St Andrew's Gift Day
Over the years as a congregation we have been given some wonderful opportunities to serve God and this year has been no exception. Our work at a local national and international level continues to grow. I'm going to ask every member of the congregation to make a special effort to be at church on Sunday 30th November its St Andrew's Day and the Kirk Session has agreed we should also make it our Annual Gift Day.
We are hoping to make this a special day in the life of the congregation. There will be something for everyone that day at church. We want everyone to make an effort and wear something tartan. We are going to fly the St Andrew's Flag from the church steeple, and we are also going to have two baptisms that day. So trust ne the church will be busy get down early for your seat.
I'm going to ask all the various ministries in the church to prepare displays in the hall on the 30th, so that we can all see the various areas in which we serve the world as a congregation. God has opened some amazing doors for us in the area of Social Outreach.
We are now working in four distinct areas. We have this year opened up the Shalom Counselling Service, led at the moment by one of our elders Mrs Margaret Young. There is the Children and Families work now known as the Bounce Higher Project which has been funded by Children in Need. This work is progressed by our key worker Andrea woollard. Andrea is developing links across the community in providing general support and encouragement to a wide group of people, while offering one to one support to those families who require her specialist advice.
The Tuesday Club continues to carry out valuable work among those who are encountering the stresses and strains of memory loss. And of course the youth Work which has been operating under the acronym SAMYP ( St Andrew's Multimedia Youth Project, is about to take on a new identity as we reshape our youth ministry programme. Our multimedia ministry is going to take on a new identity through a not for profit company to be called SANCTUS MEDIA UK.
The new Unitary Constitution has been agreed by the Kirk Session and Deacons' Court and willcome before the congregation to be ratified on the 23rd November. This is all to enable us to become more effective as we prepare to develop our ministry in the coming years.
It will be a great time to encourage us all to give to the Social Outreach Ministry of the Church. Each year we have a special appeal to support some aspect of the work of the church. This year we are making our appeal to support our Social Outreach programme.
So I do hope that perhaps you will be able to come on that Sunday and enjoy the service. When it comes to the evening of the 30th November we are going to have a St Andrew's Supper in the Church, we hope to make it a Praise Ceilidh. It will be a great night. We will be inviting friends of the family of St Andrew's and it will be a chance to meet up with people you haven't seen for a long time. I'm looking forward to seeing some of our past probationers and also congregational members who have moved on. So mark the 30th November in your diary and make it a real St Andrew's Day.
