25 March 2012

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.

Easter Offerings

Envelopes are being distributed from today for the annual Appeal in support of the work of the Church worldwide. Donations in support of this work may be returned through the offering plates during worship on and after Easter Sunday (April 8th).

The tradition of an Easter Offering dates from a collection by women in Liverpool in1883, continued historically through the “Women's Work” movement with an annual theme and Service of Dedication. The 2012 theme, based on Hebrews 13, 2 and reflecting the story in Genesis 18, 1-10, is “Entertaining Angels; Transforming Encounters in Mission” : provision of hospitality leading to life-changing encounter.

Hosting of Synod

Help is being sought from those able to act as Stewards and Catering assistants / servers during the Representative Session of Synod on Saturday 28th April in the Central Baptist Church premises, Ward Road, Dundee.

Please make contact with Sue Marshall to assist with catering, Heather Dean for stewarding, and Mary Patterson for car-park supervision.

As a good number of active people within the Circuit and this Church are members of Synod, it will not be possible for them to undertake duties whilst Synod is in session and they may be occupied at other times on the day, so those who are not Synod members are asked to consider how they might help.

Ecumenical Lent Groups

During the season of Lent, study groups are meeting as below. A warm welcome is given to everyone to share fellowship and thinking through the group, every week or as other commitments permit.

• Dundee City Centre Churches: on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm in Meadowside St Paul's Church Halls using the York Courses, entitled “Handing on the Torch”. A member of the Roman Catholic Church will lead this week's study.
• Broughty Ferry Churches Group: on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm. The Group will be hosted this week by Broughty Baptist Church, with St James' Church representatives leading on the theme of “Death”. This uses the CTBI material based on a poem of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, under the title “The Way to Freedom”. This will also be the theme of broadcast services on Sundays & weekdays on BBC Radio 4 and BBC local radio.

Holy Week arrangements

• City Centre Churches
  • Maundy Thursday Service in the URC Church, Salem Street (off Constitution Road, north of the inner ring road).
  • There will be a Walk of Witness in Dundee City Centre on Good Friday, from St Andrew's Cathedral, Nethergate, leaving at 12 noon for a Service in City Square.
  • The evening service will be in Meadowside St Paul's at 7.30pm.
  • Easter Sunday: “Resurrection Day” - Caird Hall - 6.30pm
• Broughty Ferry
  • During Holy Week (from Monday 2 April) there will be Services every day in Broughty Ferry Churches.
  • On Good Friday morning, the Distribution of Hot Cross Buns will take place. Donations of Hot Cross Buns should be brought to the Baptist Church Halls from 9am (or between 7pm and 8pm the previous evening); distribution on the streets will be from 10am. All contributions welcome!
  • There will be no Christian Aid Lunch on Good Friday (6th April).

Easter Sunday

• 'tricia Laurie, as Worship Group Convener, requests that gifts of spring flowers be brought to Marketgait on Easter Sunday (April 8th) for decoration of the plain Cross which has symbolised, with additions, our observance of Lent.
• The ecumenical open Celebration Event “Resurrection Day” will again take place in the Caird Hall at 6.30pm.

Meetings this week

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support through the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in March for work in Papua New Guinea. Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• the new Easy Reading Bible in the Czech Republic;
• developing communication and awareness-raising strategies in Switzerland;
• distribution work among migrants and prisoners in Austria;
• completion of the project work for The People's Bible (which marked the Year of the Bible in 2011).

Prayer Points for this week

• the President of Conference in the Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District to Wednesday;
• the process in the Church of England to appoint a successor to Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury;
• preparations for business and hosting of Spring Synod;
• the ordained Ministers in this Circuit and their families;
• residents and staff in the Nottingham and Derby District (Methodist Homes);
• The Leprosy Mission's work in Ethiopia;
• Mission Aviation Fellowship's outreach in Madagascar;
• International tax justice and equity (Christian Aid);
• J L Schneller School, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (BibleLands);
• Bible Society work in Papua New Guinea;
• we pray with and for the peoples of China, including Hong Kong and Macao (WCC Ecumenical Calendar);
• we remember fellow Methodists in Harrow and Hillingdon (The London District) and in Buckie (North of Scotland Mission Circuit).

• 18 March 2012
• 1 April 2012

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