Contact - Burnside Blairbeth Church - January 2020
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Burnside Blairbeth Church
Contact
No 143 January 2020
1
Dear friends,
What is the church for and what should we be doing? In many
ways we are so used to church that it’s a question we don’t
often feel the need to consider. Wouldn’t our time be better
spent just doing the work? Aren’t such questions a prime
example of self-indulgent naval gazing?
If we were to spend all our time on these kinds of questions,
then these accusations would certainly have some basis.
Every so often it’s healthy to consider questions as fundamental as these so
that we keep sight of what we’re about.
At Kirk Session a couple of months ago we started out with these basic
questions. The answers we came up with (based on what we believe Scripture
says) form the basis for the preaching series in January and February.
Having considered these questions, we then moved on to think about how we
organise ourselves. This may seem a long way from the fundamental questions
with which we started, but our structures must serve our mission. In the Old
Testament, Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, advised him how to organise the
Israelites into groups so that they could hear from God. In the New Testament,
part of Acts tells the story of how the early church was structured.
For some years in this congregation we have operated a system of “remits” with
a team leader for each remit and notionally a group involved in running the remit.
This structure was based on our congregational aims and was intended to help
us get on with our work more effectively. Some remits have functioned better
than others, but for some time we have had more remits than team leaders and
overall the theory of the system hasn’t matched its reality. Thus, the Kirk
Session decided to review the system and make some changes. These
changes are a mixture of pragmatism and principles, based on what we are
already doing and what we need to be doing better.
The idea is that all the work we do, organisations, tasks etc would fall within one
of the teams outlined as shown below.
2
Team Oversight
Finance Budgets, spending, encourage stewardship etc
Property Maintenance and care of buildings
Staff Salaries and appraisal of local staff
Communication General communication, website, social media,
audio/visuals, Contact
Pastoral Care Pastoral networks, Monday bowling, Guild, Tuesday
morning coffee, Pastoral care prayer, flowers, arts &
crafts
World Mission Communication with & about missionary partners, MP
budget, support/encourage short term overseas mission,
encourage congregational interest in World Mission
Local Mission Messy Church, Reachout liaison, Community
involvement, training in evangelism, Outreach events,
“seasonal” services, social issues e.g. eco-congregation
etc
Children’s and Sunday clubs, Jump, Switch, Walk this way, SU groups,
youth ministry pastoral care for children/young people
Discipleship Small groups, corporate prayer, occasional events,
community Bible experience
The teams will not all function in the same way. Some will only need to meet
occasionally while others e.g. finance, have obvious meeting points based on
the need to set a budget etc. The teams will have a large degree of autonomy
with a team elder/elders responsible for reporting to the Kirk Session.
The main point of our life together is not structure, organisations or even the
work we do within the church. These are all to help us be the congregation of
God’s people in this place, serving Him, and serving one another and our parish
in His name.
3
Each one of us has a part to play in this. God has given us all gifts for His
service, and it is crucial that each of us uses those gifts in our congregation for
His glory. Our prayer is that this structure will help us all to do that.
Your friend and minister,
William Wilson
Pastoral assistant
By the time you read this, our new pastoral assistant – Kate Airlie – will have
started work. She will introduce herself more fully in the next edition of Contact,
but we are delighted to welcome Kate to our team. She will be working 20 hours
per week enabling and providing pastoral support, and we look forward to her
involvement in the life of our congregation.
Update on Prayer
Over recent times there have been discussions about how we can bring prayer
more into the life of our congregation. One of the initiatives which will be starting
in early 2020 is a prayer team that will be available to offer opportunity for prayer
weekly after the Sunday morning service. Sometimes we may be facing
challenges, have reason for celebration or maybe something in the sermon may
trigger something for us. This small team of people will be able to offer a quiet
space for prayer support, no matter the reason.
Those involved will be undertaking some training with the Mission Development
Worker from the Church of Scotland in late January, with the plan of starting to
offer prayer support in early February. We hope that this new venture will add
to the nurturing and supportive aspects of our weekly worship.
Rebecca Campbell
4Kirk Session Update
The latest meeting of the Kirk Session took place on 4 December 2019.
The meeting noted that:
➢ Four people had been attending the Membership Group and would be
admitted as members of the congregation on professing faith the
following Sunday – welcome to Wendy Blair, Trevor Burnett, Leanne
Burrell and William Burrell.
➢ A total of 91 shoeboxes had been donated for the Blythswood
Shoebox Appeal.
➢ The “Go For It” Fund application had resulted in an award of £7,200 in
each of 2020 and 2021.
➢ The Community Bible Experience would be taking place again on the
first four Sundays in March, which would complete the reading of the
New Testament for those taking part.
The Session was informed that the interviews for the position of Pastoral
Assistant would be taking place on 14 December. (Kate Airlie has
subsequently been appointed to this post).
Mairi Wilson is our new Food Hygiene Co-ordinator and will be reporting to
the Session following the training which is arranged for 18 January.
The Minister had produced a paper following the Kirk Session conference on 21
November when the elders had discussed the structure of teams reporting to
the Kirk Session with responsibility for various aspects of the life of the
congregation. The outcome was that it had been agreed that there would be
the following teams: Finance, Property, Staff, Communication, Pastoral Care,
World Church, Local Outreach/Mission, Children’s and Youth Ministries and
Discipleship. (There will be more about the outworking of these areas of
responsibility within the congregation in the context of the services in
January/February 2020.)
The meeting was informed that Alan Robertson intends to stand down as
Treasurer at the end of 2020 and that Andrew Telfer would be succeeding him
in that role.
The larger part of the meeting was taken up with Team Reports for Finance
and Property. Alan Robertson took the meeting through the finance position
as at the end of November and the projected outcome for the year end. The
elders approved the finance committee recommendations regarding the
treatment of funds and balances at the year end depending upon the outcome.
5In the event there was a good outcome to the year end as reported elsewhere
in this edition of Contact.
As regards Property, Alan Hudson reported that there would be an
underspend this year on fabric, which would help with the deficit, but would
leave more to be attended to in the future. He also said that the Property Team
needs more help. (Anyone who would be able to help the Property Team should
speak to Alan.)
The next Session meeting is on Wednesday 12 February.
Alan Thomson, Session Clerk
Finance Update (Financial Position - Year to December 2019)
The annual accounts for the year to December 2019 are currently in draft form
for review by our independent examiner and to be approved by the elders, as
trustees of the congregation, at the Kirk Session meeting on 12 February. The
trustees’ annual report and financial statements will be available at the Stated
Annual Meeting in March or on request prior to that meeting.
Meantime, I am able to report provisionally that we ended the 2019 financial
year in surplus with no shortfalls in our three main funds. This is in large part
due to reduced expenditure, particularly with regard to lower fabric expenditure
in the Fabric Fund and a reduced transfer of funds from the General Fund to
the Fabric Fund. In addition, staff costs were reduced in 2019 following the
departure of Melanie Ziegler in 2018 and the retirement of Les Queen in June
2019.
For the year ahead our budget in 2020 includes a budgeted increase in General
Fund, Local Mission Fund and Missionary Partner Fund offerings and donations
of approximately £27,300, an increase of 10%. With regard to the 2020
expenditure budget, an increase in costs of approximately £30,950 (+9.2%) has
been factored in, including an increase in staff costs of approximately £15,760,
incorporating the appointment of our new Pastoral Assistant, Kate Airlie, from
January 2020. Also, following the reduced transfer in 2019 from the General
Fund to the Fabric Fund an increase of almost £16,500 in the Fabric Fund
transfer has been budgeted in 2020.
Alan Robertson, Treasurer
6Nativity service – Sunday 22 December 2019
We enjoyed a lively nativity play from the Sunday Clubs on Sunday 22
December as they told the Christmas story through “The Din at the Inn”.
Blythswood Christmas Shoebox appeal.
At the start of the New Year we wanted to thank the congregation again for their
amazing support of The Blythswood Christmas Shoebox appeal.
Having been a little late in organising it this year, the response from the
congregation was great and all the shoeboxes were in on time.
We collected 91 all together from the congregation and from folk who come
along to Little Creations.
So a big thank you from Blythswood, from Andrea and Kay and from the 91 who
received a shoebox this Christmas. It was a great result.
When Kay and I took the shoeboxes to the warehouse in Hillington it was
wonderful to see how many shoeboxes had been collected and coming from all
over Scotland. We even saw a van full of shoeboxes from Islay!!
7Messy Church
Our next Messy Church will be on Saturday 1st February 2020 at the Blairbeth
Building.
Please talk to Jen Robertson if you would like to know more about how you
could be part of Messy Church!
The Guild
Companions on the Road
Guild meetings this session have been well attended and most informative and
enjoyable. We had an inspiring evening in November with Fiona Joice, a young
Scottish opera singer who told her story of the training, hard work and dedication
required for such a career. She spoke warmly of the role of her "companions
on the road" - her supportive family, her experiences at church and school and
a variety of teachers and tutors - who had inspired and encouraged her. She
interspersed her story with some stunning performances, ably accompanied by
a young American colleague from the Conservatoire, before rounding off the
evening surprisingly with a song for all "The Song of the Clyde".
In December, our thoughts turned to Christmas with our evening of "Praise
through flowers". This was a most uplifting evening as passages of Scripture
relating different parts of the Christmas Story were read then depicted in
beautiful floral arrangements. Our Christmas dinner at the Burnside Hotel
rounded off the year.
The new session started in January with a members’ evening focusing on the
theme of a new year, followed by a Burns Night on the Monday 20th of
January.
Our meeting on 3rd of February should encourage us to broaden our outlook
as we hear from Iain Whyte, the Guild General Secretary, to inform us about
the work of the Guild and the Church at home and abroad as we move into a
new decade - "The Guild - a 2020 Vision". Future meetings will focus on South
Africa with Liz Drummond, then "Sustainability, Health and Faith" with Rebecca
Campbell.
8A date for your diary is our Spring Fayre to be held on Saturday 14th of March.
This should provide a time of friendship and fellowship whilst at the same time
raising funds for some deserving causes. Our Christmas Fayre in November
was a happy occasion and raised the sum of £1,473.00. As reported in previous
issues, the Guild gives financial support to a variety of causes, not least our
local church and the wider church including the work of Crossreach.
This last year, we were pleased to donate an Automated External Defibrillator
(AED) to Burnside Blairbeth Church for use in case of emergencies. This has
been placed in the church library at the foot of the stairs, and all organisations
using the premises and those on reception duty have been informed of this. The
Guild also organised an information evening on the use of the defibrillator to
which all organisations were invited to send representatives.
The aim of the Guild is to invite and encourage men and women to commit their
lives to Jesus Christ and enable them to express their faith in worship, faith and
action. In Burnside Blairbeth, the majority of members are women, but men do
join us when there is an evening which specifically interests them, and we would
like to encourage more men to come along. We meet fortnightly on the first and
third Mondays of the month.
Guild members also get involved in a variety of other activities beyond their
regular meetings, helping them to fulfil the aim of the organisation and express
their faith through worship, prayer and action. Hospitality and catering are high
on the agenda - providing lunches and afternoon teas at various
events. Members have also been kept busy knitting and in November 160 hand
knitted baby jumpers and hats were donated to children in distress in Romania.
Six of our members also travelled in to St George's Tron in Glasgow before
Christmas to worship with other Guild members from all over Scotland at "The
Big Sing". So, we keep ourselves busy.
As already reported, the Guild is open to all – men and women – and new
members or visitors will be made most welcome. Please keep an eye on the
church notices and come along to anything of interest.
Catherine Nelson
9Cardiac Defibrillator
The Church has recently purchased a cardiac defibrillator which is stored in the
Library. Dr Marjory Maclean gave a talk to the Guild on the use of this piece of
equipment and leaflets about how to use it are available in the magazine rack
in the Gathering Area and in the Library. The defibrillator is designed for ease
of use and gives spoken instructions when switched on. If you want further
information about this please speak to Marjory Maclean. With thanks to the
Guild for funding this purchase.
Our Missionary Partners
One of the aims of our Church, is to ‘play our part in the mission of the Church
to the world’ and ‘fulfil our responsibilities to the developing world’. We try to do
this by supporting 10 missionary partners. Below is an update on where they
are living and what they are doing. We also support the work of The Well in
Govanhill, Tearfund, Christian Aid and Blythswood Trust throughout the year.
Andrew Robertson, Bolivia
Andrew recently went from Burnside to Bolivia with Latin Link as a short-term
worker for 2 years. He is currently undertaking Spanish language study in
Cochabamba after which he will be heading for Oruro to work with 2 projects:
➢ Angel Tree Centre which focuses on working with the family and
children of prisoners. The priority is family restoration and improving
school performance through programmes including Christian
education, psychological help and health.
➢ Restoring Hope which seeks the restoration of lives affected by crime
using interventions based on the Christian faith. Courses will be run
weekly in the Young Offenders’ Centre; pastoral visiting and
discipleship will take place twice a week in the San Pedro Oruro prison;
and they will collaborate with youth court and social services to help
implement restorative justice mechanisms.
Check his Blog at: https://andrewbolivia.blogspot.com/
10Carolyn Tomasović, Croatia
Carolyn is from Burnside but has lived in Croatia for many years with Miro,
Olivia, David and Lucia. She set up The Ecumenical Women’s Initiative to
continue the work she undertook during the years of the Balkans War.
EWI seeks to empower women to strengthen interfaith and civil dialogue using
the potential of faith as a positive factor in social change through building peace
and reconciliation processes.
Website: www.eiz.hr
Janie Beattie, Barcelona
Janie is from Burnside and has lived in Barcelona for many years. She helps
run a children’s mission and summer camps. She also works with folk affected
by drug and alcohol, and undertakes hospital visiting on behalf of the church.
Over the years she has taught English as a foreign language.
Murray Humphreys, Kenya
Murray is also from Burnside. He lectures applied statistics at Jomo Kenyatta
University and is very involved in university life, encouraging students spiritually
and financially.
It is likely that Murray will retire in the summer after which he is unsure if he will
be able to remain in Kenya or if he will have to return to Scotland.
Satish & Bhumika Chettri, India
Satish and his family live in Delhi where he runs Grace Ministries. He also set
up and runs Grace Children’s Home; seminars for teens - LIGHTS ministry
(Lead, Inspire, Guide & Help Teens to Shine); leadership training course for
pastors and many other outreach programmes. Bhumika is very active with
Grace Ministries and runs women’s groups.
Bernard and Alice Bakunda, Uganda
Bernard and Alice set up Rhema School for orphans many years ago. Most of
the 290 children are orphans from HIV/AIDS. There are 18 members of staff.
Bernard has recently retired as a pastor but still teaches and preaches, and
Alice continues some work as a counsellor.
Craig and Amanda Cunningham, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Craig and Amanda are missionaries with Latin Link. Craig is pastor at Trinity
International Church and Amanda is coordinator for short term volunteers with
Latin Link (including Andrew Robertson). Their son Sam is 4 yrs (5 in April).
Regular updates can be found on their blog at:
11Check their Blog at: https://cramandaham.blogspot.com/
Morven Collington New Destiny, Brazil http://ndaventura.org/
Morven is international director of New Destiny, Brazil. She established ND in
2004 – providing adventure camps for children and young people from the
slums (Transformers). Children attend camps and receive support and
encouragement in their homes. ND also works with mums (TransforMUMs) and
undertake other work in the area. Morven and her family now live in Glasgow.
Jerry and Stacy Kramer, USA and Northern Iraq
Jerry and Stacy run Love for the Least, a mission working in refugee camp in
Northern Iraq. They organise medical and dental care for refugees. They
previously set up 3 orphanages in Kenya & Tanzania where they worked.
James Fraser, Scottish rep for Release International
James lives locally and travels around Scotland speaking about the work of
Release International. He also visits persecuted Christians throughout the
world.
Release international serves the persecuted Church around the world by
enabling believers to survive persecution; providing for the needs of families of
persecuted or imprisoned Christians; spreading God’s love – bringing others to
Christ; spreading God’s word; being the voice of the oppressed and persecuted.
Website: https://releaseinternational.org/
Marjory MacLean
World Church Team
12Bible 2020
Our Bible is a written history of what began as an oral tradition thousands of
years ago.
And while we thank God for preserving his message for us in Scripture, the
words in the Bible are meant to be spoken. When the Bible is spoken aloud, we
are reminded that God is at work in our world, the truths within Scripture come
into the present, promises are spoken, and blessings received. We can be part
of this, we just need to speak.
The Scottish Bible Society (SBS) have created a new way to do this, so that
individuals in their daily lives can speak God’s Word aloud, every day. Bible
2020 is a global movement encouraging us to speak the words of the Bible
aloud across every country and nation, covering God’s earth with the Gospel
and uniting the global church.
This is happening through an app which you can download to your Smartphone
and provides you with 366 days of short inspirational Bible verses. Using the
app, you film yourself reading these verses aloud at any point in the day.
If we are to believe the media narrative, Scotland is not interested in the Bible.
We will only reach new generations with the gospel by moving the Word of God
from our pulpits and churches into our streets, our homes and our workplaces
by speaking it aloud.
Resources for families can be found at:
https://scottishbiblesociety.org/resources/bible-2020-resources-for-families/
We pray that God would use these resources to bless families around the
nation, as God’s word is read out loud, and integrated into daily life, every day
of 2020.
Jen Robertson
13Burnside in Bloom
The life of Jim Neil and his work for Burnside in Bloom have been
commemorated in a display planted and maintained at the junction of Burnside
Road and Blairbeth Road. Jim made his contribution as chairman and team
member of the group of volunteers. Since 2009 the work of Burnside in Bloom
has had a positive and increasing effect on the visual quality of the
neighbourhood.
The group are grateful for the support of the Burnside Blairbeth congregation
over this time and would welcome the participation of church members in its
ongoing activities.
Malcolm Piggot
If you would like to join Burnside in Bloom please contact Malcolm Piggot
Email: malcolmpiggot1@gmail.com
14Obituaries
Catherine Stevenson
Cathy Stevenson, who died on 17th December 2019, was one of the original
members of Blairbeth church. She was married to Hutton, who predeceased
her in 2006, and they had one son – Bill. Cathy had been an active member of
the Blairbeth guild and congregational life was important to her. She was
resident in Dunvegan nursing home for the last 13 years. We extend our
sympathy to Bill along with his wife Isabel and their children Gregor, Douglas
and Shona.
Douglas Williamson
Douglas was born in Giffnock on 10 July 1930. He left Eastwood Secondary
School having completed fifth year and went on to Stow College to do further
technical studies. In time he worked for India Tyres of Inchinnan as a Production
Planner. until the closure of the plant around 1982. He went on to work as a
Driver/Escort with Strathclyde Regional Council and was ideally suited in
working with young folk with special needs.
Following his marriage to Wilma in 1962, Douglas and Wilma settled in
Burnside, first at Blairbeth Road and then at 30 Stirling Drive. Douglas's contact
with Burnside dates from the early sixties. Although his church attendance
tapered off for a while, from 2006 he was a regular worshipper at Roger
Memorial until declining health made it impossible to be in his customary place
on Sunday. Never slow to offer a word of appreciation or encouragement,
Douglas was a man of quiet spirit and had an unpretentious, assured faith.
By nature Douglas was a fairly private person. He had played Amateur football
for Giffnock North AFC, was a capable and effective rugby coach, and was a
life- long PartickThistle diehard. Over the years he bore more than his share
of health problems, including a dense stroke when he was 63. Throughout the
many challenges he faced and overcame, he was completely absent of
complaint.
We extend our sympathy to Wilma, David and his family assuring them of our
continued prayers.
15Christmas Tree Recycling
Thank you to everyone who dropped off trees to be taken down to Ayr beach
on Sunday 12 January.
There was a team of rangers from Ayrshire council and plenty volunteers to
oversee the task of placing hundreds of Christmas trees just beside the sea wall
at Seafield. The organisers were delighted with the response from the public,
and were grateful for the support shown. For lots of families with young children
this combined a beach walk on a blustery day with a short lesson in
conservation.
As an eco-congregation, perhaps we can get involved again, and meantime
consider a church picnic to the beach in the warmer summer months, to check
on progress.
Catherine Macdonald
16Welcome Rota
Please find below the Welcome Rota for November – January 2020.
January 2020 Evening
Sunday 26th Marjory Maclean, Elizabeth Cherrie, Gwen
Susan Gordon Brown
February 2020 Evening
2nd Morag McGown, Sandra Monaghan, Chris
William Goldie, Jean Goldie Mackintosh
9th Morag McGown, Sandra Monaghan, Helen
William Goldie, Tom Pollock Morrison
16th Morag McGown, Sandra Monaghan, Irene
William Goldie, Una Neil Craigie
March 2020 Evening
1st Chris Mackintosh, Bill MacLellan, Morag Neil &
McIntosh, Linda Suttie Moira
Hopper
8th Chris Mackintosh, Bill MacLellan, Morag Alan
McIntosh, Linda Suttie Thomson
15th Chris Mackintosh, Bill MacLellan, Morag Gwen
McIntosh, Linda Suttie Brown
22nd Chris Mackintosh, Bill MacLellan, Morag Chris
McIntosh, Linda Suttie Mackintosh
29th Chris Mackintosh, Bill MacLellan, Susan Linda
Gordon , Jean Goldie Suttie
17April 2020 Evening
5th Marjorie McLennan, Susan McGregor, Bobby Gwen
McGregor, Tom Pollock Brown
12th Marjorie McLennan, Susan McGregor, Bobby Chris
McGregor, Una Neil Mackintosh
19th Marjorie McLennan, Susan McGregor, Bobby Helen
McGregor, George Wynne Morrison
26th Marjorie McLennan, Susan McGregor, Bobby Irene
McGregor, Susan gordon Craigie
We would love to have additional volunteers to take part in this rota – apart from
welcoming, it a great way to meet the whole congregation! Please speak to
Chris Mackintosh if you feel this is something you could help with or email him
at chrismackintosh27@gmail.com
18Bible Reading Rota
January to March 2020
Sunday Name
19 January 2020 Ronnie Forrest
26 January 2020 Chris Mackintosh
02 February 2020 Alan Thomson
09 February 2020 Dennis Kelly
16 February 2020 Rebecca Campbell
23 February 2020 Charles Patterson
01 March 2020 Susan Gordon
08 March 2020 Marjory McLennan
15 March 2020 Jen Robertson
22 March 2020 David MacDonald
29 March 2020 Morag McIntosh
Please let the Minister know if you swap your reading duty with another
person.
19Contact magazine and Weekly Notes are available to view on our
website, www.burnsideblairbeth.church, under What’s On/News tab.
If you would like to view Contact this way rather than have a paper copy
delivered please send a message the office.
theoffice@burnsideblairbeth.church
The Sunday sermons are available to listen to on our website.
CDs of the full morning service are available to collect after
the service. If you, or someone you know, would like to have
a copy delivered please contact the church office.
20Easter 2020 Issue of Contact
The deadline for copy is
Sunday 15 March 2020
and will be available for distributors on
Sunday 29 March 2020
Items can be handed in to the church
office or e-mailed to the editor,
contact@burnsideblairbeth.church
Data Protection Act, 1998
It is normal practice to include the names, addresses and telephone numbers
of our office-bearers and other individuals in our church publications. If any
person does not wish to have their personal details included they should
inform the Communications Team Leader, Lesley Mackintosh.
Burnside Blairbeth Church * Scottish Charity No. SC006633
Church of Scotland Congregational Reference: 160844
www.burnsideblairbeth.church
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