31 October 2004

We give the assurance of our thoughts and prayers to all who are unwell, awaiting or undergoing treatment, or anxious or grieving for the loss of loved ones.

We express a warm welcome to those who have recently come to Universities and Colleges in Dundee.

Preparing for Worship

From next Sunday the downstairs back room will no longer be prepared as a “quiet room” for meditation and prayer before worship upstairs. Some people appreciate a period of calm preparation before the start of worship, and so we are all asked to observe a time of quietness from 10.55 am.

Focus on Worship

Those present last Tuesday

• discussed the generally favourable “feedback” from Harvest, expressing thanks to the small group who had worked hard to make it happen
• discussed & considered arrangements for worship in Advent / Christmas (28th Nov to 26th Dec);
• agreed there will be “early singing” in December but not January
• noted that there is very little use of the ‘quiet room’ on a Sunday morning and thought about ways of enabling quietness for those who wish it as a preparation for worship
• considered ways of responding to the Circuit Preachers’ request for creating ways of feedback and mutual conversation about worship experiences – this led to questions about ‘the reality of God in contemporary life’ and ‘how to make such issues part of our worship life’ : a continuing conversation …….
• Next meeting – 24th January 2005, at 7.30 pm.

Network News No 2 2004

Copies are on the Vestibule table.

Meetings this week

Support other Organisations

Methodist Homes

“Every Crowd has a Silver Lining”

This year’s theme invites reflection on “the place of Older People in the church”, including those who want to come but can’t, those living in residential care homes, and those confined to their own homes:

“Old age presents the church with new opportunities as well as challenging problems.”

MH(A) was founded in 1943 and now works directly with around 8,000 older people, managing 50 residential, nursing, and specialist dementia homes, plus offering sheltered housing, and services in the community

“We owe immense gratitude to our Methodist supporters and want to encourage and sustain this vital commitment.”

MH recommends the book ‘Old in Years and Young in Soul’ *, a book to help us to pray, edited by Keith Albans: a collection of thoughts and questions prayerfully and personally expressed by Christians who have faced challenge in their own lives and found God through it.

* from Methodist Homes for the Aged, Epworth House, Stuart Street, Derby DE1 2EQ (tel 01332 296200), price £6.95 + £1.05 (p&p)

This Sunday is being observed in the Circuit as Methodist Homes Sunday and envelopes are being distributed in support of this year’s Appeal. Our support is invited. Anyone willing to act as our MH ‘link person’ with the Circuit’s MH Contact (David Nicoll, Arbroath) is asked to contact David E.

UNICEF “Jars of Grace”

This year’s UNICEF Appeal “to help bring malnourished children back to health” focuses on therapeutic feeding.

Jars are still available from the Vestibule area – for return during worship next Sunday (7th November).

Scottish Bible Society

In November the Bible-a-Month Club invites our support for work in China – see library noticeboard.

Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• enabling availability of Scriptures in appropriate languages in Iran
• sufficient copies of the Bible in China –a recent delivery was insufficient for the 8000 who had gathered in Henan
• recent publication of the first Braille Children’s Scriptures in Russia
• planning of a Youth & Children’s Day by the Bible Society in Sri Lanka, where there is uneasy peace after years of conflict
• Asia–Pacific translation team’s visit to Mongolia.

Forthcoming events

Date & time	Venue	Details
Thursday, 11th November, 7.15 pm to 9.15 pm	Dundee Methodist Church	“Come as You Are”. A 10-week series to “help people think about their faith and what it means in their daily lives to be a follower of Jesus”. The course explores issues of faith and what it meansto belong to the Methodist Church in particular.

Prayer Points for this week

• the President and Vice-President of Conference in the Bristol District this week;
• meetings of the Connexional Law & Polity Committee (Thursday) and Faith & Order Committee (next weekend);
• the work of the Chair and the District Lay Stationing representative (Eileen Cox);
• residents, staff, and supporters of Gowan Court, Arbroath (MH sheltered housing);
• Montrose Pastoral Committee meeting, Monday;
• partners and projects in Sierra Leone (Christian Aid);
• Parent and Orphan Caregivers Project of the Positive Parenting Project in Zimbabwe - part of the Aid for AIDS programme (Feed The Minds);
• The Leprosy Mission’s work in West India – Karnataka, Maharashtra;
• Bible Society work in Iraq, and in China;
• we pray with and for the peoples of Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland;
• we remember fellow Methodists in the Sheffield (Mission) Circuit
• 24 October 2004
• 07 November 2004

© 2002—2003 Dundee Methodist Church.