This Lent season we have produced another of our well-received devotional diaries with a short daily reading, suggested action and prayer (written by members of the Discipleship Team at Ferryhill Church). This takes us through Lent from Sunday 10 March all the way to Easter Day on 21 April.

You can click on the below image to download an electronic version of the diary or alternatively, paper copies are available to pick up in the church either on a Sunday morning or in the Coffee Shop. Do pick one up and join us on that journey as we get closer to the events of Holy Week, Jesus' last week, and Easter weekend.

Celebrate Spring - and, of course, the school holidays - with the Ferryhill Church Daffodil Tea event on Saturday 6 April, 2-4 p.m.

There will be something for everyone: enjoy tea and a 'fancy piece'; browse the stalls including the delicious Easter tombola; the Traidcraft stall and the ever-popular home baking and book stalls; try your hand at drawing a daffodil and maybe win a prize. There will be other chances to win something beautiful, with a handmade quilt and an array of raffle prizes. For children there will be an Easter bonnet competition and spring crafts.

This is sure to be a great afternoon out for all the family.

Ferryhill Church aspires to be an Eco-Congregation. This means we encourage and enable our Church to care for Creation in every part of church life and to link environmental issues and Christian Faith in worship and education. We try to take environmental and ethical action in church buildings and grounds and in finance and purchasing. We aim to work with the community for a greener world through our personal lifestyles, community projects and global links.

As Climate Change requires urgent action on many fronts, we now seek someone who can advise, inspire and encourage us to do more than we do already. The leader of this group is standing down after 10 years to make way for some enthusiastic young activists. Could that be you? You do not need to be a church member!

There are many other Eco-Congregations in Aberdeen and Scotland that share ideas, support and advice. Resource material with suggested projects and programmes is available on the website, www.ecocongregationscotland.org. Please do consider if this is something you could be involved with, and if you would like to find out more, please get in touch with the minister, Rev Peter Johnston (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or the church administrator, Julie Thompson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

What is Christianity about? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? What is faith?

We will be exploring those questions and others over four weekends in March, meeting each Sunday in the church foyer.

These meetings are open to anyone who would like to explore those questions and the issues they raise, and will be particularly helpful to anyone considering becoming a member of Ferryhill Parish Church.

Please join us from 3 p.m. in the church foyer on 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st March.

Our Lunch Club for the over 50s meets every Tuesday at 12.30pm during school term-time. Come and join us for a delicious hot lunch (£4 per person) and a chat in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere any Tuesday you fancy. Booking is not required.

We are always looking for helpers. If you can spare a few hours every month to assist please do get in touch. For further information on helping or coming along for lunch , please contact Cecilia Young on 01224 581382 or the Church Office on 01224 213093.

We look forward to seeing you there.

"Walking to Church, Ferryhill", an original painting by local artist Kathleen Bremner, was gifted to the church by the artist as a fundraiser and has recently helped us raise over £500!

Greetings cards of the picture are available at the coffee shop priced £2, but we are now offering 25x25cm unframed prints for just £15. Treat yourself, or consider birthdays or even Christmas! They are available most Sundays after the Church service, or please contact Ann Ralph to purchase a print.

Ferryhill Parish Church recognises the importance of protecting privacy and personal information, and has updated Privacy and Data Retention Policies which state how we use, disclose and protect such information according to law. These Policies are available by clicking this link, and any questions on the matter can be addressed to the Session Clerk by email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Trustees of Ferryhill Parish Church approved the Annual Report of 2017 at a meeting held on Sunday 18 March 2018. You can download a copy of the Annual Report here.

A few comments are worth clarifying as you read the Annual Report. The first is to thank everyone who participates in the work that goes on through the congregation at Ferryhill Kirk. The breadth of different activities and ministries going on to support the local community is wide and that is only made possible through the time and energy people give through the church and to the financial support offered. Donations by members of the church is by far the largest portion of our income. 

Secondly, you will see that in 2017 we had a small surplus at the end of the year. This is good news, of course, that we were not running a deficit, but one of the reasons for this is that we were not able to complete as many of the upkeep jobs as we might have wished over the course of the year. Part of the reason for this is that we are still striving to find someone or a few people to take on the responsibilities of Property Convener.

And thirdly, if you have a keen eye for the details, you may note on page 12 where there is a note of the movements of money in the various funds that one of the funds ends up with a negative balance. It highlighted for us at our Trustees meeting that these figures only record the cash held in our local bank accounts and not the proportions of these funds held in investments by the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. If you followed all that, well done!

A huge thank you to Val Hutton, our Treasurer, for all the work she and the Stewardship Team have put in to ensuring the finances of the church are well managed and to Lorna Glen, our Session Clerk, for the update in the first sections of the Annual Report on what has been going on in Ferryhill Kirk.

Rev Peter Johnston
Minister

If you'd like to subscribe to a new weekly update of news from Ferryhill Parish Church please fill out your details below to be added to our mailing list.  You can unsubscribe at any time.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Over the next couple of months we will be encouraging us all on a Sunday morning to join with Rev Mary Whittaker during the Lord's Prayer to also sign the prayer. If you would like to practise that, please use the video above!