As the Church of Scotland in Bellshill we extend a warm welcome to any of our activities. People have been coming to this building to worship God for over a hundred years. While our town has journeyed through many changes over those years, the constancy of the witness of the “Church at 346 Main Street” has remained uninterrupted. The mission of any Church is to reflect through its presence, its music, its fellowship and its beauty the greatness of God, and we seek to do that here in all that we share.
We hope that everyone who enters these doors will find an encouraging, friendly group of people. While we are far from perfect, we are regularly discovering truths that are changing us individually and enriching our lives as a church community. As we worship together, learn from the Bible, and pray for one another, we are strengthened in our commitment to Jesus Christ as well as to each other. If this is your first time here, we welcome you, and invite you to share the joy that we have found.
Hymns used with permission and with the following CCLI Licences Church Copyright Licence 876673; Music Reproduction Licence 876680 Church Video Licence 2258718; PPL Church Licence 1593113 CLA Church Licence 1002856; PRS for Music Church Licence 1448921 Streaming Licence 1638311
Sunday (17 October), Christians across the country – and further afield – will continue to join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.
As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.
Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.
“We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered,” Lord Wallace said.
“So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.
“In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.
“Let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.
“And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists’ research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.
“A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do.”
This week’s letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic (a copy of which will be available to read here soon), states:
“The faith we share affirms that it was ‘for us’ that Jesus Christ ‘became truly human’. So, in faith, when we turn to God and pray through Jesus Christ, we do so knowing that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the life we live.
“The life we live today is shaped by particular circumstances that weigh upon us collectively and personally. In the midst of life, we find opportunity and challenge, and we seek to discern the hand of God throughout it all. In the midst of life, we recall that Jesus has shared in our flesh and participated in the life of the world.
“The Letter to the Hebrews records: ‘In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears’. (Hebrews 5: 7) In so recording, the Letter affirms that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the depths of human experience.
“There is no place in our experience at which God cannot meet us. As we cry out to God, the One who hears us is the One who has heard the cries of Jesus Christ.”
We pray:
God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hear the prayer we offer In the name of the One who prays for us And who has shared in the life of the world. Lord, in Your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hear the prayer we offer From the depths of our experience And in the midst of the challenges of our day. Lord, in Your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hear the prayer we offer In the name of the One who prayed to You with cries and tears And hear us when we do so also. Lord, in Your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hear the prayer we offer As we share in the life of the world And in the depths of its suffering. Lord, in Your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hear the prayer we offer In the name of the One who for us and for our salvation Has become truly human and one with us. Lord, in Your mercy, Hear our prayer.
BELLSHILL: CENTRAL PARISH CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 