september 07d

COSY

The next meeting of our COSY Groups will take place on
Thursday 13th September at 7 pm in Holytown Church.
This will be the 4th of our COSY meetings and a very
warm welcome is given to everyone.

The Guild

The new Session of the Guild will resume on Wednesday 10th October at 7.15 pm in the Senior Citizens' Centre, Main Street, Holytown. The speaker will be Mr S McNeil. You will be made most welcome.

Did you know?

You must be aware that we support the work of Bible Lands when we purchase the covers for the Christmas magazine and more recently for the Easter one. This charity works in the Middle East in countries such as Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Recently two of us from the congregation went to a special day in Glasgow where we met many others who are interested in this work.

Let me share with you a little bit about the life of Dr Amal Khazin who is Director of Education at the Nazareth School of Nursing. Had it not been for Bible Lands this lady's life would have been very different. She is an Arab Christian and is a Palestinian. Through the kindness of Bible Lands she was educated first of all at school and then later was given the opportunity to train as a doctor of nursing. Many other young people of her day were on the side lines, caught up in the poverty of the area with little hope of being able to improve their situation. Through the training she received she now trains others and works in the hospital at Nazareth. At one time the number of nurses in training was as low as four but now it has risen to over 200. The hospital is new but because of the numbers an auditorium will have to be added. This will happen. Dr Khazin herself was aghast at the speed with which the hospital was erected and is delighted to be there.

This lady is a very sincere Christian who lives in an area where only 2% of the Arabs are Christians. Life is not easy but because her faith is so strong she truly believes that the work in which she is engaged will go from strength to strength. As she spoke she was very emotional and showed clearly how deeply she feels for the hospital and all that it stands for in the community. Hearing about the situation makes us realise just how easy things are for us and just how much we take for granted. Do pray for this caring doctor as she works in Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up.

A little prayer

A precentor

One of the features of our church in the 19th century was a precentor. His task was to lead the congregational singing without having an organ or any other musical instrument. Even today in the Western Isles one can find a precentor leading the praise in the Church of Scotland.

A story is told of a precentor who had been congratulated by the minister for his singing. However the precentor disagreed by saying "I began with Irish and I lost it in the second line. But I catched the French in the third line. Doctor".

It was believed that the words of the Psalms should not be sung at choir practices because they were not held on a Sunday. Verses, many of them humorous, were concocted for the weekday meetings. Here are two examples:

For "Coleshill"

For "Devizes"