Welcome!

Welcome to excerpts from the worship held within the newly formed Westhills Church of Scotland Congregation. We know that not all members of the congregation are able to be in church on Sunday morning; offering these excerpts from the Sunday morning service might help you feel included. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you.

If this post helps you explore what happens within an act of worship then please read on…

Your Weekly Church Notices

Scripture

Romans 5: 1 – 11

John 4: 5 – 15

Praise – Worship the Lord

Prayers

Seeking; only because of the promise of finding.

Calling out; only because of the promise of being heard;

Lord God, we seek You only because you came to seek us.

We love you only because you first loved us.

Everlasting, ever-gracious, ever-seeking and ever-loving God,

Yours is the offer of life because the gift of life itself is Yours.

You chose, in Jesus to be born as one of us, living among us, showing Your grace speaking words of love, only to be excluded, shunned and hated, dying among us, yet still showing grace and declaring love.  God of endless goodness, we praise You.  When we consider who you are Lord, we recognise that we fall far short of all that you are.  

Invited to come to You, we ignore Your presence.

Encouraged to praise You, we find other things to do.

When facing the deceitfulness and hatred of this world, rather than trust in Your help, we give up in despair.

Rather than prepare in faith for the uncertainty of the future, we immerse ourselves in the past. Our spirits thirst and faint.

So here we offer ourselves afresh, knowing that we are imperfect, knowing that we fail, knowing that you pour out your grace upon us, love us for who we are and lovingly accept the fragile gifts we bring. Our resources, our hopes, our fears, our talents, our strength, our weakness, our today and our tomorrow we now lay before you.

Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…

Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name.  Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever.  Amen.

Address

It’s a long story.  Literally, it’s a long story; the one of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.  I just didn’t have the heart to ask Sandra to read the whole story which runs through to verse 42 of chapter 4.  That said, it might have been better if I had asked Sandra to read a different section of the story.

Maybe, like me, you will have spotted some similarities to the story of Jesus and Nicodemus, which we dipped into last Sunday. And yes, I know that Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law from the Upper Classes of Society, and a Samaritan woman are at opposite ends of the social spectrum.  There was no way that you would have found Nicodemus in the company of a Samaritan woman, but Jesus doesn’t seem to feel bound by social norms or expectations, he crosses boundaries and happily communicates with everyone.  Jesus, tired from the journey in the heat of the days waits at the well and talks with someone very different to Nicodemus and yet there are so many similarities.

The Samaritan woman, and Nicodemus, both fail to understand what Jesus is talking about.  It’s another case of, “I did not understand a single word that came out of your mouth.”  Jesus is trying to encourage an engagement with the spiritual, to make the leap from the physical to the spiritual using water as the means of conveying his message; the water that quenches the thirst of the body and the water that quenches the thirst of the soul.  It may seem obvious to us but it was not obvious to her.  The way John tells this story leaves us with the impression that the Samaritan woman had a rather passive role in this dialogue.  Maybe that was the expectation on all women at that time, that they would be, should be passive.  But actually, this woman always had an answer for Jesus; she always had another question to ask.  Would it be fair to say that she had some personality, character, a wee touch of feistiness about her?  She had five husbands.  Why? Had she been widowed five times?  Or was she so feisty as to be impossible to live with? Or just unwilling to be passive in a male dominated society?  Maybe her personality matters in this story. Just who was she?

We know that Jews and Samaritans shared a common heritage but the events of history had taken them different directions and it developed into a sectarian divide.  And maybe we see a little of that attitude in Jesus words when he says, “You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.”  And we have to wonder if as Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah if he is attempting to convert this Samaritan woman to Judaism, or if he is simply seeking to heal divisions.  We will never really find a conclusive answer to that but it’s worth pondering.

And just then, just as the conversation is starting to get a little edgy, the disciples return.  And they are taken aback, disgusted even, by what they witness; Jesus talking to a woman!!!  Embarrassed and awkward the woman makes a hasty retreat, leaving her water jar behind.  Does this suggest just how awkward the moment has become?

As she heads for home in the town of Sychar, she carries a message with her.  It’s not a message about life giving water.  It’s not a message about meeting the Messiah.  It’s not a message about life, death or resurrection.  It’s not a message that we could identify in any way as being the Gospel.  In fact, it comes across as more like a bit of gossip, ‘ You have to come and meet this man.  He’s amazing!  He’s told me everything I’ve ever done!’  Her excitement, her enthusiasm is infectious.  Maybe Jesus had found just the right person to stir curiosity.  Maybe, that life-giving water was already within her.  The people of Sychar want to meet Jesus, not because they had heard about salvation but simply because they were curious if Jesus might be able to tell them about everything they had ever done.

So, this Samaritan woman does not understand Jesus words.  She does not carry a meaningful message of hope, light, faith, resurrection; and yet she is able to draw people toward the Christ just because she is filled with excitement about him; she is not passive.  For all the question marks about her background and successive husbands, people listen to her and that makes me think she was always an outspoken person and that more often than not she was right, she spoke the truth and damn the consequences.

And maybe she tells us this;  It is OK not to understand everything that Jesus taught.   It is OK not have the “right” words for conveying the gospel.  All we need is a natural and infectious enthusiasm and excitement for our faith and the boldness of character to speak out.

Praise – When I survey

Prayers for Others

The Middle East

Complex would hardly begin to scratch the surface.  An ill-thought out action that has brought anxiety across the middle east, loss of life, otherwise peaceful nations brought into a time of conflict and every potential for conflict to escalate.  We watch in disbelief.  Regime change from the skies and then what?  Will the Shah of Iran come home from exile?

Of course, Lord, we pray for those visited by suffering.  We pray for those who have known suffering at the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government, was more suffering the way to resolve this?

Honestly, Lord; we just don’t know anymore.  We weep for a world increasingly fractured, a world that has lost sense and direction and even sense of right and wrong.  Father God, hear the prayers we offer even the prayers that have no words…

Drinking from the well

Lord Jesus, in the confusion of our world, in the anxiety that surrounds us, we come to the well to drink, to be refreshed.  Renew our hope in tomorrow, restore the light of truth that shines upon us, give to us that which is lasting, life-giving, joy-giving.  Help us to live as people of faith.  Hear our prayers as we seek to  offer this world a faith to live by, a hope to cling to and a light to guide it…

Praise – You are called to tell the story

The Grace

And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.

Welcome!

Welcome to excerpts from the worship held within the newly formed Westhills Church of Scotland Congregation. We know that not all members of the congregation are able to be in church on Sunday morning; offering these excerpts from the Sunday morning service might help you feel included. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you.

If this post helps you explore what happens within an act of worship then please read on…

Your Weekly Church Notices

Scripture

Romans 4: 13 – 17

John 3: 1 – 8

Praise – Be still for the presence of the Lord

Prayers

Creator God, you come among us in the colour and richness of this day holding out your word promise to us.  In the joy of fellowship, we meet with you, walk with you, speak with you and listen for your voice.  Living God, you move within us in the life and energy that gives rhythm to the day.  In the faces of friends and of strangers we look for you.

Spirit of God You speak to us, and Your words challenge us and comfort us. Your words give purpose to our day, whispering encouragement and calling us to love, for You are Love. We listen for you.

If you were content, Lord God, you would not pursue us or call to us to follow.  But you are restless; through anger and through love, you strive for all things to change and be made new. If your job were complete, Lord God, you would not need us.  But you are always working, Lord, and you have asked us to join in Your work of fulfilling the hopes of the kingdom.

If we were perfect, Lord God, we would not have need of you.  But we are fragile and fragmented people. We seek different goals and we serve contradictory causes. We talk liberation and live oppression; we shout peace and practice violence; we call for justice yet walk hand in hand with injustice. Through your compassion have mercy upon us.  Enable us to hear Your voice, to walk Your path, to dream Your dreams and to speak Your truth.  Enter our trusting, enter our fearing, enter our letting go, enter our holding back, that we might be renewed and opened afresh to your love in the service of your world.

It is in service to You that we bring our offering.  Gifts laid before you that speak of our love and devotion, our desire to see the love of God touch the heart of humanity.  These gifts are for Your church.  Your Church is Your gift to the world that You fashioned and made.  As we open our hearts to you so we open our hearts to our brother and sister and neighbour.

Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…

Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name.  Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever.  Amen.

Address

I Swear.  Don’t know if you have ever watched the film based on the life of John Davidson who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome.  If you haven’t watched – you should.

Of course, the film, the cast and Tourette’s syndrome has featured in our news recently.  In a good way because the film won awards at the BAFTA’s with Robert Aramayo, who portrays John Davidson in the film, winning best actor, stealing that award from under the noses of some big Hollywood names.

In another way it has not been good.  The media and social media has made a huge thing out of the racial slurs which John Davidson shouted out during the awards ceremony; that’s just part of John Davidson’s syndrome, he can’t do much about the involuntary tics that cause him to shout out some bad language.  The word John Davidson shouted out held no intent to cause racial aggravation but those who heard it reacted to the racial slur.  The BBC have been condemned for broadcasting an almost inaudible racial slur.  The intent of a word used by the person who speaks it; and the interpretation given to that world by the person who hears it, can be two very different things. Is it any wonder that across race and culture humanity can be so divided?  If we think this is a modern problem well, it’s not.  Multi-cultural society and the problems associated with it are not new.  

The generation in which Jesus grew up was an amazing melting pot of traditions, nationalities, outlooks and religions.  There were occupying forces and reactionary freedom fighters.  There was great wealth and great poverty.  There were those greatly respected in society and those who were rejected and outcast by society.  It was a time of real contrasts yet also a time when the whole world seemed to converge on Palestine and in the midst of this complex mixture of cultures; languages, religions and outlooks came Jesus with his Gospel.

Jesus had no problem at mixing with people from different cultures.  Jews, Samaritans, Greeks, Romans, Ethiopians, Syrians, he met with them all at some time or other and he saw the good in them all.  He met with people from the opposite extremes of society too, Zacchaeus the Tax Collector and therefore outcast, and Nicodemus the much-respected Pharisee.

Mention the Pharisees and we start putting the barriers up.  Our Christian heritage has taught us to treat the Pharisees with disdain.  Here are the people in authority who made life hard for the common people and who conspired against the Christ.  We have a little bit of prejudice when really, we should try to see the good.

The Pharisees were zealous to keep the purity of God’s law and to see God’s people remaining faithful in the midst of a multi-cultural society. And we might sympathise with that.  Jesus challenged many of the rules the Pharisees upheld and represented.  But knowledge is power and for those like the Pharisees who knew all the rules and obeyed them it put them in a position of superiority over the common people.  The Pharisees saw a multi-cultural society watering down their religion and their influence.  These were tough times for the Pharisees.

Nicodemus is sent out to meet with Jesus.  They seem to completely misunderstand each other as though they are from different worlds.  What Jesus means is not what Nicodemus hears.  “I tell you the truth,” says Jesus,  “unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  It is one of the curious things of language, the word, which means “again” can also mean “from above”.   Jesus is speaking about a spiritual birth but Nicodemus can only comprehend one kind of birth.  

What Jesus tells him is clear and simple if radical; to enter the Kingdom of God we need a reorientation of life in which we are born from above.  But Nicodemus thinks he is able to make it on his own to God.  Just follow the rules and everything will be OK.  Jesus and Nicodemus are from different cultures.  They are worlds apart. What Jesus says is not what Nicodemus hears.

Nicodemus had devoted his whole life to being good, to doing it the right way.  He had kept the sacred laws with his whole being.  Nicodemus can only see Jesus teachings as absurd and impossible.  “How can a man be born when he is old?  How can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb?”  

Jesus is making the point that just as we are born into this world as a mortal beings, so we are born immortal into the Heavenly Kingdom as a Son and daughters of God.  God, breathed into us the gift of natural life; and now, God breathes into us the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Nicodemus still wonders how and he leaves the scene in apparent disbelief.

The story of Nicodemus leaves us wondering what he actually decided.  Did he leave behind his old religion with all its rules and regulations and allow God to fill his heart with New Life or did he not?

And as for us, at a distance of 2000 years, living in a culture so different to our Lord’s; do we grasp the intent within Jesus words, or do we hear something completely different.

Praise – When we walk with the Lord

Prayers for Others

Heavenly Father, Your spirit moves in us, causing us to cry out “Abba Father” to You.  You are a loving Dad who embraces us and holds us safe. 

Hear the prayers that come from our hearts, our fears and vulnerabilities, and our hopes, knowing that our help comes from You; You hold us safe.

We pray for the church in all its forms, all its denominations; we pray for this church, our church, handing ourselves to you as a congregation of Your people.

May we learn the lessons of vulnerability, and hear the call to rebirth, to be constantly renewed and be prepared to remain helpless and nourished by You,

so that we can truly embody what the world needs us to be, and be a sign of Your love.  We lift our eyes to You, Our helper and our strength.  Hear our prayers…

We pray for our leaders, and leaders across the world, that they will be humble and selfless, and willing to work together for the common good.  Fill them with Your spirit Lord, so that they might strive to create communities that welcome the stranger and protect the vulnerable. We lift our eyes to You, Our helper and our strength.  Hear our prayers…

We pray for peace in all those parts of the world where there is conflict. We ask You to hear the cries of all those who are suffering in war, and in its place let peace and justice flow.  We pray that we may be filled with compassion and not despair, that you may gift us with wisdom and generosity to know how to help those in need.  We lift our eyes to You, Our helper and our strength.  Hear us in our prayers…

Lord God, we offer to you a broken world for our prayers and yet know you to be a God of detail, a God of the small and insignificant, a God who counts the hairs on our heads, because we matter to you.  Even me, just one human being amongst billions.   So, we come to tell you where we need your help in our own lives, or for someone or some situation known to us at this time: 

We Lift our eyes to You, Our helper and our strength.  Hear our prayers…

Praise – There is a Redeemer

The Grace

And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.

Welcome!

Welcome to excerpts from the worship held within the newly formed Westhills Church of Scotland Congregation. We know that not all members of the congregation are able to be in church on Sunday morning; offering these excerpts from the Sunday morning service might help you feel included. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you.

If this post helps you explore what happens within an act of worship then please read on…

Your Weekly Church Notices

Scripture

Romans 5: 12 – 19

Matthew 4: 1 – 11

Praise – Spirit of God unseen as the wind

Prayers

Gracious and merciful God, today we begin our journey with you toward Easter.  On this First Sunday of Lent, we bring our offerings of praise and prayer, and thank you that we can seek your forgiveness and look for renewal from everything that holds us back from you.

We come remembering the Christ’s lonely days in the wilderness, wrestling with his inner demons, his doubts and fears until he emerged sure in his calling to preach the Good News, to live and embody the Good News, transforming lives.  Create that same heart in us Lord God, a clean heart, a pure heart.

Help us to learn from his example; to search our hearts as he did, to consider our calling, to reflect on our faith, to resist the distractions and commit ourselves more wholly to you.

Help us to take hold of all that Jesus has done for us through his life and death and resurrection; so why should we fear coming to you to talk freely about the failings of our humanity, to acknowledge our faults, accept our weaknesses, and find strength, forgiveness, hope.

Gracious and merciful God, today we begin our journey with you, toward Easter.  Speak to us today and in the days and weeks to come so that we may rise with Christ to new life.  Create in us a clean heart, a pure heart.

Gracious God, we never can repay all that we owe, or even a fraction of what we have received from your loving hand.  Yet, we dare to bring these gifts now placed upon the table, not as a settling of a debt, but as a gesture of gratitude and an expression of our love offered to you in joyful worship.

Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…

Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name.  Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever.  Amen.

Address

“After spending forty days and forty nights without food, Jesus was hungry.”  

Sometimes the gospels describe things in wonderfully simple ways – Jesus was hungry!  I’ll say he was!  I bet he was more than just hungry after not eating for forty days and nights!  In fact, I got to be so curious about this I looked it up.  Can the human body really go forty days and nights without food.  Well maybe.  After 48 hours, you’ll definitely be fatigued the body having used it its reserves of energy stored in muscles.  Then it starts converting fat into sugars in order to stay alive and finally it starts converting muscle and organ tissue into sugars and this is the point where irreparable damage is done to the body.  40 days and nights without food and you are pretty much at death’s door.  And don’t think that a good meal sorts it all out, it doesn’t.  Re-introducing food to the body creates a whole new set of medical problems that can lead to sudden death.

Of course, I’m not in a position to say that Jesus didn’t fast for forty days and nights but from a human physiological stance it’s challenging.  Might there be something we are missing?  Well maybe.  Forty days and nights.  Like Noah was in the ark for forty days and nights.  Like the Hebrews were in the wilderness for forty years after escaping slavery in Egypt.  Maybe that number forty holds echoes of God’s intervention in the story of his chosen people.  Maybe Matthew, writing for a Jewish audience is suggesting that God is once again intervening in the story of His people, bringing them to a time of promise.

Forty days or not, we can accept that Jesus fasted for an extended period of time, that he was weak, that his body was crying out for food to sustain it yet he chooses to value the Word of God more than his own life.  Bread could easily and abundantly be made available yet he declines to make that choice.  He trusts his Heavenly Father with his very life, just as he did three years later in the events of Easter; his crucifixion and resurrection. Here is a depth of devotion, that today, is hard for us to imagine.  It is taken almost to an extreme of devotion for God and God’s word.  Jesus is prepared to risk everything for the sake of his calling to bring Good News to the poor.  He makes the choice which few, if any of us, would be able to make.  We cannot live on bread alone but need every word that God speaks.”

“Jesus was hungry”, words that almost trivialise the physical ordeal that Jesus was going through and yet Matthew is not seeking to highlight physical ordeal rather, he is seeking to highlight the spiritual, the making of a choice that will determine the course of the rest of Jesus life, of Jesus fully, totally, absolutely placing himself into God’s hands and committing himself totally to everything that his Heavenly Father will ask of him.  Jesus knows that God will sustain him.

Do you trust him?  Do you really trust your God to watch over you, protect you from harm, as you respond to the call to preach the Good News?  And Jesus refuses to put the Lord God to the test, refuses to wilfully engineer a situation where God is forced to respond. “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  And yet, should we consider that Jesus is already testing the Lord God as his body enters into starvation and survival is questionable?  If the Lord were not to send the angels to minister to him who would help him? How would he survive in order to fulfil that calling to preach the Good News?  Is there not a lovely roundedness to the story of the Temptations as the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert to be tempted; and the angels minister to him at the end.  A sense that from beginning to end God has been watching over this experience in the desert.  It is not God the Father who is being tested; it is the Son who is tested, as we are tested by our experiences and questions and doubts.  Will our God sustain us?  Will our God stand idly by while we endure?  Is it not better or easier to turn our back on matters of faith and live the life of one who does not believe or trust or look beyond the material and ephemeral to see the spiritual and eternal?  Will we worship the Lord our God and serve only Him?

I suppose our temptation, when we come to the temptations of Jesus, is to trivialise them.  It is surprisingly easy to do that when the language and concepts of the temptations are not instantly accessible to us.  Or that we imagine giving up chocolate biscuits for the six weeks of Lent is a way of engaging with this because that’s how we see temptation; we just have to give up some of our guilty pleasures.

When really, the question they pose is this, “Are you prepared to risk everything, trust in God absolutely and look only to Him for sustenance, protection and guidance?”

Praise – Come Down O Love Divine

Prayers for Others

USA & Iran

Rising tensions between Iran and the USA.  American battleships stationed in the Arabian Sea. Talk of further attacks on Iran in order to force them into negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme and the presumed development of Iranian Nuclear weapons.  Does this sound like a repeat of the Iraq War? The non-existent weapons of mass destruction?

And who are we Lord, to know just what is going on?  Too many secrets; too much greed, too much ego, too much distrust.  Those who are in power who have such different world views, who strive for such opposing things, who cannot listen, who cannot talk, who fail to understand each other or see each other’s humanity.  Iran and the USA may be far apart in the goals they seek to achieve; they are even further apart in their humanity.  Lord hear us as we pray for that which seems impossible; the healing of the human spirit, an openness of heart to each other, the gift of humility and the desire to find common ground.  Hear our prayers…

Choices

Lord God,  we thank you for the season of Lent, for journey, for time to reflect and draw closer to you.  May this journey be a time to consider our choices, of who we are and who we want to be, of where faith touches our living, our relationships, our choices.

When we think on temptations as something trivial, of being just a little naughty perhaps, help us to see the deeper meaning that touches on our relationship with you; all that distracts us from you, all that diminishes your presence in our lives, all that causes us to fail to love you as you love us, and so causes us to fail to love our neighbour.

Lord hear our prayers as we hand ourselves to you seeking guidance from your Word and by your Spirit to make the right choices seeking You in all the circumstances of life…

Praise – Will you come and follow me

The Grace

And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.

Welcome to Our High Point the Newsletter for Westhills Parish Church!

This February ’26 edition follows on from the meeting of the Trustees on 9^th February.

Pastoral Care

The Trustees express thanks to elders who completed and returned the short survey.  There are 12 non-trustee elders in the congregation some of whom we know are not able to continue in the duties of eldership while others expressed a desire to retire from eldership at this time. This leave us with seven non-trustee elders.  Trustees are currently working to the broad guideline that they will not be covering elders districts especially at this early stage when there is a lot of planning and admin to do.  This does mean we are a long way away from being able to uphold a traditional system of Elder’s District.  Trustees are therefore looking toward some form of Pastoral Team in order to offer care, contact and support.  It is envisaged that the church website will begin to play a more central part in communications for members.

Door Duty

We have 12 people on the rota for Door Duty.  Thank you to each and every one of you.  It is most heartening when a Congregation responds to these appeals.  It shows that we are willing to make this work, get involved, and make Westhills the best church that we can make it.  Before the Door Duty Teams get under way it would be good to meet with those who have volunteered to go over what is expected and try to answer any questions.  A date and time for that meeting will follow shortly

Teams

Whatever you call them – Committees or Teams –  they all form a way of bringing enthusiasm, talents, skills and knowledge to bear upon the life of our church.  Initially the Trustees have identified the following areas where teams of people would be highly desirable; Catering, Communications, Pastoral Care, Finance and Property.  Other teams may come in the future.  What we are clear on is that all of that input from all our Teams needs to focus on building up the life of the church, not just maintaining it; but helping it grow.

Ecclesiastical Furnishings

Fiona Skellet and Judith Roebuck from the General Trustees met with representatives on Thursday 5^th Feb to take an inventory of Ecclesiastical Furnishing at Greenhills (Westhills Community Hub).  We will receive a report in due course but conversation with the two ladies only reinforced the conversations previously held within the Working Group around this subject of furnishings and items to be brought from Greenhills to the Westhills Church building. Let me list those things we are talking about; seating (very comfortable blue seating) Communion Table, Lectern and Font (all modern pieces and a matching set), a stained glass window mounted within a light box, communion ware and the church organ.  Some of these items were gifted to the Greenhills congregation and should continue to be used. There are other smaller incidental items.

Aware that the former Westwood congregation also has furnishings gifted to it e.g. the Minister’s and Elders’ chairs behind the Communion table and the font hand made by Mr Orr, (there are other items too) we need to take care and exercise sensitivity around the display, use or disposal of surplus items.  We do not want furnishings to just become ornaments gathering dust in a corner.  They must serve a purpose and be used regularly.

By now, you are probably beginning to realise the extent of the task before us as Trustees and as a Congregation, to properly honour the heritage of two congregations now become one.  There is the potential for the environment of the Sanctuary and Hall of Fellowship to be transformed.  At times it will be strange to the eye as new items are brought in and set in place until the eye grows accustomed once again.  We hope to complete most of this process by end of June.  What may take longer will be the process around the Church Organ as there are rules and guidelines to follow.  The same applies to surplus Communion Ware.  One step at a time though…we will begin by working out the suitability of the more comfortable blue seating within the Sanctuary.

While we are on the subject of furnishings, we would want to note that the Lectern Bible formerly used within Westwood has been professionally refurbished by  a Glasgow Bookbinder firm and inscribed for Westhills Church 1^st January 2026.  The quality of the work is quite outstanding.  We express thanks to the church members who gifted this work to the congregation and who wish to remain anonymous in so doing.  The Lectern Bible will be dedicated for use in worship on Sunday 22^nd February, the first Sunday in Lent, and used thereafter Sunday by Sunday.

Safeguarding

The Minister is the proud owner of a new certificate indicating that he has completed Minister’s Safeguarding Training (and I’ll tell you it was two very long days working through the background reading, workbook and online training day!).  More of the same old stuff I hear you say… well not really.  Safeguarding or Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) is well established within Church life.  Currently, Westhills has joint Coordinators in Morag Kokott and Mary Coles and a Safeguarding Panel who are ready if (God forbid) we ever had a reportable incident in the church.  Now, however, we are moving beyond the process of responding to an incident and reflecting on how we make the church environment a lower risk environment.  It is quite possible that in some areas of church life we have grown overly familiar or a little blasé about keeping ourselves and others safe, irrespective of age group.  One such area may be the places of overlap between groups and the Out of School Care.  There may be room for improvement!

Thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to read through this edition of “Our High Point”.  Changes and challenges lie ahead of us both of which I hope will bring something new and fresh and exciting to the life of Westhills Church.

Rev Mackenzie

It’s time to move it on to a new home.

It will need some cleaning up and probably tuning for it to play well

We are happy to pass it on for a donation or even free of charge as transportation costs can be high

If you are interested please get in touch using the contact form below

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Welcome to the very first newsletter for Westhills Parish Church!

This January ’26 edition follows on from the first meeting of the Congregation on Sunday 4^th January when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper and the first meeting of the Trustee Elders on the evening of Monday 5^th January.

It’s a long time since I wrote a “From the Manse”.  Even now I’m not sure that’s what I’m doing.  Nonetheless, this is our first newsletter and it is designed to inform you from the outset who it is that’s doing what around Westhills Church. So here we go…

The Trustees

It’s time to introduce the twelve Trustees to you…

Ella Mathieson, Norma Clare, Mary Coles, Lynn Martin, Maureen Thomson, Fiona Mitchell, Mark Williams, Janet McKay, Yvonne Gallacher, June Cormie, Sandra Burt, Lorna Lee, and Rev Kevin Mackenzie as Minister and Moderator makes 13 (baker’s dozen!)

The Trustees appointed the following people to particular roles…

Session Clerk – Sandra Burt

Treasurer – June Cormie

Roll Keeper – Janis Ramage

Safeguarding Coordinators – Morag Kokott & Mary Coles

Property Conveners – Robert Porterfield (Westhills Church & Manse) and Tom Sorbie (Westhills Community Hub)

Presbytery Elder – Janet McKay

Health and Safety Coordinator – Elizabeth Porterfield

We are mindful of those elders within the congregation who are non-trustee elders who still have a valuable and necessary roll in the life of the congregation which, has yet to be shaped and defined.  The Trustees have not forgotten about you!!

The life and admin of the Westhills Congregation

At the outset of a new congregation, we will be merging the information from two Communion and Supplementary Rolls.  This will involve the additional task of complying with Data Protection requirements.  Each Church member will need to provide consent for Westhills Church to hold their personal information and make sure it is up to date and accurate (this is normally name, address, phone number and email address).  It will take a little time to organise this process – be patient with us!

In order to help everyone find a sense of belonging and participation we will be seeking to establish a variety of committees and rotas.  Some will be new to us while others are more familiar.

If you wish to take your turn at reading the Scriptures lessons on a Sunday morning just let Sandra Burt our Session Clerk know.

If you want to be involved with the Flower Committee or simply donate flowers or funds for a particular Sunday of the year best to chat with Larraine Dewar or Kay Whitehead.

We can see the possibility that Pastoral Care (elder’s visits) will have to be managed in a whole new way.  Again, it will take a little time to work out just what we need to do and who we have to do it so, bear with us.

In Westhills Church we will not be making use of Freewill Offering Envelopes.  We encourage everyone to use a Standing Order at their bank so that your giving goes straight into church accounts.  We also encourage the use of Gift Aid if you pay tax on your income (which could also be tax on your pension).  Gift Aid does not commit you to any particular level of giving, it is simply a way for Westhills Church to claim back some of the tax you paid on your giving to the church.  Forms for Standing Orders and Gift Aid are available on the Hall of Fellowship.  There is also an open offering plate in the Hall of Fellowship if you don’t wish to use a Standing Order.   At this time, we encourage everyone to take a few moments to consider their giving to the church.  Standing Orders are very reliable but sometimes out of sight and out of mind.  The creation of Westhills Church brings with it a much increased contribution to the central church funds from £41,000pa to £68,000pa. 

We remain fortunate at this time to have a church and parish that has two buildings and we are likely to be in that position for 18 months to two years.  Being clear on how we refer to those buildings is important.  Westhills Church is the building we worship in on Sunday mornings.  Westhills Community Hub is the former Greenhills Church buildings.  It will take time for these names to sink in but it will in the long run keep us on the right track.

Naturally we hope to build up our communications in both email and printed form in order to keep you informed and also the wider parish that we serve.

Presbytery

Presbytery will be conducting the service of Union in Westhills Church on Thursday 29 January at 7pm.  It is a time for both congregation and minister (that’s me) to rededicate ourselves to the shared ministry of the church.  It looks like I’ll be renewing my vows in Ordination!  So please do put the date in your diary and make every effort to be there.  It will not be a formal occasion with lots of ministers parading about in black robes – those days have gone!  The tone of the worship will be like a Sunday morning in Westhills – and of course there will be tea afterwards.  Perhaps even a scone.  Who knows????

Okay.  That’s us for now.

I’ll be in touch again before long.

Kevin

The relevant Church of Scotland webpage can be found here

The Webinar Video and be viewed below

Read the article here

Want to leave a comment? Use the comment box below.

Here’s one from Rev David Cameron of the Assembly Trustees.

Church Reduces Costs to ensure Sustainability in Mission

Amongst the proposals from the Assembly Trustees is the readjustment of congregations which fail to meet their Giving to Grow allocation. This may also involve the severing of a pastoral tie (essentially making a minister redundant) so the congregation can be readjusted e.g. uniting with a neighbouring congregation, or perhaps dissolution.

This does come across as a pretty brutal approach and may portray the painful financial situation the Church of Scotland is in. There is no slack in the system to compensate for congregations who do not or cannot meet their financial targets. Let’s be clear it requires a congregational income of around £100,000 p.a. to pay for full time ministry and maintain, insure, heat and light the church building.

As one who wears a Dog Collar, I now know what it feels like to be a Football Manager!

The General Assembly opens on 17 May under the theme ‘Extravagant Love”. Yes, you read that correctly.

For the brave you can download the Volume of Reports to the General Assembly 2025 or read them online below