Walking alongside people in loss and trauma
Sunday 24 April traditional communion service at 8.45am in church building, Balerno.
Services at 10.30am on Sunday 24 April at St Margaret’s Academy Livingston and Heriot Watt University.
A full 0-18 programme runs on 24 April at 10.30am. Livingston older youth are going to Heriot Watt to join Balerno youth meeting together at 10.30am for Envision.
Livingston families reminder that our new 0-18 groups begin on Sunday 24 April. Preschool will be in L16 (and primary in L30). Younger youth have a social morning and older youth are joining Balerno youth for Envision. Contact your group leader for further details.
Vision Sunday: This year’s Vision Sunday will be shared over 2 consecutive weeks, in Balerno on Sunday 1 May and in Livingston on Sunday 8 May. Please plan to be there.
Evening Worship and Prayer Service. Next one is being planned for Sunday 8 May – more details to follow.
Balerno Congregation:
From Sunday 1 May morning services will resume at Balerno High School.
Car Parking and entrances at Balerno High School for 1 May onwards. There is now much less parking in the main car park beside the swimming pool. However there are now a few more parking spaces down the other entry road, and you can enter the concourse directly from that car park. If you need a disabled car parking space, please use the ones in front of BHS (as previously, but use these ones in preference to any other). There are significant road works and traffic lights on Bridge Road, so please come early, park further away and walk if you’re able to!
Primary and pre school at BHS. Families will be directed to the relevant rooms for the different children’s groups. Youth can sit together before going out to their group.
Worship and Prayer evening for the Wellness Centre Ministry on Tuesday 26 April 7.30pm – 9.30pm at the Wellness Centre – this is open to anyone from St Mungo’s to join the Wellness Centre team of counsellors and receptionists to pray for the work of the Wellness Ministry. We want to invite God to strengthen, empower and sustain us in our work in the Centre and we want to invite God to bring healing and restoration to our clients and to bring comfort to the people in our waiting list as they await the start of their counselling. We will be meeting in the Wellness Centre where there will be live worship music and prayer stations throughout the building and outside it. We would love you to join us!
Comfort International Mission Evening – Thurs 28 April, 7.45pm to 9.30pm: A ChurchSuite invite has been sent out to book a place for the Comfort International evening with David Gasana of Comfort Rwanda. Spaces are still available, we’d love to see you there if you are interested in hearing more from one of our main mission partners.
Youth meet together at 7.30pm on Friday 29 April to hear from David Gassana of Comfort International.
Living Well event Saturday 7 May 9.45am – 1pm. You are invited to a morning seminar on “Walking alongside people in loss and trauma.” This will be an interactive morning which will include opportunities to look at losses and traumas experienced during Covid as well as traumas and trauma responses faced by refugees. We will focus on how we can love, listen and lend a hand to people we walk alongside both within and outwith our church community, remembering that all our strength and empowerment in helping comes from God. Details about the venue and how to sign up will follow soon but save the date! Contact lynn.millar@stmungos.org or Andrea.Brewster@stmungos.org for more information.
St Mungo’s Balerno Company of Men. Connect- Relate -Support. All St Mungo’s Balerno guys aged 18 and over are invited to come and join the St Mungo’s Balerno Company of Men launch evening on Thursday 12 May 7.30-9.30pm at the Ministry Centre. This will be a relaxed night to hear about the plans for the group, to chat with guys you haven’t talked to for a while and to eat pizza! What’s not to like?? Please email Adrian.smith@stmungos.org to be on a waiting list.
St Mungo’s at Balerno Gala Day, Saturday afternoon, 28 May. As a church we won’t be hosting our own Family Fun Day this year but we have a great opportunity to be present at Balerno’s biggest community event – the Gala Day! St Mungo’s will run the ‘Activity Village’ (a collection of activities for the children like ‘Hook-a-duck’, a hoopla stand and more) along with a hospitality tent for mums with wee ones (for nappy changes and feeds) and opportunities to tell others all about St Mungo’s. Please save the date – we’ll need plenty of helpers to join the team. Either contact andrea.brewster@stmungos.org for info / to sign up or sign up in person after the Balerno service on Sunday 1 May.
Staff News: Graham Wilson has been appointed as an Operations Assistant for 28hrs a week for 6 months. Graham joins the staff team with many years of experience volunteering on the tech team in a variety of roles and will alongside the rest of the operations team to continue to deliver our Sunday services, midweek events and the accompanying logistical and administrative tasks associated with this.
Face Coverings: are no longer a legal requirement in places of worship, but we are asking that people wear a face covering when entering and exiting our services this week, but they may be removed for the duration of the service. Anyone wishing to continue wearing a face covering is very welcome to do so and we would recommend switching to using an FFP2 style mask. This style of face covering will protect the wearer from the current dominant variant as society moves from 'wearing a face covering to protect others' to 'wearing a face covering to protect oneself'. Please contact david.lyons@stmungos.org if you have any questions or clarifications.