This year’s Lent and Easter services are as follows:
Lent
Wednesday 10 February
7.30pm: Ash Wednesday – Eucharist and imposition of ashes
Wednesdays in Lent
12-2pm: Lent lunch and reflection
Monday 15 February
7pm in St Ninian’s: PACT Lent Study: Pilgrimage
Monday 22 February
7pm in the North Church: PACT Lent Study: Pilgrimage
Monday 29 February
7pm in the Salvation Army Citadel: PACT Lent Study: Pilgrimage
Holy Week and Easter Week
March 21-23: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
7.30pm in the Lady Chapel: Compline and Reflection
March 24: Maundy Thursday
11am Holy Communion (SPB)
7pm Seder Meal and Reflection
Ceremony of Feet or Hand Washing
Stripping of Altar
March 25: Good Friday
10.45am Walk of Witness starting at St John’s Kirk
12pm: Three hours devotion
March 27: Easter Sunday
7am PACT dawn service at Quarrymill, led by Major Linda Dunlop of the Salvation Army
8:30am Holy Communion followed by Easter Breakfast between the two services for both congregations
10:30am Sung Eucharist
Come along after school on Tuesday 9th February to our Pancake Party. There will be activities for all ages including tabletop challenges and games, mask decorating and a mini Mardi Gras procession. Find out what Shrove Tuesday and Lent are all about and enjoy some pancakes together! For more information please email us at , message us on Facebook or phone 01738 634999.
Here are a selection of images from the various services at St John’s over Christmas.
Christingle Service
On Christmas Eve we invited children and grown-ups for a celebration of the Christmas story. There was great excitement in the Threshold as small people (and some big ones) dressed up as angels, shepherds, and kings. Mary and Joseph came and we had a most energetic donkey!
As well as the presentation of the Christmas story we also celebrated with Christingles. Some of the older children helped explain the meaning of the Christingle and passed out the different parts to members of the congregation. As we built our Christingles we sang verses of a Christingle song. Then it was time to light our candles (or break our glowsticks). The church was darkened and we passed the flame to each other around the church, showing the light of God coming into a dark world.
Midnight Eucharist, Christmas Eve
The church was lit by candles for the midnight Eucharist with favourite carols and anthems by the choir, including Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium.
Santa’s Visit
Santa visited the Buggy Club!
Epiphany
To finish off Christmas, we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, remembering the wise men who came so far to see Jesus.
On Sunday we bade a fond farewell to our Lay Reader, Lis Burke. From the new year onward she’ll be working with the Alyth, Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus group ministry.
Toward the end of the service, Graham presented Lis with a gift from the congregation:
Alison also presented her with a gift from the choir.
Of course, there was also chocolate cake in the Threshold afterwards to celebrate Lis’s many years with us, in the congregation, in the choir and latterly as Lay Reader.
In celebration of Lis’s many years in the congregation, latterly as Lay Reader, there was cake in the Threshold afterwards 🙂
Members of the choir and congregation turned out on the church steps on Saturday lunchtime to sing carols to passers-by and ply them with warm mince-pies.
We received £50 in donations for PKAVS, a charity supporting adults with mental illness, young and adult unpaid carers and minority communities including refugees around Perth and Kinross.
We held our 2015 AGM on Sunday 29 November after the service. Detailed information about the activities of the past year are available in the Annual Reports (PDF), but aside from financial matters, a few additional things were singled out for special attention at the meeting.
An anonymous donation has allowed us to set up a fabric fund, giving us a reserve to set aside for any future urgent repairs required to the church building.
Lis Burke, our lay reader, is moving on, joining the Dean in a team working with churches in Alyth, Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus. We are sorry to see Lis Burke go and wish her all the best in her new ministry.
Concerning membership of the Vestry, Graham confirmed that Alan MacPherson would continue as Rector’s Warden. David Willington continues as People’s Warden. Tom Axford and Christine Bracewell have served their time on the Vestry, and Jean Hendry stepped down after years of service as Lay Rep. We elected Jim Carcary to the Vestry as an ordinary member and Lilian Fleming to replace Jean as Lay Representative.
Graham, our Rector, and Judy, Vestry Secretary, chair the AGM after the service.
