Message from the Minister This has been a fantastic summer at Errol l/w Kilspindie and . The summer started wonderfully well with 6 adults joining the Church at Errol on Pentecost Sunday, with three children’s baptisms and three adult baptisms. We have also had three other people moving their lines to Errol and joining the Church. It has been great to see the steady growth in church attendance over the past three years, this is no accident, so keep up the good work. Kilspindie’s congregation has held up well, despite the ageing congregation (and minister) and bouts of ill health among the members. I hope everyone has had a restful summer and we are ready to hit the ground running for the autumn session. Rev John Macgregor

Kilspindie & Rait Community Cafe We are now starting our fourth year of the community cafe which is held in the Church hall on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month from 2pm to 3-30pm. A warm welcome awaits any who have a free afternoon. We are extremely grateful to the folks who come from Errol for helping to make this venture successful. We hope to gain more support from the Rait & Kilspindie community. Note for your diary. Plans are afoot to hold a Ceilidh in the near future. Further details to be announced soon.

1 A Challenge To The Members Of The Congregation From The Young Folk The members of Errol Sunday Club made this list of suggestions which they passed on to the Minister! He in turn shared them with the congregation at Sunday worship…. Be safe Be tidy Be thoughtful Be friends Be happy Be good to each other Be good Be creative Be trustful Be helpful Be loving Be kind Be tolerant Be nice Be careful Be gracious Why not put the list on your fridge to look at every day? Some thoughts on Prayer Our simple prayers when we were children were appropriate and right for a child. If you still prayed when you were in your teens, your prayers would doubtless have moved on, and you will have asked the Lord for quite different things; perhaps you would have shared with him your hopes and fears, even your heartaches and tears. Later, if you entered the world of paid employment, again there would have been a new and different level of prayer as you shared with Christ your problems with your boss or colleagues, mingled with your aspirations to do well at work. But what about your present-day prayers? Surely they are away beyond the childhood level, right and proper though they were

2 then. If you are now a mature adult, how is your prayer-life doing? Has it developed with your more mature view of life, now that you have experienced the sorrows as well as the joys, the failures as well as the successes? Our prayer-lives should always be growing, developing and focusing more directly on God’s purposes for our lives and also for his Son’s kingdom in this broken world. In my early years in the ministry, I was greatly impressed by something that Martin Luther used to say to his students regarding prayer. He told them to begin first by reading their Bibles. Second, as they read they had to listen for God’s word to them arising from what they were reading. Third, they should then preach a mini-sermon to themselves from what the Lord was saying through his word. Finally, they should then draw near to God in prayer to ask for his strength and help to obey and work out into their lives the message of the mini-sermon they had just preached to themselves. I have to say that Luther’s advice changed both my personal reading of the Bible and my private, personal prayers. John Stott, one of the finest preachers and writers of the 20th century, put it like this: One of the highest and noblest functions of any person’s mind is to listen to God’s Word, and then be able to read His mind and think His thoughts after Him. When we learn to do that, we enter upon a new experience of prayer, and—more important—an entirely new experience of our Lord and Master. David Searle

3 The Errol Organ Since Colin left to take up a full time organ post in the music at Sunday services has been quite varied. We have been fortunate to have the services of David Smith and James Alexander on occasion, but at present there is no regular rota of organists. In the meantime the praise is usually led by the keyboard which the choir use for accompaniment to their anthems. The sound from this very versatile keyboard is fed through the speakers of the PA system. The burden of the recording falls on Roy McCasland and is very time consuming. We must all be very grateful to him for his great contribution to worship in this way. It is the hope of the Kirk Session that a regular rota of organists may soon be established to play the pipe organ live. Please pray for this situation and for the efforts of the Kirk Session to resolve it.

MESSY CHURCH We have made some changes to Messy Church this year. We are going to meet straight after church for a slightly longer session. We will have a light lunch at 12.30 p.m. followed by the Celebration of music and stories. We will then take part in craft activities and games and finish at 2.30 p.m. Messy church is all age family church where all are welcome; to take part in activities, to help out in

4 the kitchen, or to add your voice to the singing. If you are young at heart please join us. Errol Messy Church is on Sept. 22nd, Dec.1st, Feb. 23rd, April 26th.

FUN CHURCH TUESDAY Last year was an amazing year and we are getting ready for another busy year to come. Around 25 young people, P5 to P7, meet in the church on the first Tuesday of the month for games, craft and an ‘Ask the Minister’ session. We have a strong team of workers but would welcome more help. If you would like to volunteer at FCT you will need to become a member of the PVG Scheme. Speak to Karen. Our dates this year are Sept. 3rd, Oct. 1st, Nov. 5th, Dec. 3rd.

YOUTH CLUB This is similar to Fun Church Tuesday but is for young people who have left primary school. It meets on the Thursday following FCT. We have a small team of workers. If you would like to volunteer at Youth Club you will need to become a member of the PVG Scheme. Speak to Karen. Our dates this year are September 5th, October 3rd, November 7th, December 5th. Please pray for all the work we do with the children in Errol.

JAIRO Karen Smith This is the last letter we received from Jairo on March 25th, 2019. Hello, friend Errol Parish Church! I greet you with much fondness and I hope our God is blessing your life and your family! I thank you so much for the gift you sent me! I liked it a lot because it was a blessing and I was able to buy cookies, soap, seasoning, spaghetti, 5 cornflakes, and it has been a blessing to be able to receive it and to enjoy the things I bought. Today I want to tell you some about my healthy life. My last medical check-up was in May 2018. My mom went with me, and I got transported by walking. The doctor told me I have to eat healthy foods, and I learned that I must not eat things that are harmful for my body. To stay healthy, I do exercise and I wash my hands, I brush my teeth and I eat healthy food. What I like to do the most to stay healthy is to do exercise. I also want to tell you that at my project we are seeing the theme, ‘Keeping the communion with God, and a friendship with others’. It is a very pretty theme and this teaches us to have a relationship with God. At school the teacher also taught me the theme about dividing and decomposing. How is your family? What is the weather like? I ask you to please pray for my family for God to keep us. I say bye with much fondness and I hope to hear a lot from you! May God bless you! Your friend, Jairo Alexander.

It costs us £25 per month to sponsor Jairo through Compassion UK. We also give 2 gifts a year, at Christmas and on his birthday. Many members of the church donate £5 once or twice a year. If you would like to contribute to this, please see Karen.

6 THE BIG JANUARY GET TOGETHER For those who remember the gathering in the Village Hall you will be pleased to know that the Errol team won a silver award for their efforts in organising the lunch and feature on a video which was shown at the Designing Futures Together award ceremony in the Council Chambers in June. Discussions are taking place to see if the lunch can be repeated in January 2020.

REVIVE CAFÉ ERROL The café reopens on Wednesday 11th September in the Village Hall. It runs from 1.30 pm to 2.45 pm. Here are the planned dates. Sept. 11th, 18th, 25th Oct. 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th Nov. 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th Dec. 4th, 11th

CHOIR CONCERT The church choir has resumed rehearsals, and plan to be back in their places from Sunday 1st September. Rehearsals will continue in the Ochil Room on Thursdays at 7.30 pm. They are going to hold a concert on Friday 4th October in the church at 7.30 pm. Make a note in your diary now. Admission by donation in aid of ’s Charity Air Ambulance and Macmillan Cancer.

MEN’S BREAKFAST CLUB The breakfast club will be held on Saturday 14 Sept, 12th Oct, 9th Nov, and 14th Dec. at 9 o’clock in the Ochil Room. Filled rolls, tea and coffee – and great conversation!

7 GUILD A number of the Guild attended the annual rally in the Caird Hall, 7th September. This is the start of the 2nd of 3 years of the Guild theme 'One Journey, Many Roads'. The topic for this year is 'Companions on the Road'. Our session opens on Thursday 12th with a talk by John MacGregor on his experiences as an army padre in Basra. This is followed on October 10th by the first of our Guild projects for this session, 'Seema's project', run by the Free to Live Trust in India. They are building and supporting a home for street children and also a rehabilitation centre for rescued victims of human trafficking. Both meetings at 2pm. On 14th November, again same day as Session, we have a speaker from Mercy Ships. Jane Knowles

Kilspindie & Rait - Local Church Review The Kilspindie Church building has stood since 1670 following union with Rait in 1619. Records of a church in the village go back to 1214 and a record of clergy from 1563. The recent review follows a long line of countless, nameless witnesses of faith where there must have been struggles previously; not least the Great War and World War 2. The impact of loss of the fallen listed on the war memorial would have had significant bearing upon the community. Now the church has no children in Sunday School, indeed in part due to P&KC policy of no development to the north of the A92. Very few children live in the parish, and the review observed that there is 8 a maturity of the members. None the less Rev. A. Mitchell and Mr S.Duthie in their visits to services remarked upon the warmth and sincerity of welcome. They went on to note the lively and engaging subsequent meeting in which current and future issues were discussed. One might say there remains active witness both because of that vigour and the continuity of worship, of awareness for others including an outreach community café and supporting projects:- CATH, Perth Samaritans, Starter Packs for people being housed etc. The outcome of the review was to suggest closer network relationships with Cargill, Church rather than Scone and the following Action Plan. 1 Seek to raise income over the next 5 yrs in order to remain a financially viable and independent church. 2 To build on the good relationship with Errol so we can work more closely. 3 Seek to improve car parking at the church. 4 Continue in our efforts to attract people from Rait to come and eventually join the church. & 5 To continue to develop the worship leading resources that currently exist within the congregation.

Errol Parish Church Review Errol Parish Church was reviewed during the past year by a group from the Superintendence Committee of Perth Presbytery. The following short extract is adapted from the Final Report produced at the end of the review. The Rev Alex Mitchell and Mr Sandy Duthie both attended morning worship, on separate Sundays, last December. They were both impressed by the warmth of fellowship and the involvement of members of the congregation during worship. In March, the Review group met with 21 office-bearers who they felt were clearly energetic and engaged in the life of the congregation. 9 They commented that it was clear that the Church lay at the heart of the community both geographically and spiritually. We were praised for the various new initiatives that have been started over the last 5 years: a church choir, Messy Church, Adult Messy Group, involvement in the Village Gala, Revive Café, a church website, lay leadership of Sunday prayers and worship, Fun Church Tuesdays (a youth group), Youth Club/Film night, and a Men’s Breakfast Club. They also viewed positively the links we have with other churches and local and international charities. Our Action Plan for the next five years is to -  Improve our communication strategy with Kirk Session, members of congregation and the wider community.  Provide spiritual development opportunities for all associated with the church.  Further develop our work with young people, families and the wider community.  Improve church facilities e.g. audio visual system, roof insulation, accessible entrance, and on going manse maintenance.  With support of General Trustees, complete contract with Gallifordtry for phone aerials in tower.

To read the report in full, please visit www.errolchurch.uk

Harvest Thanksgiving Services Kilspindie & Rait - Sunday 29th September at 9.30a.m. Errol – Family Service – Sunday 29th September at 11.00a.m.

10 Contacts

Minister: The Rev John Macgregor e: [email protected] T: 01821 642516

Session Clerk Errol: Helen Tipping e: [email protected]

Session Clerk Kilspindie & Rait: George Henderson e: [email protected]

Editorial: Bruce Thomson e: [email protected]

Members of the Kirk Sessions have more information and may be approached if help is needed to contact office bearers. Thank you for your understanding.

You can find up to date local information on the Errol Parish Church website (www.errolchurch.uk) all year round, and dates for Messy Church, Fun Church Tuesday, Film Nights, Men’s Breakfast and so on are also regularly displayed on the Errol Village Facebook page.

Registered Scottish Charity Numbers

Errol: SC015895

Kilspindie & Rait: SC010838

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