maxwell magazine logo 2
No.50 -  2nd April

Hi, 

Hope this finds you well.

Golden Anniversary of the Online Magazine this week...and it's a packed edition this week.  I hope you can take some time to look through and maybe even follow some of the links to some really good material.  I'm told that the Ladybird Book of Maxwell series is much missed and so I have republished a couple of the best from over the year...as voted for by a panel of Margaret.

Easter is a great opportunity for talking about Jesus  - Glen Scrivener (he of the 90sec gospel video mentioned a few weeks ago) has two really good Easter videos. I'm in a couple of WhatsApp groups (Colleagues and friends) where there is always plenty of things posted which are making people laugh, furious, confused etc...everything from the sublime to the ridiculous.  So, I'm going to post a couple of Easter videos - one on Friday and one on Sunday. Will all the people like the videos? Unlikely. Will they all watch? Unlikely. Will they be offended? Unlikely. I guess it's always in the back of my mind that if people  were asked what they knew about me and could only which way I would vote, which team I support and which box sets I enjoy , that would be awful. If they didn't also add, Martin is a Christian who talked about Jesus then I've missed something and they have missed out.  Take a look at them and think who you could send them to.
A Friend in the Dark - video
A Friend in the Light - video

Don't forget the Hizkidz Easter event on Good Friday!

Enjoy the Mag.

MB


  
From the Manse

Dear Congregation,scott and anita

Everyone I speak with is ready to be done with lockdown restrictions. It is such a frustration for many that we celebrate a second Easter with only limited personal contact. However, if our frustration is limited to lack of contact then we are blessed indeed. It is hard to enter into the pain of those who add illness or bereavement to that frustration. Our blessing is brought into sharp focus when we hear of the numbers of infections and deaths beginning to soar in Europe and other parts of the world. If Scotland opens up at the end of April, we should be full of thanksgiving. One more month of lockdown will seem a small price to pay.

The disciples were not compelled to go into lockdown but did so voluntarily after Jesus had been crucified. They feared death. They did not fear death from disease but from an evil momentum of injustice that had crucified their Lord and crushed their spirit. John tells us quite plainly they locked themselves in that house for fear of the Jews (John 20.19). Who could blame them or Thomas for not even being there?

Fear can be such a paralyzing emotion for pursuing life generally, but especially for following Jesus. In Romans 5.1 the apostle Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Back in John’s Gospel Jesus says peace be with you (chapter 20.19, 21, 26).  This peace must clearly include the anxiety and fretful hearts that had the disciples go into lockdown. The threat was real, the injustice and violent evil visibly demonstrated. However, in the face of that reality Jesus conveys a peace to their hearts with such tangible results they come out of lockdown and enter life. They leave that room to spread not a virus but the good news message. Jesus said, As the father has sent me, I am sending you. Their message? If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven…Jesus died for our sins but is risen that we might also have new life!

Jesus is truly risen. Alive! Not even death is a match to his life-giving power. No-one can outwit or outrun death; except Jesus! United to the Risen Saviour by faith, we need have no fear of death. But beyond death, what part of your life could possibly be outside his sovereign power that you would live in fear? United by faith to Christ, know He stands wherever you have locked yourself in fear and conveys and commands; peace be with you. It is His Spirit within us who brings this peace. We are simply to live in it!  Why deprive yourself of such a gift?

Warmest regards,

Scott


Funeral of Mrs Jean Taylor

Our prayers are with the whole Cunningham family at this time. (Jean is Susan's mother). Covid restrictions mean that the funeral is by invitation only. If you would like to join the family in the service of thanksgiving for Jean’s life online, you will find the necessary login details below.

Date & Time: Thursday 8th April at 11.15am
https://www.wesleymedia.co.uk/webcast-view
Login / Order ID: 88476
Password: vvubpuyr
(Location: Woodside Crematorium, Paisley)

 


Stated Annual Meeting Draft Minutes

The draft minutes for the Stated Annual Meeting are now available for reading and correction at the “Latest News” page on our church website. You may also have received these by email. With corrections made at this time, we shall be able approve the minutes meaningfully at next year’s S.A.M.
Scott


Registering For Worship In April

In accordance with the Scottish Government’s guidelines, places for "in person" worship on the church premises are restricted to 50 each week (that includes Scott, the door team, the AV team and others involved in worship).
There are no places left for the Easter services but there are spaces for the Sunday services in April.

The cut-off for registering for places on Eventbrite for Sunday worship each week is 11pm on the Thursday before;

If there is space for you to attend in person, you will receive an email from Eventbrite on the Friday morning immediately prior to the Sunday (this is in addition to the original Eventbrite confirmation email that you have registered for places).
Please do not attend if you have not received this second email.

If services are oversubscribed, places will be allocated as fairly as possible on a rota basis, and you do not need to worry that you are taking a place away from someone else.
The services will continue to be live-streamed - click here for the church page on YouTube. 
If you have any difficulties with the booking process or have any questions, please contact Lorna Hamilton on 07736 420564 or the Church office.


Easter Hizkidz


Our Hizkidz families have had delivery of an Easter pack with resources to help celebrate Easter at Home.
Please get in touch if you would like some ideas for grandkids etc. mmcastlefamily@gmail.com

We are going to be using an SU Scotland and SU Ireland resource called Colour in Easter and there are reflection sheets, PowerPoints and quizzes available on their website.
We will have our usual slots in the Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday services but there will also be an additional extra video appearing on our YouTube channel from 3pm on Good Friday (2nd April).

Easter event publicity

Easter Quiz

How well do you know the Easter story?

1. Which of the Gospels has Jesus upper room teaching and prayer?
2. What does Matthew say was the last thing the group did before leaving the upper room?
3.Which valley did Jesus and the disciples cross to get to the Garden of Gethsemane?  
4. Which 3 disciples went with Jesus to pray in the garden?
5. Who was told to help carry Jesus' cross?
6. Jesus was crucified at 'Golgotha' - what does that name mean?
7. What did the authorities bribe the soldiers to say regarding the empty tomb?
8. Where were the two people heading for when  Jesus met them on the road after the resurrection?
9. How did they describe their feelings as Jesus taught them from the Bible?
10. How many 'brothers' does Paul tell the Corinthians saw the resurrected Jesus at one event?

Answers below

RESURRECTION! 
origin

CELEBRATE ONLINE THE GREATEST EVENT EVER!  

Watch online on Sunday night, 7pm for the annual Resurrection concert by Origin Scotland.  It has always been one of the best concerts of the year!

Watch on YouTube here 
These events feature two bands, three choirs, two orchestras, and a wealth of soloists and guest speakers:
Steph Macleod, Bethany Coyle, Jonny Russell, Jordan Lang, Ellyn Oliver, Rouchelle Liedemann
The Gugulethu Tenors, The Cape Town Massed Choir, The Origin Scotland Choir, The Cape Town Gospel Choir
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, The Foot Stomping Gospel Band
The Origin Scotland orchestra (with guests from the USA and South Africa)With special guests:
Rev Jeff Mims, pastor of Judson Baptist Church, Nashville Tennessee
Rev John Young, minister of Liberton Kirk, Edinburgh
Rev Ian Macdonald, minister of Holy Trinity Church, Wester Hailes, Edinburgh
Graeme Shanks, pastor of Bruntsfield Evangelical Church, Edinburgh


Caves

Caves2

Maxwell Mearns Castle Church was built on a rock beside Mearns Castle in the early 1970s. As part of underpinning the building an area was created under the church on the solid rock, this has become known locally as the Caves. The drop from this area into the woods is a sheer drop and very dangerous.

It is also an echo chamber of sound and the residents below the church can hear if anyone is under the church. Over the last 50 years’ children and teenagers have clambered through the woods or scrambled up the rock face to get to the Caves. However last summer this trend got worse and far more frequent with the neighbours below having to call the police three or four times a day.
The noise, underage drinking and smoking, urinating, graffiti and verbal abuse is unacceptable, and more importantly those trying to access the caves have been putting themselves in real danger of a fall.

So as a church we had to act. We have now planted bushes and introduced ”nature piling” which has blocked access to the Caves from one side of the woods. The second remedy, suggested by the police, was anti climb paint. This has now been applied to the rocks below the Caves to inhibit climbing and it also now covers the area directly under the church where individuals congregated.
We ask all who have previously gone to the Caves to stop this and we ask all parents who read this article to make sure their children are aware of the changes we’ve made.

Jack Geddes

Answers to Easter Quiz

1. John     
2. Sang a hymn
3. Kidron
4. Peter, James, John
5. Simon of Cyrene
6. Place of a Skull
7. The disciples stole the body while they were asleep
8. Emmaus (11km from Jerusalem)
9. Their hearts burned within them
10. 500

Easter Art Winners

Well done to all who took part in the Play Group's Art competition. You can see all entries and list of winners on the Playgroup Page.
Here are the 1st place in each categories. 

Áine Robin McCluskey 3 years.
Aine Robin McCluskey

Jamie Hamilton - Nursery - Eas
Jamie Hamilton

Tom Haggarty 5Y.O P1
Tom Haggerty
Finlay Johnson Part 1 and 2 Ag
Finlay Johnson

Swati Mittal
Swati Mittal


At Home with the Gettys,

gettys
You might have missed this on BBC. A documentary about Keith and Kristyn Getty who have written many of the songs we sing at Maxwell. You can catch it on BBC iPlayer here
Join us on BBC for a special documentary, “At Home with the Gettys,” as we discuss our journey of writing hymns for the church, what our family has been doing during the lockdown, and sing some of our favourite songs from the North Coast of Ireland at Downpatrick Cathedral. We hope you can tune in! 


Vaccines



Over 80 years ago, in Greece sixty thousand Jews lived peacefully in Thessaloniki. It was a valued and vibrant community.
Most of these Jews worked in the port.  To the point that port of Thessaloniki was even closed on Saturday or Shabbat, the Jewish day when religion forbids working. Great emeritus rabbis also lived and studied there. Everyone hung out and liked each other.

But on September 2, 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, this peaceful community would one day feel the terror of the Nazis.

On April 6, 1941 Hitler invaded Greece in order to secure his southern front before launching the famous Operation Barbarossa and his great offensive against Russia. Of the 60,000 Jews in Thessaloniki, around 50,000 were exterminated at the Birkenau concentration camp. The massacre of the Jews of Greece was brief but intense. Very few escaped. Among the survivors there was a family known as Bourla.

And after the war, in 1961, a son was born into this miraculous family in the camps. His parents called him Israel - Abraham. He grew up and studied veterinary medicine in Greece. A brilliant student, Abraham got his doctorate in reproductive biotechnology at the veterinary school of Aristotle University in Salonika.
At the age of 34, he decided to move to the United States. He changed his first name Abraham to Albert and met a Jewish woman named Miriam who then became his wife. Together they had two children.

In the United States, Albert was integrated into the medical industry. He progressed very quickly and joined a pharmaceutical company where he became "Head manager". From there, the road was short for little Abraham (Albert) to rise through the ranks to become Chief Operation Officer before obtaining his appointment as CEO of the company in 2019.

Throughout 2020 Albert decided to direct all the efforts of the company to try to find a vaccine against a new virus which had just struck the world. He expended great financial and technological efforts to achieve his goal. A year later his work paid off and the WHO (World Health Organization) and US government authorized his company to produce the long-awaited vaccine ...
Today this vaccine will be distributed in several countries including Germany, which counted thousands of deaths due to the pandemic. Ironically, this vaccine which will save the lives of millions of people around the world including many Germans was led by a Jew from Thessaloniki, son of Holocaust survivors, most of his people were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

And that is why Israel became the first country to receive the vaccine. In memory of his grandparents and his parents who gave birth to Israel-Abraham Bourla known today as Albert Bourla: CEO of Pfizer!
 

Ladybird Book of Maxwell






 

Glasgow City Mission

0170 GCM Kilt Walk 2021 Text
Glasgow City Mission are one of the charities who will benefit from the Virtual Kiltwalk on 23-25 April. As this is a virtual event you can tailor your challenge, or activity, to you or your family and friends as long as it’s within the Covid guidelines.

As this is 2021, one of our volunteers is walking 21 miles, cycling 21 miles and then swimming 21 lengths of his local baths. If this doesn’t suit you why not climb a mountain, trampoline, walk, jog, run, have a family treasure hunt or play 21 games of chess. Whatever suits you.

All those who participate and raise funds for the Mission will have 50% added to their total by the Tom Hunter Foundation, what an incentive! In addition each participant will receive a bespoke Glasgow City Mission Kiltwalk t-shirt.

If you are interested in fundraising for Glasgow City Mission please follow this link - where details of how to get involved and register can be found. Remember when registering to select “Glasgow City Mission” as your charity.

If you have any questions please contact Jack Geddes 07714 983075.


Pulse logo

Wednesday at 7.15pm - 8.30pm

 

Wonder Walks #7

walk 7

The Scottish Bible Society have created a Wonder Walks series for Lent and Easter. Click here 

As we lead up to Easter use these to help you focus on God when you are out for a walk or in your garden. On each map you will find something to read from the Gospel of Mark, questions to think about, games to play, and ideas to pray about. You don’t need to prepare anything in advance, just download your map and head off for your weekly Wonder Walk! 

Visit the SBS website


spring harvest
SPRING HARVEST 2021 - 4th to 8th April,

It will be strange again this year not to be sending our team to Spring Harvest with David Cameron as Chief Steward as in a normal year!
 
SH will be going online with ‘Unrivalled: Why we worship’ and will be exploring why we worship, which starts with who we worship. Every new challenge we face brings a new opportunity to tune into God and join in with his mission. Whatever comes our way, our God is unchanged, our God is unshakeable, our God is Unrivalled and we will worship him. It’s the perfect time to consider how and where we worship, whether on our own, together, all the time and everywhere, in singing, in silence, in service and in the soundscape of our whole lives. If we need to discover some different ways of worshipping together, we will!
 
Spring Harvest Home is far more than online teaching and worship. Using a new platform, it's the first Christian event of its kind in the UK. It's exciting, interactive, family-friendly and a brilliant shared experience!

Tickets at £55 from the Spring Harvest web page will access all the brilliant content online, both live and on demand until the end of April. You can access Spring Harvest Home on two devices (laptop, desktop or smartphone)

Sue

Word-One-to-One-Banner
The Kirk Session has been encouraging us to build into our lives a desire to share the Gospel in a simple way with friends and family. To this end, we are being encouraged to use “The Word One To One” material.
Let’s all try and find one person to open John’s Gospel with. Remember to share online by zoom or by some other platform, you can download the exact same booklet. Simply go to our website; www.maxwellmearns.org and press the “Church Life” tab >  then press the “Reaching Out” tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. You see all 11 booklets listed and available for download.
Speak to Margo McN if you would like to see a copy of a booklet.
 
 
 
 
Martin Boyd, 31/03/2021