The Berwickshire Episcopal Churches Group (BECG)
Please click onto the following links to discover more information about the churches in the group
St Mary & All Souls Coldstream , Christ Church Duns and St Ebba's Eyemouth
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas for 2020 and Peaceful New Year in 2021 full of peace, hope and love. For details of Christmas Services see BECG: Services and Worship.
A printable Christmas Card from Chris Jones with services times and arrangements is attached here.
AGM
Just a reminder that the Christ Church Duns AGM will be held on Sunday 6 December in church and via ZOOM at approximately 11.30 am. Relevant documents have already been circulated to the congregation. For further information contact the Rector
Remembrance Sunday parades are not happening this year around the Scottish Borders. Remembrance events traditionally take place at War Memorials up and down the country on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day, but this year things will be very different. For Scottish Government Guidelines go to https://www.poppyscotland.org.uk/docs/default-source/poppyscotland-documents/fundraising/poppy-appeal/scottish-government---remembrance-guidance---covid--19-protection-level-guidance---29-october-202036843b0e-d50c-457c-a8f0-5cf433abca87.pdf?sfvrsn=3f7a094_3
You may also wish to contribute to the Scottish Poppy Appeal: see https://www.poppyscotland.org.uk/get-involved/poppy-appeal
There will not be a church service in Christ Church Duns on 8 November.. Instead you are welcome to attend the Remembrance service at Duns Parish Church at 11.15. Due to cv-19 guidelines numbers allowed o attend are somewhat limited. For further details see https://www.dunsanddistrict.org.uk/calendar/event.php?event=5992&monthly_view=grid&calendar_category_id=0
Link to Just Giving, please click here.
ZOOM INSTRUCTIONS Please Click here
For useful guidelines of 16 May 2020 about securing zoom meetings click here
Update (4 April 2020):
Zoom has tightened up security because a lot of meetings have been getting disruptive gatecrashers. From now on we need a password, I have tried to turn it off but we don't seem to be allowed to.
You can get straight into the Church Zoom by using this link which has the password coded within it and will let you straight in. This is the easiest thing to do:
https://zoom.us/j/3274618058?pwd=U081YUU3MDBIc3NpVHRuNkFZMkprQT09
If you join manually by typing in the number then the number has not changes but now there is a password as shown below:
Meeting ID: 327 461 8058
Password: Church
Reflections in Troubled Times: Christ Church Duns
During these unusual and stressful times, it is wonderful how our vestry and congregation are facing the challenges of the cv19 Pandemic. As always, at Christ Church, the vestry and the priest-in-charge, Reverend Chris Jones, have risen to the challenges and extraordinary changes that we are now facing: many of them working despite the stresses of illness and deaths of some of their relatives and friends.
By 17 March the pandemic was emerging in Scotland and by the end of that week Peter Estibeiro had introduced Chris and Janet to ZOOM; by the Sunday 22 March the first BECG ZOOM church service took place and by Sunday 29 March its virtual congregation had risen to thirty-two complete with music. In addition, Chris is holding ZOOM morning prayer and compline each day; Bible Study will become a ZOOM regular feature each Friday from 3 April; and plans are in place for virtual coffee mornings. All Vestry members had embraced ZOOM and held their first Vestry virtual meeting on 23 March; alongside this, the organist Paul Starkey, is developing on-line music and Youtube resources; the Treasurer, Genny Dixon, is setting up ‘Just Giving’ arrangements via our website; the Worship Group chaired by Andrew Lester had worked up alternative service arrangements; and a network of informal phone chats with all congregation members has been implemented.
In order for any relevant information to be disseminated as widely as possible, the Vestry Secretary is converting the Christ Church website into one that can be useful to the three BECG churches. Helen Page has produced an excellent double-size Newsletter too. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the College of Bishops, Bishop John and Diocese staff for their many informative guidelines and timely e-mails. These were disseminated to the congregation or Vestry as appropriate via emails, phone calls, the website and Facebook and were instrumental in our planning process and our extraordinary calm adaptation to change. Keep safe!
Diocese Newsletter The Communicant
The new edition of The Communicant is now available on the Diocesan website, click here. This edition has nteresting snippets about the three churches!
Holy Week services: https://www.scotland.anglican.org/broadcast-sunday-worship/