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#AdventWord – 1st Eight Words

AdventWord is an international annual collaboration when each day during Advent a separate word from that week’s Sunday readings is used a focus.

Over on the Makar Facebook page there will be a haiku poem for each day along with an image. The link below will take you to the Facebook page, you do not need to be on Facebook to view the page.

Makar of the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway | Facebook

Below you will find a file for the 1st eight days of #AdventWord. Each word has the verse the word has come from, a little thought for the day and an activity, most days also have an extra thing you might wish to do. Paper copies will be available at church. The next 7 words will be available here from Saturday 3rd December.

Please feel free to share any of your thoughts or your own pictures in the comments below or on the Makar Facebook page.

Advent Sunday

Sunday sees the beginning of a new church year. This time leading up to Christmas is a time when we remember that Jesus didn’t just come as the Babe of Bethlehem, but also is with us for eternity, including the here and now. It is a time to take a look at where we might do better in shinning the Christ Light in the world. A time to consider if the promises of the Messiah are being lived out in our lives and if not what we might do to change that before it is too late.

There is a lot of pain and hurt in our world currently, a lot of anxiety about the future and concerns about war and bitterness and entrenched behaviours and words. Christ’s Light can help us see these things through his lens, illuminating what it is we could do, should do; and also those things that we need to pass over to him as we can do nothing about them, apart from in how we respond.

One of our responses is to invite you to come and join us in spreading that Light of Christ, symbolically we light a candle for every week in Advent and then a final one to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas. This is our Advent Wreath this year, come help us make it’s light a hopeful, peaceful, joyful, loving one.

Our service begins at 10am and there are refreshments afterwards to which you are also invited. We hope to see you there.

Harvest Festival

This morning we celebrated the Harvest by giving thanks for all the goodness we have been blessed with and sharing that blessing with gifts for the foodbank.

In the setting of the Autumn sun and the shortening of days, 
in the cooling of the breeze and the brightness of moonlight rays.
In the cries of migrating birds, of morning mist and crunchy leaves
in the beauty of the fruit that falls from our life saving trees.
In the coldness of that, first frost, the nip upon the air,
we see the Creator’s caring hand, as the season moves to declare;
God reigned in the summer sun, the gentle cooling breeze.
God reigns too at harvest time and in the deepest freeze.
In the beauty of the world, we remember those who fear,
the chilling nights, the stone-cold food, no roaring fire to cheer.
Creator God in your great love, hold them tightly in your care,
give us the courage, wisdom, strength and will to meet you with them there.
We bless you God of seed and earth, of trees and harvest time,
may our lives be forever yours, our voices your love chime.
So, all the world, both near and far, may know the harvest we,
are blessed with both here today and also in eternity.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Today, 22nd September 2022 saw the celebration of 60 years since the first service was held in Holy Name, Cumbernauld. We were joined by friends old and new to sing and laugh and prayer and eat, in love and thanksgiving. It was a blessed and happy day and the sermon by Revd Canon Anne Tomlinson was perfect (we hope to post it here later).

Here are some photos from the day.

Sunday 14th August – Time

Our worship begins at 10am and we invite you to join us for worship and fellowship in the hall afterward. Please feel free to come to either/or/both.

For the second week in a row our Gospel reading contains warnings from Jesus about time and how we perceive it. Indeed the whole Bible contains such warnings. Our understanding and construct in time, might suit us for living amongst others and not causing confusion as to when things are happening, however for God time is very different. Often, we can read, of people dismissing God because they think something or other isn’t of God’s time. Or because something is inconvenient for them it can’t be God. Or pushing the time for God aside because something else has come along.

Jesus said:

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!  Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!  From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens.  And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.  You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Luke 12:49-56

‘Where have you been?’ Is a cry uttered by many a distraught parent when the time has passed for a child to return home. I sometimes wonder if God cries it out too. The world is in a mess which just seems to be growing in its size and complexity week upon week. Yet we still muddle through, not wanting to upset people, or cause a stir, or shake some sense into certain individuals. Yet we ignore things at our peril, we are in grave danger of time running out as we keep putting things off. Only a fool now doesn’t see there is an ecological disaster round the corner, yet as we worry about rising fuel cost we seem more concerned with how to pay the bills than how to reduce our consumption. As saying goes, you have to break an egg to make an omelette. Maybe we need to get on with the breaking so we also then have time to mend, before all the sands have run out.

Sunday 7th August – Faith in ?

Our worship on Sunday begins at 10.30am and will be followed by fellowship in the hall, we invite you to join us if you can.

One of the readings on Sunday is from the letter to the Hebrews.

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed[a] that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Every body has some type of faith, people have faith in many different things, when we switch on a light switch we have faith that we will have light, and if we don’t we have faith that a new bulb to replace the old one will produce the light.  We have faith when driving through a green traffic light that someone won’t be ignoring the red one in the other direction, and if you have seen the way some other people drive then that is faith.  We have faith that when we turn on the tap water will come out, everyone places his or her faith in something or someone.  The humanist put his faith in himself, a pious person in his or her own good works. None of these can save, because in each case the object of faith is wrong. Our faith is only as good as the object in which we place our faith.  True faith is simple obedience to and believing God’s word in spite of circumstances or consequences. Faith is described in a two-fold way. It is the “substance of things hoped for,” and “the evidence of things not seen.”

We can’t see faith, we can’t touch it, or smell it, or taste it, but we can know it through the actions of others and others can know it through our actions. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness (which is different to faith), gentleness, self control.

Church Outing to Millport

If you wish to join with those going to Millport please meet at St Columba’s Largs at 10am. We will then have an opportunity to walk the labyrinth before crossing over on the 10 minute ferry ride to Cumbrae. For those not taking a car over with them the bus meets the ferry and will take you into Millport itself.

Those who wish can join Kirstin on the beach for some GodArt. Or you might wish to explore many of the delights Millport and the Isle, has to offer, by foot, or pedal power. Bikes can be hired on the front. From the Cathedral to the distillery, the museums to the beach there is something for everyone.