A few weeks ago I was able to enjoy a delayed birthday treat. I had been given a voucher for theatre tickets by my sister and brother-in-law, and had used this to book tickets to see ‘War Horse’ at the Theatre Royal.
Some of you may have seen this production, or an earlier touring theatre performance, or perhaps you may have seen the 2011 film of the same name produced by Steven Spielberg. I have to say that it was one of the most powerful and moving evenings I have experienced in the theatre for many a year and the actors (and puppeteers!) received a standing ovation at the end of the show.
The plot begins at the outbreak of World War I. Joey, young Albert’s beloved horse, is sold to the Cavalry and shipped to France. Joey is soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides of the war before finding himself alone in No Man’s Land. Albert, who remained behind on his parents’ Devon farm, cannot forget Joey. Though still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find Joey and bring him home.
I mentioned puppeteers earlier and this is because the astonishing life-sized horses that dominate the production are controlled (animated) by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring the breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage.
‘War Horse’ is a story about the folly and futility of war. The vivid depiction of war's
horrors, suggests that relying on human strength and military might is ultimately a misplaced hope. The horse, despite its strength, is ultimately powerless to control the chaos of war.
‘War Horse’ also explores themes of redemption and forgiveness and the potential for healing and reconciliation even in the darkest times. The narrative arc, particularly in the relationship between Albert and Joey, emphasizes the power of faith and love, and ultimately hope.
In essence, "War Horse" offers a perspective on the human condition, highlighting the dangers of unchecked power, the importance of faith and connection, and the possibility of finding redemption even in the face of immense suffering.
The dangers of unchecked power are not a remnant of the past, but rather an everpresent reality that humanity and democracies need to protect against. The importance of faith and hope is also a timeless lesson for all of us.
As I write this letter on Good Friday. I am thinking of the almost unchecked power, and powers, that sent Jesus to the cross. But I also remember that the power of love prevailed and that we continue to live in that Easter hope.
May the love and hope of the Easter faith be with each and every one of you.
We have decided to continue the practice over the last couple of years of holding joint services with New Kilpatrick Church over the summer weeks. At present we anticipate that there will only be one service at 10.30am each week, though if this changes we will let you know in the next magazine.
The schedule of services will be as follows: -
10.30am Traditional Morning Service
29th June
6th July
13th July
20th July
27th July
3rd August
10th August
17th August
Home Communion
The Minister’s Communion ware – from the shores of the Sea of Galilee
I know that for some of you, getting to church can be difficult or even close to impossible. If that case, then the church can come to you!
The Minister is always willing to bring communion to your home if you wish. He would be accompanied by your Elder, or another, to celebrate the sacrament together with you and this is a way in which to remain connected to the church and its life, even when you are less physically able to do so.
If you would like to arrange for Home Communion to be brought to you then please contact the Minister on 0141 942 0507 or email him at gwilson@churchofscotland.org.uk,or contact your Elder.
Graeme
Funday Friday (and Sunday!)
Funday Friday continues to meet with our regular attenders. In the run up to Easter we of course looked at the important stories of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, enjoying an Easter Egg hunt in the Sanctuary based on the Easter story itself. We also planted some runner beans in the hope that we will be able to build a runner bean wigwam.
On our return after Easter we hope as much as possible to be in the garden - we will start with the tidy up and maintenance followed of course by planting and nurturing. All up to P7 welcome. Further details available from Anne in the Church office.
Anne and Lesley
TMC
TMC meets on the last Monday of the month for food and friendship. Just turn up on the night, you will be made very welcome.
Each month we collect for a different charity and we were pleased to send £30 to DEBRA after our February meeting.
We also have a WhatsApp group whose members are in daily contact. If you would like to be part of this please send your mobile number to either Gwen or me.
Anne E Henderson
Christian Aid
We all know that Christian Aid Week this year is 11 – 17 May and that flyers will be circulated around the parish with details of Amelia in Venezuela who is the focal point for this year’s appeal, and an appeal for donations. Also, by the time you read this, Jim and Diane will have taken part in the Kiltwalk for Christian Aid and sponsorship for them will be gratefully received for the next month. You can donate to either or both the main flyer appeal and the Kiltwalk by accessing the church’s website, www.bearsdencross.org/events and following the easy instructions there. Alternatively, you can give by envelope or can at church itself. The Christian Aid Quiz will be on sale for several weeks and the Coffee Concert in aid of Christian Aid, featuring students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will be on 17th May; it is always very enjoyable so please come along. And if you can help with distributing the flyers, that would be much appreciated! Our church has always been generous to Christian Aid and it is very grateful.
However, since April’s magazine, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake has devastated large parts of Myanmar and was also felt in Thailand. In the UK the Disasters Emergency Committee of which Christian Aid is one of the 15 member charities, has appealed for urgent help. As you know, the political situation in Myanmar is difficult and you may be anxious about whether any aid given will be responsibly used. Please see the accompanying poster below which Christian Aid has issued, and if you feel you can give to this appeal as well as to Christian Aid Week, please donate to the appeal immediately, either using the Christian Aid Emergency envelopes on the pews in church or access www.christianaid.org.uk/appeals/emergencies . Also, please pray for all those affected by the earthquake, perhaps using the prayer below, issued by Christian Aid itself. Thank you!
A Prayer for Myanmar
God, our strength and our refuge, We pray to you for the people of Myanmar. We hold in mind those who are injured or have been bereaved. May those who have lost homes and belongings be comforted. May emergency workers and medical staff be safe as they pour their energy into saving the lives of others. May the international community respond quickly to support those affected. God, our strength and our refuge, Be with our global neighbours today. Amen.
Katie Thomson
Glasgow City Mission
If you read The Herald of 18th April, you would notice an article about homelessness in Edinburgh, which stated that more than half the requests for temporary accommodation there went unmet last month after the capital was forced to stop using “unsuitable” hotels and B&Bs to house homeless people. In fact, 7,886 households were assessed as homeless in Edinburgh at the end of March (14,219 people) and rough sleeping figures are going up steadily. Glasgow is in a worse position as 95% of all asylum seekers in Scotland are currently being accommodated in the city at its expense, by Home Office policy. They mostly have to be allocated to B&Bs and hotels as there simply is no available social housing.
In face of that challenge, Glasgow City Mission, whose Winter Project has been extended by two months to the end of May, thanks to a generous anonymous donation, has engaged with almost 500 individuals up to the end of March and has placed 175 of them into an emergency bed throughout the period, thus stopping them from having to sleep rough. Longer term, the Mission’s six Housing Officers have achieved supported accommodation for 20, temporary furnished flats for 13, 32 tenancies, and obtained Home Office accommodation for 21; not least, 9 decided to return to their family homes. This may not sound like much but it shows what can be done and it has made a huge difference to all those who were helped, especially the 32 now in tenancies for whom the Mission is currently busy sourcing items like carpets and washing machines, to make their houses feel like home. It can be done, if people care enough. GCM does care, and trusts God to lead it in helping the homeless.
It helps drug addicts as well and provides regularly in these days of cutbacks about 100 free meals each evening to people in need. The Child and Family Centre in Govan is also busy helping families, not just individual children, which it does by having family outings, breakfast clubs, drop-ins, sewing classes and help for people in learning English. One of the staff is starting Messy Science with children at a local school (we did Messy Science a few times at Messy Church and the kids loved it!) and some of the children, it is hoped, will go to an SU camp this summer, funded by donations.
What do you need to do all that? Hard work, patience, a sense of humour, imagination, a genuine love for people in need, faithful volunteers, lots of donations large or small, prayer partners and God’s blessing. We can all be the channel for God’s blessing if we are willing –and we shall feel ourselves blessed as well.
Katie Thomson
Church Flowers
Flowers
“ For as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as a garden causes things sown to spring up, so the Sovereign LORD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations“
ISAIAH 61 : 11
APRIL 2025
Provided by : Arranged by :
6th. Mrs. E. Talbot. Mrs. E. Talbot 13th. In memory of Hamish Henry. Ms. R. Walters 20th. Mrs. M. Turkington. The Flower Group 27th. In memory of Dr. John Thomson. Mrs. G. Agar
With warm wishes for Peace and Joy this Easter time Christine Taggart.
Easter
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN AND INSIDE LOOKING OUT!
In this, my final contribution to the church magazine, I compare our experiences of joining Bearsden Cross Church with those in our former churches of a different denomination. Baptist churches are mainly, ‘evangelical’ – quite different then to the ‘fundamentalist’ churches of the United States. Please, please do not confuse the two! Such ‘evangelical’ churches (and I can think of at least three such parish churches in Bearsden and Milngavie) believe, like the original early church of the New Testament, in the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus and of the command to ‘take it’ to the ends of the world. They also believe in prayer by believers, that God continues to speak to us today through his word the bible and in the use of homes for witness and fellowship. Some also believe in, and practise - again like the original church - the baptism of believers! In our former church (St David’s, Knightswood) our youngest child as a baby was not baptised but dedicated. Parish minister (Dr Thomson) was fine with that! Although some in the congregation thought he had ’forgotten the water’! But then the ‘doctor’ was rather special.
So, what differences did we find when we came to Bearsden Cross Church? Certainly, there are good things. The church is strategically situated, the small car parking perhaps anticipating a future dwindling congregation or, more likely, a more enthusiastic walking one. The hard pews consistent with the comparative brevity of the worship services. Then, the wonderful, almost breathtaking generosity – the huge amounts raised to refurnish the fine organ and the support of (mainly local) missions, with the updates about these regularly reported. Then there are those new (but old) hymns, the use of the premises for outside bodies and for concerts, the messy church. Busy place! And so much else. All good things.
But there are, for us, rather surprising differences with our former spiritual abodes. No children at the worship services, no meetings for corporate prayer and little involvement of members, apart from the usual ‘duties’. Too much revolving around the minister? No children at worship. Are there any children in church at all? It was some months before I realised there were a few, kept out of sight in the back rooms. How different to our last church where there was always something appropriate for children during the first part of worship time. What a difference they made! Services were imaginative; the children’s talks appreciated by the adults as well; even more than the sermon sometimes! Every service was different. In contrast, at BXC one service seems to us to be much like the last one. Formal, ‘samey’ with only the readings and the hymns different to last week’s; or to last year’s. The coverage of Scripture restricted.
And no prayer by the people! In over seventy years or so of being in churches in Scotland and elsewhere, especially Africa, BXC is the only one with no church prayer meeting. Do folk, I wondered, believe in prayer. Or know how to pray?
Also surprising for us is a seeming failure to delegate. It was a surprise to me at the fortnightly bible studies (what a splendid and unusual part of the church timetable these are!) to discover that at times when the minister was unable to lead (for very good reasons) they were postponed! At all my previous churches there was always someone who would be asked to take over and who was able and equipped to do so. Involvement of the church fellowship is surely essential for the growth and nurture of the church. It is, after all, a family
So, surprises and differences! But we are now ‘folk within’: this is ‘our church’. So, what do I find ‘looking out’ from it? I would say much to encourage. First, our previous ‘ministers to be’ – Alex, Chris and Adaeze. All preached at some time on the importance of a personal relationship with Christ and all left our home with plastic bags full of helpful bible commentaries pillaged from our bookshelves. Then there is what is happening in the parish church adjacent to our own, especially for young people. And then there is what is happening worldwide, a growing body of Christian believers. Growing yes, but persecuted. I read recently that Nigeria, where we spent ten years of our lives and where our eldest son was born, is now the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian. I think Jesus told us all about that.
And, as I finally bale out, I close with a verse from a wonderful hymn sung by us for the first time at BXC:
‘For the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us, most of all that that love has found us, THANKS BE TO GOD’.
Inside looking out from our window. Better than looking in!
Jim Parratt
COFFEE CONCERTS
Our current Coffee Concert Season ends on Saturday 17 May with a very special charity concert for Christian Aid. We are delighted to welcome back once again Vocal Students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As before they will perform a very wide range of arias and ensembles from your favourite operas – “An Hour of Opera Pops”. It is always such a pleasure to hear young, talented artists at the very start of their careers. In addition, it will be a fitting culmination of our fundraising for Christian Aid Week 2025 as all the proceeds from the concert will go to Christian Aid. Fresh coffee and delicious home baking will be served beforehand from 10.45 am in the small hall, with the concert in the church at 11.30 am. Tickets, minimum donation £12, will be available at the door – cash only please. We look forward to seeing you then – please join us if you can.
Your wonderful response to my article in the March edition of the Word from the Cross is very much appreciated by Pathfinder Dogs.
When I explained in that article that ‘Pathfinder’ are able to sell the plastic milk bottle tops to raise money to fund the training of guide dogs for the blind, I hoped that, with your help, we would be able to send perhaps a ‘tin full’ each month. I have just posted off something equivalent to 14 tins full of plastic milk tops, with more awaiting packaging.
You are wonderful people.
Some of you have apologetically said to me…”I am sorry, but I have only two tops this week”….But two tops and another top and another two tops…they all add up to the large number which I am delighted to post off to Pathfinder and they are even more delighted to receive them.
It costs around £36,000 to train one dog for a blind person and then about £5,000 per year to keep the dog working.
Please keep bringing the plastic milk bottle tops and putting them into the tin in the Assembly area.
THANK YOU.
Joyce B Deans.
The Kirk Session has been looking to establish a free ‘Taxi Service’ to enable people to come to church who might not otherwise be able to do so due to a lack of transport.
The ‘Taxi Service’ is now ‘live’ and will operate as follows: -
1. Those interested in using the taxi service should contact the Church Office on 0141 942 0507 to register with Church. Leave a message on the answerphone if there is no reply.
2. You will then be given a Password, which is unique for the church account, which is ‘Bearsden Cross Church’.
3. Once registered you can then phone Station Taxis on 0141 942 4555 for a taxi to church, giving the account name ‘Bearsden Cross Church’ and the unique password. This can be pre-booked the previous day, or up until 10am on the Sunday.
4. Return taxis can also be booked for after the service.
5. If there are a couple of folk nearby each other then perhaps taxi sharing might be considered when booking.
6. There will be no charge for this service. The cost will be borne by the Session Fund, which exists for purposes such as this.
I hope that this service will enable people to get to church who might not otherwise be able to do so, and I look forward to seeing people back in church on a Sunday morning where they belong!
Graeme
Recordings of the
Services
An audio recording of each morning service is made, and circulated weekly to those who have expressed an interest in listening, To be added to the distribution, please email secretary@bearsdencross.org.
If you do not have email, we can let you have the recording in any way which suits you, please speak to the Minister or Session Clerk.
Anne Reid
Submissions to the Magazine
Contributions to the Summer 2025 edition (June, July and August) of the magazine should be with the editor no later than Friday 16 May 2025. Contributions reflecting all aspects of the life of the Church and congregation are welcome, including photographs! It would assist editing if contributions could be prepared in Calibri font, size 14.
Also, please only send photographs that are of sufficient resolution to print clearly. Do not send multiple photographs asking the editor to choose (select those you would like included and send only those).
All contributions should be sent to: MagazineEditor@bearsdencross.org
