Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair is inviting everyone to join him for a week of prayer starting on Monday 17 August and finishing on Saturday 22. The initiative will include contributions from the Church of Scotland’s ecumenical partners as well as youth workers, ministers and others from across the church. Each day of the week […]

Dumbarton Churches Together have supported the charity Embrace the Middle East for a number of years. The following news update was received earlier this week and circulated to churches in Dumbarton: The explosion in Beirut The massive explosion that ripped through Beirut on Tuesday 4 August was felt as far away as Cyprus. At the

The schools have gone back, and (so?) we have hot, sunny weather. It is almost guaranteed. But sadly the hot weather brought with it storms that created widespread flooding and was probably the main contributor to the fatal train derailment yesterday Lord, we like the sun and the heat, though sometimes we moan that we

Children start back today. Always a day of mixed feelings, but much more so this year. So many have lost so much ground over the last six months in terms of learning and social contact. Going back to studying, and making up lost time will be hard for them and their teachers. Parents/ family/ carers

Term starts today, but an in-service day for staff. Exciting, as they think about working with a new set of pupils, trying to make up lost ground, and move forward with this year’s objectives. But also worrying and challenging as they work through what the arrangements will be when children come back, concerned to prevent

Patient persuasion can break down the strongest resistance and can even convince rulers Proverbs 25: 15

The Bank of England Governor has said that the anticipated recession may not be as bad as was feared – but it still sounds pretty bad. For those affected in terms of lost jobs, job opportunities, income it is awful – individuals, families, communities. It is easy to talk in terms of statistics, graphs and

The local lockdown in Aberdeen is a blunt reminder to us that the pandemic has not gone away, and neither have the restrictions associated with that word ‘lockdown’. We thought that we were doing so well in Scotland – almost a little oasis of improvement in a world of resurgence. Now we are reminded of

75 years ago today the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Since then a number of countries have developed atomic or nuclear bombs (and the number is probably higher than ‘official’ figures). There have been times when there has been real fear of a war between the Great Powers