Parish News Round-Up

(from www.lifeandwork.org)

Barrhead St Andrew’s Parish Church held an Africa Day service at the end of May.

The church has had a number of families from Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia coming to worship over recent years, and involved them in planning the service. Everyone was invited to wear bright clothes. There was testimony from one of the ladies from Nigeria, another sang a song in her native language Bemba, from Zambia, and the Lord’s Prayer was said in Yoruba, a Nigerian language. The Africans also gave the Bible reading, and elder Malison Ndau, from Malawi, was the preacher.

Pentecost Sunday saw friends and families join with the congregation at Lochee Parish Church in Dundee for the ordination and admission of four new elders. Pictured (from left): Fergus Milne (ordained), Brenda Duncan (admitted), Gordon McBean (session clerk), Rev Dr Roderick J Grahame (minister), Wilma Duncan (admitted) and Alex Black (admitted).

Guilds from across Fife took part in a Regional Gathering at Linktown Church, Kirkcaldy, on June 12. The meeting was addressed by the National Convener, Helen Eckford, and the guest speaker was the Very Rev Dr John Chalmers.

The Scots International Church Rotterdam took part in ‘Heilige Huisjes’ (holy houses), a project in which churches and other religious building open their doors other than for worship.

There was a tour visiting four churches in the ‘Cool Zuid’ area of Rotterdam, led by pipes and a drum not often seen and heard in the city. Many pictures where taken of the mosaic wall with its Scottish themes. Inside, people could listen to music and poems by Robert Burns.

Although the present building is not that old (it dates back to 1952), there has been a Scots Kirk in Amsterdam since September 1643. Visitors were surprised to hear that almost all the documents (like Minutes of the Consistory) from the very beginning of the church survived the destruction of the previous building during the bombardment of the city in May 1940.

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