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Ferryhill Parish Church
Parish News May  2002

Telephone:
01224 213093
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Christian Aid Week

Christian Aid Week runs this year from the 12th - 18th May and focuses on the Trade for Life Campaign. International Trade could be the key to ending poverty. But the benefits are currently flowing one way, i.e. away from the poor to the rich. As the rich get richer, over a billion of the world's poor are being left behind. Christian Aid believes it's time to redress the balance and is calling on the worlds' political leaders to rewrite international trade rules so that trade starts to work for the poor as well. Hopefully many of you will want to support this and feel able to sign the Action Pledge Cards that will be available. This is not a commitment of money, but is intended to show that you believe that trade should work for the poor. We need to change the rules that govern international trade so that they work to eradicate poverty, protect the environment and ensure equal access to life in all its fullness. 

 

 

Pick up an Action Pledge Card at the Church either on Sunday prior to or from the Coffee shop during Christian Aid week, fill it in and return it to the box in the Foyer.

www.christianaidweek.org

Christian Aid in Aberdeen

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This is the Year of the Child and that will be the theme for this year's Summer Club, the twentieth, which will run each morning from 5th - 11th August. A lot of preparation has to be done before then and anyone interested in helping with these preparations and/or during the week itself should come to a planning meeting after morning service on 5th May.

Last year's Summer Club

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There are to be two more Indoor Car Boot Sales one on Saturday 11th May and the other on Saturday 22nd June, from 
10am -12 noon. Earlier sales have proved very successful. Anyone can hire a table for a fee and sell what you like for your own benefit, for a charity or for the church. To reserve a table or to get further details contact Fiona Firth 
Hall
Letting
Officer		 Andrea Hird has now taken over as Hall Letting Officer and all enquiries about hall lets as well as making bookings should be directed to her (Tel 591491). Leaders of organisations are reminded of the necessity to book halls for their meetings and especially to inform Andrea if they will not be meeting as previously booked.

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It was good to share the services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday with the folk of South of St Nicholas. Hopefully this is a link we will be able to maintain in the future. We wish the Kincorth folk every blessing as they prepare to welcome their new minister.
SERVICES IN MAY

5th MAY
11 a.m. Worship for all ages, Sunday Gang, Crèche.

12th MAY
11 a.m. Worship for all ages to mark the Beginning of Christian Aid Week. Sunday Gang and Crèche

6 p.m. Evening Worship in Devanha Gardens Nursing Home

SUNDAY 19th May (PENTECOST)
11 a.m. Worship for all ages. Sunday Gang and Crèche.

6 p.m. Evening worship with Holy Communion in the Memorial Chapel

TUESDAY 21st MAY
12.10 p.m. Mid-week service (lasts 15 minutes)

SUNDAY 26th MAY
11 a.m. Worship for all ages. Sunday Gang and Crèche.

6 p.m. Evening Worship in Maryfield East Nursing Home

SUNDAY 2nd JUNE
11 a.m. Worship for all ages. Sacrament of Holy Communion (children are welcome to participate fully in the Sacrament under the guidance of an adult) Sunday Gang and Crèche.

6 p.m. Queen's Jubilee, Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service in the Kirk of St Nicholas.

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PARISH REGISTER

Baptisms

Iona Audrey Copeland  (10.3.02)
Innes Ian Copeland

Harris Ingram Reid (31.3.02 Easter Day)

Funerals
Alexander Daniel (d. 28.3.02) 
John Bruce Robertson (d. 6.4.02) 
Madeleine G Leslie (Fonthill ACT) (d 19.4.02)

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MAY DIARY

1st   Line dancing
8th   Line dancing
9th   Co-ordinating Committee at 7.15 p.m. (NOTE TIME)
10th Enquirers' Social
22nd  Line dancing
26th   Guild: Walk
29th   Line dancing
30th   Kirk Session (7.15 p.m.)

Read the Presbytery Events Diary

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The Revd Ian Dick will be on holiday from 14th - 27th May inclusive during which times the Revd Norman Nicoll will attend to any pastoral emergencies including funerals (Tel. 705630)

Message for the Minister

By Revd Ian Dick


The decision of the General Assembly's' Board of Social Responsibility to close nine of its 85 social care services, two of which - Rubislaw Park and Deeford - are in Aberdeen, was reported in the Press and Journal on 19th April. In the report, Aberdeen City Council leader Len Ironside was reported as criticising the move to close the Rubislaw Park home and was quoted as saying that it was a "sad reflection when a church puts people out on to the streets." There is, of course, no question of anyone being put out on the streets, just as there wasn't when the council itself reluctantly had to close a number of homes for the elderly in recent years - three in Ferryhill.

For a number of years now the Board of Social Responsibility has been warning the General Assembly of the consequence of the gap between what it costs to maintain a resident and what is received from local and national governments in payment. In a Press release, the Board explains that over the past 10 years it has subsidised the true cost of care to the tune of £21 million. In 2001 the deficit stood at £2.7 million which the Board has had to meet from reserves. Further substantial deficits are projected for both this year and next which the Board simply cannot afford to bear. The cuts in services reflect that.

In addition, the Board points out that the five residential homes to be closed meet the physical standards presently identified in the current regulations, but all of them require major upgrading to meet the standards required of homes seeking registration under new Regulations. Presumably the Board might have been able to carry out these upgrades had its reserves not been so seriously depleted. The problem has been caused by local and national government failing to provide the resources to meet the true costs and so failing in their public authority responsibility. They have been getting care on the cheap by taking advantage of agencies like the Board which has not been prepared to compromise its high standard of service to its residents yet in doing so has all but exhausted its reserves.

Deeford - the rehabilitation centre on Riverside Drive - is to be closed simply because it is underused and, according to the Board, there is no indication from local enquires that the situation is likely to change.

Having said all this in explanation of the Board's reluctant action, we must however sympathise with the residents and staff who face uncertain futures. We look to the Board to provide for residents the sensitive assurance that new homes will soon be found for them and for staff all the help they need in finding new jobs either with the Board or elsewhere.

 

 

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The web is like the pen.......... 
'a boon and a blessing to men'

This is how Charles Alexander Watson Rennie describes his delight in finding our website a week or two ago. Giving his full name is important because he is the great grandson of the Charles Watson who presented the Nativity Window that now stands in the apse of the present church but originally stood in the south transept window of Ferryhill North. His great grandfather lived at 18 Caledonia Place. His grandfather was born in Fredrick Street in 1873 and his mother in Caledonian Place in 1898. Charles writes: 'I understand that my great grandfather was a well-known seafarer sailing as master with the Adam company. His son Charles Watson, my grandfather, was a marine engineer eventually working for Shell and retiring to the West Country where he died in Plymouth in February 1944. My mother married another marine engineer and I followed in their footsteps leaving the sea to join Lloyds Register and spent 34 years working for them in Portugal. Hence lack of contacts with Aberdeen.'

The Nativity Window

More about the Ferryhill Windows

 

 Charles explains that he visited Aberdeen more than ten years ago and saw the window and spoke with some people in the then Ferryhill North Church - 'I believe,' he says, 'a Mrs Stronach could have been one of them!!' He was told then that the union was imminent and that the windows were likely to be moved to the present building. He thought no more about it till his daughter recently came across our website with its illustrations and information about the stained glass windows. He was delighted to see that the Nativity Window had been rescued and re-sited to adorn the present building. 

His interest in Aberdeen and Ferryhill is likely to be rekindled because he ordered a copy of "Showers of Blessings" which is now on its way to Charles. He and his wife live in Tavistock where they are members of Tavistock Parish Church and his wife is a member of the Tavistock Deanery Synod. We thank Charles for getting in touch and send him and his wife our warmest good wishes.

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Ministers' phone numbers: 
 Revd Ian Dick 586933, 
Revd Norman Nicoll 705630.
Church Office: 213093  
office@ferryhillpc.org.uk

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