Glasgow & Galloway Events 2019

Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway

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Glasgow and Galloway 2019

Away From It All (AFIA) Project

A substantial donation from the Brough Family in 2018 has made it possible for Mothers’ Union in Glasgow and Galloway to give seven families an AFIA holiday.

Working in partnership with the North Ayrshire Woman’s Aid (WA) Group and the Field Study Centre (FSC) meant that a total of 7 mums and 14 very excited children – whose ages ranged from 3 to 15 – were able to come on the holiday, which took place from 14th -16th October 2019.

To read more about the holiday, how the generous support of our donor and partners enabled it to happen and see some pictures from the holiday, please click here.

Festival Service 2019

At our Festival on Saturday 10th August hosted by Holy Trinity Church, Motherwell, our Diocese, together with other Mothers’ Union members across the Province, celebrated 130 years work of the Mothers’ Union in Scotland. Our theme was ‘Touching lives for God’, taken from the personal prayer of our founder, Mary Sumner:

‘All this day, O Lord,

Let me touch as many lives as possible for thee;

And every life I touch, do thou by thy spirit quicken,

Whether through the word I speak,

The prayer I breathe, or the life I live.

Amen’

For the occasion, banner bearers came from across the Diocese to process during the opening and closing part of the service. The photo above shows Jill Cameron, Diocesan President to the far right and in the centre, Christine Crawford, and Jennifer Gray, who carried the senior and junior banners respectively from our host branch. Just to the left of them, ready to carry the Diocesan Banner is Paul Hindle who is a member of Bishopbriggs MU and the new Worldwide Trustee representing our Zone J, Scotland.

Rev Lucy Ireland, our Diocesan Chaplain, in her address, gave recognition to the value of the work done by the Mothers’ Union over the years to build, support and sustain family life. Rev Lucy emphasised the need for our organisation to continue to do this work of supporting children and families, saying this need is as strong as ever in today’s society.

During the service and in the fellowship afterwards, we recognised and celebrated the 40 years of service to Mothers’ Union given by Olga Harding, a member at Motherwell. She on the right in the picture above with branch leader, Katharine Kilgour (centre), and Jill Cameron.

Also during the fellowship after the service, Hilary Moran (former Provincial President and Diocesan Trustee) provided information about plans for eight families from the Diocese, who would otherwise not have a holiday, to get ‘away from it all’ on the Isle of Cumbrae. These holidays, known as Away From It All or AFIA holidays, are something offered Mothers’ Union all over the UK. They are primarily funded by our members to give the opportunity of a holiday away from stress for families in need. They provide children and families with new opportunities to learn and play together and include games on the beach and lessons about ecology and sea life, for example. Click here for more information.

There are more pictures from the day on the Facebook pages of Holy Trinity, Motherwell and the SEC Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway.

SALT Day

Our first Sharing and Learning Together (SALT) Day was held at Bishop’s Court in Paisley (next to Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church) on Saturday 27th April 2019. The intention of the day was as it says in the title, to share with each other what we know and to learn from each other.

The day was open to members from throughout the Province. The subjects included guidance for branch treasurers, programming of meetings and prayer. Almost half the time was spent on an interactive exploration of MULOA, which was new to many of our members.

The whole day was surrounded with prayer and worship. It gave a wonderful opportunity for sharing and learning from each other. Initial feedback has been extremely positive with a number of members saying they would like to come to the repeat event due to be held in Dumfries in October.

World Day of Prayer 2019

Ann Wren, one of our members, is a member of the WDP Scottish Committee. She has written a one-page newsletter about WDP in Scotland. It can be downloaded by clicking here.

As she says in the letter, please contact her if you would like to have someone come and speak at a meeting. Click here to email her. There’s more information on the WDP Scotland website.