Udny & Pitmedden Church Diary
Friday 26th November 2021
Welcome to the latest newsletter from
Udny & Pitmedden Parish Church.
This Sunday is the first in Advent. Now, you may be one of those people who, as soon as
Halloween is over, starts thinking about Christmas and can’t wait to get the decorations up.
Or maybe you prefer to wait until a couple of weeks into December before focussing on
Christmas – you might even have a tradition of putting up your tree on Christmas Eve.
Do you start buying presents in the January sales… or are you a last-minute person, trying
to catch the last posting date?
Advent starts off the church year. It is a time of looking forward, anticipation and
particularly of preparation. For the next four Sundays, I will be using Advent poetry and
prose to focus our thoughts, not on Christmas, but on this special time of getting ready
for Jesus coming.
The sun has dimmed its dazzling rays,
The daylight reached its shortest span;
Now all the hushed and humble earth
Awaits the birth of God made man.
How can we face this tiny one
Who found no lodging at our inn,
But by a silent glance of love
Pronounces freedom from our sin?
Like nature in these Advent days
We must put off our lofty pride,
In stillness and humility
Prepare our hearts for Christmastide.
Praise to the Father, by whose plan
Our Saviour came to set us free,
Praise to the Son and Spirit, too
Who joins us to the Trinity.
© Order of the Holy Paraclete
Please send in anything for the newsletter that you think deserves a wider audience – information, good news, a short article, offers of assistance, requests, prayer points. What do you want us to include?
email me at elainemoff@aol.comReadings for this week:
Link to this week's Bible readings page
The lectionary readings this week:
Sunday morning worship
The service will be available live on Zoom, and a recording will not be on our Facebook page.
Zoom link:
http://us02web.zoom.us/j/87120275292?pwd=OEhJS0pPa0tvcE90VVBxMXIrMVF5UT09
Meeting ID: 871 2027 5292
Passcode: Udny
Duty elders: Agnes Goar and Alan Rae
Readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36
Mid Week Group
The discussion group is going to take a break, while we talk about what sort of group we want going forward – a Bible study, discussion group, book club… during the day or in the evening… weekly or less frequently? What would you like to be part of? Please get in touch and join the conversation
NEWS
Please note that the next Session meeting will be on Tuesday 30th November at 7.30pm in Pitmedden Church. The next meeting of Presbytery will be via Zoom on Tuesday 7th December at 7.30pm. These are open meetings, and while only members of Presbytery can speak, anyone can attend.
The Formartine Churches Together working group will meet again at 7.30pm on
Tuesday 14th December in Methlick Church.
Please pray for these teams, for kindness and understanding, wisdom, discernment,
and unity of purpose.
For the next few months, we will have Rev Anthony Craig, a retired minister who lives in Collieston,
and Rev Sheila Mitchell, the minister at Echt & Midmar as our Interim Moderators.
We have a group of dedicated knitters in the church, who, despite not being able to meet together as usual, have none-the-less completed 18 pram baby blankets, 24 woolly hats for seamen, 30 knee blankets (for Woodend Hospital and Malawi), and 250 baby sets (vests, hats and bootees), also for the Church of Scotland project in Malawi. These are sent via the Banana Box Trust, with each box costing £15 to send. Congratulations to the knitters! If you enjoy knitting and would like to join the group, please speak to Joey Sleigh
Formartine Churches Together News Brief No 3
Working Group Meeting (Number 2) Tarves Church, Tuesday 9 November 2021, 7:30pm SAt our second
meeting in Tarves Parish Church on 9 November we began to formulate our vision and purpose
and we explored one possible model of future ministry for the area. Again, there was a sense
of excitement and enthusiasm and God’s leading as we looked at the challenges together.
We will continue to look at these items and their implications at our next meeting on Tuesday
14 December 2021, 7:30pm at Methlick Parish Church.
In the meantime, we have agreed that from the beginning of next year, Will Stalder and Alison
Swindells will preach at Udny & Pitmedden once a month so that we can begin to get to know
the people of this part of our area and they can get to know us.
We would like to hear from you! We believe communication is really important, but we also
believe that communication is a two-way street. While we hope to communicate often and clearly
throughout this process, we also want to listen, hear any questions or ideas you might have
about the churches working together. Please free to contact your minister or Interim Moderator
and we will be happy to feed your thoughts back to the Working Group. The more input we have
from church and community the better.
Tarves and Barthol Chapel Rev. Dr. Alison Swindells - aswindells@churchofscotland.org.uk
Udny & Pitmedden Rev. Anthony Craig - aacraig@btinternet.com
Rev. Sheila Mitchell - SMitchell@churchofscotland.org.uk
Methlick Rev. Dr. Will Stalder - wstalder@churchofscotland.org.uk
Until we speak again, please pray, and we will do our best to communicate with everybody at
each stage in the process. God’s richest blessings to you and your church and community!
Rev. Dr. Will Stalder, Minister of Methlick Parish Church
Rev. Dr. Alison Swindells, Minister of Tarves and Barthol Chapel
Ministers of the Formartine Area Churches. Friday 12 November 2021
Life and Work have produced a FREE four-page COP26 Special Supplement available now
at
The purpose of this publication is to enable congregations to engage before, during and after COP26 and also signpost resources. Also, the November issue of the magazine published today has a focus on COP26 and Remembrance. Anyone that is not a subscriber and interested in this particular issue can purchase a single print or digital copy at https://www.lifeandwork.org/subscribe
Plans for Christmas have started! Early in December there will be a family craft and story event to launch the new Kids’ Club. It is hoped to have family worship in the early evening on Christmas Eve, and a traditional Watchnight service with readings and carols by candlelight. More information soon… If you would like to get involved with any of these events, contact Elaine
Our congratulations go to Maggie Pirie (nee Johnston) who has completed 3 years of study and training and is now a licensed Reader for the Church of Scotland in the Presbytery of Turriff. We wish her every blessing in her new role and ask that you remember her in your prayers
Many of you will know that we recently applied for a grant to upgrade our AV equipment and have received the good news that we have been successful. With the guidance and advice of our tech expert we will be taking this forward as soon as possible. If you would like to be part of the AV team who will undergo training on it's correct use, and be part of a rota to cover services, please let me know asap
The churches in our parish grouping, Methlick, Tarves and Udny & Pitmedden, have started a
joint prayer group, meeting on Zoom, currently at 7.30pm on Wednesday evenings.
The format includes a Bible reading as intro and a time to chat. Please join us
Please check out the Church of Scotland website (link below)
Here you will find all sorts of interesting articles and resources. See what decisions made at the Assembly will mean
for us, read inspiring stories from churches around Scotland, and keep in touch with the latest
developments in our denomination’s life and witness
Being the church, a worshipping, caring community, is challenging when we are not able to meet together or visit people in their homes. Zoom meetings, phone calls, letters and emails can fill some gaps, but there is a danger that someone will be missed, or will have needs that are not being met. If you can think of something more we could be doing, or know of someone who needs help in any way, please contact elainemoff@aol.com, and we can organise appropriate contact and assistance
The Udny COVID 19 Assistance fund is managed by the church and exists to give financial support to anyone in the wider parish. If you, or anyone you know, needs help, please contact one of these people, in strict confidence. Fiona Entwistle 01651 842412, Debbie Smith 01651 842446, Paul Bailey 07803 501960, Alison Green 07771 996537
Parish Prayer Pointers
Please pray, not only for our elders and congregation, but for the churches in our Parish Grouping – Tarves, Barthol Chapel and Methlick. Pray that our ministers and elders would find positive ways of working together and that our relationships with our neighbours would develop and deepen
Between us, we will know a lot of people, both in the parish and wider afield, who are finding life tough – the bereaved, those who are ill, those struggling financially, those caring for young children… Pray for them by name, regularly, and give thanks as you see your prayers being answered, even when it’s not in ways you might expect
Pray for politicians and leaders, as they continue to tackle the huge issues we face as a country
The whole world is working to overcome coronavirus. Give thanks for the development of vaccines, and pray for scientists, medics and healthcare staff, as well as many other key workers, who daily put themselves at risk for the good of others
We are so fortunate in many ways. As you count your blessings, remember those in countries where war, ‘natural’ disasters, widespread poverty and corrupt government make life precarious
Do you have something you would like to add to this prayer list?
or would you like our prayer team to pray confidentially for an individual or a
specific situation?
please email Elaine at elainemoff@aol.com