Month: November 2015

The University of Aberdeen London Carol Service  will be held at St Marylebone Parish Church on Tuesday 1 December, starting at 7 pm, followed by a reception until 9 pm.  All are welcome, particularly anyone with a connection to Aberdeen.

Sunday 20 December at 6.30 pm

Our Service of Nine Lessons and Carols this year will follow the traditional format, but there will be a retiring offering for Borderline, and after the service there will be a reception in the hall, which all are invited to attend.  Our Minister is Chairman of the Trustees, so we hope there will be a good turn-out to support the important work the charity does with homeless Scots in London.

Saturday 19 December 3 – 4 pm

This year’s carol singing in Trafalgar Square is at an earlier hour than usual, but we hope that it will still be a successful event.  We will need lots of singers and collectors to hand out song sheets, go round the Square collecting money, so keep an eye on the church notices for further details.

Friday 18 December 7.30 pm

This year’s concert will see the usual mix of music for choir and instrumentalists, and lots of familiar carols for everyone to join in.  There will be seasonal refreshments after the concert, and a retiring collection for charity.  Do come along and support the choir and enjoy singing your favourite carols.

The second of these services, planned to reach out to Scots working in the City who may not be aware of the existence of the two Church of Scotland congregations, or may be unable to get to church on Sundays, will be held on Tuesday 24 November at 6.30 pm at St Margaret’s Church in Lothbury.

On this occasion the preacher will be the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland who will be on his annual visit to London during that week.  If you work in the City, or have connections there, and could help publicise the service, please contact the church secretary.

The Minister is running a short series of Bible study sessions for Advent on the following dates: Wednesday 2, 9 and 16 December, from 6.15 – 7.15 pm in the vestry.  Do come along and join Philip for these sessions.  It doesn’t matter if you can’t commit to attending them all: just come when you can.  You will be most welcome.

This year the annual visit to Westminster of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Dr Angus Morrison, takes place from 22 to 30 November, and once again our Minister will act as Chaplain during the visit.  The Moderator will preach at the morning service here in Crown Court on Sunday 29 November, so do come along to hear his message. All are invited to join us for lunch after the service when there will be an opportunity for everyone to meet and talk to the Moderator and Mrs Morrison.

The Moderator will also be preaching at the Kirk in the City Service on Tuesday 24 November at 6.30 pm in St Margaret’s Church Lothbury.  This is the second such service, organised by ourselves and St Columba’s, which seeks to reach out to Scots working in the City who may not know about our two churches or may be unable to get to church on Sundays. Your support at this service would be greatly appreciated.

The Christmas Market will take place on Saturday 21 November.  We will once again have all our usual stalls selling all those essential items for Christmas: candles, gifts, preserves, tablet, home baking, stocking fillers, decorations, plants etc.  There will be games and competitions with prizes and the ever-popular lucky numbers stall.  And a new departure for this year: instead of the usual ploughman’s lunches, we will be serving posh afternoon teas with delicious dainty sandwiches, home-made scones and cakes – and all at a much more reasonable price than can be found elsewhere!

If you have any new unwanted gifts that would be suitable for any of the stalls, these will be very welcome.  Any offers of home baking for the afternoon teas or the cake stall will also be greatly appreciated (please see Janet Dowswell or Margaret Ross).

This year the Kirk Session has decided that the proceeds of the Market will go to support Bridget Agbenu’s nursing course at the St Karel School of Nursing in Ghana.  Members will recall that we supported Bridget through her secondary education at the Aburi School for Girls, and when she then wished to train as a nurse, but lacked the funding to do so, it was agreed that we should continue to support her.   There was some money left from the original fund-raising effort for school fees, but we now need to raise a further amount to cover the remainder of the nursing course.  There will be a display of information and photographs from Bridget at the Market, so that members can see her progress.  Please support this fund-raising effort generously.