Sunday Service for 13 November 2022, Remembrance Sunday

Sunday 13 November 2022, NL1-10 (Remembrance)
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Today’s service will be (hopefully) live-streamed on the Church Facebook Page, rather than pre-recorded. A manuscript is below for those who prefer to read along rather than join the livestream video. The video will be available again after the sanctuary service is finished, for those who need to worship at another time.

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship
One: God has spoken before, and God speaks still,
a word of hope, yes, and also a word of challenge.
Come to hear again the voice that echoes through the ages,
calling us to a new way of life:
All: to do justice, not only talk about it;
to love going above and beyond with generosity and kindness;
to act without making it about us.
One: This is what it means to worship in spirit and in truth —
so let us worship God together.

Processional Hymn: Hope For the World’s Despair (video) (Ally Barrett, tune: Love Unknown)

Hope for the world’s despair:
we feel the nations’ pain;
can anything repair
this broken earth again?
For this we pray:
in every place
a spark of grace
to light the way.

Wisdom for all who bear
the future in their hand,
entrusted with the care
of this and every land.
When comes the hour,
O Lord, we pray,
inspire the way
we spend our power.

Honour for all who’ve paid
war’s painful, bitter price,
when duty called they made
the greatest sacrifice.
Their memory
will never cease
to cry for peace
and harmony.

Ease for the troubled mind
in endless conflict caught,
each soul that cannot find
the peace beyond all thought.
May they be blessed
with healing balm
for inner calm
and perfect rest.

Love for the human heart:
when hate grows from our fears
and inwardly we start
to turn our ploughs to spears.
Help us to sow  
love’s precious seed
in word and deed,
that peace may grow.

Remembrance Prayer
Liberator God, you are the creator of justice and peace.
This day we come to seek your presence in the midst of grief, and honour, and memory.
We look back, and we confess that sometimes we forget to look forward
to the future you still have in mind for us.
Give us the gift this day of building on memory,
that we may be faithful as your people, our ancestors, have been faithful.

God you are the giver of every good gift.
We remember the gifts of courage, devotion to duty, and self-sacrifice
of the men and women in our armed forces—
who serve their country and the world with honour,
throughout these many years.
We especially pray this day for
those who have been wounded in body or soul,
who bear the scars of war,
and for the families of those who fell in battle,
especially those who were never returned home.
We also remember the toil, endurance and suffering of those not in uniform,
those who lost their lives or homes in air raids,
who served in hospitals and homes,
or care for family members who will never be the same.
We remember the support of those who sent us help from afar,
or came and stood by our side in our time of need.

Creator God, you make all people in your image,
and so we also remember those who were our enemies,
whose homes and hearts are as bereft as ours,
whose dead also lie in a living tomb of everlasting remembrance,
and we pray for the grace to be able to pray for our enemies,
as you taught us to do.

As we remember, O God, let us also be re-membered;
put back together again as members of your body.
As hatred and war tear us apart,
may our remembrance this day be a step toward healing,
as we pray for your grace to knit us back together,
as we seek peace and unity with all who share this planet with us.
Re-member us into a common purpose to glorify you,
to follow your call to live in community,
to resist the urge to dehumanise others or to use them for our own advantage.

In the midst of our remembrance,
we pause to pray for those young people among us,
and their families.
We pray that they would never need to see the cruelty and suffering of war,
at home or abroad.
Grant that this generation may be given the chance
to use their gifts for the creation of justice and generosity,
for building this world into your kingdom where all are welcome and valued,
where violence and hate have no place,
where your people live together in peace.

We also remember your world still at war, O God,
or on the brink of it.
We beg you would not let us forget the people of
Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, North Korea,
starving for bread and for hope;
or the people of Ukraine, Syria, and so many more,
living each day with the sound of gunfire and bomb;
or the people of Albania and Honduras and Venezuela,
desperate for relief from gangs and drugs.
Your creation cries out, O God,
bearing the weight of our desires and groaning for relief.
Your people cry out, O God,
longing for justice and righteousness.
Give us ears to hear.
Give us hearts to care.
Give us the will to do something,
to practice what we preach,
to put your word into action.
And if we do not have those,
we pray you would silence us until we can hear and are prepared to act.

In our remembrance, make us mindful of those still suffering,
and that when one member of your body suffers,
all suffer together with it.
There can be no peace unless all of us seek it together,
for each other,
and so we pray for your Spirit of challenge to provoke us to action.
Make us an answer to the prayers of others,
until your whole creation sings.

Strengthen our faint hearts and our faltering hands,
that we may seek your peace and justice rather than our own power.
Give us courage to stand up for lives still to be lived
rather than simply allowing more names to be added to our memorials.

We call to mind your grace, Lord,
for your love holds all of us in life and in death.
We ask your blessing on those who have offered themselves,
and on us, that we may honour their memory
by continually seeking your way of justice, mercy, and love.
Amen.

10:58: Call to Remembrance / The Tryst
Today we remember the colourful, frail and human lives
cut down in time of War
especially those known to us
and loved by us.
Let us ask for God’s blessings
that we might work for peace,
pray in Hope
and be the reconciling presence
which this world
and every home and community
so desperately needs.
With one minute we look back
in sorrow and gratitude
and with the second we look forward
dedicating ourselves to God’s future of peace,
and in so doing we hallow this space
to remember and to give thanks
and to honour those whose ultimate price
contributed to the freedoms we claim as ours today.

“They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.”

Last Post

11.00: Two Minutes Silence

Reveille

In remembrance, in honour, in gratitude for those who gave their today for our tomorrow, strengthened by our whole cloud of witnesses, may we lead lives worthy of our calling, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: We Bring Our Yearnings, Lord (text: Pat Bennett, tune: Garelochside)
We bring our yearnings Lord
of heart and soul and mind—
to see the patterns you inspire
restored to humankind.

We yearn to see a time
when war and conflicts cease,
when turmoil fuelled by race and creed
is overcome by peace.

We yearn to know a world
where seeds of justice flower,
where burdens made by human greed
no longer wield their power.

We yearn to find the ground
where none need stand alone,
where all are welcomed, valued, loved
and know they’ve reached their home.

We yearn to feel at one
with all who call your name
to breach the walls that separate
and end division’s pain.

Lord, take and use our lives,
we offer them for this—
that through our yearning and your power
the earth will know heav’n’s bliss.

Children’s Time

Prayer of the Season
The whole earth is yours, O God.
From the beginning of the story,
you have been drawing us toward you.
We give you thanks that you have brought us this far
even when we feel like we have to trudge every step.
Though we don’t know how to be your people,
still you coax, call, and carry us forward.
Show us again today what it means to be people who live close to your heart,
not through our own efforts, but yours. Amen.

Reading: Micah 5.2, 4-5a, 6.6-8 (Robert Alter translation)
Today we will hear from the prophet Micah, who lived in a rural village south of Jerusalem, in an area that had been invaded by a neighbouring empire. Micah was concerned that the leaders who lived in the capital cities of Samaria and Jerusalem were making choices that served their own wealth and power but had negative effects on the people who lived out in the countryside. He brought God’s word to challenge both the leaders and the everyday people to be faithful together, rather than each thinking they could live without affecting the other. We hear today from near the end of his vision, in chapters 5 and 6, and I am reading from Robert Alter’s translation.

And you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
the least of Judah’s clans,
from you shall one come forth for me
to be ruler of Israel
whose origins are from ancient times,
from days of yore.
And he shall stand and shepherd them by the might of the Lord,
by the pride of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure,
for then shall he be great to the ends of the Earth.
And thus shall be peace.

With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow to the most high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with yearling calves?
Is the Lord pleased with thousands of rams,
myriads of streams of oil?
Shall I give him my firstborn for my trespass,
the fruit of my loins for my offence?
It was told to you, mortal, what is good
and what the Lord demands of you –
only doing justice
and loving kindness
and walking humbly with your God.

For the word of God in scripture,
for the word of God among us,
for the word of God within us,
thanks be to God.

Sermon: Small Building Blocks
Sometimes the world feels overwhelming, doesn’t it? We look out and see conflict we had hoped would never come again. We recognise Micah’s situation, where the disconnect between the leaders in the capital and the regular people out in the country had grown so wide that the leaders thought they could simply do whatever they wanted because they didn’t see how the consequences were borne by others, or perhaps they didn’t care. We feel like we’ve tried all the obvious options, and we’ve talked our way out of the complicated ones, so we just throw up our hands and think it’s too big and there’s nothing we can do.

Imagine if that had been the response of our forebears. Thankfully they chose instead to rise to the challenge, and though they were each just one person, they understood that together they could be a part of something bigger, something that stood in the path of violence and greed and power mongering, and moved the world toward peace and justice, even if only a little. They understood their role in creating the world of the future. Perhaps sometimes they felt small and insignificant, with voices that didn’t matter and world leaders that didn’t listen, and like nothing they could do would make a difference. But they didn’t let that feeling drive their choices. Still they pulled on their boots, still they ran out into the field to take wounded soldiers away for treatment, still they sat and worked at the codes, still they went round the streets and pulled their neighbours out of collapsed rubble, still they blacked out their windows and turned out the lights, still they rationed supplies so there’d be enough for others.

Sometimes the situation in the world feels so overwhelming, and we feel so small. And yet…Bethlehem was the smallest, and also the origin of something world-changing. King David was the youngest of his brothers, the one everyone forgot about, from a farming family in the least of the clans. And when his descendants proved not to be good kings, still the prophet went right back to those same humble origins to remind the nation where they’d come from. Not from the highest echelons of power or wealth or elite aristocratic status, but from the lowest and least, the smallest in the face of the huge challenges facing the nation and region and world.

It can be daunting, sure. But the prophet reminds us of how this all works. Yes, small in the face of big. But also: he will stand and shepherd the people in the strength of the Lord. Not in his own strength, not from his own reserves of power, but in the strength of the Lord. That’s what makes it possible to do those big things even when we feel small and insignificant: that it isn’t about us and our own ability, it’s about standing in the strength of the Lord. Relying on our own power will always leave the world wanting. But relying on the strength of the Lord, even the least of these can shepherd the world toward peace.

Micah goes on to remind us what it means to stand in the strength of the Lord. It isn’t about the outward religious show. Thousands of offerings or even the biggest of sacrifices don’t matter at all and are not the point, especially if they’re all we do. Our acts of worship, on their own, are meaningless, and they don’t move us toward the goal of standing in the strength of the Lord to be the foundation of a future of peace. Instead, the prophet says, scripture has already told us before what to do — not to think that a few minutes of church is enough, but rather to live life according to God’s way. All of life, not just one day a week. Every day. Every hour. Every minute, even.

And what is God’s good way, the way that everyone can do regardless of how small we feel in the face of the situations of the world?

To do justice. Not just talk about justice, not just to like the idea of justice, but to actually do it — to make justice happen, to act with justice, to make choices that move the community toward just ways of organising our economy and society.

To love kindness. Or, to be more accurate, to love loving-kindness. Not just to be kind, though that is important. Loving Kindness — the Hebrew word is chesed — is about faithfulness and commitment. It’s the word that describes how God is with us…one Bible scholar (Dr. Amy Robertson) describes it as the above-and-beyond, not just the rules and laws but the generous, overflowing acts of love and kindness that we didn’t have to do, but they nurture relationship and show our care. The prophet Micah doesn’t just tell us to live with chesed toward God and neighbour, but to love chesed. To enjoy it, to want it, to relish the opportunity to practice it in every relationship, no matter how small.

To walk humbly. Not to make it about us, or demand attention for the justice and love we’ve done. Not to think that we can earn God’s favour or our neighbour’s attention. To walk — not to stand still, to move forward — with humility. The word “humble” is related to the word for ground or dirt, so to be humble is to remember we have been created from the dust of the earth, and to keep our feet firmly rooted in the ground.

Do justice. Love chesed, generous loving-kindness. Walk humbly.

However big the task feels, however overwhelming the world gets, however small we feel. Do justice. Love letting love overflow. Walk humbly.

There’s nothing about that kind of life that requires being a big star, a powerful person, a wealthy magnate. It only requires choosing to play our part, regardless of our social or economic position or how we feel about it today — standing in the strength of the Lord, not our own strength. That is the commitment our forebears made and acted upon, making it possible for us to live the lives we have today. That is the commitment that future generations ask of us. More to the point, it is the commitment God asks of us, as God’s people who are tasked with living in God’s kingdom here and now — to be the ones whose daily lives of justice, generous loving-kindness, and humility will be the small building blocks that lead to peace.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn: O Day of Peace (text: Carl P Daw Jr; tune: Jerusalem)
O day of peace that dimly shines
through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
guide us to justice, truth, and love,
delivered from our selfish schemes.
May swords of hate fall from our hands,
our hearts from envy find release,
till by God’s grace our warring world
shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace.

Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
nor shall the fierce devour the small;
as beasts and cattle calmly graze,
a little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
all creatures find their true accord;
the hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
for all the earth shall know the Lord.

Offering (Choir to sing “I Will Sing Unto the Lord as Long as I Live”)
All we have and all we are is a gift from God, and we are created in the image of this generous God — because of all God has given us, we are able to give of ourselves and our resources, for God’s glory and God’s work. The ministry and mission we do here at St John’s costs just over £10,000 per month and it is because of your generous giving that we are able to serve our community in this way, and that is what this morning offering goes to each week.

Today we will have a special retiring offering for Poppy Scotland as well — the retiring offering will be collected at the door as you go out today, and the regular morning offering will now be received.

Announcements
There are many things going on in our church community — many of these are detailed in this morning’s email, and on the church website, and for those without internet access we have a printout with November’s activities listed, at the door. Here are a few things I just want to highlight, for your prayer and participation:
1. At the close of this service we will have a short wreath-laying ceremony at the anchor, and then we will parade to the Gourock War Memorial for the town act of remembrance which begins at 12:15.
2. This afternoon at 2:30 here in the sanctuary, the contact group are hosting a fundraising concert by the Clydeside Singers. All are welcome.
Young Adults in their 20s are invited to Bible study tonight in the manse at 7pm, with pizza and discussion of John chapter 3. The Wednesday evening Bible study meets in the manse at 7:30pm and is reading Matthew 18 – 28.
4. The Kirk session will meet on Zoom tomorrow evening at 7:30pm for one item of business, the manse kitchen.
5. The Contact Group meet on Tuesday 15th November at 2pm. The speaker will be Margaret Foggie who will tell us about the Olive Tree charity, which supports women and children in the Occupied Territories of Palestine and Gaza by selling their traditional craftwork including olive tree wood crafts, olive oil and soap, ceramics and embroidery.
6. Gourock Schools and Churches Together is hosting the afternoon tea concert at Clydeview Academy on Monday, 21 November at 1:30pm, and tickets are available now from Teri.
7. Connect churches have several things happening this month — next Sunday afternoon there’s an organ concert at the Lyle Kirk; next Sunday evening there’s a Prisoner’s Week service at Westburn with the Connect+ singing group and a presentation from Inverclyde Faith In Throughcare; tickets are on sale now for OGA’s pantomime at the end of the month; and our Local Mission Group is hosting an Advent family fun day on the 26th. More information on all of these can be found in today’s email and in today’s post on the church website.

The Presbytery of Clyde will meet in Inchinnan Parish Church, Old Greenock Rd, Inchinnan, Renfrew PA4 9PE on Tuesday 22nd November 2022 at 6.30 p.m.
At this meeting, Presbytery will discuss the draft Mission Plan previously circulated for the Cluster in which our congregation is located — Cluster A — and an Order of the Day has been set for 7 p.m. on the 22nd November for this Cluster to be discussed. Our congregation is cited to attend for their interest and is entitled to respond to the report through the contribution of one person representing the congregation. Where consideration of any Cluster has not concluded within the allocated time, further discussion shall be continued at an online meeting of Presbytery held for that purpose only on Tuesday 29th. November at 7 p.m.

You may have seen the Telegraph article that restated portions of the draft presbytery mission plan which, as you just heard in our citation to attend, is up for debate at the presbytery meeting on the 22nd. As one member of the presbytery planning committee, I can tell you we have been working on this at the direction of the general assembly since June, and the act passed by the assembly requires that we have it finished by the end of the year. Across the nation every presbytery is trying to discern God’s mission and how to best be Christ’s church, tasked with carrying out God’s mission, with the resources available to us. It is a challenging time for us all as we look toward the future and discuss what adjustments to our past infrastructure need to be made.

Here at St John’s we have been doing this work for a couple of years now and a vision from the Holy Spirit is emerging for the elders, and some of you have heard some broad strokes during our annual meeting luncheon. Whilst still very much in its infancy we envisage a community church and hub, building upon the wonderful work undertaken on the clock tower restoration, the community aspects of the associated heritage project where we engaged extensively with local schools and community groups and of course the significant investments with our new stained glass window, organ and boilers, the recent introduction of A Bowl & Blether and many other community engagement initiatives. Our desire is to see St John’s flourish at the heart of Gourock as our mission and discipleship vision develops in the coming years.

There will be ample opportunity for people to discuss and contribute their ideas , energy and enthusiasm as plans develop and be assured that Session will communicate widely and openly throughout this time . We look forward to pursuing those ideas and seeing where following Jesus will take us next.

For now: the session has formed a response to the Mission Plan, and is sending it to the planning committee first thing tomorrow morning. As you’ve heard from the citation read out a moment ago, the presbytery meets on the 22nd and I, Derek our presbytery elder, and ____ will be there to speak on our behalf. If the plan is approved by a majority of presbyters, it will be forwarded to the Faith Nurture Forum and General Trustees. If they approve, it becomes the mission plan we then work to implement. If at any point in that process it is not approved, then the planning committee returns to work out those problems and present amendments to address those concerns, until all parties — presbytery, faith nurture, and general trustees — come to agreement.

If you have questions or comments please let me know and I will feed them back to the planning committee, or if you have questions or comments for the Session please let Cameron or Alan know and they will get back to you.

That’s a lot going on in our community! Please consider yourself invited to participate, and to pray for all the activities, ministry, and mission God is calling us to do together. And now, let us join together in prayer.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You make yourself known to us, O God, in ways large and small.
The power of your creation,
the stage whispers of children,
the miracle of new life,
the quiet rainbow,
the peace of reconciled neighbours.
We thank you for showing us what is possible,
and we pray for the courage to put your word into action.
For your world is in need of a clearer vision of your way, God.
Too often your kingdom is obscured.
We confess that we have often made things more complicated than you have,
and we pray you would free us from the systems we have created to control you,
for they have ensnared us.
Forgive us, O God, when we have used worship to make ourselves feel better
without allowing it to move us toward everyday habits of faithfulness.
Forgive us for separating our work and our worship, our prayer and our politics,
and remind us that following you is for all seven days of the week.
You call us into the world as a blessing.
So move us, as only you can, ever closer to you,
guided by your hand into the life you envision for us all.
…
We pray today for those places where it feels as if everything is falling apart,
where what once was solid and dependable is shifting under our feet.
For places where the earth is washing away from the shore,
and where the institutions we took for granted have been corrupted from within.
May we learn to stand in your strength,
and to change our ways so others, too, can live secure.
…
We pray today for those who walk in halls of power and sit in decision-making bodies,
that they may call to mind the people who must carry out and be affected by their decisions.
Give them wisdom and compassion,
and remind them that they are there for the common good, not only themselves.
May they be makers of justice and peace.
…
We pray today for those at the edges —
far from the centre of power, just getting by day to day.
For people overlooked and undervalued,
yet essential to our community, nation, and world…and to you.
May they be seen and heard,
welcomed and empowered,
to take their place in your Body.
…
You have told us, O God, what is good.
You have taught us how to build a community in your image,
and to love the opportunities you give us to be a blessing.
Now give us the grace to do as you have said.
We ask in the name of your Word made flesh, Jesus the Christ,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Hymn: O God of Every Nation (text: William W Reid Jr; tune: Thornbury)
O God of every nation,
of every race and land,
redeem the whole creation
with your almighty hand.
Where hate and fear divide us
and bitter threats are hurled,
in love and mercy guide us
and heal our strife-torn world.

From search for wealth and power
and scorn of truth and right,
from trust in bombs that shower
destruction through the night,
from pride of race and station
and blindness to your way,
deliver every nation,
eternal God, we pray.

Lord, strengthen those who labour
that all may find release
from fear of rattling sabre,
from dread of war’s increase;
when hope and courage falter,
your still small voice be heard;
with faith that none can alter,
your servants undergird.

Keep bright in us the vision
of days when war shall cease,
when hatred and division
give way to love and peace,
till dawns the morning glorious
when truth and justice reign
and Christ shall rule victorious
o’er all the world’s domain.

Hymn 703 National Anthem vv 1 and 3
God save our gracious King,
long live our noble King;
God save the King!
Send him victorious,
happy and glorious,
long to reign over us:
God save the King!

Not on this land alone,
but be God’s mercies known
from shore to shore.
Lord, make the nations see
that all should kindred be,
and form one family
the wide world o’er.

Benediction
God chose us before we could ever choose God, and has told us again and again how to live as God’s people: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. Do this, and you will live.
And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Recessional: Highland Cathedral

Postlude Music

Announcements
* You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print). If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.

* Did you know that it costs us about £10,500 per month to do the ministry we currently do at St. John’s? That includes heating and lighting the building and keeping it in good repair for church and community groups, programming and pastoral care for people of all ages, our contribution to minister’s stipends, and other ministry costs. The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please be safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

* The Contact Group is holding a fundraising concert by The Clydeside Singers TODAY: 13th November at 2.30pm. The concert will take place in the sanctuary and will be followed by tea, coffee and cakes. Tickets priced £8 (including refreshments) can be obtained from Contact Group Members. 

* The Contact Group meet on Tuesday 15th November at 2pm. The speaker will be Margaret Foggie who will tell us about the Olive Tree charity.  This supports women and children in the Occupied Territories of Palestine and Gaza by selling their traditional craftwork including olive tree wood crafts, olive oil and soap, ceramics and embroidery. Margaret will bring along a selection of craft work for sale on the day. 

* Join Connect in a service for Prisoners Week, with the Connect+ Singing Group, at Westburn on Sunday 20 November at 6:30pm. All are welcome as we join in an informal worship and the chance to learn more about Inverclyde Faith In Throughcare, which supports people as they re-enter society after serving a sentence.

* Gourock Schools and Churches Together is hosting the afternoon tea concert at Clydeview Academy on Monday, 21 November at 1:30pm, and tickets are available now from Teri.

* Ready, Steady, Advent! will take place at Lyle Kirk (Union St) on Saturday 26 November between 11am-1pm. It’s open to families to drop in for all or just part of the morning, and there will be Advent-themed crafts, games and activities, some worship and free soup and sandwiches served afterwards. 

* Old Gourock and Ashton Parish Players Panto is coming up! This year it’s Jack and the Beanstalk and shows are from Wed 30th November to Sat 3rd December. Evening performances start at 7.30 on Wed, Thur and Fri. Tickets for these performance cost £9. The matinee on Saturday starts at 1pm and the early evening performance starts at 5pm. Tickets for these performances cost £6. If anyone is interested please contact Avril on 07713 625750.