Women across the Highlands

A one day conference for women is taking place at CCC on 13th November 2010. It's good to see that Hilton Church is well represented in the seminars being advertised for the conference.

Canadian summer

Bon voyage to Mike and Laura Robertson who head for Canada this week. Mike is going to be doing a ministry placement at Chris & Sarah Kreich's church over the summer. They then return from Canada, and on the same day Mike is departing for eastern Europe with Blyswood for a further placement. It sounds like an exciting summer ahead, and if you want to know more, Mike is going to be blogging here.

MORNING WORSHIP

We had a great morning with Noel Richards. He is an outstanding singer/songwriter, who has a great gift of sharing from Scripture in a very engaging way. Thank you to aLIVE Ministry for Noel's presence with us. It was a great blessing.

smile

Songs of Praise

Noel Richards leading Songs of Praise earlier this year.

VINE TRUST ANNIVERSARY DINNER

On 13th May, a contingent of us from Inverness were present for the 25th Anniversary Dinner for the Vine Trust, which was hosted by The Trust's Patron, HRH Princess Anne. The dinner took place at Holyrood Palace which is a magnificent venue. The Trust has come along way since its humble beginning in 1985, and we look forward to being part of the next 25 years.

NEW OPENING HOURS @ LIGHTHOUSE

The hours of opening for the Lighthouse are changing and extending. The new opening hours are 9am-3pm & 6.30pm -9.30pm Tuesday to Fridays, and 11am-3pm on Saturdays.

We are delighted to confirm that Andrea Boyes will be heading up the evening opening hours, and we are also thrilled at the number of volunteers we already have for helping in the evenings. We would be grateful if you could spread the word concerning the cafe being open in the evenings. We hope that the cafe will provide a good venue for folk looking for some where to meet for a coffee in the evenings.

weather

What's happening with the weather? For several days we have been experiencing sweltering temperatures. This afternoon we're back to hailstones, heavy rain and cool temperatures. What next!

LIGHTHOUSE GARDEN

There's a meeting for anyone interested in being involved in the garden project at 10am tomorrow (Friday) morning at the Lighthouse. All welcome.

NOEL RICHARDS

Some time ago, I highlighted the fact that Noel Richards is doing a concert this Saturday night at CCC. I am delighted to confirm that he will also be at Hilton Church this Sunday and will be leading our morning worship.

PENTECOST

CHERRY BLOSSOM

The blossom has begun to fall, but we're grateful it was still around to grace Sian and Stuart's wedding.

Congratulations to Sian & Stuart

PENTECOST IMAGES

We had a very special Pentecost party at Hilton Church on Sunday morning along with John and Olive Drane. The morning began with hospitality together with various stations on the front lawn. The weather was ideal. We began our worship on the front lawn and then processed into the church. After the service we created two new banners using hand and foot prints. A service like this involves a massive amount of preparation, but the outcomes make it really worthwhile.Thank you, Morag for sharing some of your images from the morning.

MIND BODY SPIRIT

Jonny Baker has a post about exhibiting at a Mind Body Spirit Festival in London this week. It reminds me of a similar experience I had in Sydney in 1999. Here is the list of exhibitors for the same festival in 2010. Can you find the Christian presence?

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

I'm sorry I haven't been posting anything this past week on the blog, but there has been rather a lot going on. Normally I try and avoid trips south of Inverness as much as possible. For one reason or another, I have been back and fore to the Central Belt 4 times in the last 12 days! I have just arrived back from the General Assembly this afternoon. If you want a flavour of what I was experiencing, you can read the GA blog HERE.

REALITY WORKS

I have just had a really interesting meeting with Richard Morrison of Reality Works, a Christian organisation seeking to support the physical, spiritual ,emotional and mental needs of young people. In the Highlands there focus is especially centred around young people with autism. If you would like to find out more, you can do so here.

lighthouse

The Management team for the Lighthouse meets tonight. I was in and out of the Lighthouse at various points today, and was struck by just how busy it was. We have continued to make progress on both customers and room bookings which is encouraging. Major items on the agenda tonight will include agreeing to open in the evenings from the beginning of June, probably Tuesdays to Fridays 6.30-9.30pm. Andrea Boyes, our student assistant minister, will be working for the Centre during the summer months and will head up this new initiative. We will also be looking at a marketing strategy to increase awareness of the Lighthouse, and be considering a funding strategy to ensure sustainable staffing of the Centre in the years to come. Running a Centre like the Lighthouse which depends on very committed staff and volunteers is undoubtedly hard work, but it is very rewarding to see the Centre increasingly serving and meeting the needs of its immediate neighbourhood.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland begins in Edinburgh on Thursday. I am a commissioner this year, the first time I've been one for 6 years. If you want a flavour of what is happening, here's the page from the Church of Scotland website.

Pentecost Sunday

I have a bit of a crazy schedule this week, so I'm spending Monday night, trying to get some planning done for the services next Sunday. I'm wondering if you can help me out, with ideas and resources for our pentecost service?

We're planning to begin our time together by gathering on the front lawn of the church.

I'm wondering whether I might be able to get 3 or 4 folk with gazebos, willing to have them erected on the lawn by 9.30am, ready for the congregation beginning to arrive from 9.45am?

We also need the use of 2 slow cookers during the service, and finally any ideas for how to create a flame effect at the front of the church. In these days of health and safety, I don't suppose we can light a fire, so we need to try and work out some kind of flame effect with wind and fire!

I would really value responses to duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

The dream ends!

The dream of Scottish Cup victory for Ross County came to an end at Hampden Park yesterday afternoon. Dundee United deservedly won the match 3-0. It was my first time at such an event, and I found it a profoundly moving experience. Some 20,000 fans travelled to Glasgow from the Highlands for the game. It was great to be there just to see and hear the crowd as the teams marched onto the pitch. I was wondering in historical terms, when a group of Highlanders would have last been been gathered in such large numbers? It may possibly have been during the First World War? So no visit of Barcelona to Dingwall after all, with Motherwell getting the final European spot, but the journey to the final was a wonderful experience for all who shared in it.

HOMEGROUP WORSHIP

I think this cartoon from asbo jesus sums up the mystery of God which Jonathan was talking about in his sermon today. This morning, the Brown's homegroup were leading the service. I particularly appreciated the adapted use of Lectio Divina in relation to our Scripture reading. I find it very helpful to hear the scripture passage read three times, with some space for reflection and prayer in between. I was also blessed by the reminder of the breadth of the church in the world during the Sunday club time, when everyone who could speak a language other than English was invited to speak. In a wee congregation like Hilton, we had Polish, Gaelic, French, Africaans, Nepali and Swedish (and that was just those who were willing to share!) The Brown group also has a very International dimension, with one of the members, Matt currently serving with Oasis in Zimbabwe. He constructed a very impressive presentation with music for the service before his departure. Thank you and Happy birthday tomorrow, Matt! The purpose of asking groups to lead worship was to hopefully release the creativity of a team in a Service. I thought there were many encouraging signs of this in our worship today.

TREVOR DRUMMOND

We have all been very saddened at the news of the sudden death of Trevor Drummond while on holiday in Eastern Europe. Trevor together with Margaret were very involved in the life of our congregation for over 10 years before moving to Edinbane on Skye several years ago. Trevor was unfailingly positive about life and laughter was seldom absent from any meeting I ever had with him. He was an outstanding man who enriched all of our lives through his presence and service as part of our congregation. We will all remember him with great fondness and thanksgiving at Hilton Church.

Eilidh flew out yesterday to Budapest to be with Margaret while arrangements for returning to the UK are made. We hold them both in our prayers today together with Andy, Fergus and Iona, as they go through this sad and difficult time as a family.

A NEW APPROACH

It's pretty clear that the church across Scotland is facing terminal decline if it sticks with its historic approach. But all is not doom and gloom - anything but! Across Scotland lots of creative responses and approaches to Church are being adopted, and it was good to see some of them being mentioned here in the P&J.

GRASS

Despite the unseasonal weather with hailstones falling this week and a cold northerly wind, the grass has continued to grow. Iain Ross was busy last night keeping it all under control. One of the features of the last few years has been the diminution of areas where grass requires to be cut, as space for car parking has been created around the Lighthouse. It's possible that there may be even less grass cutting after the re-development of the garden area happens. A meeting takes place tonight for all interested parties in the Lighthouse at 7.30pm. I also received a very interesting link from Dorcas regarding ideas for garden spaces which you can read here. The images in the link look really good.I will be interested to see what plans emerge. I'm off today to Edinburgh for a 25th Anniversary Reception for the Vine Trust at Holyrood House. I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

MISSION SCOTLAND

I've just received information about a Mission School taking place in Glasgow at the end of August.

SNH

I was up at Great Glen House at lunchtime today. What an impressive building and what a great view over the city. On the way back, I drove along the edge of the River Ness. The Churches along the river are very striking on such a beautiful day.

No Songs Please, We're Blokish.

From Sorted Magazine:
Two out of three confessed to feeling ill at ease in a pew, while only one in two said the same of a ladies underwear shop. Most off-putting are the hymns. Sixty-seven per cent say they do not feel comfortable singing in church. Almost eight out of 10 are happy to croon in the shower while 53 per cent chant cheerily at football matches. But just one in three will willingly open a hymn book at a religious service.

CHURCH BUILDING CLOSES

The final service of worship took place at St Columba High on Sunday am. Services for the congregation now continue at Holm Primary School every Sunday at 4pm.

CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2010

Christian Aid week begins tomorrow. Read here about a most remarkable book sale venture in support of Christian Aid.

Politics and Faith.

The election is now over and the various political leaders are engaged in a process of dialogue in an attempt to form a viable Government. I suspect that we may be back at the polling booths before too long. Some interesting questions at Eternal Echoes to reflect on. After a period of increasing apathy regarding the political realm, it's encouraging to note the high level of turn out at the election and the re-engagement of so many people in the process. Politics touches all of our lives, and its vital for the health of our society that we are involved. Our own local community is faced with some very challenging issues at the moment which are directly linked to the turmoil which is taking place nationally and globally. We were praying about these issues this morning at our meeting, and we plan to be engaged in the process on the ground too.

END OF LIFE ISSUES

Stephen Hutchison has written an article on the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill which you can read here.

cherry blossom

After the Leaders Prayer time this morning at the Lighthouse, I couldn't help myself from taking some more photos of the cherry blossom. It really does look so beautiful.