Church weekend away, 22nd – 24th March 2019, for the whole church, time together spent at Scripture Union’s new facility at Gowanbank in Darvel. More details to follow.
World Mission - a small group from John Knox (Helen Hunter / Christine Monks & Gavin Niven) are planning to visit our partner church in Northern Cyprus – all self-funded with some help from central church funds.
Worship – last year Session decided to try new ways for conducting our communion service. For the next communion service (December) we will try a form of service that many churches and our own presbytery has used – this involves inviting people in small groups to come out to take communion at the front (in the aisles). More information to come over coming weeks. [Update: This year we have an opportunity to celebrate 50 years of women in ministry in the Church of Scotland and the December morning communion is an apt service for this celebration. The original plans for December communion, will therefore be put in place for the March communion instead.]
Property - following the completion of our new roof, it has become apparent that there are a few more areas in need of urgent attention. This includes: sanctuary ceiling (plaster repair and painting), new central heating boiler, new roof and ceiling in small hall and a repair of our front wall & gate. This obviously looks expensive & we will need to look at grants & fundraising. The first step will be to get some quotes to clarify the picture.
Youth work – amongst other things our youth worker continues to work with our own H2O as well as a group of teenagers who come to Alpha / pizza evenings at the cottage. In addition – Gillian continues to help implement the new chaplaincy approach at Stewarton Academy as well as provide chaplaincy services. She delivers the CAP youth money course at the Academy and has facilitated a paired reading group where members of John Knox will help S1/2 teenagers with their reading. She also provides crossover outreach to the P6/7 group as they transition to the Academy.
Harvest service – is on 7th October with a light lunch and we will again collect shoeboxes for Blythswood Care.
