Various ‘gatherings’ are happening on Zoom
We use the same Zoom login details for all these activities:
11am Zoom Communion on 2nd Sunday of the Month
Have some bread and wine or juice with you if you wish to participate.
Tuesday afternoon Bible Study/ Discussions 2pm
Wednesday Coffee and Chat 10.30am
Kirk Session Meetings etc.
If you do not already have the Zoom login details and wish to participate in any of these ‘gatherings’, please contact Rev Donald.
There will be a time of worship at Ardgour Parish Church on Sunday 6th September. Attendance will be strictly limited to 16 household groups. 13 have already ‘booked’, please contact Rev Donald if you would like to attend.
The Scottish Government restrictions are that gatherings are restricted to 8 people from 3 households indoors, and 15 people from 5 households outdoors. There are privileged exceptions allowing up to 20 people to gather for a funeral or wedding service outdoors, and gatherings of up to 50 people for worship services in church buildings subject to maintaining 2m social distancing. Ardgour Church’s seating limit is 16 household groups. The following measures will be observed to comply with Church and Government regulations:
Every Tuesday afternoon at 3pm there will be an online Zoom conversation based around material prepared by Eco-Congregation Scotland for Creation Time 2020. Contact Rev Donald if you don’t have the Zoom login details.
Wednesday Evening prayer at 10am on Facebook
17-22 August – Week of Prayer. The Moderator of the General Assembly invites all to share in this week of prayer for Church and Country.
www.churchofscotland.org.uk for more details.
September is Creation Time – and in Worship and other activities we will be using some resources and materials produced by Eco-Congregations.
Watch this space for more details…
One of the things I have really missed during lockdown is not being able to visit the 3 Primary Schools – Ardgour, Strontian and Lochaline. It’s been a very different term. Well done to all the children and staff who have been learning and teaching in very different ways.
As usual at the end of term the local churches have a wee gift for the P7s as they move up to High School. We’ll deliver the gift to you over the next week or so…
Happy Holidays everyone… be kind, keep safe, keep washing your hands… and know that God loves you all.
In addition to the worship video on YouTube, on the first Sunday of each month there will be a Worship Service on Zoom at 11am. If you would like to participate in this please contact the minister.
Worship led by Rev Donald McCorkindale, and Rev Fiona Ogg can be viewed on the YouTube Channel: www.youtube.aksm.org.uk on Sunday morning.
Reading – Matthew 10:40-42
Jesus said
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.
Whoever welcomes a prophet
in the name of a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward;
and whoever welcomes a righteous person
in the name of a righteous person
will receive the reward of the righteous;
and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple —
truly I tell you,
none of these will lose their reward.”
Interconnectedness – Reflection from Fiona Ogg
Never mind Zoom, Google meets and huddles, Teams, Skype, ( other group meets are available ) and the inter-net, let’s think about the original way we are inter-connected.
We all pray, God please do this, or that, or make this happen, or save that situation.
Why?
Do we hope God will get off the clouds, materialise in the midst of a bad situation and suddenly all will be well. Of course we do!
‘Oh God, take away this pain, heal this beloved family member, and so on …’. There’s a time for these prayers, want an instant connection with God and the deep hope for a miracle. Absolutely.
But it’s not those emergency prayers I’m thinking of but of the everyday ones, like the teenage prayer I mentioned a couple of week’s ago asking God to help me get great results. In my adolescent, naive mindset I hadn’t quite grasped that God had already given me a brain and memory and it was up to me to use them! ( I got the message, eventually … )
The nurse caring for a covid or cancer patient is the answer to prayer –
God works through their knowledge and hands.
That’s a connection.
The teacher helping someone to unlock the skills needed for reading is the answer to prayer –
God works through their patience.
That’s a connection.
The carer feeding and washing their charge is the answer to prayer
God works through their caring hands.
That’s a connection too!
In this way, you and I are the answer to prayer. Even when we don’t know it! So many times we are positioned to be God’s presence with others. We are welcomed, we are the connection and that’s when, effectively, it’s God who is being welcomed.
We are all in the presence of God.
This week’s reading tells us that when anyone receives or welcomes a believer, then they are welcoming the person, and through that person they welcome Jesus, and when they welcome Jesus, they welcome God.
So interconnected that the theory of six degrees of separation doesn’t hold – this is an instant connection with God.
These are awesome promises!
Wherever God’s people are, we are already in the presence of God.
The Christian writer, Richard Rohr writes, ‘We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.’ God is not separate from humanity; inside each person is a spark of God, we call it God’s Spirit. People of faith accept the Spirit within nudging us to do the work of God and to be the image of God in our attitudes and values.
The verse that mentions a cup of cold water is particularly interesting. It’s about giving and receiving. Giving what many would dismiss as such a small thing to do that it doesn’t merit any attention. Receiving, knowing that even this small thing is so very important because of what it represents. The cup of cold water would have been drawn from a well; which took time and effort; it was was given out of the household supplies; it was a response to a need. The person who gave and the person who received were both / each in the presence of God.
The small things matter. Jesus sent out the disciples to work in the world – that’s you and me today, Take note of the inner nudgings, give thanks for the small things, give and receive gratefully, attitudes and values matter, look for God in others.
This reading reminds us to be aware of the presence of God within and without – it’s all inter-connected.
May you aware of the presence of God in and around you today and always. Amen
Prayer
Lord,
can I pull up a chair?
Can I sit with here a while with you? Not too long though,
I don’t want to outstay my welcome.
You see, Lord,
It is so good to feel
wanted and welcome,
not to be turned away
or greeted with a “what now?”
I try, Lord, to be like you:
not to bristle when someone expects something from me; not to let my impatience show; to give people space and time.
I know, Lord,
that in saying “welcome”
it opens up possibilities,
some good and some that well, you know…
will take all my patience.
And in sitting with you awhile I am reminded again
what “welcome” looks like and feels like.
Thank you, God,
for letting me sit awhile.
I will leave you in peace now. Amen.
From Spill the Beans, Issue 35, p37