My dear friends,

Normally at this time I may well have chosen to write about the approach of summer and holidays.

As I write this I suspect that holidays may be the last thing on our minds. Last year’s are but dim

and distant memories; this year’s - well, cancelled, uncertain, still to book - if so when and where?

Holiday - the word holiday comes from Holy Day, a day that is special. It has of course come to

mean a time away from work, from our normal routine. For most of us right now, well, we are

spending time away from our normal routine but it is not a holiday. I don’t know about you but I

have a new routine - breakfast, read the paper, go for a walk, have a

cup of tea, lunch and then settle at the desk to work then dinner and very often television and

knitting. In between are the phone calls to family. I wonder if we would all do well to follow Jesus’

example and to set aside some time from our new routine, time for quiet reflection.

To those of you trying to work at home and at the same time home schooling your children - not so

easy! To those of you at home on your own, furloughed from work perhaps, unable to meet up

with your friends, then finding the time might be little easier. To all of us, wherever we are, may I

suggest that we do take a little time each day to be still, to be still in the presence of the Lord, to

perhaps look out of the window at the fresh green leaves, to listen to the birdsong and the

reduction in traffic noise. To be still in the presence of the Lord and to turn to his book, perhaps to

read the psalms, psalms full of human emotion, of sorrow, of praise, of anger, words that so reflect

our human emotions and our human needs.

From Psalm 46 God is our refuge and our stronghold, a timely help in trouble; so we are not afraid

though the earth shakes and the mountains move in the depths of the sea, when its waters seethe

in tumult and the mountains quake before his majesty. (Revised English Bible)

We would do well to remember Jesus’ words as he spoke about his death to his disciples,

he said, “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give as

the world does. Do not be worried and upset, do not be afraid.”

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us.

Mhairi

ISSUE 39 May 2020

Paisley Stow Brae Kirk

(The Church of Scotland) Causeyside Street

Since the last edition of Connections the Guild continued during February and part of March before the Coronavirus lockdown directly affected our meetings. Our Organist, Alan, came along again at the end of January for our Burns night. He brought Marion and Muriel and they provided some lovely music appropriate for that time of year. We do appreciate the willingness of Alan to visit us and hope it will be a regular event. At the beginning of February Isabel McNaughton came to talk about WEvolution and the plan was for a Representative from Erskine to come to speak about Caring for Veterans the following night, however, we had to cancel this night due to the bad weather. Fortunately, despite many wet nights during our session, this was our only cancellation. We were really busy for the next part of February preparing for our Concert on Saturday 15th and for the Service on Sunday 16th. DARAMA...the musical group who had been last year returned to entertain us and they were well received again. The audience turned out despite atrocious weather and enjoyed an afternoon of excellent music and afternoon tea. The next day we welcomed the Gordon Webster Trio to conduct our Service. We did see that the "trio" had expanded with more friends added and we had a very different type of Service with their music and message. Again the congregation seemed to enjoy this. The Guild Committee would like to thank the congregation and friends and Mhairi and Session for their support on both these occasions. We had Compass at the end of February for a musical evening. Unfortunately, there was only Ian that night as his fellow musician was ill, however, we did appreciate that Ian did not let us down. He came along and provided the good music that we've become accustomed to. We have known Ian and his partner for over twenty years now! Our friend Shona from the congregation was our guest at the beginning of March. She believes that learning a language keeps our brains fit so she endeavoured to teach us how to count in Spanish and to learn familiar greetings in various languages! Her presentation was conducted very well and made the night interesting and challenging! It certainly kept us on our toes! Rockus choir joined us the following night and they were welcomed back very enthusiastically. We noticed that their numbers seemed to have increased but then they announced that they had Zig Zag choir from Inchinnan so between them they gave us a great night of music and sing along. On reflection, it is good that we all had an enjoyable evening because, although we didn't know it then, it turned out to be our last night as all organisations had to stop because of the Covid- 19 lockdown. Everything is on hold now....our basket tea, our AGM and our trip. We are tentatively planning our next session starting in October but we do not know when we will be back to normal. Let us hope and pray that our members and all the congregation will get through this and that we will all meet up soon, safe and well. Stay safe. Pat (Convener)

The Guild

Amazon Smile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products and shopping features as Amazon.co.uk. The difference is that when you shop on Amazon Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price to your charity. We have registered this on behalf of the Church. The registered name is Paisley: Stow Brae Kirk and the email is Smile, Amazon.co.uk. Feel free to use this if you shop at Amazon.

Yours with.thanks Irene Woods.

Stow Brae Toddlers

Along with all other organisations and groups we were disappointed to have to close our doors at the end of March. We do, however, understand the need for staying home to stay safe.

We hope all of our parents and carers are coping during lockdown and that the little ones are keeping

you entertained without driving you too crazy!! To all of the grannies and grampas who are missing spending time with the little ones - don’t worry - usual babysitting duties will be resumed as soon as

possible.

We look forward to having our group back together on a Wednesday morning as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime please look after yourselves and your families as best you can.

It seems ages since our halls were filled with the voices of our young folks as they took part, usually noisily, in all of their activities and while we hope it won’t be too long until once more we’re able

to meet, realistically that is likely to be next session. So while we can’t be together let us first look back at what we did together before lockdown.

Helped once more by Graeme and Charlotte’s teaching the First Aid Trophies were again returned to our Company. Andrew and Fraser for our Seniors came first and our Junior teams came first (Alan and Matthew) and second (Callum and Matthew). A great afternoon, and fun too for the juniors who acted as casualties, all learning a hugely important life skill.

Our Juniors returned to the Figure Marching competition in February and for the first time ever came away with a medal for second place. Considering none had ever taken part at this level before it was a great achievement for them. Their surprise when the award was called out was wonderful to see – they’re not easily shocked but they were that afternoon!!

The next weekend was our fundraising night for parents and friends at Charleston Bowling club. It was a fantastic night, well supported with superb feedback and to cap it all our Company funds were boosted by £1100. As a result of our fundraising this year we were able to donate to the Church and with help from Stuart our Property Convener and despite lockdown a new cooker has been fitted in the upstairs kitchen – here’s to lots of good food as a result!!

Craig Glassford and Fraser Kydd completed the final part of their President’s badge work attending the Battalion’s training event on 8 March and that together with Anchor Boy day at Gleniffer school on 14 March were the last events for this session. As ever Anchor Boy day was a great success and the boys who attended had a wonderful time

With the restrictions since then our plans for Queens Badge completion and then camp were cancelled. We’re assured Robbie won’t suffer as a consequence of this and the hard work he’s put in to achieving his Queens badge will be recognised and the badge awarded. Similarly our camp plans will be revisited later.

Once more thanks to the generosity of the boys’ parents and you, our congregation and despite the early closure of our campaign I was able to hand over more than 80 eggs and Easter treats to the local foodbank. A few weeks later with no opportunity to pass on eggs to our boys, Alan passed on more than 40 eggs to ROAR and helped distribute them to older folks unable to get out for essentials. Once again our Easter message was able to be shared with the local community – thank you!

Although we can’t meet at present the work of the Boys’ Brigade continues as BB nationally has launched #BBATHOME with lots of weekly activities for its members, all designed to be done at home.

Finally I have to share with you a tragic loss for our Company, our Church and personally for our family. Very suddenly on Sat 28h March, Hugh Young passed away. Hugh had been a member of the Boys’ Brigade since he joined Juniors at the age of 8. After gaining his Queens Badge he trained as a leader and served for 37 years. He worked tirelessly for the organisation he loved, helping to shape the characters of lots of boys through the Brigade’s activities. The many cards, calls and messages on Facebook telling us how much of an influence Hugh had on many lives is a true testament to the work that he did and he would be so touched to learn of folks feelings at his passing. Hugh’s death leaves a huge hole not only in the lives of his wife Ina and two children Pamela and Alan but also in the life of our Company as we’ve lost a very committed and experienced leader. Our prayer is that God will help us to follow in his example and to continue the journey together knowing that Hugh’s ‘anchor is now safe by the heavenly shore’. At some future date the family hope to celebrate Hugh’s life with a service of thanksgiving when we’ll all be able to share lots of wonderful memories of our time with him.

If you’d like to find out about more of our activities please visit our Facebook page – 15th Paisley Boys’

Brigade. Thank you as always for your on-going support which really is very much appreciated.

Jan Phillips, Captain

Phone 01505 348103 E mail George.phillips3@ntlworld.com

YOUR DONATIONS and the CHURCH FINANCES

Please forgive me writing to you about the Church’s finances at such a difficult

time; a time when you have so many other things on your mind.

However, when this is all over and life at Stow Brae returns to normal, we may

have to face the fact that our funds have taken a bit of a knock. We have our

reserves to draw on and we are, of course, trying to reduce spending. We are using the Government ‘furlough’

support scheme for our employees’ wages. But we have lost the income we normally get from things like Hall

Lets and we are more dependant than ever on the regular weekly donations we get from members.

So my plea to you is that - if you can still afford it - could you keep up your regular giving to Stow Brae?

If you pay by Standing Order I hope you will, if possible, continue to do so. And if you give with an envelope or

put cash in the plate could you think about putting the money aside each week: perhaps filling your envelope

each week and handing them in when we meet again. Hopefully that won’t be too long.

Thank you

Jack Martin (Finance Committee)

ICE CREAM SUNDAY Ice Cream Sunday will return when everything is back to normal but we thought it would be nice to revisit some of the stuff we have done recently. For example we have made autumn leaves and a family tree to celebrate the people we love, painted poppies to remember and celebrate those who gave everything, and joined in the Christmas Tree competition by decorating our own Christmas tree. We also painted aprons using fruit, that got a bit messy! Still to come when we kick off again will be ice cream sundaes, marsh mallow pops, and a mad hatters tea party where we will, of course, make our own hats and show them off in Church. So we have lots to look forward to when we start back, and if your children want to think up things for us to do when we do come back, so much the better.

A few weeks ago, just before Shrove Tuesday, the children had great fun making pancakes. If you're running out of things to keep you busy in these strange times when we can't get out and about maybe you would like to try them too. Ingredients 100g (4oz) SR flour 25g (1oz) caster sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder Pinch of salt 1 egg 100ml milk(3.5fl oz) milk

Try them for breakfast with bacon and maple syrup or fried with an egg on top (if you're counting the calories try toasted pancake and a poached egg) Try them for lunch spread with chilli jam and topped with cheddar cheese. Try them for pudding with a dollop of ice cream on top, fresh strawberries and cream. Or just eat them with butter and jam whenever they come out of the pan!!!

Linda Galvin and Frances Telford

Method 1. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 2. Add the egg and a little of the milk and mix. 3. Gradually add the rest of the milk and mix until you have a smooth batter. 4. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and leave for a few minutes to warm up. 5. Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot pan - leave space for them to spread a little. 6. When the surface starts to bubble turn the pancakes over to cook the other side. 7. Lift out of the pan and cool in a tea towel.

Social Committee Update The social committee are disappointed that none of the events planned for the summer season have been able to go ahead. We do, however, understand that the health and safety of our congregation and the wider community has to come first. We look forward to returning with a new program of events as soon as we can safely do so.

All items for inclusion in the next edition should be with Irene (igirenegem@gmail.com) before Sunday 26th July