Govan and Linthouse Parish Church Magazine

December 2013 View from the gallery, our two angels

Our two angels are sat upstairs in Church, its Sunday Morning.

Angel one: I’ve been thinking

Angel two: Oh aye, I thought I heard more than just the creak of Catherine playing the organ.

Angel one: flutters her wings and looks at angel two as if peering over glasses disapprovingly.

Angel two: Okay. Okay. Honestly you would think after 27 billion years you would get my sense of humour by now...c’mon, I’ll tell you a wee joke. Angel one sighs.

Angel two: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? Angel one shakes her head, her patience strained.

Angel one: I don’t know...how many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?

Angel two: It takes 4 Presbyterians to change a light bulb: 1 to change the bulb and the 3 to stand around talking about how much they missed the old one.

Angel one: Aye. As if you haven’t told me that joke before in the last 27 billion years! Anyway I’ve been thinking. Do you think the folks in here have any idea of what they are capable of?

Angel two: Do you mean, as they listen to the story of Jesus, and place their own story inside it? As they try to follow him, like?

Angel one: Aye, that kind of thing. I mean, do you really think they get it?

Angel two: What, that when they love each another as Jesus loved them, God is really there, I mean REALLY there.

Angel one: That every time they do an ordinary thing for somebody that’s cranky... Angel two: Or listen to the same joke again and still smile... Angel one smiles.

Angel one: That every time they do an ordinary thing for someone, with tenderness, that God is THERE. Do you think they get that?

Angel two: mmm...I hope so because it would be some joke if they didn’t!

Angel one: Speaking of good jokes – here comes the minister.

Angel two: It’s the way you tell them!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dec 13 Sidelines

Watching both my grandsons beginning to get to grips with the concept of language, reminds me, once again, what an amazing thing communication is. One day babies make unintelligible sounds, the next you can hear the vowel sounds, and then the consonants - and you have speech, communication. It is a miracle each time and yet so commonplace that we take it totally for granted. Development books assure you that it will take place at a certain age, and for the most part, excepting those children who struggle with hearing difficulties, it kicks in time after time. We talk, we laugh, we express concern or unhappiness, we become social beings linked by concepts of language, by a shared understanding of what words mean.

We take writing for granted as well, but it wasn’t always so. For millions of people throughout the ages, writing was a mysterious process. Only scribes in each society could read and write, could understand those mysterious symbols. In our medieval world, that role was fulfilled by monks, not just creating the letters, but painting in vivid colours the opening pages, the glorious capitals that opened each chapter. The curved or straight letters, the dots, the lines, added up to something glittering, burning on the page its essential truths. Writing was sacred. How could it be otherwise? It is only for recent generations, the products of a universal education, that writing has become a commonplace.

Writing was sacred, a gift of God, and as such, it must be truth. The whole idea of the Word of God, still prevailing in the church, comes from this widely held belief that writing was a gift given only to the few, and through them the messages, the word, of God was conveyed to human beings.

It was inevitable, I suppose, that as people came to regard writing as an ordinary, everyday thing, that it also became widely manipulative. The trial of those who ‘phone- hack to get their sensationalist stories is not just a journalistic betrayal, a blight upon a profession once respected, but it is a betrayal of the gift of words, of that shared understanding of what words are and can be. Even worse are those who use words for propaganda, for misinformation, for lies. For us the printed word, the written word, is no longer a thing of wonder. That makes it all the more important that we can distinguish between the bad and the good, between the words that inspire, or challenge, or affirm, and those that drag us into a bleak world of hopelessness.

For those of us who imagine ( in my case it will be just imagination) that we will spend our Christmas break, cosying up to the fire with a good book, be careful what you read, and be careful how you read.

Moyna.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buildings Update

Govan Cross

Negotiations are continuing with the Royal Bank of about the dry rot in our stairwell and wall, and running through to their basement stairwell and wall.

By the time you read this, I hope work will have begun to take out the affected timber and plaster and restore it. To date, all the areas have been checked and sprayed, so there is no danger of the rot spreading further. The delay has been the difficulty, for the bank, of having work done in sensitive parts of the bank branch, with minimum disruption and maximum security.

Hopefully, we should have the use of our hall sometime in the New Year. However, I do stress the continued need for fundraising, in order to get this building wind and water-tight, so that further deterioration is prevented. I know it is a slow-process, frustratingly slow, but sealing the building, stopping further water damage, and undoing the water damage, has to be our main priority for the coming year.

Govan Hogback

Hogback 1 will be leaving for London, for the British Museum’s new exhibition wing, in January 2014. At the moment, the legal contracts about carriage, insurance, and return dates, are in the process of being agreed by all the parties concerned (I have signed them, and the British Museum, but Historic Scotland now have to view them and agree the terms).

Anyone who happens to be in London between March and June of next year should try to go and see it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday and Thursday nights – when I can – are nights for playing football. Yes, even at my age! It’s only 7 a side and some of the guys are older than me, some are younger. It’s great to be able to get out in the fresh air and do some exercise and afterwards have some fellowship. The way it works during the game is that each team member takes a shot in goal. Some are better than others, and it tends to be that the better ball players are rubbish in goal! One comment I heard recently was when one of the young guys took his turn in and quickly lost three goals, a team mate commented that he had rarely seen anyone so scared of the ball. It got me thinking of what courage is and who has it. Well, we all have courage don’t we?

In a crossword I did recently the clue was ‘The absence of fear’, and the answer they wanted was ‘courage’. I have to disagree that courage is the absence of fear. I don’t think for a minute that any of the soldiers who are fighting in battles all over the world don’t feel fear, but they are courageous. I don’t believe that any of us who have overcome struggles in our lives have not first felt fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the recognition of fear but the willingness to overcome it. The Christmas story is full of courage. Courage on the part of Mary who after getting the visit from the angel Gabriel, a visit that would have first alarmed her, said that she was the Lord’s servant and it should be just as the angel had said. Courage on the part of Joseph, who after getting this devastating news that Mary was pregnant, was able to say he would take her as his wife. The courage to go to Bethlehem and trust that they were part of God’s new plan of redemption for the world. Courage of the wise men who knew that Herod would plan to kill the baby.

The Christmas story is full of courage and fear. Herod’s fear overwhelmed him, it consumed him, and rather than overcome that fear he goes down in history as the man who missed Christmas. If only Herod was able to be courageous. We make wise decisions when we recognise our fear but don’t allow our fear to hold us back. Fear turns to courage when we trust that the Lord of our Christmas has a plan not to leave us in a state of alarm but to take our fears and use them as ways to build us up. The great message of Christmas is that God has done something new and wonderful, and his commands through the Old Testament to not be afraid are fulfilled in us as we celebrate this wonderful gift of new life he gives us through the overcoming of our fear.

What fears do you take into this season? Fears for yourself, your family and friends, your church? The God of Christmas says, ‘Don’t be afraid, trust me and your fears will turn to courage.’ I pray that this Christmas will be a time of great renewal for each of us personally, and as our courage builds we see growth in our church. This is the church the baby came to establish and leave in our hands. With that great responsibility in mind, how can we stay living with fear? With his great promise to us, how can we not find the courage to be fully his people and do fully his will? Let us not take fear into the Christmas period and beyond. Let us instead find the courage to do a new thing in the year ahead, trusting that the God of Christmas is still with us as he promised. Merry Christmas.

Paul

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weekly Free Will Offering Envelopes

We still have some of the Weekly Free Will Offering Envelopes available. These envelopes mean we as a church can claim back the tax on your offering which means if you put £1 in the offering bag, we get £1. If you are a tax payer and put £1 in an envelope we get £1.25! This makes a big difference to our offerings so if you have been wondering why some people have envelopes and some people don’t, that’s why and if you would like to join the gang please speak to either June Little or Sandra Harvie. And if you decide to take them we thank you in advance . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out of the mouths of babes...

This article was written by an 8 year old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista, California. He wrote it for the third grade homework assignment to ‘explain God’.

Explanation of God

One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn’t have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to the mothers and fathers. God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have. Atheists are people who don’t believe in God. I don’t think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren’t any that come to our church. Jesus is God’s son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn’t want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him. But he was good and kind like his father, and told his father that they didn’t know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K. His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn’t have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important. You can pray any time you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time. You should always go to church on a Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it’s God. Don’t skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway. If you don’t believe in God besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can’t go everywhere with you like camp, but God can. It is good to know he’s around you when you’re scared, in the dark or when you can’t swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids. But...you shouldn’t just always think what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases. And...that’s why I believe in God.

The Guild

The Guild meetings for the winter session resumed on Monday 14th October in the Linthouse Building. This has meant a great amount to us as we longer have to worry about stairs.

For our first evening we went over future events and caught up with everyone. We also enjoyed a couple of plays based on our theme for this session ‘a Fellowship to Build’. It was a good opening night. Our second evening was in the capable hands of Frazier Capie our efficient Govan Old Visitor Co-ordinator, he gave us a wonderful insight into the Govan Area, the grave stones and the surrounding district making us fully aware of the history of Govan and what it will mean to future generations.

As usual we all enjoyed our Halloween Party, it really is just a bit of fun, many dressed up and all of us just really enjoying being together and sharing time and fellowship. Our next meeting will be our Bible study and Theme night. We will have the pleasure of meeting again Ann Lyall known to most of us as being in the past the Chaplin to the Lodging House Mission, it will be a real treat to have her amongst us. Before Christmas we hope to enjoy hearing all about the Kings Theatre, renew our friendship with Helen Adam and hopefully enjoy the Allsort Govan Choir. Christmas is still at the discussion stage but hopefully all will be settled soon.

On Sunday 17th November which is the beginning of Guild week, the Guild will be conducting the Morning Service. I do hope to see many there. We will also be collecting goodies for the usual hospitals and homes and I know from previous years just how generous you are. Even although the Lodging House is slightly different we will be helping in the kitchen in December, if anyone would like to come and join us for any of our meetings you will be most welcome. A copy of the syllabus will hopefully be available soon to browse upon.

Every Blessing and a Peaceful Christmas and New Year

Elspeth

Guild President

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

God’s Gang

It’s hard to believe another Christmas is nearly upon us. It seems that only a few months ago we were starting a new session at God’s Gang.

This session a few of our children started school they were very excited to be part of school life – one of the ‘big ones’, happy to leave the ‘wee ones’ at nursery. Children are always in a hurry to grow up, learn new things, excited about life and their next new adventure. Only as we grow older do we seem to lose our excitement about life. How many of us arrive at Church on a Sunday smiling and ready to learn? What will we be doing today? Will we hear a new story? Maybe even learn a new song! Perhaps we should follow their example and arrive at Church happy and ready to learn what the service will teach us. It might be the start of a new adventure for us!

This session our topics have been The Bible, God’s Word, and trying to be like Jesus by following his example. The children decided it wasn’t always easy to be like Jesus although they did promise to try very hard.

We also spoke about autumn, harvest and Remembrance Sunday. One of these lessons taught us that no matter how we change, God’s love for us will never change. This year our telling of the Nativity will be on Sunday 22nd December 2013. We would like to wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful 2014.

This Christmas remember JOY

Jesus

Others

Yourself

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

34th Girls’ Brigade

On Wednesday 9th October we took the girls to Pandamonium soft play in Erskine. They had a great time but were very tired when they got home. This night was picked as there was an election in the school hall and we would not have been able to get our let there on that night.

On 30th October we had a fancy dress party. We had some great costumes including a vending machine, Rubik cube and smurfs.

By the time you get your magazine we will have attended the Armistice parade in the Church and hopefully had a good turnout of girls.

As we will not be having a Christmas Fayre this year due to the main stairway being unusable we have been trying other fundraising efforts to help pay for capitation fees which this year are in the region of £23.00 per person. We had a stall at the Church Bag sale and sold quite a lot of Christmas gifts. We will also be having a stall at Library on Tuesday 3rd December at the Glasgow Life Christmas Lights switch on at approximately 4.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m and we are also trying to get a stall at the Elderpark Library on Thursday 5th December for the lights switch on at Govan.

We might also be carol singing in Central station for company funds and we are trying for a bag pack as well. We are going to be busy but it is all in a good cause.

We have also booked to go to Glenshee Christian Outdoor Centre at the beginning of May next year. This is something the girls are looking forward to.

Our numbers this year have been very good with an average of over 60 girls attending each week with over 80 being on the register.

Sandra MacDonald Messy Mondays

Messy Mondays started in October 2012. October 22nd to be precise! As many of you will know, it came about after we had tried various new things at Linthouse which didn't take off. We decided on this format and it has been growing ever since thanks to the commitment of the families who make it work week by week. Each week we start with some food, then we do a craft together. After the craft we go through to the church for a story and song. Then we finish with the kids playing a game while parents have a cup of tea or coffee and a chat. Since the new session started in August we have made some changes. Shirley Billes has been coming to do some storytelling and singing with us every second week and has quickly become part of the Messy Mondays family. The weeks Shirley isn't with us we have Ciaran and Katy who lead us in singing. I think they all enjoy taking part in the other activities we have too!

With the money kindly donated by the Stirling family we bought a bookcase and plan to have a library where we lend books out, but also use it to facilitate story time as part of the programme. This would be in addition to the worship element already there in that children would be encouraged to choose a book and together we would read the story. This session we have been looking at creation and spent some weeks looking at what God made and why he might have made it. Then we looked at some of the Old Testament Prophets. Each week the craft is linked to the theme so we have made animals and people, birds and sea life. It's great to see people working together to produce something and laughing while they do it. Our menu is varied with anything from soup and sandwiches to curry.

Messy Mondays is going from strength to strength and is a real blessing to everyone involved. We very much look forward to every Monday and are excited about the future. Please pray for continued growth and please be encouraged by what is happening. We feel that this is something bringing together a family of people who are a blessing to one another.

Paul

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weddings

Tianshun Lin and Au Jing - 22nd October at Govan Cross

Baptisms

Alfie Andrew Mark MacKinnon Son of Craig MacKinnon and Elaine Crosbie - 20th October 2013 Renovation fund

I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the church building Renovation Fund. We had a fantastic concert with music by the Glasgow Amateur Flute Ensemble (picture below) and a handbag and jewellery sale which helped no end with raising funds. Through your efforts and generosity I am able to advise that the total to date is £12,229 gathered in just over a year. The fund remains open and further donations will be gladly accepted.

Please remember to continue to fill smarties tubes with either 20ps or £1 coins

Sandra MacDonald

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Church Funds

The Glasgow Amateur Flute Ensemble, above, will be doing another concert for us on Friday 13th December at 7.30pm in the Linthouse Building. Tickets will cost £5 which will include entry, tea/coffee and home baking. The money raised will be split between the Church Funds and the Glasgow Amateur Flute Ensemble. Tickets will be on sale soon. "And yet I want to ask you for something more. Will you undertake from now on, to help the new assistant and myself to gather people of all ages into our services and classes, and keep them coming? Especially as we are to be at pains to gather in the children, to bring them to church and Sabbath School and encourage their coming till they need our encouragement no longer. No success elsewhere will compensate for our failure here." Rev Thomas Notman, St Mary's church magazine October 1941.

For years past, the Church has been deeply conscious of the fact that people in alarmingly great numbers have been growing away from the Church, so that to-day the majority of people have very little regard for the Church, and give little thought to religion. That is the state of affairs. I have been challenged again and again to say who is to blame, but I am not very good at “post-mortems.” We could go on forever slinging blame at one another, while the world hurtles on from tragedy to tragedy, from disaster to disaster. I don’t really care whether the dead past buries its dead or not; it is with the present, and the time to come, that I am concerned in my work in connection with the Church in Industry. The Church has something to give to life to-day, in its hour of trial and tragedy. The Church has a gospel to give, and, without that gospel of hope and promise, the future is doomed, no matter how perfectly men plan, and how gloriously men adventure. Rev William Bodin, published in November 1943.

Isn't it interesting to look back and see that even in the 1940's the church struggled with numbers and identity. Very often we look back and see only the good times, forgetting the struggles of the past. Thomas Notman wasn't a lone Ranger in his call to the church. He was one of many who called on members to live out the great commission of Jesus. His call to gather in especially the children is poignant. His assessment that unless the children are gathered in success could not be counted, is one we identify easily with more than 70 years later. A sign of a healthy church is in the number of children it has. We are doing well for children thanks to the commitment of so many who give of their time and energy, but there are many more who don't identify in any way with the church or engage with us in the ways we would like. That means we still have work to do. Let us not forget to be thankful for the children we have and for the richness they bring to the life of our church family. But neither let us forget that they are not simply the church of the future but the church of here and now, as are their families.

William Bodin was championing Industrial Mission in the church at a time when industry was still strong and when chaplains rolled up their sleeves and worked on the factory floor alongside the men and women they ministered to. His article is prophetic as we look back at the decline of the church since. Sure there was the boom time of the 1950's when people flocked to church. But it passed and the church has barely struggled to regain any sense of ascendancy. Yet where there is a gospel there must be hope. Otherwise we may as well give up and shut the doors. This same gospel is what we are called to proclaim today in 2013, and as we prepare for the future we keep our eyes firmly on our young, teaching them the ways of Jesus, encouraging them in the ways of faith. When I was nine years old I became a Junior Soldier in the Salvation Army. What lives with me today is the way I was welcomed as a valued member of the church, not as a child but as someone who had something to give. I'm not sure what that was, but the point is that the ethos was one of acceptance and for a child that is more important than anything else.

Will you keep on welcoming children to our family? Will you be encouraged by all that they offer to our worship and our church way of life? Will you be encouraged by how well they did on Armistice Sunday in the way they observed a silence they barely understand, and in the way they offered their thoughts and shared them with us? Will you give thanks for each and every individual who is part of our organisations from God's Gang, BB, GB, and Messy Mondays? Pray that the gospel of the 1940's is heard loud and clear, and be encouraged by the fact that God is doing a new thing in Govan. I feel the hand of God very much on us at the moment and I can't wait to find out what he has in store for us in the future!

Paul

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACTION AID AND MARY’S MEALS

I would like to thank everyone who has supported both my Charities over the past year. I cannot believe how much money we have raised and at a time when we are also supporting so many other good causes.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and next year brings all good things your way.

God Blessings to you all.

Love Rose

This is a lovely wee story by a Journalist in Scotland. His daughter wrote a letter asking who invented God. Not being a Christian himself he writes,

I e-mailed a copy of Lulu’s letter and a brief explanation to the Episcopalian Church in Scotland, where we live, to the Church of Scotland and to the Scottish Catholic Church. I did not mention my own views. For good measure, I sent it also to the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace.

I heard first from Monsignor Paul Conroy, of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland. He wrote this: “My reply would be along the lines of ‘God is like us – he wasn’t invented – but unlike us he has always been there. God is like someone we’ve always loved – we don’t remember when he came into our lives because like the people we love who have been there all our lives it’s as if we can’t imagine what it would be like without him’.” It seemed theologically on the button, but not much tailored to the six year old mind.

The Episcopalians and the Presbyterians didn’t reply. Lambeth Palace waited a couple of weeks and then asked me to tell Lulu that someone special was going to write to her. Eventually there cane an e-mail from “Archbishop Rowan” (Lambeth Palace gave permission for the letter’s reproduction).

Dear Lulu,

Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –

‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very, very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.

They then invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints especially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.

But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’

And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.

I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.

Archbishop Rowan

Sunday Tea Rota

This has fallen down slightly due to difficulty accessing the church hall. We would welcome any new names/faces for the 2014 rota. Please contact Jean McFarlane if you are interested in helping out. And a big thanks to all the stalwarts who carry on regardless.

Flower Calendar for 2014

This will soon be available in the vestibule, could I encourage anyone wishing to mark a special occasion, birthday, anniversary, wedding day, new addition (the list is endless)in the diary to help with the cost of placing flowers in our church for Sunday morning worship, and again many thanks to all the faithful band who do this every year – you know who you are.

Jean

Thank You List

To Willie Brown and Iain MacDonald who faithfully and quietly collect the orders of service left after our service each Sunday – it doesn’t go unnoticed.

For our Gillian (A.K.A. Wooden Top) for her help each week helping me to arrange the church flowers and to say a huge thank you for uplifting and arranging the flowers for the weeks I was unavailable – you’re a star.

To Frank Brown for the quiet and efficient way he prepares and presents the monthly balance sheets for our session meetings – your hard work is very much appreciated.

To the Boys Brigade for the use of the halls at Linthouse on BB nights for the music night and the Jewellery/handbag sale and for the forthcoming concert on 13th December – we couldn’t do it without the use of the hall and your flexibility is wonderful. Thank you.

I would also like to thank all the children who attended the Armistice Service from the Girls Brigade, Boys Brigade, Scouts and God’s Gang. Your behaviour was impeccable and the poems and talks the children delivered where wonderful. It’s great to them taking part in the services.

Jean

Communion Collection

The retiring collection for Communion on Sunday 1st December will be for Erskine. This was changed from the Lodging House Mission as there was meant to be a collection at Remembrance Service which didn’t take place. They're Back! Those wonderful Church Bulletins! These sentences (with all the BLOOPERS) actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. ------The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.' ------Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands. ------Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you. ------Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help. ------For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. ------Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get. ------Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days. ------A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.. ------At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice. ------Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones. ------Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children. ------Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered... ------The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility. ------Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow. ------The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon. ------This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin. ------Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM . All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done. ------The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday. ------Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door. ------The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy. ------Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance. ------The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do hope you enjoyed these little funny extracts from other church magazines – it’s good to laugh and let’s be honest – we all make mistakes but laughter is good for the soul so let’s keep them coming! If anyone has anything they want to add to the magazine please let me know and a huge thanks to the people who contribute to the magazine each time 

Gillian x

Hogmanay Ceilidh

We are hoping that the Hogmanay Ceilidh will be going ahead this year but there hasn’t been a final decision on it as we still don’t have use of the Govan Cross Halls. This may mean that it will take place in Linthouse so watch this space and we will keep you up dated..... Kids Corner

Numbers 14. 5-19 Rebellion. Remembrance Sunday 10th Nov 13 G& L.

Some of you may know that I am chaplain to a squadron of Air Cadets. In my squadron, there are about sixty teenagers (the age range is 13 to 17) and they come from every ethnic background. The squadron is around 50% Muslim kids, and we have the problem, at the moment, that some of the younger girls wear the hijab, the scarf, which may prove difficult when they have to have a bone-dome helmet when they are on flying training. The scarf won’t go underneath the helmet.

Last night I was talking to a group of 16 year- olds, and obviously, we were talking about Remembrance, two World Wars and other conflicts and what constitutes your obligation to the country in which you live. You would have been so proud of these children. Their sense of duty, of responsibility, is almost painful. Speaking as someone who always had an overwhelming sense of duty since childhood, I found it poignant to hear them speak on such subjects, and felt a kind of ache for their lives, because they will never be able to avoid difficulty because of the integrity they live by. They were so far, so very far, away from our picture of teenagers who think about nothing much and spend all their time partying. Of course it is our picture which is wrong, not the children. There is as broad a range of humorous, fun-loving, sensitive, serious, thoughtful youngsters in this coming generation as in any.

The squadron also includes a lovely, conscientious, young non- commissioned officer, whom I have known since he was a toddler in my asylum centre. His family were Bosnian Muslims, ethnically, although his father describes himself as an atheist, but his father was taken away and shot during the conflict in Bosnia and still has shrapnel in his skull and his limbs. Their lives here, though safe, are not without hardship, financial and social. It was one of the things I noticed most about people from the former Yugoslavia: they trusted no-one and couldn’t make any friends. The trauma of that dreadful, civil disruption continues long after the conflict is over.

They say that civil wars are the most enduring, in terms of the long mistrust and bitterness, than any wars which take place between nations. It is impossible to explain the levels of personal hurt when your neighbour, that you have known for thirty years or more, whom you helped out with a job, or passed through some food when you knew they were struggling, comes to your house at night and torches it, as part of a group of violent militia, taking away your teenage son, your husband, your brother. The depth of that betrayal is like no other that people have to bear.

Which is why this incident in Numbers is so much more than it seems on first reading. Our translations describe it as a rebellion, but it was a deep- seated crisis against the leadership, more like a civil war.

You can imagine the reports of the spies being circulated in the tents, among the groups of sullen men standing around. They had left Egypt for the dream of a country of their own, and now it seemed as though that country would be impossible to settle in, and moreover would cost many lives. ‘Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt’, they said. You can picture the armed groups going about the camp areas, stirring up people, the ugly, resentful atmosphere, the broken trust. They plotted to assassinate the leaders and anyone sent to speak to them, like Joshua and Caleb, the good spies, they planned to drag off and execute as well.

We then have this dialogue, between God and Moses in the text, but really it is the kind of dialogue that we have within ourselves, isn’t it? Can people ever be forgiven for atrocities? Should they be forgiven those kind of betrayals, where they spit on the kindnesses they have received, and rewrite the history of relationships and friendships without acknowledging what they owe to others? Haven’t they deserved to be struck down in return, with illness and misfortune, and who would care if they did?

That’s one side of the dialogue. The other side is spoken by Moses: that people must be forgiven because there is no other way to go forward, because faith itself will be judged by whether or not people can forgive and move forward, otherwise it means nothing. People will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ People will say, ‘How can those who are Christian do such things to others?’

Faith means nothing if we retaliate with brutality for brutality. God, Moses quotes, is slow to anger and full of constant love, forgiving the things we do - though not justifying the guilty. Guilt cannot be wiped out in a stroke, but must be lived through and with, until later generations are reconciled, or for forty years of wandering. Like the Bosnian Muslims, who can’t forget enough to trust: constantly estranged from each other in this generation, though life, geography, and society, have all moved on.

Today, the children I spoke to last night, will be out in the bright cold of George Square, standing on parade, with poppies on the lapels of their uniforms. They already know, at sixteen, that it is not enough to talk about peace in an airy- fairy way, that peace comes through commitment and discipline, through fairness, through forgiveness for things done in the past, through self-sacrifice. They know it as other generations did, whom we honour today. And while they know it, we will have a future, one that is worth what others gave to bring it into being.

Lord of the Universe, You watch our comings and goings, our jealousies, our injustices – our battles. Watch over those who work for peace, and guard us, as a society, from believing peace can come with no effort of ours, with no forgiveness of iniquity, with no long-term hopes for restoration. Give us courage and forgiveness so that peace may come. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contacts:

Rev Dr Moyna McGlynn Rev Andrew Thomson Minister Pastoral Assistant 01414190308 0141 641 2936 07908860997 [email protected] [email protected] Elsie Donald Paul Session Clerk Youth & Children's Outreach 0141 883 0995 & Development Worker [email protected] 01355 243970 07708396074 Frank Brown [email protected] Treasurer 0141 892 0283 Gillian McIlreavy [email protected] Communication Co-ordinator 07811332632 Kenneth Naismith Church Office Tel: Parish Assistant 0141 445 2010 07789764105 [email protected] [email protected]

Please visit our website at: www.govanlinthouseparish.org If you have any feedback on the site we would be delighted to hear from you.