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All are welcome in this place
St John's Kirk of Perth
WORSHIP
COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
St John’s Kirk reopened on Sunday, the 30th of August, having been given permission by the Kirk Session and Perth Presbytery .
Worship is every Sunday
at 09.30am. There is a maximum number of 50 allowed to attend due to Covid-19 restrictions
REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
8TH NOVEMBER 2020.
Due to the Covid 19 pandemic special arrangements and restrictions have had to be put in place for our annual Remembrance Sunday Service. For Safety reasons, we are limited to 50 people attending church. A number of Civic and Military dignitaries are traditionally involved in our observation of Remembrance Sunday. We regret that, because of the constraint on numbers, admission to our Remembrance Sunday Service is by invitation only. If you haven't received an invitation. please don't attend the service on the 8th of November.
The service will be able to be watched on line.
A LETTER FROM OUR MINISTER
The Manse : Trafalgar Day, 21st October 2020
My dear friends
Life, like our faith, is never static. Connections: new expressions : adaptability : change : are our watchwords as we move from one ‘season’ to another: towards Remembrance: Remembrance Sunday being just around the corner. Since these Covid times began for us all in March, with much ebb and flow as each week passes, there has been much activity in the life of both Congregations and at the centre has been our Worship, available online every Sunday since Mothering Sunday.
CONNECTIONS
Since 30th August there has been live Worship from St John’s every Sunday at 9:30 and I am now very pleased that in addition there will be regular Morning Worship in St Leonard’s in the Fields as of All Saints’ Day, 1st November at 11:15.
The newly painted pictures of both Churches, now on both Churches’ websites, tell the story of Church life being at the heart of daily life: of joy, new life, Baptism and Marriage within ‘the communities of the Baptised’, expressing the ongoing life of our Congregations as they serve the community of Perth.
NEW EXPRESSIONS
The oil paintings have been donated, together with printed cards and postcards, by Stella Kinread, a member of St John’s, whose wish is that her endeavours can enable the funds of both Congregations to benefit. The paintings show stunning views of St Leonard’s in the Fields after a Baptism and St John’s Kirk after a Marriage. I will give further details in the November letter of how you can purchase the cards and how the original paintings will benefit our Churches.
We are so very grateful to Stella and thank her very, very much.
ADAPTABILITY
While it has been a delightfully uplifting and joyous challenge to minister online for the past seven months it is very different to assembling in our Church buildings for Divine Worship. For these online Services to be made available, the Rev’d Alex Stewart’s son-in-law, Paul Smith, has given his skill, experience and time to draw together the many strands within every Service for delivery to our websites and on YouTube. We cannot thank Paul enough.
However, now is the time for CHANGE and with Morning Worship happening in both Congregations, the online recorded Services will cease with the last one being on 1st November, alongside Morning Worship taking place in both Churches on that day. One week later on 8th November, Remembrance Sunday, the Services in both Churches will begin at 10:45 am, with limited attendance you will appreciate, as we are not able to have more than fifty persons inside a building.
With St John’s being the venue for the Civic Service, the attendance I am afraid is limited to those who have been specifically invited from a cross section of those who have been attending since 30th August. For St Leonard’s in the Fields, if you wish to attend, please phone Mrs Pat Giles on or after Monday 2nd November to reserve a place: 01738 625805. I will conduct the St John’s Service and Alex Stewart will conduct the St Leonard’s in the Fields Service.
Change has been the ever present theme as the seasons have come and gone: Harvest Festival, All Saints-tide, Remembrance Sunday and Advent are very different this year and in my letter next month I will give details of how we will celebrate Christmas this year – a changing experience for us all, as in every sphere.
Change: May I thank all who have collected the Jars of Change since February for Water Aid: if you wish to bring your jar to Church, please do so during the month of November and the Treasurer of each Congregation will be very happy to relieve you of those jars in order that we might send away vital monies to the charity which we have supported during this year as in the past.
I send you and your families every possible good wish and God’s Blessing as we all walk by faith, with prayers that this virus may be defeated and that our society will recalibrate and realise the fragility of life and all that life means on earth; as Christian people we give thanks for all the many opportunities and blessings which have caused us to change our attitudes and be changed, as we look to God and be unafraid for all that lies ahead.
Grace and Peace to you all.
My very best wishes.
John
HELP!
CHARITIES IN NEED OF HELP
You may remember that we had in our Congregations an appeal during Lent for Water Aid, a wonderful charity which we support annually by filling jars with coins and we call them ‘jars of grace’. It may be that your JAR is full and so perhaps you might like to bring it to St John’s and leave it/them with Doug Pringle our Beadle/Church Officer, who will ensure that any St John’s ones will be given to Lorna our treasurer and I can ensure any St Leonard’s in the Fields ones [please mark them]will be given to Margaret our St Leonard’s treasurer. This year the annual Blythswood shoebox appeal will be of a different type : I suggest we do our best on an individual basis and perhaps give online or by contacting Blythswood as below. Those who have benefited in the past from your care with the Blythswood shoeboxes know just how valued your contribution is and I wish to commend and thank you for such kindness and generosity in the midst of huge uncertainty.
Please note the contact details of these three Charities:
1. Water Aid Appeal
Water Aid
York House
Wetherby
Long Marston
York
YO26 7NH
2. Blythswood Shoebox Appeal
Blythswood Care
Deephaven
Evanton
Ross-Shire
IV16 9XJ
Web: www.blythswood.org
Local Contact Baptist Church (Perth) 0792827898
3. CrossReach
CrossReach Trading Ltd.
Charis House
47 Milton Road East
Edinburgh EH 15 2SR
Web: shop.crossreach.org.uk
Minister's Welcome
Reverend John Murdoch
As Minister I want to invite you as you read these lines to come inside this very special Church and meet the Congregation of a Kirk which has immense significance historically and nationally. It is a Kirk at the heart of Perth, with a community of faith which offers Worship on Sunday mornings at 9:30am or on Wednesday afternoons at 1pm.
Here we worship and serve God within ancient walls which tell of God’s grace and care over centuries and also within the Parish and community surrounding this sacred and holy place of pilgrimage, peace and prayer. Many visit St John’s every day and last year over 10,000 people entered the Kirk from almost every part of the world. I invite you to be part of our Kirk life where I hope you will find an oasis for Christian nurture, friendship and worship in our midst.
St John’s is an ancient and sacred space which allows you to be still, to sing, to pray and to commune with God as His Living Word in Jesus Christ is proclaimed by Grace.
Please, do come and join us as we do our best to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
"Let no-one be a stranger within these walls"
We invite into these ancient walls all who search for God and who seek the transforming love of Jesus Christ in Sacraments, in Scripture and in fellowship – with silence, prayer and music to uplift.