Welcome

Glencairn & Moniaive Parish Church is a linked charge with Dunscore Parish Church and is within the Presbytery of The South West.

The parish of Glencairn & Moniaive is located at the northern end of the scenic Cairn Valley in mid-Nithsdale, which is part of the Dumfries & Galloway region of South West Scotland.

The community is centred around the village of Moniaive.

We aim to play an active part in the community we serve, reaching out with the love and joy of Jesus Christ.

Our vision is ‘To convince all people of God’s love for them’.

 

News from the Kirk’s Website

Read a letter from the Moderator of the General Assembly, Rt Rev Dr Shaw J Paterson, reflecting on a year of conflict in Israel and Gaza. Click here.

There is more information from the Church of Scotland here.

 

Message from our Minister

Sunday 1 December 2024

ADVENT is the season of Four Candles … no, not Fork Handles!!

As we prepare for Christmas we have four themes: Hope, Love, Joy, Peace.

The First Sunday of Advent reminds us of the hope that Jesus will return.

The basic question is: Are you ready?

Enjoy the flavours of Advent with us as we get ready over the next four Sundays.

 God Bless,

Mark

 

PRAYER for this week:

God of all hope and all seasons,

We praise You for Your promise that the darkest night will pass

and the dawn bring new hope and light;

the fiercest storm will subside

and Your Grace will bring stillness and calm;

the deepest wounds will heal

and Your Love will bring acceptance and courage;

the season of waiting will end

and You will meet us wonderfully and joyfully.

We thank You for everything and everyone

Who draws us closer to You.

 

PRAYER THEME: Ask God to fill you with hope based on Jesus’ Love, Joy and Peace.

 

 

Musings from The Manse

Guess what’s coming next…?

As Remembrance passes, how do you react?

Are you reliving the Lawrence of Arabia sequence … Christmas approaching ever so slowly through the haze of life, building the anticipation and tension to an almost unbearable level?

Are you more of a Back to the Future person … wanting Christmas to be like you think it was, how you remember it from your youth, yet somehow sensing that it will be just the same as always?

Are you a Wall-E … carrying on with the normality of life and its routines until suddenly Christmas interrupts, like a polished, shiny EV dropping from the sky?

Survey over!

So we enter ADVENT – a time of preparation for the big celebrations, a time when we are reminded that Jesus is three-dimensional (past, present, future), a time when we think about HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE. How will you get ready?

Perhaps we should first decide what it is we are getting ready for!?

I suspect that that is where many of us go wrong at Christmas. We are getting ready for the wrong things … eating to excess, straining our credit limits, re-gifting to the ‘right’ people, children struggling with old-fashioned words or dodgy scripts, finding the ideal matching jumpers or costumes for the children, planning a trip to the Boxing Day sales, avoiding sprouts, spending time with people we normally avoid, etc.

Although the timing of our Christmas celebration in the West has links with the old Mid-Winter and Solstice, the battle against darkness and the return of the light, it is about more than that.

Christmas is actually about how much God loves you. We sometimes miss that in the familiar stories and songs. This year try to hear those stories and songs with new ears. Try and see them with new eyes. Try and receive them with new hearts!

Back to the movies …

Is your life feeling like a desert as you wait for something to happen, someone to come over the horizon and rescue you? Jesus rode on a donkey – meek yet majestic!

Are you wanting to recapture some ideal time from your past or hoping to re-invent the present? Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, forever!

Do you feel surrounded by other people’s mess, working tirelessly to please others, or getting swamped by the chaos of life’s debris field? Follow the star to Bethlehem, to Jesus the Light of the world, who came down from Heaven for you (and would have done even if no-one else existed)!

Whatever your expectations, hopes, needs, try to make your own Christmas (whatever traditions there are in your family) about Love, Hope, Peace and Joy. Don’t just open presents … open yourself. Open your heart.

So why not join us at St Ninian’s Church:

to discover the real depth of Love – the Love that brought Jesus to Bethlehem all those years ago;. to find the comfort of real inner Peace – the Peace that breaks through the noise and chaos;

to experience the deep Joy of knowing you are loved by the One who invented Love!

Just as Mary and Joseph travelled in Hope to Bethlehem, not knowing what to expect next, so you may be surprised by what God has for you – if only you are open to it!

May God Bless you.

Mark RS Smith