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“God is light; In him there is no darkness...”  

[1 John 1:5]

Dull and Weem Parish, Church of Scotland

Sunday Service 9 30 am.

Minister : Rev. Neil M Glover

Senior Elder : Mr C. Thom

Phone 01887 820174   e mail

Roll Keeper : Mr T. Pringle

Phone 01887 820931   e mail

Session Clerk : Mr P. Hobbs

Mobile 07967 226824   e mail

Treasurer : Mr R. Chadburn

Youth Worker : Jamie Pringle

Mobile 07399 589422   e mail

PA to Rev Neil Glover : Judy Ewer

Mobile 07836 565528  e mail

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Link to Church of Scotland Congregations of the Upper Tay, and of Tenandry Sunday Service 24th January 2021

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Morning Worship for Upper Tay and Tenandry

24th January 2021

Welcome to worship this morning, wherever you are reading this, may you sense that we are all in one in Christ, and gathered in Christ.

Let us sing CH4 198 - Let us build a house

 1 Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live, a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive; built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace; here the love of Christ shall end divisions: All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

 2 Let us build a house where prophets speak, and words are strong and true, where all God's children dare to seek to dream God's reign anew. Here the cross shall stand as witness and as symbol of God's grace; here as one we claim the faith of Jesus.

3 Let us build a house where love is found in water, wine and wheat: a banquet hall on holy ground, where peace and justice meet. Here the love of God, through Jesus, is revealed in time and space, as we share in Christ the feast that frees us.

4 Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood and stone to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they've known. Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God's face; let us bring an end to fear and danger.

5 Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word. Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace, let this house proclaim from floor to rafter.

 Marty Haugen (b.1950)

Opening Prayer

Gracious Lord

This is the strangest of times, the loneliest of times

For those who do not know your name

But we, who are your children, are blessed

We are held in the circle of your everlasting arms

And we know your name

But we stumble, Lord, and we fall

We err and we fail

We embrace folly and ignore the shining light of your wisdom

Forgive us, Lord, cleanse, redeem and reset us

Take us to the top of the mountain and show us the new Jerusalem

Inspire us; challenge us to carry the cross of Christ

And to reflect His life in ours

So that we might reach, by our example, those who do not know you

And who have sore need of you at this time

In the name of Jesus we ask it

And now hear us in the prayer he taught us

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come; thy will be done

In earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory

For ever,  

Amen

Reading 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 

Unity and diversity in the body

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[b]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Sermon

1 Corinthians 12 – Paul

In our services, we have been avoiding someone.

He’s a sometimes prickly, pugnacious, determined, persistent character.

He’s sometimes portrayed as sexist, although he wrote passionate about equality

Sometimes apparently supportive of slavery

Yet a great supporter of runaway slaves

He’s not quite as warm as Jesus

His stories are never as captivating

But now it’s we came back to him

We’ve been in ancient Canaan with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob

With the parables in Matthew

We’ve been to Bethlehem for Christmas

And last week with Jesus and his disciples

But this week we’re heading to Greece,

And we’re going to go there with the Apostle, the Saint, the converted Pharisee

The letter writer, the Church founder

Paul of Tarsus

And Paul has a problem

Because one of his Churches is giving him grief,

Corinth – there are factions,

The wealthy are lording it over the poorest

The corrupt practices of that most pagan of ports have leaked into the Church

And the Church is being torn apart,

The Church that Paul has founded, spent 18 months with – an age for Paul,

Their tearing each other apart.

And a little bit like when you have two children fighting,

The temptation is to shout at them

“Stop fighting”

And there is a little bit of that in the earlier chapters,

But now Paul has calmed, he’s getting deeper and more thoughtful.

And now he turns to a particular problem,

One of the things that is causing the most angst

Is the question of who is most spiritual

That there are people in the Church, who just seem to get it, who walk and talk it with confidence,

They have a particular gift, which is the ability to speak in tongues,

To praise God in a language not their own

And there appears to be more than a little pride in the ones who have it

And a deep feeling of inferiority amongst those who do not.

There is a problem here,

The gifts of the Church enrich the Church

But they also threaten it

Because the nature of gift is that no everyone gets it

How do you cope in a community

Where some people have gifts that not everyone has

It’s like going to a Christmas service, and only some of the children have been visted by Santa Clause

That’s a bit like what it feels like in Corinth

And how is Paul going to address this crisis

He writes a letter.

Someone has said that the New Testament epistles are simply the attempt to pastor the Church remotely using technology,

That’s what Paul does

He pastors remotely and he finds an image.

It’s an image so rich and profound,

It’s almost as if your glad of the crisis because it has forced Paul to speak the deepest of truths

Something far far more profound than

“Would you lot please stop fighting.”

Diversity

The first thing that Paul points to is something inherent to the very nature of God,

In particular to the Spirit of God.

Often I come out here at night, on this golf course to look at the stars.

I’ve spoken about them often before,

Just the ridiculous number of them, particularly if you take binoculars with you.

You can see the many stars in Orion, Taurus,

On some nights you might even see parts of the Milky Way, the band of stars that encircle us in our galaxy, so tightly together that they look like milky liquid,

But each one is a sun a star,

And you reach the conclusion, God must love making stars,

Gk Chesterton once said, that God is like a child, with the capacity for infinite and undiminished pleasure in repetition, as he makes the stars, he says “another one” “another one”

And this galaxy, and sometimes over there, Andromeda, our neighbour, part of a huge cluster of galaxies in our corner of the universe,

Are Testament to God always going “Another one, Another one, Another one”

And every single one that is made, is different

There are White Dwarves

And Red Dwarves

And Supernovas

And Blackholes

And Meteors

And Pulsars and Quasers

And Comets and planets

Another one, and it’s different

Another one, it’s different

Because Spirit loves to make

And everytime to make differently

One Spirit, passionate desire for abundant diversity

In every single sphere of creation,

You discover the same propensity of the one God

To make many many things which are all a bit different from another

Study apples, one God, many apples: 7,500 varieties

Study grass, one God, many grasses, 11,400 grasses

Study beatles, one God, many beatles, 370,000 species

And so it is with the Church,

The people of God,

God’s inveterate passion to create in abundance

And create in diversity.

“Now there are a variety of gifts, but the one Spirit says Paul”

To one is given wisdom, to another knowledge

To another faith, to another healing,

To another miracles, to another prophecy

To another tongues

That thing which to you looks like favouritism

Is actually God’s passion for abundant diversity.

When watching our reading, we saw our difference

Spirit’s passion for abundant diversity.

And initially this is great, and rich and profound and diverse

But there is another pain,

There is always the lurking fear, that we didn’t get as good a deal,

There is always a lurking fear that some parts are more than others – both superiority and inferiority equally false temptations

There is always the fear that some parts are more valuable.

And Paul draws us and asks us to consider the body

He asks us to think of our inferiority,

And he says our sense of inferiority bears not relation to our actual essential nature

It is possible to feel inferior when in fact we are essential

So the foot might say, because I am not a hand, I do no belong

And it has this deep sense of inferiority, it is always trodden upon, it is always stubbed and kicked and blistered

And its resentment and hatred of hands increases, and it lives in a world where it is convinced that hands come first, and feet are only associate members

But Paul says, you can play that script all you like

You are still utterly utterly essential

And if you think that the foot is a mouldering petri dish of resentment

You haven’t been anywhere near the ear,

You only have to say one word to the ear, the word is “eye” and the ear will feel almost this deep pain, at the way everyone loves their eyes, at the front, not kept to the side,

Eyes get shadowed and lined, and emphasised

Ears get pierced,

And the feeling which is painful of having been dealt a raw hand generates a profound sense of being peripheral

And Paul says, no, utterly, utterly essential.

And then Paul plays with the metaphor a little more,

He imagines a body which is all eye, a uniformity of eyes, such a body cannot hear

He imagines a body which is all ear, a uniformity of ears, such a body cannot smell

If all were a single members, where would the body be,

It would not just be non-hearing

Or non- smelling

It would be dead

It would not be alive

Our variety is our life

To have no variety is to be dead

So following our inferiority

And our desire for uniformity

Not Paul tracks down our superiority, our independence,

That is a profound lesson, that all have need of each other in order to live

Because we can find it very easy to imagine the body of Christ with some parts missing and functioning perfectly well,

And Paul says “no”

You are a body,

And just as the eye cannot say to the “I have no need of you”

There is no person in the body of Christ to which we can ever “I have no need of you”

The eye cannot say to the hand, I do not need you

There was no person in that film of the reading earlier to whom we could ever say

I do not need you.

This is essential, different, mutually dependent body

Brings him to one final illustration

Shame.

There are parts of our bodies of which we are ashamed,

In women and in men,

There is body shame

Of our weight,

Of our faces

Of our skins

Of our hair

Of our feet.

And we are almost embarrassed to read those verses, those parts with greater dishonour

We treat with greater honour.

I have profound experience of this when I was in hospital,

The urologists became my friends

The ones who take the parts of our bodies which we would regard with the deepest shame

And they give their lives to treating, knowing them

I once asked one of them why he did urology, I just love the way everything fits together he said,

We say embarrassment, they say incredible design

A work of art,

Professor Nabi, my surgeon, who has given his life to knowing things about prostates

And this is a profound pain,

But what we do is something very paradoxical

Those parts that are weaker, are indispensable

Those parts that are less honourable, we honour

Those parts that are less respectable, we treat with greater respect

And those is so pointed to Corinth

Because in Corinth, the weaker have been treated as indispensable, as afterthought

In Corinth, the honourable have been honoured, and the less honourable have been despised

And in Corinth those parts that are less respectable, have been treated with less respect.

This is such a profound rich image

Which draws us into our challenge

Our difference,

Our sense of inferiority

Our shame

And points us to our essential belonging

Our life-giving variety

Our essential need of each other.

Which emanates from the God who loves to create in abundance and diversity.

Let us live in that image.

There’s a retired minister in Edinburgh who writes to me.

His name is Peter Miller, he has been a minister in Madras, in Newtonmore on Iona

He is a man of passions, and difference, he was famous when he came to Nethbridge occasionally for his hair, which was quite the most fantastic ever combover, and sometimes it would fall on the wrong side, bodies.

But he has this infectious enthusiasm for life,

Even amongst the pain of his body

As he lives with cancer, and he once wrote this poem about St Columba’s Bay on Iona

Where Columba landed and through him and his monks, the Gospel was taken to northern Scotland

Including right along this path here.

Each week on Iona there is a pilgrimage around the island, it’s a deeply profound experience, a group of different people united in this stunning landscape, and Peter wrote this poem:

At Columba's Bay
they met;
Two of Iona's
countless pilgrims.
He, a pastor from Zaire;
She, a broker in Detroit.
And battered by the
autumn wind and rain
they shared their stories -
rooted in twentieth century realities,
yet both embedded
in a strange, life-giving
brokenness.
The hidden stories -
of poverty and torture,
of cancer and loneliness;
interweaving stories,
mirroring our
global interconnectedness.
And stories of faith;
of God's unfolding
in their lives
through ordinary days.
And suddenly it seemed
that for a moment
on that distant shore
they glimpsed
that basic truth -
that truly,
we are one

AMEN

Let us sing Hymn which is “The Church’s one Foundation"

1

The Church’s one foundation
 Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
 By water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her
 To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
 And for her life He died.

2

Elect from every nation,
 Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
 One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
 Partakes one holy food,
 

And to one hope she presses,
 With every grace endued.

3

’Mid toil and tribulation,
 And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
 Of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
 Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
 Shall be the Church at rest.

4

Yet she on earth hath union
 With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
 With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
 Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
 In love may dwell with Thee.

Lyrics:  Samuel John Stone (1839-1900)

Prayer for others

 Dear God,

We come to you and pray for our body,

We pray for our congregations

For Tenandry

For Kenmore, Fortingall, Glenlyon and Lawers

For Grantully, Logierait and Strathtay

For Dull and Weem

For Aberfeldy

We pray that you would unite us as a body

Along with the other Churches in our area

Those who are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist or Independent

May we live by the unity that points to you.

We continue to pray for our country,

In the middle of this Covid virus

We pray that politics will rise about point scoring

And working together, all will work to deliver the vaccine

And those who are unwell with the virus would recover soon

And rates of infection would rapidly decline.

This week we also pray for America, for its new President

Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamla Harris

Oh God may you bless that country

May it indeed shine like a light on a hill.

We take a moment now to name before you all the prayers of our hearts

Silence

All these things we ask in the strong name of Jesus Christ,

Our Lord,

AMEN

Let us sing our closing song, “Holy Spirit, Ever Living"

Holy Spirit, ever living
As the Church’s very life;
Holy Spirit, ever striving
Through her in a ceaseless strife;
Holy Spirit, ever forming
In the Church the mind of Christ;
Thee we praise with endless worship
For thy fruits and gifts unpriced.

Holy Spirit, ever working
Through the Church’s ministry;
Quick’ning, strength’ning, and absolving,
Setting captive sinners free;
Holy Spirit, ever binding
Age to age and soul to soul
In a fellowship unending,
Thee we worship and extol.

Words: Timothy Rees (1837-1939)
Tune: Abbot’s Leigh, by Cyril V. Taylor (b. 1907)

Blessing –

May you bound as one with all believers, for the body of Christ is one

May your gifts flourish, for it is the Spirit who gives

May all your living point to the Father, in whose image your made

Go your way, and be richly blessed

From this day

And forevermore

AMEN

Linkage Newsletter – 21 January 2021

Sunday Service – 24 January 2021

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP WITH REV. NEIL GLOVER

YouTube Services

Sunday morning onwards

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpA-Ianua69JOCtTV2zBDxw

Traditional Dial-In

Sunday morning onwards

Dial 01887 440446

Zoom Service

10.30 am

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

or Zoom from tablet or phone:
Zoom meeting room 920 598 9200

Password  - 316316

Post-service Zoom coffee and biscuits

11.30am

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

or Zoom from tablet or phone:
Zoom meeting room 920 598 9200

Password  - 316316

Funeral – Ian Menzies

Wednesday 27 January 2021 @ 10.30am

Aberfeldy Parish Church

For additional information please contact Gaulds Funeral Services

Breadalbane Community Larder

As you may know, Breadalbane Community Larder has been Aberfeldy Co-op’s ‘FoodShare’ partner since March, 2020 taking ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use By’ food which would otherwise be thrown away or sent to their bio-digester.  Not wanting to lose this valuable partnership, we will continue to collect these items and have this food available outside the rear of the church building for people to come and help themselves during Larder opening times (11.00am -12.30pm each Saturday).

We are also be piloting two other ideas:

·      alongside the ‘FoodShare store’ on a Saturday morning, customers can come to the Larder and collect items from the stock indoors, for a nominal fee. This reduces the stigma and helps maintain customer dignity

·      emergency deliveries of food parcels will continue.  This service can be accessed by calling 0345 30 111 00 Monday to Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm

If you know of anyone struggling to make ends meet please let them know about the support provided by Breadalbane Community Larder.

The Larder is a joint initiative of several local churches and also involves members of the local community.  If you would like to be involved please contact the team on 07513 652597 or email breadalbanecommunitylarder@btinternet.com

In addition to food the Breadalbane Community Larder is able to offer disposable face masks for those struggling to buy them.

Week of Prayer 14 – 20 February 2021 – contact Isabelle Macdonald

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With the nations of the earth facing so much danger from Covid19 and all the fallout from the pandemic we are inviting you to join in with others from Highland Perthshire and beyond in a week of Prayer starting at 0.00hrs on Sunday 14th February through until midnight on Saturday 20th February .Obviously this will happen in your own home and you can sign up using the link below We are registered as HIGHLAND PERTHSHIRE CHURCHES and please do encourage as many people as possible to participate.

There are many limits on our life right now but there is never a limit on prayer.

Since we are not using an actual room more than one person can be praying at any one time but please try and fill up all the available slots so that we can keep our week in constant prayer.

My thanks to you in anticipation of your participation. If you do encounter any difficulties please contact me by email isabellemacdonald222@btinternet.com or on 07768 492 803

Recording our online services

Neil and the Ministry Team are following the Scottish Government Guidelines and will no longer be able to record individuals for our weekly bible passages and prayers. Fortunately, we have a number of people within our congregations who have the technology to record themselves. If you would like to be involved in our services and can record yourself, please could you let me know.

Support

We recognise that for many the current restrictions and uncertainty can make life very stressful. The ministry team are able to offer pastoral support, but for a few this may not be enough. Perth and Kinross Council have an excellent directory of services. You can type in:

Perth and Kinross Mental Health Directory 2020 or hit the hyper link below.

https://www.pkc.gov.uk/media/46386/Mental-Health-Directory-of-Services-Covid-19/pdf/Mental_Health_Directory_of_Services_Covid19_(1).pdf?m=637353449218700000

 SERVICE SHEET IS IN THE ATTACHMENT AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS EMAIL

Contact details

Neil’s email -  nglover@churchofscotland.org.uk

Neil’s mobile – 07779 280074

PA – Judy Ewer – judy.ewer@adwgls.org.uk

Mobile – 07836 565528

Future Services

January

31 – Neil  Glover– Tenandry

February

7 - Margaret Yearsley – Dull and Weem

14  - Robert Nicol

21 – Geoff Davis – Aberfeldy

28 – Neil - Logierait

Judy Ewer
PA to Neil Glover

Minister - Aberfeldy (SC007899), Dull and Weem (SC001465) and Grantully, Logierait &  Strathtay (SC004275) Churches of Scotland 

judy.ewer@adwgls.org.uk

mobile - 07836 565 528

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Dull and Weem Parish Church is be found on the west side of the river Tay in Highland Perthshire.

Follow the road, from Aberfeldy, Crossing the historic Wade's Bridge, and continue down the avenue towards Weem.

As you enter the village of Weem, you will find the church on the right-hand side of the road. 

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” 

[Hebrews 4:16]

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