7 December This year no West Kirk Christmas market, no Riverside Senior Citizen’s lunch, so we put the tree up on Saturday, somewhat earlier than usual. We have eclectic mix of decorations – made at nursery, things that came from Christmas crackers, made or given by friends etc. For a number of years we have […]

5 December Just as the news got more hopeful on the Covid-19 front, things started to turn more awkward on the Brexit one. I think if we were involved, we might have long since lost the will to live. I did once hear it suggested that it was a mistake to involve men in negotiations

This Advent the Church of Scotland Guild has produced a special online Big Sing event. Introduced by the Guild’s National Convener Mabel Wallace, the Advent 2020 Big Sing features Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair, Moderator of the General Assembly, offering a special reflection from Arbroath Abbey. As well as a selection of favourite hymns, the

4 December Earlier this week we heard that approval had been given to use the first of the Covid-19 vaccines, and plans are in place to begin the massive task of vaccinating people next week. That is really encouraging news, and we appreciate all the work that has gone into it, with countries and scientists

I hope that you can share this website link with your church contacts – https://www.connectingdumbarton.com/   It relates to a project which WDC are taking forward in partnership with Sustrans to improve connections in and around Dumbarton. The focus is improving the link into the town centre along College Street. We are trying to gather

3 December International Day of persons with disabilities The focus of this year’s Day is ‘Not all disabilities are visible’: thinking of things like mental illness, chronic pain or fatigue, sight or hearing impairment, diabetes, brain injuries, neurological disorders, learning differences and cognitive dysfunctions. According to the WHO 15% of the world’s population (or over

2 International Day for the abolition of slavery According to the International Labour Organisation (a UN agency) some 40 million people around the world are engaged in some form of modern slavery – that includes forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage and human trafficking. It isn’t all in ‘far away’ countries – from time to

1 December World AIDS Day This year the focus of the world has very much been on Covid-19. Other illnesses and diseases have not however deferred to it, and gone away. According to the World Health Organisation in 2019 38m people were HIV-positive (20% of whom were unaware of their status), there were 1.7m new

30 November St Andrew’s Day We know little about Andrew (though there are many later legends) but what we do know suggests that he was a quiet man, but one who engaged with people, introduced people, tried to ‘do the right thing.’ May there’s a lot we could learn from Andrew in that   Lord,