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Message 1 The Magazine of Kingsgait Kirk Dundee Issue 713

2 Contributions for the next edition are welcome anytime during the coming weeks, but at the very latest by: Sunday 23rd February email to thechurchmagazine@outlook.com The March/April edition of the Wyvern will be available for collection by distributors on Sunday 9th March TBC Cong Ref No - 291743 Scottish Charity No - SC011775 Girls’ Brigade Monday Evenings 18:30—20.00 Carpet Bowling Group Thursday Evenings—19:00—21:00 Something else happening? If you have anything you’d like intimated in the pre-service slides, please contact Stewart Kerr by a Friday at the latest: st_kerr@btopenworld.com Sunday worship is conducted by Rev Anita Kerr, every week at 11am . Minister Rev Anita D C Kerr Session Clerk Margaret Adamson Treasurer Morag Stalker Fabric Co-ordinator & Rollkeeper Mr Ron Chimiak rollkeeper@outlook.com Church Officer Mr Garry Collins Presbytery Elder Tim Xenophontos-Hellen Organist Ruth Irons Hall Letting Convenor Garry Collins Halls.kingsgaitkirk@outlook.com Safeguarding Co-ordinator Pam Chimiak Reader Co-Ordinator Merelyn Baxter Mission Partner JustBee Productions www.justbeeproductions.co.uk

3 Blessings, Rev Anita “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Philippians 2: 14-16 As the year draws to a close, there is undoubtedly a time shift from past to future captured in the present. The hopes and fears of all the years met in one place, one time, one axis upon which our world turns. Our world with all its problems, injustices, beauty and promise. Hopes and fears all coinciding, colliding, coming together in the Christ child- God with us. In this season of gifting, we give thanks for all in our church family who been such a gift in themselves throughout 2024. We give thanks for our gift of faith, our love, joy and peace. I hope we can begin this year with a renewed sense of purpose. Making our New Year resolutions with the confidence which comes from knowing Christ- God with us. Paul offers some good suggestions for New Year resolutions in his letter to the church in Philippi with no grumbling and no arguing! We who have followed a star are called to shine like stars ourselves as we hold firmly to our gift of faith. In this season of giving let’s remember the blessing of being grateful for gifts, to say thank you to and for others, who are in themselves gifts, especially in our church family. Thank you for your generosity of time, energy, talents and kindness. Thank you for being willing to offer when asked and step in where needed, for all that you do to make our church family a warm, loving and good place to belong. A special thankyou to all who have given so generously to our Advent and Christmas Appeal as we work together in the Church to help create a culture where women at home, and across the world, can live and work without fear. The proceeds will be shared between Dundee Women’s Aid and Transform Trade’s campaign to work towards a safe society for women to work. Thank you all for shining like the stars that you are, in Christ’s name. Whatever your hopes or fears are for the future, it is my prayer you will know God with you on the good days and not so good days, through difficult times and fun times, waking and sleeping, and all times in between!

4 Continued... Monday night in the church hall meant hard work with a range of activities including gymnastics, Indian Clubs, maze marching, and pyramids all under the critical eye and encouraging tongue of officers including Bob Adams, Dave Pont, and many other officers and non-commissioned officers plus a pianist when available. I enjoyed the Indian clubs and maze marching but struggled to get over the vaulting horse and the parallel bars but some of the lads were excellent at everything. Unfortunately, I was always on the bottom level of the pyramids. On a Tuesday evening, George Ormond took a first-aid class for a couple of hours and at the end of the course we were put forward for a certificate from the Red Cross. Wednesday was a noisy night when all those taking piping, drumming, or bugling, came together to play as a band under Pipe Major Harry Watson or Tom Merrilees and by the time came for a Church Parade or Annual Inspection in the Morgan Academy assembly hall we were quite an accomplished pipe and bugle band. John James was a first-class bugler and for many many years played at the Remembrance Service. Thursday night became swimming instruction in the Dundee baths - long before Olympia - when any boy could come along and enjoy lessons in the crawl, back-stroke, breaststroke, and butterfly, which was the least popular way of swimming. That brought us to a Friday night in the Cowgate Primary School which had several classrooms on either side of a wide corridor perfect for individual activities such as piping, drumming, bugling, and signaling - using flags and morse code - and the wide corridor for drill in marching plus inspection by our BB Captain John Fridge at the start and the end of the evening to ensure you were turned-out clean and smart with jackets fastened and shoes polished so you could see your reflection in them. On a Friday night there would always be officers to teach each activity and as the annual inspection neared there would be marching behind the pipe band either in the corridor or preferably outdoors in the playground of the school. This would normally attract onlookers and gave us young lads a true feeling of pride.

5 Morag Stalker, Congregational Treasurer Many thanks to everyone who contributed to our Advent Appeal, either via the donation box or through Christmas Greetings. A total of £300 was raised, to be split equally between Dundee Women's Aid (http://www.dundeewomensaid.co.uk) and Transform Trade's 'Work without Fear' Appeal (http://www.transform-trade.org/christmas). In addition, the Hammerman Trade have very kindly donated £200 to be passed on to Women's Aid. Your generosity towards the work of both these organisations to support women locally and worldwide is greatly appreciated. The night of the Annual Inspection was the highlight and display of our years' accomplishments and always began with the whole company lined up outside the school for inspection by an invited well-known local person. This Inspecting Officer would pass along the ranks of boys - stopping sometimes to ask a question - before entering the school hall where he would sit with senior Church figures and our BB Captain as the audience took their place at one end of the hall ready to enjoy their laddies' year's work. Every BB lad would be on the floor at one time or another to show off their prowess in their chosen activity until the finale when trophies and prizes were presented to the lads who had performed the adjudged best in their chosen activities. To complete this special evening the BB gave three cheers to the Inspecting Officer, the BB Officers who gave so much of their time and effort over another year, and to the families who made up an enthusiastic audience. All that remained was the hearty singing of the third verse of the BB Hymn: "Jesus my Saviour, Master, King, Who didst for me the burden bear, While saints in heaven Thy glory sing, Let me on earth Thy likeness wear; Mine be the path Thy feet have trod, Duty, and love to man and God." Frank Galloway

6 Back on the 1st Sunday of Advent I gave everyone who came to Kingsgait a sparkly green Christmas Tree decoration to help us make the link between evergreen and everlasting life that Jesus offers. Today, I gave everyone another decoration – a wooden star (pictured) sprayed with orange-gold sparkly paint, to help us make the link between the magi and the festival of Epiphany which . The magi were a group of wise men, astrologers, who followed the movements of the stars in the night sky and understood that they were linked in to the happenings of the world, whether positive or negative. Epiphany describes two things – the appearance or manifestation of the di-vine (God) to humans, and a moment of sudden and great revelation or reali-sation. The magi came to see a king, but this manifestation meant that God was presented to them in the form of Jesus, a human baby. Of course, they were expecting a king but not God, and that’s where the revelation was important – for they realised that Jesus was God. Even though the magi didn’t know any of the backstory to the promised Messiah, they met him anyway. In the verse I selected from Isaiah for our Call to worship, God said “I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples”. Isaiah wasn’t to know that God would use a star to invite the nations, nor could he know that just a few came, these wise men, magi, kings. So why do we commemorate them? Because they saw the star, and decided that the star heralded a king, and that they must follow that star to find the king. We think they came from Persia, modern-day Iraq, travelling some 1000 miles by camel on a journey of 1 - 2 years. Continued…

7 We marked Remembrance Day by taking the girls into the church where they studied all the War Memorials and the poppy wreaths. We followed this up with some poppy artwork and worksheets. As part of our theme, we were delighted to welcome Dental Connect, a group of dental students, who taught the girls how to brush their teeth correctly, played games to back up their presentation and even made small bags to leave for the tooth fairy. In December, we were delighted to welcome Caroline Taylor who told the girls the story of the Nativity and brought activities to help them learn the true meaning of Christmas. The rest of our meetings in December were all Christmas-related. Christingles were made, one for each girl and one to present to the mem-bers of the Guild at their Christmas lunch. Our other 2 Christmas crafts used re-cycled goods. The snowman’s body was built on a Marks and Spencer’s fishcake packaging and our baubles were decorated with scrap wax crayons melted by a hairdryer. Our last meeting was the Christmas party when games, dancing and food were enjoyed. The highlight, however, was the visit from Santa. It matters that they came from far away for it makes them the first non-Jews to be invited to see Jesus. In fact we know that God invites everybody to see Jesus, to journey to him, to see him, learn about him, and get to know him. Our advent candles have now gone, as has our tree – but God still wants to invite us to celebrate his Son Jesus who has come to live with us, to experience human life and teach us the way of divine life. Whoever you are, and whatever you circumstances, God invites us all to follow Jesus today and every day. Tim Xenophontos-Hellen

8 Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year Firstly we hope you have had a good 2024 and now looking forward to the festive season and into 2025 - with resolutions to fulfill all your dreams. Our new year was celebrated once more in the Canary Islands cruising for a week followed by a week in a Tenerife hotel with glorious warm sunshine for all 14 days. This year for a complete change to our Valentine's break we decided to have a coach tour to a place we went to before we were married –Blackpool!! - and to see if the tower was still in its place. It certainly was and the five days were spent rekindling our youth with a day's visit to Liverpool and the exhibition of the life of Ken Dodd and his Diddy men from Knotty Ash. As we are avoiding any more long car journeys we went to Aberdeen for Faye's ?? Birthday and found the Atholl hotel a perfect choice near the city centre and other Aberdeen attractions, including the Duthie Park where we spent a whole day enjoying the famous glass house - blooming glorious!! Having tied the knot in Kelty North church on the 6th June 1964 we decided on a fortnight cruise to celebrate our diamond wedding taking in the Greek islands, starting and ending in Corfu. On the morning of the 6th June 2024 we returned to our cabin after breakfast to find the room decorated with rose petals on the bed, banners on the doors, champagne, strawberries dipped in chocolate, a diamond wedding chocolate cake, a photo shoot, flowers and diamond wedding cards from relations and friends. We sincerely thank all who made our diamond wedding day so special. Following on our special year, we discussed a few days away to Blackpool or Belfast. After Faye’s trip to the travel agents, our short break became a 12 night cruise from Dundee on the Ambassador Ambition to Denmark and Sweden. Sailing away down the River Tay on a Sunday afternoon, we entered the North Sea at the same time the ship's captain announced a spell of rough seas and that sea-sickness pills were available at the reception if required. After 25 cruises Faye experienced sea sickness for the very first time, but fortunately the pills did the trick and the rest of the cruise was grand visiting Copenhagen and Stockholm and quaint ports of call in between. Christmas and into 2025 will be in the Don Pancho hotel in Benidorm, which has al-ways been our favourite hotel for many reasons. As this will possibly be the last annual "news fae the Galloways" we take this opportunity to say it's been a real pleasure giving you - our dear relatives and friends - just a glimpse of our favourite pastime and wee breaks in between the cruises keeping us and you -we hope - sane in this crazy world of ours. It's been a real privilege - thank you all. Faye and Frank Galloway

9 Our two guest speakers in November, although their subjects were quite different, were both interesting and entertaining. Eliot Sawers’ illustrated talk gave us an insight into the amazing work carried out at Dundee Disabled Children’s Association. Sheila Kinninmonth, a storyteller from Fife, shared a variety of tales from around Scotland. With the help of a screen depicting a blazing fire, we were transported back to the time when families would gather around the hearth and share stories. If anyone wonders why there are so many midges in Scotland, a Guild member can enlighten you! We were grateful to Anita for preparing and conducting our Nine Lessons and Carols and to David Smith for accompanying our singing. As usual, the afternoon tea following the service was well-received. Our Christmas lunch was again held in the Glasite. This allowed us, after enjoying our meal, to have a quiz and play some games. We soon discovered that some of our members can be quite competitive! The first meeting of 2025 will allow the competitive juices flow again as we have a ‘Fun Afternoon’ planned. On 21st January, we will welcome Kim Scott, who will share with us the tremendous support given to so many families through the work of CHAS, the Children’s Hospice Association. In February, we will have a guest speaker from the Tayside Deaf Hub. followed by podiatrist, Bharti Rajput. My sister Elizabeth and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the flower donor and flower committee for the beautiful flowers we both received on Sunday 10th November for the 1st anniversary of the loss of our dear Mum, Agnes Robertson. At a time which is always going to be difficult, it was lovely to know we were all remembered in such a kind way. Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year. Elizabeth Strachan & Audrey Johnston

10 Happy New Year! Are you enjoying a New You this New Year? Maybe you've a list of good intentions, some of which have already fallen by the wayside, making you feel a bit bad. Maybe you've gone for Just One Thing; much more manageable and fewer opportunities to fail. Maybe you've seen the light and are enjoying the You that you are, warts and all (there's a cream for that). Well, I'm going to give you food for thought which I hope you'll also act on and I'm not talking muffins or starry biscuits. Walking, yes, one foot in front of the other, in the company of friends, is so very good for you, both in mind and body. Those cobwebs get blown away, new places explored, old places revisited, nature admired, friends made and even the odd social media 'Wish you were here" post posted. You have a dog which can't be left at home unattended? No problem, dogs on leads are welcome. Kingsgait Kirk has it nailed; there's a monthly walk arranged from April to September. Due to popular demand, there are no mountains to be scaled, generally the miles walked are 4-5 and, to the joy of free bus pass holders, accessible by public bus. If this wasn't enticing enough, most walks see a grand finale at a coffee shop, where feet are rested before the bus ride home to Dundee. During 2024 the Walking Group visited St Andrews {see photo of happy walkers}, Arbroath, Tayport, Tentsmuir, Broughty Ferry, Auchterhouse and Balmerino. There are pictures on the wall of the St Andrews hall for you to see what fun is had. Everyone who is interested in the Walking Group is invited to a meal at Medina, Perth Road, Dundee on the evening of Tuesday 28th January. Please contact Tim or Stella to let them know if you are coming. If you can, please bring details of a favourite walk which is reachable by bus. (important). We will make up the 2025 timetable from them. Best foot forward! Stella & Tim Xenophontos-Hellen

11 Flower Donor Flower Committee January 2025 5th Mr. P. Davidson Mrs. M. Chisholm Mrs. A. Sanderson 12th Mr. R. Greer Miss. M. Graham 19th Mrs. S. Baird Mrs. D. Steven Mrs. M. McKenzie 26th Mrs. J. Gardiner Mrs. A. Sanderson February 2025 2nd Mrs. E. Strachan Miss. M. Graham 9th Mrs. A. Petrie Mrs. M. McKenzie 16th Mrs. A. Dewar Mrs. A. Sanderson 23rd Mrs. M. Baxter Miss. M. Graham March 2025 2nd Mrs. I. Dryden Mrs. S. Valentine Mrs. M. McKenzie 9th Mrs. E. Davisdon Mrs. A. Sanderson 16th Mrs. A. Sanderson Miss. M. Graham 23rd Mrs. D. Steven Mrs. M. Chisholm Mrs. M. McKenzie 30th Mrs. A. Forbes Miss. M. Stalker Mrs. A. Sanderson The Flower Committee wish to thank all those who assisted with the delivery of fruit and posies after the Christmas gift service, your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks must go to those who were responsible for the beaufully decorated Christmas tree. Fiona Bales supervised her family who made a fantasc job of it. Our thanks must also go to Steve James, who for a number of years has willingly used his van to transport the large tree from Templeton to the church. Sheila Valentine

12 If you have any pastoral needs or if you know of anybody at home, or in hospital who requires a visit please contact our Minister Rev Anita Kerr Email: Anita.Kerr@churchofscotland.org.uk Telephone: 01382 456659 Or Church Office Kingsgait Kirk 2 King Street, Dundee, DD1 2JB Tel: 01382 224860 Email: standrewsdundee@outlook.com Please note that Rev Anita Kerr is uncontactable on a Friday. Meadowside St Paul’s l/w St Andrew’s Kingsgait Kirk, Dundee Christian Aid Co-Ordinator Reverend Caroline Taylor Flower Committee Avril Sanderson Muriel McKenzie Girls’ Brigade Sheila Valentine Guild President Sheila Valentine Kingsgait Kirk Charity Knitters Stella Xenophontos-Hellen Life and Work Ron Coull Fair Trade Sally Romilly Margaret Chisholm Church Eco-Congregation contact Sally Romilly Wyvern Distribution Co-ordinator Alison Collins Wyvern Editor Aimee Brown