Arbroath West Kirk Magazine, April/May 2021- Issue 280

Hello everyone,

How lovely it is to have our Church doors open once again and it has been great to see so many of you back in the Sanctuary over the Easter period.

Hopefully, all being well, we will remain open in the coming months.  Restrictions are still in place with only 50 allowed to attend which means we are still asking you to book every second week please. The Church office is still closed with Myra working from home. To book a place, please phone Myra on the Church office number (01241  434721)

During our time of closure, Mrs Ruth Ferguson has been delivering flowers to those of our congregation in need of comfort which have been greatly received by all knowing that they have been in our thoughts and prayers. I would on behalf of the congregation like to thank Ruth for continuing to deliver this vital part of our pastoral care throughout this time.  If you know of someone who would benefit from receiving the Church flowers or indeed a Pastoral telephone call from the Minister then please let us know. If you are attending Church then there are cards in the vestibule for completion and can be popped into the “wee green” box as you exit the Church after the Service.  You can also contact myself or the Minister.

May you all continue to keep safe and look forward to seeing you.

Audrey Shepherd, Session Clerk

Services

Now that our church building is open, these are the ways to access our services…

1. Come to worship at 11am in the building. Social distancing requirements mean that the building is open for a maximum of 50 people. Please book in advance with Myra in the office. Please also be aware that it may not be possible to book for each week as we can sometimes exceed the maximum number.
2. The weekly service is also recorded and is available from 11am every Sunday on YouTube or Facebook. If it’s easier to receive an email with a direct link to the service, please let us know and we will email it to you on a Friday.
3. We are very fortunate that we are still able to record a service for Radio North Angus and that’s still broadcast each Sunday at 3pm.

In order to reduce the time taken recording the service in advance in the next few weeks we’ll be looking at ways to run a live broadcast of the service, which is also recorded, for those who prefer to watch online.

We may be indifferent places, but we are still one church family, worshipping together.

Communication

Without the ability to distribute paper copies of the magazine, communication with everyone has been more difficult. I’m very grateful to Myra for providing contact details and to the elders who made telephone contact with as many members as we could in January and February. I know that both the folk who made the calls and those who received them enjoyed the opportunity to catch up. If you didn’t receive a phone call, it may be that Myra doesn’t have your contact details on her database, so please get in touch with her with contact numbers and email addresses so that we can keep our records as up to date as possible.

For those who have the internet, our weekly services are available from 11am each Sunday on YouTube and updates on all our activities and events are on Facebook. The links for both are over the page.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3tXCAWSP-YNx5x4Ph7EYfQ

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Arbroath-West-Kirk-108020514483391

Zoom has also been a really helpful way of keeping in touch. Leza and Caroline have continued to meet with Sunday School every other week in this way. The bible study group continue to meet every Wednesday evening at 7.30pm by Zoom, and there has also been an opportunity to chat together after the service at 12 noon every Sunday (1pm on alternate weeks now that the church building is open). We have even run a couple of online socials – a quiz night and an evening of Pictionary and name that tune, thanks to the preparations of Joan. From my point of view it has been lovely to see so many faces, without masks, on screen and I feel like I am getting to know some folk despite all the restrictions. Though our need for Zoom will diminish as time goes on, we will still be using it for the next few weeks so please feel free to join us. Both Myra and I can provide details.

Report from David Spink, Church Treasurer

As you know I would normally present the accounts at the annual stated meeting, as that won’t be possible this year I thought I should let you know by

this means what happened financially in 2020. I won’t go into too much depth, just enough to give you a flavour, if you do want to know more please contact me.

As we know 2020 wasn’t a normal year and the fact that the buildings were closed for so long, and numbers at services for a large part of the year were limited when we were allowed to hold them, all had a dramatic effect on our income. The normal income was down from £112,669 in 2019 20 £81,278, a reduction of £31,391. There were a number of reasons for this, less givings, less income from the use of halls and Church Organisations, less return on our investments and of course no Fayre in November.

We have been fortunate that many of the Congregation give by way of standing orders and this has given the Church a steady regular income. I believe we will fare better in 2021 as a good number are making up for what they were unable to give by letting us have bulk filled envelopes and more setting up standing orders.

On the outgoings side we did see a reduction there too, down from £160,105 to £148,838, £11,267 less. Although there were restricted opening times the Church still had commitments by way of Ministry and Mission payments, maintenance and repair of all the buildings and other costs in running the Church.   I had predicted a deficit in the budget for 2020 which was prepared before Covid was in our daily vocabulary, unfortunately, this was much greater than anticipated and was in fact £49,993.

I am looking forward to a healthier financial year for 2021 during which time I hope our income will increase, should we be able to reopen fully again, and our outgoings reduce with less work being required on the buildings.

During 2020 we did manage to make contributions to Christian Aid, Church of Scotland HIV programme through Souper Sunday, Shelter and Dunfermline Samaritans, the chosen charity of our accounts examiner who continues to do so much work for us.

The accounts have been approved by Kirk Session as Trustees and also by Angus Presbytery.

I look forward to presenting a far healthier report at this time next year.

David Spink, Treasurer

Gift Day

As you know Gift Day did not take place in February and we are now enclosing an envelope for you to make a donation to the Church with this magazine.  If you should wish to make a donation this can be handed in any Sunday at the Service or put in the letter box in the door of the Church at the old hall entrance.
If you have signed a Gift Aid form we can reclaim the tax on your donation. If you are happy for us to do this please put your name and address on the Gift Day envelope.  Although the Church has been closed for a good deal of the past year if you read the note from our Treasurer you will understand how our finances have been affected.
The Stewardship Group look forward to your support in this very important event.

The Guild

During this time of lockdown Guilds, including ours, have still been sending their last donations to the six projects we currently support.  To date the amazing sum of over £520,000 has been raised and we have been able to learn about what each Project is doing in their situations.  A new set of Projects for the next 3years will be announced on April 15th.  We hope that it will not be too much longer before we can meet up again as a group.
Perhaps we will be able to meet again over the summer for a catch up chat and cuppy.  As they say “watch this space”

Best wishes to all from the leadership team.

Christian Aid Week 2021, Monday 10^th – Sunday 16 May

The latest edition of the Christian Aid magazine has a front cover headline that reads “Against All Odds, Celebrating the Best of Humanity.”

What a positive message, especially after the last year which has proved to be one of the most difficult in living memory.  Together, supporters across the country raised nearly £4 million during Christian Aid week 2020.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped raise what is a remarkable sum, considering all fundraising was moved online.

Unfortunately many of us were unable to donate or to take part in our usual CA week activities.  Here in Arbroath we were left with no coffee morning, no Tay Bridge Walk, no envelope dropping through the letter box.

To address this, we at the West Kirk thought it would be good to give you all the opportunity to donate this year. To enable you to do this we are enclosing a Delivery Only Envelope with this month’s magazine. We hope you think this is a good idea.

Our priority would be for the envelopes to be returned to the church during CA Week at Sunday morning worship or, delivered back to us via the letterbox which is situated on the door of the “small” hall. If you are unable to do this, then any time during the month of May would be lovely.

We are also pleased to announce that we have a group of walkers who are planning to take part in this year’s virtual challenges: the Kiltwalk and The 300,000 Steps in May. Many of us are being sponsored to complete these challenges – an extra incentive for all involved.  Of course the main incentive will be the raising of vital funds. Together with supporters from all over the country we will be helping to build a world in which everyone can thrive. Our church community at the West, is challenging itself. This truly is love in action.

If you would like more information on either of the challenges, whether that’s to take part or to offer support, then please contact me.

Thank you so much,

Karen Bowie

01241 238383