Blythswood Care Shoebox Appeal –
There is still time to fill a shoebox, leaflets in the churches or from https://blythswood.org/shoeboxappeal/ The shoeboxes are being collected from Melrose Rugby Club car park on Monday 25 October between 2.20 and 2.50pm. You can either bring your showbox to church before then or take it direct to the Blythswood van at the Rugby Club. Thank you!
National Giving Day –
Many thanks to all who gave so generously to our National Giving Day appeal for Al Shurooq School for the Blind in Bethlehem. You can still contribute – just put your gift in an envelope marked ‘National Giving Day’. Thanks.
Tea and Coffee after the Melrose Service –
We will be serving tea and coffee after worship once more from Sunday 24 October. If you would like to volunteer for the rota please contact Helen in the office. We need 2 people each week. There are some ‘rules’ that we must follow to keep everyone safe….
If you wish to stay for tea or coffee please access the church hall from the Gattonside porch. Try and observe 1 metre distancing, keep your mask on – you can take it off when you are drinking, sanitise your hands as you pass, put your ‘trace and ptotect’ slip in the box in the hall so we know who has stayed for a drink. You will be served your drink, milk, sugar and a biscuit from the hatch and then you are asked to take a seat. Try and sit with someone you don’t normally get a chance to talk to…. Leave your mug on the table when you have finished. Leave by the Gattonside door. It’s another step forward….
Sunday Worship –
I will be on holiday from 16-23 October. Worship on Sunday at 9.30am in Bowden Kirk and 11.00am in Melrose Church will be conducted by Rev Sara Embleton. The 11.00am service is livestreamed on both Facebook and our website www.bowdenandmelrosechurch.org or you can watch the recording thereafter. The hymn sheet is attached so you can sing along…. There is no podcast this week.
Keeping Safe –
Whilst most Covid restrictions in Scotland have been lifted the virus is still a threat and care still needs to be taken. Physical distancing is still recommended as is hand sanitising and the wearing of masks at indoor events. Complying with Test and Protect remains in place. The Church of Scotland is advising that we continue to observe 1 metre distancing in the short term. This gives us good capacity in both our buildings – up to 180 in Melrose and 40 in Bowden. Different options for joining in worship are now a part of church life. Please do what is right for you.
Television and Radio –
There are other worship opportunities on Sunday. Songs of Praise is on BBC 1 at 1.15pm. New Every Sunday is at 7.30am on Radio Scotland and Sunday Worship at 8.10am on Radio 4. Both will be available afterwards on BBC Sounds.
Prayer –
This Sunday Christians across the country – and further afield – will once again join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm.
The faith we share affirms that it was ‘for us’ that Jesus Christ ‘became truly human’. So, in faith, when we turn to God and pray through Jesus Christ, we do so knowing that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the life we live. The life we live today is shaped by particular circumstances that weigh upon us collectively and personally. In the midst of life, we find opportunity and challenge, and we seek to discern the hand of God throughout it all. In the midst of life, we recall that Jesus has shared in our flesh and participated in the life of the world. The Letter to the Hebrews records: ‘In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears’. (Hebrews 5: 7) In so recording, the Letter affirms that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the depths of human experience. There is no place in our experience at which God cannot meet us. As we cry out to God, the One who hears us is the One who has heard the cries of Jesus Christ.
We pray:
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prays for us
And who has shared in the life of the world.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
From the depths of our experience
And in the midst of the challenges of our day.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prayed to You with cries and tears
And hear us when we do so also.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
As we share in the life of the world
And in the depths of its suffering.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who for us and for our salvation
Has become truly human and one with us.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
