Welcome and we hope you enjoy your visit to the website. This page was last updated on
03-Jul-2009
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This week represents a tremendous achievement of reaching
40% of our target of cash and 80% of chairs and metres of flooring raised in under 3 months.
WELL DONE ONE AND ALL.
The Rotary Club of Ellon have become the first organisation to sponsor our refurbishment project with £750 received to sponsor 3 chairs.
The Girl’s Brigade are the first church organisation to raise funds to sponsor a chair this year.
WELL DONE GIRLS
Still plenty of room for any user group of the church or the halls to help raise our target figure of £200.000
These are only a few of our Features. Don't forget to visit our other pages, particularly M3, Kirk News, Kirk Services for all the latest updates.
Also visit Youngstars for quizes, puzzles and activities.
It is hoped that work will begin in August. During the time of building work services will be held in the Kirk Centre. Ellon Baptist Church will share in worship with us.
The Management Team continue to work hard behind the scenes on all the preparation and contingency plans.
PEWS: Interested in owning a piece of EPC history? If you think one of the pews might fit into the conservatory, kitchen or garden then contact the Kirk Centre office for details.
CHOIR CHAIRS: We are considering auctioning these later - watch this space!!
PIPE ORGAN: The organ will be given protection during the refurbishment and will be ’boxed up’ on 5th July.
This year, Christian Aid Door to Door Collectors from EPC collected £1,909.22 which included £194.94 from Collieston. The total for Ellon and surrounding district was £5,668. Thank you to everyone who gave of their time and money to raise this magnificent sum.
Isobel White
On 8 June 2009, a Heritage Fair was run by the Aberdeenshire Heritage and Cultural department to encourage villages, towns and cities to celebrate their heritage and culture.
They were looking for groups, organisations, and people to share their history, background and current detail that has shaped our culture and heritage that makes Ellon Community what it is today.
Schools, the library, social groups setup stalls displaying who they are and what they do. While the fair was open social groups like Ythan fiddlers and bothy ballads group etc entertained the visitors adding to the whole experience.
Ellon Parish Church was displaying some of the news letters 'the bridge', a slide show and a sample of the communion silver to mention a few of the tems to illustrate our history and development of the parish church.
For those unable to attend the slide show is available here as a pdf file.
HOUSEKEEPING ASSISTANTS - various hours £11,578 pro rata
For more information call 01358 742244
or visit www.crossreach.org.uk/jobs
CrossReach employees should be in sympathy and supportive of our Christian ethos
My goodness, sir or madam, I can find no end what’s wrong.
And so can you - such ills and cares, such fears that linger long.
But don’t loose sight of what is bright -
and thank the Lord so much is right!
A Senior Prayer
Today lord I’m 80 - there’s much I’ve left undone
So I hope that you will let me live until I’m 81;
But then if I haven’t finished everything I want to do
Would you let me stay a little while until I’m 82?
There are so many places I want to go, so much yet to see
Do you think that you could make it 83?
The world is changing very fast and so much yet in store
It would be nice to be around and live to be 84.
And then, and then, if by your Grace, I’m allowed to stay alive
Couldn’t you stretch a point and make it 85?
All the wonderful changes in your world make me want to stick
And see what just might happen if I live to 86.
I know, lord, that I’m pushing it and there’ll be fun in heaven
But if you need the room up there, I’ll wait till 87.
I know by then I might be frail, and my memory in a state
But I’d try not to be a nuisance and still be useful at 88.
By then I’ll have seen so many things, and had a super time
And be quite ready to leave if you called me home at 89.
But maybe by then, you’ll be ready to smile and let me go
And be with my friends to party at the BIG 9-0
anon
‘If Jesus had said Yes’
(John 10: 20-30)
In this gospel reading Jesus is given a direct request by the crowd: ‘How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!’ Yet, in true Jesus fashion, he does not give a straight answer. He says, ‘I have told you and you do not believe me. The things I do by my Father’s authority show who I am.’
Jesus often answers around the point when asked directly: When Peter asks who he is, he answers: ‘Who do others say I am?’ So why does he do this? Why avoid the direct request for an answer?
In helping us understand some of Jesus’ reasons for this, let us for a moment imagine that in this particular circumstance Jesus had said: ‘Yes, I am the Messiah.’ What might the reaction of the crowd have been?
Some, as we know, would have feared him and sought to bring him down either as a heretic or as a threat to the status quo, but let’s look at some of the other thoughts that might have gone on in people’s heads. Some might have thought. Excellent, we can sit back and relax now, sure of our impending release from the oppression of the Romans. Others might have thought, Hmm. So he is the Messiah; then I guess that means I need to accept and do whatever he says – ordained by God and all that, and so followed him only out of obligation and authority.
Whatever their thoughts, they would have placed upon him their own expectations and assumptions of what being the Messiah meant, and then felt frustrated, upset or betrayed when those expectations were not met. In knowing the facts, they would have stopped asking the questions.
In not having a black- and- white certainty or proof of Jesus’ divinity they were forced to keep questioning; and in doing so, to keep listening and watching and searching. In doing so they were able to discover and own a real faith for themselves.
And so it is with us, I believe, the depth, richness and vitality of our faith come not in the place where we feel certain of our facts and secure in our beliefs. This security, although comforting and important to us in providing a place of rest and a basis from which to begin, is not often the place of growth in our faith.
Rather it is in the mysteries of our faith – the places of no easy answers, the areas of our uncertainty, or where we are actively open to looking for the truth in many viewpoints – that our faith begins to deepen. It is here in the messiness of creating and shaping and struggling and wrestling, that wisdom and faith come alive in a truly integrated way, one that moves beyond the intellect and into our whole being.
Still, those places are not the comfortable places; the people in the story new that – they wanted the comfort of facts. Yet Jesus challenged them to move from the comfort and into the mystery, where truth moves beyond fact and must be found and owned by each individual.
So let us also accept Jesus’ challenge, and learn to live a little more in the mysteries of our faith – to sit with the uncomfortable questions in our faith, whatever they might be, and to let those places become places of transformation on our lives.
Alan B. Doak
May 2009.
Art @ The Coffee Shop
The new Art Exhibition in the Kirk Centre Coffee Shop features an exciting and very varied range of pictures - from landscapes in oils and watercolours, to painting on china, seascape photography, to birds and animals in pastels. Come in and see for yourself and feast your eyes as well as your appetite.
The Coffee Shop is open Tuesday - Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Church of Scotland
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2009
There are still places for elders to represent Gordon Presbytery at this year’s Assembly which takes place from 21st - 27th May.
If you are interested please contact Rev. Stephen Emery by 29th April.
“Clann” is the new Church of Scotland site for ministry to and with children. “Clann” is Gaelic for “children” . It’s pronounced a bit like clown, so I’m told - apologies to Gaelic speakers!
Go to the web site.
Moderator's Blog
Rt. Reverend David Lunan, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has started his own personal blog to share his views on what his role as the Kirk's public face entails. Click here to visit the blog.
A Bit of Knowledge ...
If you have been in church recently you will have heard the Session Clerk, Clerk to the Board and Mission Group convenor give a brief outline of their roles and the remit of their committee or group. Still to come is information from representatives of the Worship Group; Education & Communication and Pastoral Groups; church music and finally we shall hear about the office. Hopefully you find this informative and useful - please let us know. And if you are called to join any of the groups you will be made very welcome.A list of contacts can be found on the Contact Us page.
Internet Enabled?
You can receive your newsletter electronically ...
Several more names have been added to the email list - is yours one of them? If not, just send your details to: The Kirk Office
The newsletter will be sent in PDF format which requires Adobe Reader, an application available free of charge from Adobe.
Ellon Parish Church Newsletter is emailed to many overseas countries. Do you know someone who would appreciate a copy?
Alternatively, the 2009 Newsletters can be downloaded here..
Public Relations Officer
Web Site Content Contributions
Contributions for inclusion on the web site are welcome from all. They are preferred electronically in the following media:-
Text in email or as Word attachments
Original size photographs (I'll take care of compresion and cropping for the website)
These are only preferences-whatever you have (Works, Publisher, pdf, etc), just send it in and we'll take care of it.
If you only have hard copy then no worries. Drop it off at the Kirk Centre office with your name and address, marked "Attention Webmaster" and we'll convert your conribution to electronic format and let you have the originals back promptly.
