Paul Newman

Dave McCarthy has a very touching piece in his blog this morning about one of Paul Newman's most memorable roles.You can read it here .

Impact Cafe

Wasps trained to seek out drugs in Columbian airports, the gospel shared through an episode of Dr Who and Life Boat Stations that become comfortable clubs. These were some of the surprising and wonderful ways in which the Cafe service went on Sunday night. There isn't another cafe now until the last Sunday in November, but I'm already excited about what we may learn from the prophet Zechariah!

It's about relationships - stupid!

A comment on the current bank bail-out in the US from Bill Coffin in SmartMarriages says “How big is $700Bn? It is equal to the cost of divorce and out of wedlock pregnancy over the last six and a half years.” In the UK, the cost of Northern Rock and now Bradford and Bingley is about four years of UK family breakdown.

The problem with both these analyses is that they are not alternative uses of the money – they are additive. The “toxic mortgages” are heavily skewed towards un-married couples who subsequently split and then defaulted. As a society we have encouraged this lifestyle, and as a society we are now picking up the cost – twice!

It is salutary to reflect that the apparent success, and now fragility, of the western capital system is built on foundations outlawed within Muslim banking circles, their system being based on the ancient biblical system which outlaws usury (lending for interest). This doesn’t mean they won’t lend money – it means that they build a relationship as the basis for any transaction in which risk and return are openly understood, and shared appropriately. The heart of the system is relationships, not interest rates.

As a society in the west we have built a society on a premise of having whatever we want, in the belief that there is no cost – a banking and finance system that sidelines the importance of relationships, and a mortgage market that ignores the impact of relationship stability, a “sexual market” in which gratification is set above care for the relationship.

The heart of a successfully functioning human society is relationships, and the pinnacle of these in terms of commitment, mutual care, and self-sacrifice is marriage. Until we shift our thinking onto a relational basis we shall continue to build sandcastles in the air – and the tides of history will quietly sweep them back into the sea, all over again.

DRUG RAIDS IN HILTON

The BBC website is reporting the following: "Police in Inverness have arrested four people and seized a "significant" amount of drugs during raids in the city's Hilton area. " You can read the full report here. Inverness is nolonger (if it ever was!) sheltered from these bleak realities. There have been 4 drug related deaths in the last 2 weeks.

The Story Teller

I found a great idea here from Roddy Hamilton. A story teller to tell the good news stories from a congregation. In many ways, the blog has that purpose and potential, but a great deal more is possible as you will see from Roddy's suggestions.I was hearing from Margaret Lamond, that last Thursday evening The Guild had an inspiring time during which many of the women told stories of their lives and their service to Christ through the Church. We need to make space for more stories to be told. One of the challenges in my experience is creating an enviroment in which people feel able to tell their stories. Despite lots of encouragement from me, very few people appear to be prepared to share their stories and thoughts in the blog. So often we hang back for a variety of reasons. I am struck by the fact that the most commented blog which I regularly read is ASBO JESUS. All Jon Birch uses are cartoons, and yet it seems to free people up to share in large numbers.

PLEASE PRAY

Jonathan and Susie Fraser phoned early this morning to say that Iona had suffered a major set back over night. She has now been in ITU for 6 weeks. The infection she picked up 3 weeks ago is still causing major problems. They would value your prayers.

HILTON SHOPS

I took a picture of the Hilton shops this morning before going into church for the service. The shops are immediately opposite the Church. Sunday is the only time in the week when the area is quiet. The Co-op, the Post Office and the new Butchers together with the Hairdressers provide a great service to the wider community. Gwen has been visiting them all this week. We hope to work closely with them in the development of the cafe. Perhaps, I'll try to do a feature on each of the shops over the next while.

Emerging Church

Tomorrow we are going to be reflecting on Luke 10 v1-12. Jesus sending out the 70.What does this say to us about the shape of mission and of the church today? There is a great deal of discussion these days about the emerging church. If this is something new to you, then a good introduction can be found through looking at the Fresh Expressions website. This is an initiative of the Church of England."It aims to help Christians of any denomination think about ways of starting and growing fresh expressions of church in their area."

JAMIE GRANT

We have a good day in prospect at Hilton Church tomorrow. One of the highlights of the day will be the ordination of Jamie Grant to the eldership. Jamie is an outstanding leader within our congregation. He regularly preaches, is involved in leading a homegroup and gives a great deal of time and effort to many different dimensions of service within the congregation, He came to Hilton Church nearly 5 years ago along with his wife Iwona and their 3 children, Gosia, Debbie and David. They have all made a telling contribution to the life of Hilton Church.Jamie is a lecturer at the Highland Theological College in Dingwall and he regularly speaks at conferences both National and International. We are thankful to God for him, and appreciate the wisdom and joy which are so evident in his life.

John & Olive Drane

It was a real privilege and pleasure to have John and Olive Drane sharing with us at Hilton Church last weekend. I follow a number of blogs on a regular basis and I noticed that Steve Taylor from Christchurch, NZ was doing a seminar in Adelaide, Australia this week, in which he was highlighting a book by John Drane. You can read about it here. The network of relationships in the christian community across the world is amazing.

The Scottish Northern Convention

The Strathpeffer Convention of 1984 was a major turning point in my life spiritually. It set me on a new course for my life which ultimately led to Parish ministry.Now called The Scottish Northern Convention, it begins this Saturday with a youth event. A significant number of our musicians are going to be leading the worship there which is great to hear. There will be bible teaching sessions taking place throughout next week, and if you have some free time I recommend a visit. You can find full details of the week by reading here

Hilton Community Centre

In establishing our new cafe and centre, we have received a great deal of encouragement and support from Hilton Community Centre. This afternoon, Gwen and I went to visit Maureen Ross, Chairperson of the Community Centre. We have a great deal to learn in terms of running a Centre and Maureen very willingly gave Gwen a variety of helpful insights into the operation of a centre for the public.

21st century prophets

"To a bystander like me, those who made £190m deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of a very strong capital base, and drove it into the arms of Lloyds TSB, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers," Dr Sentamu told the annual dinner of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers. "We find ourselves in a market system which seems to have taken its rules of trade from Alice in Wonderland, " he said.

Dr Sentamu noted the contrast between the bailouts to banks and the lack of funding for efforts to eradicate poverty. The US Treasury has proposed a fund worth up to $700bn (£382bn) to buy back much of the bad debt held by banks and other financial institutions. The Archbishop acknowledged the need for stable financial systems if poverty is to be eradicated but quoted commentators who said: "One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5bn to save six million children's lives. "World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they tell us that action for the poorest is too expensive?"

You can read the report here

ALPHA

We had the fourth evening of the current alpha course last night on the questions "How and why do we pray?" As always, there was a great sense of sharing and listening. The experience of being involved in a course again has been thoroughly refreshing. On a wider note, the course which is being run in partnership with the Hospital chaplaincy meets in the new Health Sciences building which you can read about here and here. It is a remarkable suite of buildings, rather hidden on the north east part of the Raigmore Hospital campus. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth a look.

The glass is half full!

For the last few weeks we have had a gift event. The funds raised will help towards the costs of fittings for the Centre such a furniture and AV, as well as set up costs for the cafe. The Project Team are asking for £20,000. By Sunday, we had raised just over half the required amount. In my experience it is very rare for the funds to be raised ahead of schedule. Much of the funding for re-developing the Centre came in when we were right "on the wire!"

The amount of envelopes from individuals/families (47) indicates that as a Project team we still have a way to go in terms of envisioning the congregation. Hopefully a greater number of people will begin to see the bigger picture as the centre moves from planning to action. We will keep the gift event open and continue to exercise the faith and optimism which has taken us this far.

"My God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Philipians 4 v19) In our experience, we have found God's resources to be more than ample for our needs.

IMPACT CAFE

Before you know it, another month has passed and it's time for another Impact Cafe. This Sunday night we are going to be looking at the wonderful minor prophet Jonah. It is one of the best known stories of the Old Testament and it has so much to say to us about the nature of God. Jonah was given a message by God to bring to the people of Nineveh. During the evening, we will be reflecting on the question "What is our message from God today?"

Mark Hadfield from Street Pastors will be sharing,as will Gwen Barlow. What is God's message today in our streets and in our cafes? There will be music from our youth as well as Peter Noble. A night to look forward to.

A little bit of hoovering!

Our new centre manager, Gwen Barlow is now into her third day of work. It's great to see her enthusiasm and to hear all the thoughts and ideas which are beginning to flow. She even had a little time this afternoon for a spot of hoovering! It would be good to have a centre blog to record the daily life of the project. I think we'll need a name before we can do that. Roll on the next project team meeting.

Who will walk the dog?

The domestic repercussions of the financial crisis have already hit home says the Telegraph. Just ask the City wives. The knock-on effect the strain and upheaval will have on the couple's marriage will emerge in time. For now, Sandra Davis, head of Family Law at Mishcon de Reya, points out that the stress caused by money woes can expose deep fault lines.

"With the financial markets lurching from one crisis to the next, city workers will be more concerned with their immediate employment prospects than with their relationships," says Davis. "Lehman Brothers employees and their wives are waking up to the reality that their stock is a busted flush, and the trophy wives of other investment bankers will be looking to cash in their chips before their husbands' stock options and deferred compensation go the same way. Either way, the outlook for the unhappily married appears fairly bleak."

Masters of the Universe, even those brought to their collective knees, evoke even less sympathy than estate agents down to their last des res, but this is no time to observe that it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at how the mighty - or more precisely, the mightily rich - hath fallen.

Of course, the big boys - and girls - at the top understood they were in a high-stakes business where risk was the name of the game, a game, they have belatedly discovered, where there really are losers as well as winners. You may have little sympathy for the City suits, but spare, if you will, a thought for their wives.

Not only have they lost status, but their army of support staff is in severe jeopardy: whether the nannies, cleaners, dog walkers and personal trainers? What will become of the independent schools where they send their children, even the charities who benefited from their conspicuous largesse?

sunday services

John & Olive Drane shared in our weekend which marked the beginning of the new cafe centre. They led our two services on Sunday, and as ever they left us with plenty to think about and much to build on.

The morning service was based around the Festival of Tabernacles and John 7. Water was central to the service and the climax of our time togther was the pouring out of our bottles of water into large basins at the front.

The evening service was based around Luke 24 and the Road to Emmaus. The service culminated in the opportunity to engage with a variety of prayer stations where many items linked to the gospel passage were placed.

I was struck by the simplicity of the services and the way they engaged so many people in a variety of different ways. There was movement and an opportunity to involve all our senses. It was quite different from an average service, and yet what was being done would not be difficult to build on.This blog offers the opportunity for you to comment about your experiences on Sunday. What did you make of it all? I would love to hear from you via the comments section.

The picture, which is full of water, was taken on a visit to the Iquazu Falls in Argentina.

asbo jesus

another great cartoon by jon birch

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP

On Friday evening, I attended a promotional event at Raigmore Hospital hosted by the Christian Medical Fellowship. The aim of the evening was to highlight the medical work being pioneered by the Vine Trust in the Amazon region of Peru. There was about 70 people there for the presentation. Hopefully, many of them will be inspired to link in with this great project. The key note speakers were Sian Jones, Iain Whyte and Philip Kiln (all from Hilton Church) and Calum Munro who was a member of our first workparty to Peru (and is now Educational/Expedition Director at the Vine Trust). They all spoke so well and shared about the differences that the project had made to their lives and to the lives of the Amazonian people. I felt very proud of them all. It us so inspiring to see the difference that can be made by just a few people deciding to do something together. You can find out more about the Vine Trust here

BABY STEPS

The last two weeks have been very difficult for Iona and agonising for her parents,Jonathan and Susie. Just when it seemed that everything was right for Iona to move out of ITU, she got an infection which became a very serious issue. We are delighted to hear that Iona is again making progress. The word which is being used is "baby steps" so there is a way to go yet. Iona and her parents are constantly in our thoughts and prayers, and we hope that the improvement continues in these next days and weeks.

LIFT OFF!

I notice that the blog has been quiet since last Thursday. We had such a busy weekend that there really was no time for any sort of journal of the events.Personally, I collapsed into Monday morning and so today it's time to pick up the various threads again.

The cafe opened for people to come and have a look on Saturday afternoon. The afternoon was all I could have hoped for and more. The place was full of people up until the last half hour, and there was a great buzz as people shared together. Thank you to Peter Noble, Audrey Whyte (and friends!) and Julie Keen who did some singing sessions, to Olive Drane for her story telling and to Philip Noble for his string and things! The hospitality by those serving in the kitchen was also outstanding.

Gwen Barlow began work as Centre Manager yesterday. The building phase ends and a new chapter begins. We wish Gwen every success in her new role. I took the picture just before everyone arrived on Saturday. Hopefully we can post some pictures of the event later.

WATER

The service on Sunday morning at 10am is based around the theme of the Feast of Tabernacles, a major thanksgiving point in the year around harvest time. The high point involved the pouring out of much water. It also involved rabbis staying up all night and juggling with flames, but we'll give that a miss!

Can you remember to bring a small bottle of water for each person in your group, and perhaps an extra one for visitors.

OPEN AFTERNOON

Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) from 1-5pm we are having an open time at the new cafe centre. (The sooner we have a new name the better!) It will be an opportunity for people to have a look around the new centre. We will be serving drinks and eats, and a variety of folk will be singing in the cafe throughout the afternoon. Olive Drane will be doing some story telling and John Drane will be doing some personal card readings from the Jesus deck. There will also be face painting. All in all, we hope it will be an afternoon to enjoy together.

CELEBRATION

At about 9pm this evening, we popped a few bottles of champagne and celebated the end of the painting and cleaning. A great team turned up tonight and worked really hard to get the job done. Thank you to everyone who helped. If you feel that you missed out tonight and would like to help, we are setting up tables and chairs at 6pm on Friday night.

500 posts

Tonight a large team will be gathering at the new centre (we hope!) to tidy up and to do the last bits of painting. All the floor coverings have gone down this week and engineers are completing the wiring and fittings for the audio visual system. I'm looking forward to seeing it all finished. It's been a long journey to this day. PICTURES ABOVE are before and after.

On another matter, I notice from the counter that this is the 500th post on the blog. I hope it serves as a useful tool to keep people in touch with what is happening around Hilton Church. It's a good way of telling our story as a church as we go along.

Ideas and Volunteers!

Hello! Gwen Barlow here just to let you know that starting this Monday I will officially be the Hilton Church Community Centre’s “Development Manager”. What does that mean?!! Well, it means now that we have this fantastic new resource in place, I’ll be working, alongside the Project Management Team, to develop the use of building. It started out as the “Hilton Community Café Project” but has actually become more than a café since it also has several meeting rooms which is why we’ve started calling it a “centre” instead.

The church’s vision for the centre is one of outreach and a tremendous opportunity to share the gospel with the wider Hilton Community; but as you may appreciate, we do have quite a blank sheet of paper in terms of the details. So.. I welcome your thoughts and ideas about the centre, its direction and what you would like to see happening. I can’t guarantee that all ideas can be implemented by any means, but all are certainly welcome, big or small..

We are also looking for any volunteers that would like to be part of the team working at the centre, perhaps in the cafe or in some other role at the centre.

On either of these issues, please don't hesitate to contact me. My email address and phone numbers are gwen@miragemedia.co.uk tel: 01381 629008 or just come and have a chat with me after the morning service this Sunday. I won’t be at the service every Sunday morning at Hilton since I’ll be over in Beauly with Rob, where he’s currently doing his ministry training placement; but whenever you see me please don’t hesitate to come over and chat.

Duncan has suggested that I put a photo here for those of you who don't know what I look like and so here's the most recent one I could find of me at one of our daughter's graduation ceremony this summer..
Blessings!
Gwen

ABORTION & DOWNS SYNDROME

On Channel 4 News tonight there was a very startling article on the screening of foetus' suspected of having Downs Syndrome. New research has claimed that,

"For every three unborn Down's syndrome babies prevented from being born, two healthy babies will be miscarried because of the methods used to detect the condition.The research claims that, in detecting and preventing the birth of 660 Down's babies, 400 healthy foetuses are lost."

Abortion is a very emotive issue, but these statistics don't make comfortable reading. It would be interesting the know the responses of the GP's in our own congregation to this medical journal report.

Summer Postcard

Family support comes in a variety of ways - from organised courses, to "simply listening", to providing a service such as Toddlers etc. One of the simplest and most appreciated ways in which we have been able to help is through Hilton Family Breaks - a fund set up specifically to provide a holiday break for an individual or family who just need to get away. Applications are by referral through Social Work, the School or another agency. Since July this year 5 familes have benefitted from the fund. Are we making a difference? The summer postcard says it all:
"Thank you so much. We are having so much fun. The weather has been lovely. We have been to the beach and we love the night parties. see you soon."

help!

Iain Ross asked for help on Sunday from anyone in the congregation who felt confident about doing a little painting once the carpets were down. Yesterday, only Brian Gunn came to help and he was working away on his own all day. This is not an acceptable solution, so today Iain and I have been looking at how to respond to such a lack of volunteers. We plan to phone around tonight, to see if we can get a team together for Thursday night to finish off the little work that remains to be do. If you can help on Thursday night, its not too late to "volunteer!" You are also invited to come on Thursday night (same night!) to help tidy the building. We want everything to be in perfect order for the weekend.

BONO ON BELIEF

Fascinating interview with Bono which you can read here

What is your religious belief today? What is your concept of God?

If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there's a force of love and logic in the world, a force of love and logic behind the universe. And I believe in the poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in "straw poverty"; i.e., the story of Christ makes sense to me.

How does it make sense?
As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It's so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don't use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I'm the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut.

Do you pray or have any religious practices?
I try to take time out of every day, in prayer and meditation. I feel as at home in a Catholic cathedral as in a revival tent. I also have enormous respect for my friends who are atheists, most of whom are, and the courage it takes not to believe.

THE WEEKEND THAT WAS

Another Sunday gone. The morning was an opportunity to take breath after a tough weekend working on the Centre. A remarkable sermon by John MacLeod last night from the minor prophet Obadiah - Reconciliation and forgiveness. I'll try and get it on the blog before the week is out. Jonny Baker also appears to have been involved in an intriguing and very creative service at Grace this weekend.

We also spoke to Jonathan and Susie last night, and Iona is still in ITU. They are cautiously optimistic that things will move in a positive direction this week for Iona. Hopefully we will be able to welcome them all back to Inverness soon.

9/11

Amidst all the activity of this week, 9/11 (7th anniversary) on Thursday was a reminder of how fast time passes and how different the world is today because of it. On 9/11, 2001, I was at a meeting which was all about making a beginning to the project which has been the focus of the blog all week. It has been a long road! The image above is part of a series of images which you can see here

PRESS & JOURNAL TODAY

You can read a report of yesterdays events here

THE TWO TROJANS

Here is a good picture of two of the central characters in the project. Iain Ross and Lewis MacDonald have worked like Trojans this week. It was great to see them at 5pm this afternoon,so pleased and happy at the end of such a challenging week.

HANDOVER

At 4.30pm this afternoon, the building was handed over by Rok to our project chairman Iain Ross. After all the planning and hard work, the event felt a bit like a dream. The last 24 hours have been quite remarkable with a huge response in terms of volunteers to paint. If a good number turn out tonight, all the painting should be complete in time for the carpets and floor coverings being laid on Monday. Thank you to everyone who has helped.

PLEASE HELP!

I'm just back from an afternoon of painting at the centre. There were 6 painters this morning and another 6 this afternoon. If a good team turns up tonight we may just manage to finish it by tomorrow evening. If you can , please come along on Friday to help, morning, afternoon or evening. Bring a tray, rollers or brushes and we will give you the paint.

I have e-mailed my entire address book asking for help. If you could pass the word on as well, that would be great.

Cafe keys handover

PRESS RELEASE

A LONG cherished vision on the part of Hilton Church comes nearer to fulfilment tomorrow afternooon (Friday) with the handover of the the keys to the congregation's new community centre building by Rok Construction. The church aims to provide a cafe, together with other rooms for use within the newly re-developed former manse.

Minister, the Rev Duncan MacPherson said Rok had done an outstanding job under the leadership of site manager Lewis MacDonald, who is also a congregation member. "Rok moved onto the site on 16th June, and has completed the work in less than three months - a magnificent achievement", he revealed.

Leading Highland businessman David Sutherland, who was brought up near the new centre's site, has been a pivotal figure in this re-development, added Mr Macpherson, giving generous financial support together with expert back up through Rok and Tulloch Homes.The project which has cost in excess of £500,000 involved the purchase of a new manse, followed by the re-development of the old building for wider use.

"Some have suggested that the new centre will be in competition with the existing Community Centre. Nothing could be further from the truth," declared Mr Macpherson. "Our aim is to complement the existing services offered by the Community Centre and to provide an additional resource for the Hilton area.

"This week volunteers have been busy painting the interior of the building and next week all the floor coverings will be laid.Within the next few weeks we aim to have a centre manger in place and to have a suitable name for the building."

The formal opening will take place towards the end of the year.

The Blogging community mourns

This entry by Steve Taylor was a powerful reminder to me today of the way that community has evolved through the Christian blogging community. The blogs are full of tributes to bigbulkyanglican

CENTRE PAINTING

It's Wednesday night and we still have a real challenge to get all the painting done by the weekend. We have had good sized teams out during the evenings, but the numbers appearing to help during the day have been too small. The picture is of Brian Gunn who was working away on his own this afternoon. If you are reading this, and you have any time between now and Friday night, please take your rollers and paint brushes and trays and come and give us a hand.

SOULED OUT

Tickets for the event on the 1st of November at the Iron Works will go on general release from this Friday, the 12th of September. Tickets that are ordered on-line through the website link or via the box office (0871 789 4173) will have the usual Iron Works Fee booking fee applied but tickets collected in person at the venue in Academy Street, Inverness will not be subject to the booking fee. There is no charge for the event itself. Tickets will be limited to a maximum of 6 tickets per person & anyone wanting to enquire about group bookings should contact myself on 07919 066 139 or Dave Eglinton on 07720057522. We expect tickets to go quickly & once they are gone they are gone so would urge people to book early to avoid disappointment.

Gandhi's seven deadly sins

Mohandas Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in modern social and political activism, considered these traits to be the most spiritually perilous to humanity…...

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice

On Sunday night Jamie Grant was giving us an insight into the backgound of the minor prophet Amos. It was a call for us to consider the integrity of our lives. Some of the observations which Amos makes are reflected above, and they are still a challenge to us today.

A good question to ask!

Before I die I want to......

ANOTHER GOOD DAY ON THE HILL

Just back from an outstanding days hillwalking near Spean Bridge today. It is great to be able to access such beautiful places so close to home. Here is a picture of Iain Macritchie at the bothy, just before we begin to ascend to the top of Stob Ban behind.

SIX MEN

At this mornings service, I read some excerpts from a book which tells the stories of 6 men, who have encountered God in their lives. Men, in general, tend to be less involved in the Church than women. The author of the book was keen to explore this phenomena and to simply listen to the stories of various men who have encountered God. The book is available on amazon.

ROK OUT!

This afternoon, Iain Ross and I dropped in to say a big "thank you" to the magnificent team from Rok Construction who have done such a great job on the new Cafe and Centre. What a whirlwind of activity the summer has been. Rok only moved onto the site on Monday, 16th June. They were finishing off the landscaping at the front today. On Monday our own volunteer painters move in. We hope to have all the painting done by next Friday.

NELSON MANDELA ON LEADERSHIP

Nelson Mandela is widely regarded as the most revered leader of the late 20th century. Today I read a Time article in which he laid out his 8 principles of leadership. You can read the whole article here

1.Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it

2.Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind

3.Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
4.Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
5.Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6.Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7.Nothing is black or white
8.Quitting is leading too

Southern Cross

Over the past 3 years, about 80 people linked to Hilton Church have worked on street childrens projects in Peru along with the Vine Trust. A pivotal figure in all of this work is Paul Clark, head of SU Peru. I discovered today that he has published a book about the street childrens work. The book is available on Amazon.

CAFE CHURCH

There is a lot of talk about emerging church in Scotland today. Our cafe services together with initiatives like the new Centre are all aimed at seeking to provide space for new expressions of faith and worship to emerge. It is clear that many traditional expressions of worship nolonger connect with the majority of people today. Rob & Gwen Barlow have been a big factor in this emerging church development at Hilton. Rob came to do a 6 month placement with us in 2005 and stayed for 3 years! As well as doing his probationary year at the Church of Scotland in Beauly, he is also doing all the required academic training for ministry at HTC. He has a busy year ahead of him. In his "spare time", along with Gwen, he is also working on a number of iniatives linked to cafe church. You can read all about it by looking at their very impressive website SERMON VIDEOS.

BABY IONA UPDATE

Iona is continuing to make steady progress. If her condition continues to improve it is hoped that by the weekend she may be able to move from Intensive Care to the High Dependency Unit. We are grateful to God for all his many answers to our prayers. We continue to remember Jonathan and Susie in our prayers, aware of how exhausting it must be for them to still be at Yorkhill after nearly 3 weeks.

"THE REV" STEWART MACKAY

Congratulations to Stewart MacKay. He has successfully completed his probationary period at Loanhead Parish Church. He plans to spend a next year at Cornhill Scotland. He is then considering going into army chaplaincy.

HTC EVENING CLASSES

Evening Classes
Old Testament
Wednesday 17th September (for 10 weeks)
7.30 – 9 pm
Kingsview Christian Centre,
Balnafettack Road, Inverness
Tutor: Len Cazaly
Cost: £60
Covering some of key themes of the Old Testament, set in their historical and cultural context, these classes will help you to understand the links between the Old Testament story of God's people and the New Testament story of God's revelation in Jesus Christ.

These classes are aimed at anyone who simply wants to find out more about the Old Testament. Not heavy going - no exams or essays!

This is a non-certificated course. Anyone wishing to gain a qualification from their studying is encouraged to enquire about HTC’s Access Course in Christian Theology or BA Theological Studies degree.

To find out more please contact Marina at:
Highland Theological College UHI, High Street, Dingwall, Ross-shire
Tel: 01349 780000 www.htc.uhi.ac.uk htc@htc.uhi.ac.uk

Stanley Hauerwas

An important discipline for me is to read regularly and widely. Over the past month I have been slowly reading THE JESUS WAY by Eugene Petersen. At the close of his book, Petersen recommends a number of writers who can help us to decern the Way. One of them is Hauerwas. I don't like to buy books before doing a little research on the writers and google is now a great way of accessing a wide range of material about most writers. In doing my research, I found a quite remarkable lecture by Hauerwas called Abortion, Theologically understood. The article is quite lengthy, but it introduced me to a completely different way of looking at abortion and a variety of other important topics. If anyone else reads the article, I would be interested to know your response.

Duncan

LIFE WITH GOD

It is 50 years in 2008, since the sanctuary was built and opened. In the same year we will be opening a new purpose built centre and cafe which we hope will be a great asset in serving the community of Hilton in Christ's name. But we don't want the 50 years simply to be marked by bricks and mortar. We also want to spend some time focussing on the core features of our Christian faith and the call that Jesus makes upon our lives to follow him. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in 2008? To that end, we are having a special weekend of teaching and fellowship to which are all invited. You can read more about it here

alpha

Tomorrow evening, (Wednesday at 6.30pm) we begin an alpha course in partnership with the chaplaincy team at Raigmore hospital. It is the first time I have been involved in leading a course for several years. To date, not many people have signed up to do the course, but from previous experience (10 courses!) God always seems to do some remarkable and wonderful things in peoples lives through the course. Just last Sunday, we baptised Martin and Michelle at Loch Ness. They came to faith through the last course. Please pray for us timorrow night.

Youth Discipleship Programme

We started this new programme last year and things have been going well, with around 9 of our young folk being mentored on a regular basis last term.

The main aim of this programme, is to enable the youth of our church to meet regularly with an older member of the congregation to study the Bible, pray together, and in doing so, help deepen their faith and love for the Lord.

This is a voluntary programme and folks have to sign up to it. So far, for this next term around 20 of our young people in Teenscene and Nitelife have signed up to the programme. They will meet with their mentor once a month, where they will eat together, read the Bible together and pray together.

Please pray for the young folk and mentors involved in this programme. Thanks

Chris

GOOD NEWS FROM THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Good news from the Scottish Government today. Hospital parking charges are being abolished. Read about it here.This will save the congregation some money in terms of the parking charges we pay to go and visit at Raigmore Hospital. It will also be good for patients and their families who at the moment incur considerable costs in terms of parking if their relatives are in hospital for an extended period.

ROK ON

I took a few photos this morning on the way to the office to illustrate the amazing progress being made on the Centre. Rok were pouring concrete today for the various ramps and steps for the entrances to the building. The keys are now being handed over on 15th September. The painting begins next Monday with teams of volunteers from the church. It is all "go!"