A message from the vicar

Tuesday 26th January 2021

Take Heart - new lands are in the distance!

Welcome to Gleneagles Church - please take a look around the website, it will give you a really good flavour of who we are, what is available currently and what we were up to prior to COVID-19.  We also have a Facebook Page and YouTube Channel.

While many things are on hold at the moment God is never on hold.  In Matthew 14 Jesus’ friends were in the middle of a storm when they saw Jesus miraculously walk on the water towards them.  Naturally afraid, Jesus says to them ‘take heart, is it I, do not be afraid’.  For many people the uncertain times we are living in is frightening but Jesus walks towards us, and breathes His peace in us and on us.  We need to hold our nerve and keep on trusting Him.

Acts 27 talks of another storm.  Paul is under arrest and sailing to Rome.  They face the most frightening of storms, they fear for their lives and there isn’t much left of their ship!  I’m sure there would have been times when they wanted to give up and wondered how it was all going to end.  Maybe many are wondering right now - when will this pandemic end and what will life look like then?  But all of a sudden, in the distance, Paul and the crew saw new lands.  They couldn’t really make them out, they didn’t know who or what was there but it was definitely land.  Imagine their relief!

As a church we are, therefore, asking, ‘Lord help us see the new lands beyond the storm of this pandemic and then reveal what you want to be constructed there for the sake of your kingdom purposes.’  It’s a really good opportunity to take the next few months, whilst most things are closed down anyway, to seek fresh vision and strategy for how this part of the Body of Christ in Gleneagles can join with God in building His kingdom, as we emerge from this storm.

For we will emerge from this pandemic, so take heart, new lands are in the distance!

Revd Dawn Airey

Vision Process

Gleneagles Anglican Church is currently going through a lengthy vision process.

These videos have been produced by our vicar Dawn Airey to help everyone to better understand:

 Research - what enables healthy, growing church...

 Vision - What will be the vision for Gleneagles...

Safeguarding Guidelines for online meetings

Please click on this link to the new guidelines

Bible Verse of the Day

Jackie Brooks Cheesman

Prayer for the week

from Jackie, our Church Evangelist.  (Updated 07/05/2021)

Please pray for

The work of charities who help sufferers : MIND; Livability; YoungMinds; ReThink; CALM; Samaritans; and all who volunteer to help others

Some wisdom from Scripture:

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

God bless and protect you

Song of the week

Updated 05/05/2021.

The idea is for people to send a You Tube Clip of any religious song that has given them the strength and determination to carry on over the past difficult months. From these one will be selected as the song of the week.

This week, I have chosen "Always Will" by Hillsong. I hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/Hqc4J2XCj8E

If you would like to submit a song for consideration please use the Contact Us form on the website.

God bless

Prayer together on Zoom

It is so important for us to come together to pray always and especially in our current situation.  We currently come together on Tuesday mornings at 11.00 am. If you cannot join us please send your prayer requests or prayer suggestions to Revd Dawn Airey.

To join please click on the respective link(s), provided by email to church members, close to the meeting start time.
If you have not received the links please contact Revd Dawn Airey on

vicar@gleneaglesanglicanchurch.co.uk

Thank you

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT GROUP

Staying strong through coronavirus

Hi Everyone,

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is He said:

‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Matthew 22: 37-39

Living our lives, with these two commandments at the centre, will enable you and I to get through the current coronavirus crisis well and to help others to do so.

Firstly, stay close to God.  Talk with Him, read our Bibles, worship and praise Him, cast our cares upon Him, express our concerns and worries to Him, let Him take care of you.  Stay close to God.

Secondly, love others, putting them first. Let's see how we can concern ourselves with the needs and plight of others and find ways to help them.  This will give us less time to worry about ourselves.

To do the second well, we need the Fruit of the Spirit to grow in us.  Well, guess what?  If we do the first well, the Fruit of the Spirit will grow in us.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." 
Galatians 5:22,23

As the fruit of the Spirit grows in us and makes us strong we can apply the fruit in ways that help ourselves and others.

First and foremost let's love God with everything and then let's put His love in us into action to serve and help others - taking all the necessary precautions, of course.

Let's allow God's joy to rule over our fears and anxieties.  If you and I can be joyful at a time like this and put our trust completely in God, it will help us and others greatly.  Speak fear and anxiety and we create more fear and anxiety - but speak with joy and we allay fears and anxieties.  The secret to this is knowing God's peace deep down in our innermost beings.  As Jesus said, it is a peace that the world does not know or understand because it's a peace He gives to us which we can experience even in the direst circumstances.  In those troubled conversations, where friends or family are expressing their fears, let's be peace-bringers and joy-givers.

Let's be patient, kind and good even with the panic-buyers and those ignoring social distancing advice.  We can and should let them know that their behaviour is unacceptable, but we can do it without behaving badly ourselves and with patience, kindness and goodness.

Let's be faithful to God, to our friends and family and to those in our community, by doing all we can to help with gentleness.  And at this time, when emotions can get the better of us, let's seek God's help to maintain our own self-control.

Stay close to God, let the Holy Spirt grow his fruit in us every day, which will make us more like Jesus.

And at this time, let's make this our prayer for each other:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." 
Ephesians 3: 16-19

God bless