Parish News Round-up

Thursday September 17

Our regular round-up of news received from churches

Please send items of parish news to magazine@lifeandwork.org or Life and Work, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN. Digital photographs should not be reduced. Please check the quality of your pictures: images which are blurry or too dark cannot be used. If there are children in any picture please confirm that their parents or guardians have given permission for publication.

A new Canal Garden at Polwarth Parish Church was opened to the public on Saturday.

The garden, built in a section of the Union Canal the Church adopted from Scottish Waterways Trust, will be a place of peace for the community and also serving, veteran and injured members of the Armed Forces.

The local congregational group and wider community have been working on the project for four years. It also includes a memorial to WW1 poet Wilfred Owen in the church grounds.

Both memorial and gardens, funded from the Armed Forces Community Covenant Scheme, will be maintained by veterans who use gardening as therapy.

Church minister, the Rev Jack Holt, said: “With the regeneration of the canal, and the daily traffic of users on the towpath and around Harrison Park, the congregation wanted to have a presence there as the starting point for mission, networking and relating to all the canal users and people of the locality. We  have also enhanced the location which is one of the hubs for the Edinburgh Council's Canal Strategy and also of the future plans of Scottish Canals.”

The next stage of the project is a mooring, to be fitted by Scottish Canals, that will allow the church to seek the purchase of a canal barge.

The two youngest members of Gourock: St John's Church had every reason to celebrate after being awarded their organisations' Queen's Badges this summer.

Irvin Musyoka (17) was one of 11 boys from the 2nd Gourock Company of the Boys' Brigade (affiliated to St John's) to pick up his award, while Declan Bolster (18), of the Darroch Explorer Unit, was one of three local Scouts to receive his award.

The church minister (and 2^nd Gourock Company Chaplain), the Rev Glenn Chestnutt, said: "As a Church, we are extremely proud of these two young gentlemen for their work within the Boys' Brigade and Scouting movement respectively, but also for their excellent youth work here in St John's, where they set an example to their peers."

Irvin and Declan are pictured with their parents, Caroluce and Florence Musyoka and Alison and Graham Bolster, and Rev Glenn Chestnutt. Picture courtesy of Tom Collins.

Six new Elders were ordained at St Margaret’s Church, Greenock on Sunday. From left: Student assistant William Boyle, David Davidson, Nan Reynolds, Aileen Clark, Elizabeth Ferns, Jane MacDougall, Tom MacDougall and church minister the Rev Morris Coull.

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