el gruer

We are looking forward to hosting El Gruer. It will be a cafe style evening suitable for all ages.

eagles soaring

I have been doing some research today around the text above for Sunday, and in the process discovered the clip on sea eagles. The film brings back many happy memories as I spent my childhood and youth exploring these hills and cliffs. It is extraordinarily beautiful. The only challenge with the west coast is that you have to visit several times in order to get a dry day!

LIFE STREAMS

LENT 2012 -LIFE STREAMS

“What will help me to grow spiritually?

Life Streams provides practical ways to transform your life from the inside out.

During Lent there will be teaching on how to key into Life Streams, and the encouragement to find a friend or two to share in it with you.

SUNDAY 5th Feb @ 6.30pm An outline of what LIFE STREAMS is all about with Philip & Ros Noble.

SUNDAY 19th Feb @ 6.30pm A chance to experience a LIFE STREAMS group.

Our Lent Book for 2012 is called LIFE STREAMS and is available to purchase at the discount price of £5. We have 20 copies for sale, and after that you can purchase copies on line for £6-99.

news from nz

Eilidh had a lengthy operation yesterday and we were able to speak to her last night. From all accounts, the surgery went well - much better than expected. We begin a new day with a mixture of relief and gratitude. Thank you to all who have prayed and supported us through this difficult week. Eilidh's prayer request is that she remains free of any infection which might jeapordise the postive outcomes of the surgery.

your kingdom come.....

65% of the work in the world is done by women;
12% of the paid salaries in the world go to women;
2% of properties in the world are on the hands of women;
1 in each 6 women in the world is a victim of incest;
1 in each 4 women will experience some form of sexual violence in life;
75% of people that die of hunger are women and children;
In all the world, women do not earn the same salary as men;
In all the world, the education level of women is lower than that of men;
In countries where women have more diplomas than men, the tendency is for less educated men to hold higher positions, changing, therefore, the criterion of promotion;
98% of structural decisions are made by men;
In all the world, women are more dependent on the land than men;
In many places of the world, the majority of abortions is of girls.
Given that, the lesson the Feminist Theology teaches us is that before worrying about explaining reality, theologies must pay attention to an unjust reality that needs transformation.
This situation must be taken as a theological challenge that requires an urgent answer seeking changes.
Felipe Fanuel Xavier Rodrigues
Towards a daily theology: listening to the unheard voices
from "Teologias com Sabor de Mangostão".
Isabel Aparecida Felix Translation from Portuguese by Gustavo Frederico

accident

We have had an anxious 48 hours following news on Sunday that Eilidh was in an accident while at a Camp in South Island, New Zealand. She was flown to hospital with a badly broken left arm and has had two operations so far. She is being transferred tomorrow to a specialist hospital in Wellington where she will have more surgery. We managed to speak with her this morning, and she was sounding very positive despite the circumstances. The care and support that she has received from her friends in New Zealand has been wonderful. We are also extremley grateful to the health service in New Zealand. It looks like this will be a significant blip in her gap year, but hopefully she will be able to continue once the surgery is completed. At this point, we are praying that no infection will set in and so far the signs are positive.

IT'S A BOY

Congratulations to Scott and Heather McRoberts on the birth of Daniel Joshua last night.

BLOGGING BREAK

I have not been blogging since Christmas. I felt as if I needed a break, and I'm not sure when or whether normal service will be be resumed. I am currently working on some plans to revamp the church website, and hopefully we will make some significant progress in that regard over the next few months. Belated good wishes for 2012.

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and almost all the preparations for Christmas are done. We are going to have a candlelit watchnight service at 11.15am. I'll need to go down to the church in the late afternoon to sort out the lighting for the band, so there is enough light for reading music! It's already Christmas day in New Zealand, so heard from Eilidh who is later going to enjoy a bbq and a day outside on the beach! I'm now taking a break from blogging until the beginning of 2012. This blog is written mainly to keep folk linked to Hilton Church in the loop as to what is happening and what we are doing. It remains for me simply to thank you for your company on the journey through 2011. I am very privileged to share in the life of such a vibrant church with so many good people. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.Wishing you a joy filled Christmas and a 2012 full of peace and grace.

Duncan.

volunteer Friday

After a very slow start at the Lighthouse, the cafe took off and was very busy up until 3pm. The cafe now closes until Monday 9th January. Next year, we may well look at opening over the Christmas holidays with a mix of staff and volunteers.

Christmas Services

WATCHNIGHT SERVICE @ 11.15PM ON 24TH December.

CHRISTMAS DAY ALL AGE WORSHIP @ 10.30AM

Bon Voyage

Wendy Budge, our most recent Lighthouse manager returns to New Zealand on Monday. She has been such a blessing to us all over the 6 months she has been with us, and we wish her well as she returns home with her family. The picture was taken of Sarah and Wendy at the recent staff and volunteers Christmas party. We hope to confirm the appointment of a new manager in January.

Volunteer Friday

This Friday will be a Friday with a difference at the Lighthouse! Annie will have a band of faithful volunteers - Eilidh, Shona, Brian, Barry, Doda and myself - to help her. Why not come along and see us all in action!

photos of 2011

Here a fantatsic photo of Lorne from "Are you in the picture?" A few more emails arrived yesterday with photos of 2011. I would love to have some of yours too, if you haven't sent me any yet. duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

photos for 2011

The photos of 2011 started coming in today. If you have a moment, please have a look and email me some of your favourites. duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

2011 photos

I want take a look back at 2011 at the service on 1st January. I have taken lots of pictures during the year of many different events and experiences linked to Hilton Church. If you would like your memories reflected in the presentation, I would love it if you could email me some of your pictures. duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

carol singing

A group of around 20 went out carol singing around the local area tonight. It was good to get out of the building and onto the streets, but it was also good to have some mulled wine and mince pies to warm up with afterwards. I'm especially struck these days by the fact that there are such diverse tastes within any one congregation in relation to what people are drawn towards and want to do. As far as I could make out, none of the folk who turned up tonight came to any of the recent Storylines evenings or would regularly be at an ordinary evening service, but they were keen to get out onto the streets and do something public to celebrate advent. I received this note from Peter Neilson last night, which I thought about when I saw the turn out tonight.

‘Sacred Pathways’
Find your spiritual temperament.

If our spiritual need is not being met in our congregation, we grow dull and disillusioned and may even move on to another church – or none – thinking that we no longer believe. More people leave church because of the method of their worship than because of their theology.

Each of us has been created to find God and to worship in different ways, but so often we expect everyone to be just like us. Based on two books, "What's Your God Language?" by Myra Perrine, and "Sacred Pathways" by Gary Thomas, this retreat will be a day to explore how God has uniquely wired each of us to pay attention to Him, to worship Him, and to come alongside others.

Our goal for the day is that it will expand our view of ourselves, of others, and of God, and will invite us to appreciate the ways that God has been calling to us.

So what is your spiritual temperament?

The day will be facilitated by Dorothy and Peter Neilson
A booking form to be filled in and returned to Ann at annvt@btinternet.com

Saturday 11th February 2012
10am – 4pm.
Cost £40.

I'm wondering whether it's largely a matter of spiritual temperament as to why there is such a striking difference between who wants to go out onto the streets to carol sing and who wants to go to a more indepth bible study group. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Maybe folk just didn't fancy the cold! Anyway, it's inspired me to read further and I'm going to order copies of the books in the advert above. Watch this space.

christmas all age worship

I'm just back from the all age service this morning which was absolutely outstanding. Jonathon led it, and there were fantastic contributions from OUT OF THE BOX and the Sunday club (great singing!) with Nitelife sharing the readings and some more reflective spaces. . It was great to see so many different people involved in the service. What especially struck me today was the relative simplicity and excellence of everything that was shared. It felt like a morning when we were able to celebrate the heart of the Christmas message - Jesus born to save the world! Thank you to everyone who made the morning so special.

news from kiwi land

Eilidh isn't the most prolific blogger, but it sounds like she is having a good time in New Zealand.

Some of the things I have learnt in New Zealand:

You cannot call jandels flipflop, they are jandels

The weather is just like Inverness

I can navigate myself around a new city without getting too lost

Its easy to make friends when you have a Scottish accent

All New Zealands love the Scottish

Sport is very important and is better organised than in the UK

It snowed in July and everyone was very excited

Most public secondary schools are single sex

The rats tail hairstyle and the mullet is very much in with boys here

Everyone has a Scottish relation

I have made lots of friends that I know I will keep even when I leave NZ

New Zealand like Scotland is a very Patriotic country

I love New Zealand

x

christmas 1967

This is a short extract from Dr Martin Luther King's last Christmas Eve sermon:

"I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and I've seen hate on the faces of too many sheriffs, too many white citizens' councilors, and too many Klansmen of the South to want to hate, myself; and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country, and make it appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for integration, and we'll still love you. But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."