The farewell service for Rev Eddie Sykes and Rev Mary Patterson takes place at 3pm on Sunday 30th July at Grahamston United Church, Falkirk, Bute Street, FK2 7DH. All are welcome to attend. For those who can not make it to the church, the service will be livestreamed and available to view at https://www.youtube.com/@grahamstonunitedchurch/streams
We give thanks for the ministry of Eddie and Mary and wish them every blessing on their retirement.
A message of peace for the peoples of Israel and Palestine was given in a special service at Stirling Methodist Church.
The service, led by lay preacher David Rogerson, included Stirling MP Stephen Kerr, local councillors Ross Oxburgh and Alasdair Tollemache and Azam Haider from the Stirling Islamic Centre.
Ruth Cape shared her personal experience of cycling from the UK to Palestine and Israel and, through her Cycle 48 initiative, visited the sites of seven former Palestinian towns and villages where people were working to build peace between the communities through genuine understanding of the wrongs of the past and present.
Azam Haider shared stories from the earliest days of Islam, of respect and mutual support across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions.
A new chaplaincy initiative called ‘The Listening Service’ has been launched in Edinburgh, with a team of 19 trained chaplains from the city’s faith communities beginning work on Tuesday 6 December at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. These new court’s chaplains will provide an independent, confidential support service to all court users and staff – of all faiths and none. Court staff and staff from other agencies at the court (e.g. Social Work, Victim Support) will be able to refer court users to the Listening Service. The service is free, private and confidential; a listening ear for all who request it, when it is most needed.
The Project Leaders for the Listening Service are Rev Andrew Letby and Rev Hilda Warwick of the Methodist Church.
Churches and Computer Hackers Join Forces to Fight the Cold!
As autumn chill descends upon Edinburgh, two churches have joined forces with scientists, engineers and computer programmers in order to bring warmth to cold buildings across the city.
HeatHack is a computing and electronics club formed by the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church and Christ Church Morningside (Scottish Episcopal Church). The club will set up temperature and humidity monitoring in buildings, time lapse photography (for gas meters and boilers), public displays and phone apps that help communities understand their buildings – plus some special engineering challenges like how to find out whether a pump is operating correctly and where the heat actually goes.
Many community buildings in Edinburgh are old and expensive to heat – and costly to the environment – but this new ‘hacker-space’ is being formed to understand how to make the best use of the energy that is put in.
As well as special events, HeatHack will meet regularly on Tuesday evenings starting in October. They welcome anyone with an interest in electronics, computer programming, or an interest in how these old buildings are maintained and kept at their best for their use by the community.
Jean Carletta, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, is the originator of the ‘heat hack’ concept and has been actively involved in improving comfort and reducing energy use at Christ Church Morningside. She says, “Victorian buildings are fascinating, but complicated. The internet makes it possible to monitor heating systems and check their performance remotely. HeatHack will speed up improvements by bringing together property owners, users, students, and volunteers to share data and understand their heating problems.”
Lou Davis, pioneer minister at City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, “I’m very excited about the possibilities for HeatHack. Not only will we be finding solutions to people’s problems, but we’ll also be learning lots and having a great deal of fun along the way. I’m really keen to get a soldering iron in my hands and make something!”
HeatHack launched officially on Sunday 28 September at 12.30pm at the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church at 25 Nicolson Square, with an opportunity to see the technology in action.
Email: info@heathack.org
EDINBURGH CHURCH TAKES UP THE ‘WAR ON WONGA’
The City of Edinburgh Methodist Church is taking a stand against payday lenders by joining forces with a local credit union to bring fair and affordable savings, mortgages and loans to church members and the wider community. The church will promote the financial services of Capital Credit Union, an experienced Edinburgh-based credit union. This partnership is the first of its type in the city.
As with all credit unions, members are required to save a specific amount each week, which is then pooled and can be loaned out again at low interest rates. Information sessions will be held at the church on a weekly basis and run by church staff and specially-trained church volunteers.
The credit union partnership is officially launched at 6pm on 19 July at an event at the church’s Well Café at Nicolson Square in Edinburgh.
Belinda Letby, minster of the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, says:
“As a church, we see every day how tough times have been over the last few years for our members – and not only for them, but for their families and the community around us. We want to help protect people from predatory payday lenders, who seem to offer a quick way out, when in reality they not only prolong but exacerbate the problem. The wonderful thing about credit unions is that all members save, so they will always have something to fall back on. This, more than anything else, is why we have set up the credit union, because we believe that by working together we can help prevent problems before they even arise.”
Capital Credit Union CEO, Marlene Shiels, says:
“We are incredibly proud to be in a position to work with the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church in this way. Credit unions are built on the ethos of people helping people, and this is a perfect illustration of our philosophy in action.”
