CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE  Saturday 25 December, 10am

Please remember you must wear a mask to attend worship in person and observe 1m distancing.  If exempt from wearing a mask, please observe 2m distance from other worshippers.   Lateral Flow Tests should be taken to ensure you test NEGATIVE.  We are all being asked to make extra efforts to stop the spread of Covid infection.  This is in the interests of the entire community – thank you – and a blessed Christmas.  

ALL WELCOME

BOXING DAY SERVICE Sunday 26 December, 10.30am (note changed time)

This service will be live-streamed via Zoom.  Fill in the contact form and you will be sent the Zoom Link to join us on Sunday morning. We hope you can join us at 10.30am.

Regretable but Necessary Cancellations

Following the First Minister’s announcement on 14 December, we regret the following changes have had to be made to our Christmas arrangements:

Eddleston concert at 3pm on Sunday 19 December – cancelled 

Drumelzier Carols 6.30pm.      “              “           – cancelled

Family Services on Christmas Day will take place as advertised –  

Peebles Old  –   10.00am (The Very Revd David Arnott) 

Stobo Kirk     –   11.00am (The Revd Pamela Strachan)

However, the proposed Joint Service of Readings and Carols on Sunday 26 December (Boxing Day) in Peebles Old Parish Church will now take place by Zoom as a live-streamed service.  

Zoom Invitation: email Rosa at admin@topcop.org.uk  by 12 noon on Wednesday 22 December and details will also be distributed at Services on Sunday 19 December and at Christmas Day services in Peebles Old Parish Church and Stobo Kirk.    

Christmas Services for Eddleston, Peebles Old, Stobo and Drumelzier 2021

Eddleston linked with Peebles Old linked with Stobo and Drumelzier

Eddleston Parish Church

19^th December 11.30am 4^th Sunday in Advent

3.00pm Christmas concert with Eddleston Voices

26^th December 10.30am   Joint Service in Old Parish Church 

Readings and Carols

Old Parish Church

19^th December 10.00am 4^th Sunday in Advent

25^th December  10.00am Family Service for Christmas Day

26^th December 10.30am (Please note change of time)

Joint Service of Readings and Carols

Stobo Parish Church

19^th December 4th Sunday in Advent

6.30pm Carols in Drumelzier

25^th December 11.00am Family Service for Christmas Day

26^th December 10.30am Joint Service in Old Parish 

Readings and Carols

Monday 15 March 2021 17.00-17.40

Join an online Vigil for Syria, marking ten years of the Syrian conflict as a public expression of solidarity with the Syrian people and Syrian refugees here in Scotland and in other countries.

Register on Eventbrite: https://vigilforsyria.eventbrite.co.uk

Even if you’re unable to join the vigil, join us in an act of solidarity by lighting a candle and sharing a photo with us…thank you, Pamela

The situation in Lebanon remains critical – with the economy on the point of collapse and the continuing
political stalemate.

This update from Dr George Sabra, President of NEST (Near East School of Theology, Beirut) just received:
23 February 2021

NEST started the second semester completely online. It seems to be going well. Lebanon is still having high rates
of infections, but there is some improvement in the last couple of days. The vaccines are coming into the country,
but it doesn’t look like we will get them soon. They’re starting with older age groups and health workers, and
there aren’t enough vaccines being imported. Very few students remain in the dorms at NEST, but the Library
remains open.

The COVID situation will eventually improve, but our greatest problem is the economic collapse and the
political stalemate in Lebanon which is causing the economy to collapse even faster. We have no idea what
to expect in the next weeks and months, but we know that it is going to be very bad.

Keep us in your prayers.

In my excitement, 154 tubes became 254. But there you are! I think PYT will still be very pleased with our total, and who knows, by collection time next Wednesday it might have grown even more.

The Grasping the Nettle online conference (Through a Glass Darkly) has just concluded with the third and final lecture from Professor Alister McGrath.  It was a superb series of talks where he grappled with the fascinating interplay between science and religion, the limitations of perspective and our ‘toolbox’ of ways of understanding reality.  Visit the Grasping the Nettle website (graspingthenettle.org) to catch up if you missed this excellent series of lectures.  Well worth listening to all three and visit the WATCH space on the website.

The sessions were chaired by the Very Rev Dr Angus Morrison.

Update from Beirut

Many of you will remember Rev Dr Rima Nasrallah who preached in the Old Parish and at Eddleston in August 2019.   She keeps in touch with news from NEST.  This month’s email came with particularly sad news….  I remember Rev Savag Trashian very well.  

The situation in Lebanon is very unstable. We are unable to form a government or agree on a way forward. The country is experiencing chaos and lawlessness. The interest in help and reconstruction decreased dramatically yet so many people are still homeless and many are still sliding under the poverty line. Educational institutions are teaching online and trying to catch up with the academic year which means that many of the young people who were volunteering in the first few days are now off the streets. 

Our Churches are still in ruins and many institutions are dysfunctional. Since Sunday some villages and towns are under strict lockdown and this is paralyzing us even further. 

We as a community experienced a great shock this weekend. One of our graduates/student Rev. Sevag Trashian age 41, passed away suddenly due to a heart attack. He was a perfectly healthy man and very active. We do not understand what happened. For me, this news is extra sad. He was working with me towards his Sacred Theology Master for the past 5 years, I met with him every week for three hours and our friendship extended beyond the classroom. Sevag was the pastor of a local Armenian Evangelical Church (you probably remember him….. We had his funeral yesterday in a Church with no windows and demolished sides and walls. It was so sad! Misery upon misery. 

I am sorry to send only bad news. We cling to our Christian hope. 

Blessings, 

Rima

Recent reports from our friends at NEST to follow