Minister's Messages – Page 218 – Letters and Messages to Peebles Old ;Eddleston; Stobo and Drumelzier Parish Churches

Update from Lebanon

Posted on February 25, 2021February 25, 2021 by Pamela Strachan

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.

Evening Prayers

Posted on January 18, 2021January 18, 2021 by John Smith

A warm Invitation to join us for Evening Prayers on the last Sunday of January, February and March. The service will last 30 minutes and begin at 7 pm. The service takes place on Zoom, and joining details will be issued before the event.

For internet security it important that participants register to take part.

If you have already done so, you need not do anything more, we will be in touch shortly with the information.

If you have not already registered, you can do that now using the form below.

2021 – Our Road Ahead

Posted on December 29, 2020December 29, 2020 by John Smith

After watching the above video, you may be interested in the following.

Evening Services

if you would like to join the Evening Services, please use the online form below. This is to ensure your online safety and allow us to contact you with updates and other information. For fuller details go to the TOPCOP Evening Services page HERE

If you completed this form for the Services last year, you do not need to re-register as we have your details.

Online Study

If you would like to join our Lent Study group, please use the form below. As above, this is to ensure your online safety and allow us to contact you with updates and information. Fuller details are also on the TOPCOP website HERE

For those who registered for the previous Bible Study course, can you please register again.

Christmas Celebration?

Posted on November 29, 2020December 28, 2020 by David Arnott

Dear Friends
‘How can you celebrate Christmas in a place like this,’ the prisoner asked me? At the time I was a very part- time chaplain in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow. It was the middle of December. It’s a refrain we are hearing just now in a different context as the COVID restrictions remain in place. How can we celebrate Christmas this year with all that is going on?

My answer to the prisoner is still relevant today I think. If you can’t celebrate Christmas in prison then you can’t celebrate it anywhere. The first Christmas was celebrated against a background of an occupying army, high taxes, despotic rulers and random acts of senseless slaughter. The background of Christmas highlights its meaning in sharp relief. The darker and blacker the sky the brighter the star shines.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land asked the Jews in exile in Babylon centuries before? Eventually they realised they could sing with even greater confidence and strength because God was with them. So with Christmas this year we will celebrate, if not in large family gatherings, then rather with the reminder that Christmas means Immanuel-God with us. In these strange times the message of Christmas stands as a wonderful reminder we are not alone and never have been. So it will be that with confidence and strength we will wish people this year a very happy Christmas, and we will mean it.

Our services in advent will take up some of the traditional themes of the second coming and John the Baptist. The on-line services will continue this month. There will be a short service for Christmas Day, but there will be no Watchnight Service this year. There is a special treat on 20 December when the choir will lead us in an on-line service of lessons and carols. It promises to be an uplifting occasion . We also look forward to the return of Rev John Smith as our locum later this month. It will be good to have him back.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas
With best wishes
David