News

Parish News Round-up

Thursday July 18 2019

Our regular round-up of news received from churches

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Montrose: Old & St Andrew's Church has just finished its 13th Summer Mission, a weeklong long holiday club for primary school pupils and nursery age children. The theme this year was Monster Stink, which saw the primary school participants help trainee monsters confront their fears with the help of Bible stories, and also take part in the usual aerobics, crafts and games activities.

While the children were busy enjoying the holiday club a café, staffed by church volunteers, provided refreshments for parents/carers. Over the years this has developed and the church has learnt to 'receive' as well as 'give' as parents often bring in home-baking or home-grown strawberries as a “thank you”.

Parents and other family members were invited to join in activities such as the pancake afternoon, monster drive (think beetle drive), Mission barbecue, and the Sunday café church service and congregational lunch which rounded off the week.

An innovation this year was the introduction of a school uniform 'shop'. Local schools were contacted and leaflets distributed requesting that used school uniforms be handed in to schools prior to the end of the summer term. Members of the congregation volunteered to launder the clothing and the 'shop' was open during the pancake afternoon, giving parents the chance to obtain 'used but still good' uniforms for the new school year.

The Summer Mission is organised by members of the congregation, although it couldn't run without the help of the teenage helpers, most of whom attended the mission themselves as children.

Over the week, 145 children attended, with a daily turnout of approximately 107. The increasing numbers attending the Mission since the first one in 2007 provided core numbers for the subsequent introduction of Messy Church, another activity which is now well attended by local children and their families.

An annual church shop run by volunteers has raised thousands of pounds for a congregation in Perthshire.

Alyth Parish Church made £12,857 over five and a half days, beating last year’s total by more than £1,000.

The sale takes place in the first week each July and has now run for 19 years.

Church elder Elasaidh Mollison, who fundraises alongside Ruth Jolly and convener Audrey Young, said that the sale started off on ‘a very small scale’.

“We had a fete and there was bric-à-brac leftover”, she said. “Since then it’s gone from strength to strength.”

Items for sale, donated by local people, range from furniture to books and jewellery. An electrician in the congregation does PAT testing on electrical goods. There is also tea, coffee and home baking.

Money raised will go towards church funds and the redecoration of the 19th century church.

Ms Mollison said it was ‘a phenomenal effort from all’: “The three of us who help to run it did almost 60 hours of work each this year, but it’s great fun and on the first day we made over £4,000.

“The community spirit is there – people who don’t necessarily come to church still support us.”