Pastoral Letter

Dear friends,
Summer is once again approaching fast. I am sure we will all welcome some warm sunny days after a rather chilly winter and spring. As I write the General Assembly is still in progress. A colleague who is a commissioner this year commented on the fact that there were encouraging reports about care for and work amongst the most needy people in our society and in other parts of the world but expressed a feeling of spiritual emptiness in it all. He said this "One man stood up when they were discussing doing this and that to presbyteries, etc. and said - we have all these grand plans but if you asked most people in the churches if they had prayed this week or read a spiritual book recently they would answer negatively" My colleagues conclusion was "so we are still not willing to admit what is wrong". In the midst of the financial problems there are good things happening in the church as we would expect since the Holy Spirit is not controlled by human financial circumstances but I wonder how much better things could be if we were to take our Christian faith much more seriously than we do and were willing to pay heed to the exhortations in the scriptures regarding prayer and devotion to God and his word.

On Pentecost Sunday (just passed) I said a little bit about revival and described it as "a significant moving of the Holy Spirit at particular times and in particular places when many peoples lives are transformed in an instant by the power of the Holy Spirit". A recent publication "Glory in the Glen" describes how around the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century was a time of notable revival in central Scotland. The book describes revival in Netherburn at that time as well as in Crossford, Kirkfieldbank , Carluke, Ferniegair and Strathaven. Almost invariably revivals can be linked to earnest prayer on the part of the church. For example we read the following in connection with revival in Strathaven: "Many conversions were recorded in Strathaven and neighbouring villages following five nights weeks of nightly prayer". This should be no surprise since we have the following promise in the Bible which I quoted on Sunday If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14).

The sad fact is that even although we have that and other such promises solidly endorsed in history up to the present time by the actual experience of revival breaking out in the wake of extraordinary seasons of prayer on the part of the people of God so few of us are prepared to take the time and the trouble to meet the conditions for God to pour out his Holy Spirit once again on the church and the community. I have said before "God is determined not to give us what we are not determined to have". How determined are we to see the church revived and people in large numbers being converted and added to the church? Determined enough to join fellow Christians to pray for it to happen? With these words I challenge myself as much as you. Perhaps we should have a gathering for prayerspecifically for revival for even an hour every week. If you would be interested in this proposal in principle at least, the details - time and place to be determined, please tell me. As I said on Sunday after I had quoted the paragraph about revival in Netherburn - "it could happen again" but it will never happen unless we are prepared to meet the conditions - are we? are you?


Yours faithfully,

Cameron McPherson

A Holy Land Visit (Part 2)

One day we went to see the original steps which Jesus used to make His way from the upper to lower city and beside which, nowadays, there is a beautiful evocative statue of Peter’s denial. Adjacent stands The Church of St Peter in Gallicantu (cock-crow) and on this site some believe are the ruins of the palace and underground chambers of Caiaphas (the chief priest). It was very moving to read scripture and pray in a deep, dark, “cell” where Jesus may have been held – whether it was this place or not did not matter so much as being confronted with the loneliness, pain and despair He must have suffered.

On a personal note my sister and I paid a visit to Ramleh War Cemetery between Ramla and Lod. Our uncle was killed in Palestine during WW2 when he was 21.   No-one in the family had managed to visit his grave and it was good to pay respects to someone we had never met but whose memory had been kept alive for us.  The driver then took us to meet up with the group at the service at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland in Jerusalem.

We moved to the Galilee area for a few days – stopping off at Mount Carmel to look over the Jezreel valley laid out for miles beneath us – and to remember Elijah’s defeat of the prophets of Baal. While based at Tiberias beside the Sea of Galilee, we went to the ruins of Capernaum – Peter’s house and the partly reconstructed synagogue; to Cana; to the beautiful Church of the Beatitudes. We took taxis up to the top of Mount Tabor to see the Church of the Transfiguration – the road was narrow and steep with zigzag sharp bends. We went to Nazareth whose inhabitants are now mainly Muslim.

On a piece of farmland, there is a reconstructed first century village with a carpenter’s house, farm animals, wine and olive presses, and a synagogue. It was wonderful to walk down the narrow path through olive trees and then turn a corner to see shepherds,  goats, sheep and then to see a carpenter working and a woman weaving – all as Jesus would have seen. Our guide explained what life would have been like for the first century inhabitants of Nazareth.

On our last day we had a communion service in the open air beside the lake at Tabgha – the Church of the Loaves and Fishes. Then our group sailed in a replica first century fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. We all cheered and laughed when a member of crew hoisted a St Andrew’s Flag and played Flower of Scotland.    Then we all cried as our guide reminded us that here was the place Jesus loved – where He grew up and started His ministry, where He walked on water and stilled the storm and where many of His miracles took place. It felt strangely familiar – perhaps my soul felt at peace and at home. 

The Machan Trust

Summer Holidays

Don't Mess With the Bairns..

With Thanks

Open Day 8th May 2010

Part of the line-up of vintage vehicles

Cameron knew that ‘David's Triumph was heard throughout the land’, but he was pretty sure this BMW could match it!

A Big & warm Thank You to the Clyde Valley VMCC

Diary

20th June Prize Giving
25th June Wedding, Dalserf Church.

Rotas

Tea/Coffee

6th Mrs Clarkson and Mrs Watt
13th Mr and Mrs McPhee
20th Mr and Mrs Harvey
27th Mrs Blair and Mrs Budgell

Creche

6th Mrs Manson and Mrs McCallum
13th The Humes
20th Prize Giving (No creche)
27th Mrs Price and Miss Rodger

Church Flowers

6th Mrs McPherson, The Manse
13th Mrs Hoey, Larkhall
20th Mrs Gallacher, Larkhall
27th Mrs McHolm, Ashgill

Elders

6th Communion
13th R. Fairley, A. Carson, A. Brown, A. Price, J. McPhee, E. Budgell.
20th I. Kennedy, W. Hamilton, M. Philip, L. Eathorne, R. Clarkson, G. Stewart.
27th D. Manson, J. Grove, J. Macfarlane, B. Archibald, K. Blair, J. Pollock. 

Newsletter

Share your news and views on a monthly basis.
Hand your articles to the editors personally or E-mail them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Would you like the newletter delivered by eMail?
If so, subscribe by sending an email request to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Articles for the July newsletter should be submitted no later than Sunday, June 20th 2010.