discussed included reducing the burden on congregational administration tasks, presbyteries to have more flexibility over deployment of ministers and devolving resources to local level for mission and outreach. At the conclusion none of those present was in any doubt the huge challenge facing the Church of Scotland at this time. There was a common desire for change and a wide diversity of views as to how this can best happen.
Comments from Life & Work January – March included:
- The structure and architecture of many of our church building are not designed to encourage new models of worship
- Perhaps we need to re-invent presbyteries to become communities of worshipping people rather than ‘a collection of administration units for servicing the system of committees and regulations’
- Twenty years ago it was forecast that mainline churches in north America and northern Europe faced a crisis. ‘The storm buffeting the churches is very serious. Much more serious than our leaders have comprehended’
- Now is the time for us to begin to re-imagine church by making use of new technologies to build a spirit of interdependency and collaboration
- Let us capture the excitement of reaching out beyond the narrow limitations of our historical congregational identities to let the Holy Spirit show us the possibilities and potential that lies beyond
Angus Presbytery have held their Conference and the topics discussed included:
- Frequency, style and purpose of their meetings
- Could presbytery take responsibility for certain functions presently done at congregational level to allow congregations to focus on mission
- What might presbyteries do to support congregations in seeking to increase membership in missing age groups (mainly under 40’s)
- What size of presbytery would suit best for the future?
- How can they influence the number of congregations, their size, their buildings and the number of ministers?
The scale of the review is immense, many thoughts, some conflicting, are being aired.
The challenge for us will be to embrace change, learn to let go of things that need to be let go of so that we are free to continue with our vision for our church which is:
To encourage all to worship God, to follow Christ, and to serve others
New Easter Services
Two new services were introduced during Easter week this year. On the evening of Good Friday there was the Service of the Shadows and this was led by the Minister supported by members of the Worship Team and there were between 30 and 40 in attendance.
On Easter Day there was a short early morning service in the Manse garden and this was well supported by JAFFA members and their parents.
What did Easter mean to You?
For many, regardless of age, it may be young chickens, lambs and Easter eggs
For many it may have been what to have as a treat with a cup of tea
For those who attended some of the many services in Carnoustie during the week it could have been the message of Easter so powerfully delivered
For some the words of this poem called Easter Reflections
by Helen Steiner Rice will summarise the meaning of Easter for them
With OUR EYES we see
The beauty of Easter
As the earth awakens once more
With OUR EARS we hear
The birds sing sweetly
To tell us Spring again is here
With OUR HANDS we pick
The golden daffodils
And the fragment hyacinths
But only with OUR HEARTS
Can we feel the MIRACLE of GOD’S LOVE
Which redeems us all
And only with OUR SOUL
Can we make our ‘pilgrimage to God’
And inherit His Easter Gift of ETERNAL LIFE
And for some the following words from the Moderator of the Church of Scotland
Easter is where faith, for me, really hits home. It is a time of year when I don’t so much preach as make room for the story to unfold and to tell itself.
Reading the gospels using more than one voice, using silence and choosing music as well as words and actions carefully, the powerful message of Easter is able to speak for itself.
The impact of Easter morning, however can only be understood in the context of facing up to the horrors of Good Friday. It is Good Friday that gives the Sunday perspective.
Against all the odds miraculous things can happen. Things beyond our imagining.
Easter does that. It goes beyond our imagining – and more besides. Easter talks of the reality of death…and the reality of life beyond death.
It talks of hope where there is no hope. It points to possibility where there seems to be none.
What better message could we hear right now, as individuals, as a Church, as a nation and as a world? Easter is about the God who is with us. Right here. Right now.
A God who can see a way forward when we cannot and who sees for us all, through all his Son endured, a future that is eternal. Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Ministries and Mission Contribution 2019
As in previous years it is considered important that all members of the congregation are made aware of the Ministries and Mission assessment for the current year.
Each congregation is assessed individually Their income – primarily their offerings – in the 3 years preceding the calculation is the key factor used to determine the contribution. For 2019 the 3 years were from 2015 to 2017.
The total contribution for 2019 is £50,037 an increase of £1071 compared with 2018. The two parts of the contribution are £41,780 for Ministry and £8,256 for Mission.
For every £10 given as offerings:
around £4.20 (42%) is kept locally for costs such as maintaining buildings, fuel costs, administrative costs such as postage and printing, local mission and supporting church groups such as FOG Squad, JAFFA and Sports & Crosses.
around £4.88 (49%) is the Ministries Contribution and this ensures we have ministries in every part of the country. The 2019 cost of a parish minister at the top of the stipend scale is £42,921 when employers national insurance and pensions contributions are included. As our Minister has not yet reached that scale point it means that for this year we will be contributing the full cost of our Ministry.
the remaining 92p (9%) is the Mission Contribution and this supports congregations with services such as safeguarding, Social Care (CrossReach), Law Department. Stewardship and Finance. The General Assembly and Moderator. World Mission and the work of the various Councils of the church.
Test Your Bible Knowledge
1. Who inspired the writing of the Bible?
2. Who was the most humble man on earth?
3. What two Old Testament books are named after women?
4. What are the epistles?
5. What is the Golden Rule?
6. Where is the Garden of Gethsemane?
7. Who accompanied Jesus furthest into the Garden?
8. What is the book of Acts about?
9. What is the root of all kinds of evil?
10. Which two New testament writers were brothers of the Lord Jesus
Answers will be found in RED print before the Church Directory
Moment of Meditation
To be grateful is to recognise the Love of God in everything he has given us
– and he has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. (Thomas Merton)
FOG Squad
We are nearly at the end of the FOG SQUAD session and the children and adults have enjoyed using the Energise this year.
We finish our year with our picnic on Saturday 1st June and tickets will be available from 28th April. It is to be held in the Manse garden this year and there will be new outdoor games set out for families to play with and food as in previous years
On Sunday 2nd June we have our Annual Prize-giving Service which will
be held in Panbride Church. AS.
JAFFA
Dates for the next 3 meeting are
28th April. 26th May & 30th June
These meeting are open to all young people secondary school age.
Dates for a movie night, a group outing and Café Ministry to be confirmed soon
Join us on a Sunday we play games, watch films and eat Jaffa cakes!
Creche Rota
MAY
5th Annetta Anderson& Joyce Brown
12th Marion Palmer & Gillian Sawers
19th Joanna Stout & Daun Barrowman
26th Tom Black & Beth Lee-Smith
JUNE
2nd Annetta Anderson & Joyce Brown
9th Marion Palmer & Gillian Sawers
16th Daun Barrowman & Joanna Stout
23rd Tom Black & Annetta Anderson
There will be no crèche on 30th June, 7th and 14th July
JS.
Fund Raising and Social
The Coffee Pancake Morning held on Saturday 9th March 2019 raised the magnificent sum of
£481.15 for Church funds. Thanks to all who helped and supported this event.
Our next fundraising event will be held on Saturday 4th May 2019 in the Panbride Hall from
1.00pm until 4.00 pm and will take the form of a Valuation Afternoon. Steven Dewar from Curr
and Dewar auctioneers has very kindly agreed to do verbal valuations on small items [or a
photograph on larger ones] at a cost of £3.00 per item, maximum 3 items. Coffee, tea and tray
bakes will be available at a cost of £2.00. It is hoped that we might have a good response to
this event and all monies raised will go to Church funds.
A Strawberry Tea will be held in the Pabride Hall on Saturday 8th June 2019 from 2.30pm
until 4.00 pm and tickets will cost £3.00.
Other events in the planning with more details to follow:
Congregation Supper on Saturday 14th September 2019.
Concert by Arbroath Instrumental Band and Junior Band on Thursday 26th September 2019.
Coffee Morning on Saturday 2nd November 2019. HH.
Dates for your Diary
MAY
4 Valuation Afternoon Panbride Hall 1 to 4pm – see page 9 for more details
11 Angus Presbytery BIG DAY OUT see article below for detailed information
14 Finance Committee 7.30pm
16 Congregational Board 7.30pm Panbride Hall
19 Holy Communion 11am Newton Church and 3pm Panbride Hall
JUNE
MORNING SERVICE TRANSFERS TO PANBRIDE CHURCH
8 Strawberry Tea Panbride Hall 2.30 to 4pm Tickets £3
20 Kirk Session 7.30 pm Panbride Hall
29 Congregational Outing – see article below for detailed information
Angus Presbytery ‘BIG DAY OUT
This will be held on 11th May at Forfar East & Old Church and the theme is RENEWING.
The key note address will be given by Rev Robert Allan who was very much involved in the call for a Radical Review at last years General Assembly. And it will be interesting to hear what he has to say as Assembly 2019 approaches.
There will also be the opportunity to attend 3 of the workshops on offer. Make a selection from ‘Go For It ‘ about project funding, ‘Hot Chocolate’ a long running youth project in Dundee, ’Wild Goose Resource Group’ based at Iona and make a range of worship resources available, ‘Mission and Discipleship will feature many of the Church of Scotland workshop resources and Pioneer Ministry about an initiative based in Ayrshire which is aimed at engaging with the community.
The cost is £10 which includes lunch and starts at 10am and the closing worship is times is timed for 4pm Booking forms are available from Minister or you can book online at Eventbrite but there will be an additional charge to pay.
Congregational Outing
This will take place on Saturday 29th June and the coach will leave Newton Church at 10am on route to Pitlochry where a 2 course lunch with tea/coffee will be provided at Fishers Hotel.
The coach will then make its way to House of Bruar when there will be some free time for shopping. The cost this year will be £22 and this will include gratuities.
The return time will be flexible depending on the length of time required for shopping.
Names to Mary Bushnell as soon as possible
Congregational Register
BAPTISM
Dougie Eric Fraser Stewart -10 March
Evan David Forrester – 24 March
DEATHS
Mrs Muriel Wright* 26 February
Mrs Anna Morrison* 27 February
Mrs June Ross 28 March
Mr Ian Keith 7 April
Mr Howard Evans 14 April
* Member of Congregatio
WEDDING
Andrew Haig and Rebecca Faye Holmes on 30 March at Panbride Church
NEW MEMBERS
Mrs Gillian Bennett (District 16)
Mrs Patricia Evans (District 24)
Miss Claire Ellis (District 14)
Miss Lauren Harper (Postal)
Flower Calendar
MAY
5 Mrs Dorothy Blacklaws
12 Mrs Val Nicoll
19 Mrs Dorothy McCallum
26 Mrs Gill Manson
JUNE
2 Mrs Kathleen Fulton
9 Mrs Suzanne Fleming
16 Mrs Janis Jackson & Mrs Sheila Davison
23 Mrs Ann Howlett
30 Mrs Nancy Don
JULY
7 Mrs Lyn Ross
14 Mrs Joanna Stout
Bible Knowledge Answers
1.The Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16)
2. Moses (Numbers 12:3)
3.Ester & Ruth
4.Letters
5.Do unto others as you would have them do to you (Matthew 7:12)
6.At the base of the Mount of Olives (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26 Luke 22;39)
7.Peter, James & John (Matthew 26:37, Mark 14:33)
8.The early years of the Church, as the gospels began to spread through the world)
9. The love of money (1 Timothy 6:10)
10.James & Jude (Matthew13:55)
Church Directory
Minister Rev Annette Gordon
Session Clerk Mrs Lyn Ross
Clerk to Board Mr Walter Ruark
Treasurer Mr W John Winterton
Gift Aid Mr Stan Beattie
Church Secretary Mrs Nicola Keen
& Rollkeeper Contact via: secretarypanbride@hotmail.co.uk
Organist Mrs Marjorie Rennie
Church Officer Mrs Mary Bushnell
Fabric Convener Mr John Porter
Fund Raising & Social Convener Mrs Helen Harley
Flower Convener Mrs Eleanor Whamond
Magazine Convener Mr David Taylor
Health & Safety Mrs Linda Nicoll
Friendship Circle Mrs Cathie Connor
FOG Squad Team Leader Mrs Alison Stuart
Youth Group JAFFA Mrs Joanna Stout
Creche Mrs June Black
Safeguarding Co-ordinator Mrs Linda Nicoll
