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Evening services
The Walls Methodists are holding a monthly evening service on the second Sunday of every month.
The inter-demonational services, organised mainly by the young folk from the church and co-ordinated by Chris Jackson, are said to have been well attended so far with people from all over the West Side.
They are generally held with a certain theme in mind for that particular evening and so far have included a Taizé service and a Quaker style service.
Would-be attendees across the West Side and indeed, further afield should look out for information about these events in the church notices as further thematically inspired ideas for meetings emerge.
Pot-luck suppers
On the last Thursday of each month the Brae Church of Scotland hold their popular pot-luck suppers in the Brae Youth Centre at 7.30pm.
Folk are encouraged to bring along a favourite dish of food and share a bite to eat with everyone else. In this manner no-one is ever sure what exactly they will be eating but suffice to say everyone ultimately receives their fill, which is then followed by coffee or tea.
Some form of programme or special guest usually follows after and the evening generally comes to a close around 9.30pm.
Guests have recently included a young lady who shared her experiences of her time as a prison social worker, Larry Sutherland who brought along pictures of his recent trip to Panama, a programme of praise led by Just Worship from the Emmanuel Church, and the Rev Bob McGregor himself contributed with a presentation on his recent visit to Israel.
Visit to Israel
Mr McGregor recently spent eight days travelling around Israel with around 32 other Church of Scotland ministers, going to sites both of Christian interest and archaeological significance.
He said of his trip: “It was absolutely wonderful. There was so much to see and do and we had an extremely well-informed guide.”
Mr McGregor expects that it will take some time to edit the almost 500 photographs that he took along the way. The tour included (among many other places) Jerusalem, Joppa, Jericho, the Mount of Olives and the Via de la Rosa. He hopes that a similar trip for a group of his own parishioners may become a reality in the future.
Faith Mission visit
Faith Mission representatives John McCartney, Ben Mason and Noel McClintock are shortly returning to host a series of events, beginning in the Garthspool Evangelical Church on Thursday, 4th March through to Sunday, 7th March with a series of “Christianity explained” meetings. These will all begin at 7.30pm except for the Sunday meeting, which will commence at 8pm.
Sunday 7th will prove to be a busy day for the three as they intend to be at Sandwick UF at 10.15am, Cunningsburgh UF at 11.45am, Girlsta Methodist Church at 3pm, the Ebenezer Hall at 6.15pm and of course the aforementioned Garthspool Evangelical Church at 8pm. For the next five days after that they will be hosting a Bible Study Week in the Cunningsburgh Church of Scotland. From Monday 8th until Friday, 12th March they will be leading studies from the book of Nehemiah with the subject “An ordinary man who did extraordinary things”. These meetings all commence at 7.30pm.
Their second Sunday here in Shetland – 14th March – will be slightly less hectic than the first with Garthspool at 11am, Lerwick Baptist Church at 6.15pm and Garthspool again at 8pm.
Their last engagement is on Monday 15th, appearing at the Lerwick Prayer Union at 2.30pm. Everyone will be welcome to any of these meetings.
Seafood buffet
The Fishermen’s Mission is due to hold its ever-popular seafood buffet on Friday, 19th March at Da Haaf Restaurant in Scalloway at 7pm for 7.30pm.
A splendid array of local seafood is on offer for the very reasonable ticket price of £20 – available to buy at the NAFC Marine Centre on (01595) 772000 or the mission welfare office on (01595) 692703. All proceeds from the event go toward the work of the mission.
The buffet will be followed by a presentation by NAFC director David Gray. The event is sponsored by the NAFC, Seafood Shetland, Shetland Aquaculture and the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, to whom the mission extends its thanks.
Visit from Andy Hall
Originally from London, Andy Hall and his wife Yvonne have two daughters at university in Scotland and live in West Kilbride on the Ayrshire coast.
After graduating from London Bible College in 1986 Andy worked with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) serving in evangelism, church planting and training projects all over the UK.
From 1997 he worked as the national evangelist for YWAM England following four years as the director of an inter-church Bible School in Guildford, Surrey, which aimed to train pioneer evangelists and church planters.
The family moved north of the border in 2001 when Andy was appointed as national director for the work of YWAM in Scotland. In 2007 he stepped down from this role and out of YWAM to concentrate on a full-time teaching and preaching ministry alongside churches and their leadership teams. He travels widely in the UK and internationally in this teaching and training role. Andy will be presiding over what Pastor Jamie Tongue described as a “mini-conference”, exploring three aspects of the Kingdom of God at the Emmanuel Church in Bank Lane. It commences on Thursday, 18th March when the theme will be “A Kingdom of Supernatural Intervention: A Church displaying signs, wonders & miracles”.
The event continues on Friday 19th with “A Kingdom of Supernatural Vision: A church leading in society through a spirit of wisdom and revelation”.
The last meeting of the series is on Saturday 20th when the theme will be “A Kingdom of Supernatural Beauty: The Church’s destination to be a bride without spot or wrinkle”.
Commencing at 7.30pm each evening, everyone is more than welcome to attend any or all of these meetings.
Young folk’s conference
The Church of Scotland Shetland Presbytery held a conference recently entitled “What can we do for the young folk?”
It was held in St Columba’s Church and 65 people from all over Shetland attended.
The Rev Bob McGregor said: “The conference was split into two sessions, a morning session which was led by Linda Pollock from Glasgow, a Church of Scotland minister who works for the Ministry Council and has over 20 years experience working with children.
“This session dealt with primary age children and the emphasis was on how to make our churches more child friendly. Examples, methods and programmes were discussed and gave much food for thought.
“The conference was informative and left us with a challenge to make more contact with the young folk in our parishes.”
St Magnus and St Colman’s
Parishioners of St Magnus and St Colman’s Episcopal Church now have a temporary priest in post. Neil Brice from Cambridge arrived just before Christmas and is settling in well.
Church representative Bill Underwood said: “We are very happy with the generous help we have received from Neil. He has greatly eased the sense of uncertainty that existed before he arrived.
“Neil is no stranger to Shetland, having been during the times of Lewis Smith and Martin Oxley. He has a great sense of humour and has been well received wherever he has gone. He has shown a great interest in both communities and in all things Shetland.
“He has been busy since he arrived, visiting the sick and infirm, something which is much appreciated. We look forward to him continuing to lead us in the future. We must also pay tribute to the Rev Liz McNab, who has continued to lead us through a difficult time.”
Mr Underwood and Alma Lewis, both from St Colman’s, are well into the first year of their lay reader training course. Bill reckoned it to be “enjoyable but hard work, nonetheless, anything worthwhile never comes easy”.
Global poverty
From 1st to 7th of March, International Development Agency Tearfund is asking – as part of their 2010 prayer week – Christians across the world to pray for an end to global poverty.
On their website they urge people to “join a worldwide movement, seeking God and acting for justice, mercy and an end to poverty”. Tearfund’s specific call this year for churches and individuals is “don’t waste your space, add your voice”.
Tearfund has seen a great deal achieved over 40 years in many parts of the world as they work through and with support partners, which are often local churches.
Convinced of the vital part that prayer plays in the work, Tearfund has provided material on a wide range of topics including; water and sanitation, health issues, dealing with climate change and food security. For more information contact Mary McFarlane on (01595) 690880 or log on to www.tearfund.org/onevoice
World Day of Prayer
On Friday, 5th March, Christian women of Cameroon, who wrote the service, invite men, women and young people from around the world to share with them in the World Day of Prayer Service.
The service will begin as the sun rises in the Tonga Islands and will continue around the world over the next 36 hours, until the sun sets over Alaska.
People from Christian communities in over 180 countries have the opportunity to worship and pray on the common theme “Let Everything That Has Breath Praise God”. In Scotland, services are held in locations as diverse as churches, universities and schools, Sunday schools, Youth groups, hospitals and eventide homes, hostels for the homeless, prisons and shopping centres.
Anyone wishing to take part in the World Day of Prayer can attend St Columba’s Church of Scotland on the evening of Friday, 5th March. The time of the meeting is yet to be decided, so it is advised to check the church notices for further details.
North Ness Boys
In response to numerous requests, popular gospel singing group The North Ness Boys have been endeavouring to record their first CD.
Previous recording experiences with their Orkney cousins, Michael and Christine Harcus, meant that Mariner Music in Kirkwall managed by Philip Anderson seemed an obvious venue. Having been to Kirkwall at the beginning of this month, a number of rhythm tracks are now more or less complete.
The boys will head to Kirkwall once again at the beginning of March for another session after which, it is hoped that enough material for a CD will have been recorded. The CD will be a mixture of gospel and secular songs and will go on sale later on in the year.
Compiled by Trevor Jamieson
