We are streaming Live Services on a Wednesday and Sunday via Zoom 

To all members of our community,

In the light of the Coronavirus outbreak we at Greenbank want you to know that, even in isolation, you are not on your own.

If you need anything from a friendly chat to shopping or medication or if you wish to help, please email greenbank.office@tiscali.co.uk

or telephone 01416441841

Further information and contact details on Facebook Greenbank – Living our faith by our actions at the heart of the community

You do not need to be a member of the church to be supported!

Rev Jeanne Roddick

jroddick@churchofscotland.org.uk

I am grateful to all those who made it possible for the Church to re-open, especially the reopening committee led by our Session Clerk, Derek Christie, and consisting of Douglas Carswell, Malcolm Pickard, Colin McAughtrie and Graham Vance. Special thanks must also go to our cleaner, Lesley Roberts, who thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the church before it reopened and who continues to follow infection prevention and control measures as she cleans the church premises each week.

At present the Church of Scotland guidance only allows church premises to open for worship and essential services like after school care and food banks.  We are pleased that Clarkston After School Care is now up and running each day in our Session House.   They are adhering to stringent infection control procedures and have employed a daily cleaner to clean and disinfect all surfaces with which their group comes into contact.

Until the Church of Scotland guidance changes, groups and organisations who were using church premises at the March lockdown, are not being permitted to meet.  As I write, conversations are taking place nationally about how, and when, restrictions can be relaxed.  There is a lot to consider and it is becoming clear that even when restrictions are lifted, we won’t simply be going back to the same church we had to retreat from in March.  Some groups won’t return; others will need to find new members and volunteers and our church’s financial situation will need to improve, not just so we can get back to where we were, but so we can get back to where we need to be, if we are to move positively into the future.   The direction our church will take, or need to take in future, will inevitably bring about changes beyond our control and we will also be faced with important decisions about changes to our Church buildings.

“I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for” These words were written by the prophet Jeremiah about 2600 years ago to Babylonian exiles to encourage them to make a fresh start in Babylon.  Remarkably, they believed Jeremiah’s words and chose to make a fresh start and because of that decision the Judaism known today can be dated back to that time.

We find ourselves in times that could be likened to those of the Babylonian exiles, that is, in a place where we never expected to be.  Yet we also find ourselves in a place where we are also being shown new innovative ways of worshipping and being the church in this 21st Century.

None of us know for certain what the future holds, but Jeremiah’s words encourage us to see God’s hope and promise in the place we now find ourselves.  So may we be enabled, each in our different ways, to build together for the future God intends for Greenbank, open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and guided by the love of Jesus Christ,

May God hold you and keep you safe.

Yours,

Rev. Jeanne Roddick