Bearsden Cross Church - Events & News

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Events & News for your diary

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Five Year Action Plan

The Church of Scotland requires all congregations to develop a Five-Year Action Plan. For more details see the current issue of our parish magazine.

To assist in the development of our plan a questionnaire is being distributed to members. We also wish to survey parts of our local community such as schools, organisations, those who use our facilities as well as others; to establish their views on what the church should be doing or providing in the community. Everyone is welcome to make their views felt, whether or not they are members.

The questionnaire can be downloaded as a Word document or as a PDF document.

Completed questionnaires may be returned by post or by hand, and may be left in either of the church mail boxes (Halls door or outside the Vestry) or in the boxes in the Assembly area or Vestibule.

Alternatively, you can edit the document on your computer and after adding your responses email the saved version or a scanned copy as an attachment to either secretary@bearsdencross.org or SessionClerk@Bearsdencross.org

Return of the survey by October 16th would be helpful.



For this year’s Bible Basics, we will focus on that great collection of poetry, prose and prayer in the Old Testament known as the ‘Psalms’.

There are 150 Psalms and these span many different genres such as: - lament, praise, thanksgiving, royal (focussed on kingship), and wisdom. As in some previous years, we will be using video materials produced by Professor Tom Wright aimed at everyone, as well as other sources.

‘Bible Basics’ is intended to offer a fairly gentle entry into Bible Study and is aimed at those curious to find out some of the basic stories and themes of the Bible. ‘Bible Basics’ will take place on Tuesday mornings at 10.30am in the Guild Room and will last around 60 – 90 minutes. All of the relevant materials will be provided. We will initially meet on the following dates:-

Date	Topic
Tuesday November 3rd	Psalm 8
Tuesday November 19th	Psalm 19
Tuesday December 1st	Psalm 44
Tuesday December 15th	Psalm 88

Coffee Concert Saturday November 21st


We extremely fortunate to have Asako Ogawa for the next Saturday Morning Coffee Concert on 21st November for this, our very first, harpsichord recital.

Originally from Japan and now based in London, Asako studied initially in Tokyo and then at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She performs regularly at leading festivals and venues including the London Handel Festival and the Halle Handel Festival in Germany. She has also featured on BBC Television and Radio.

The programme she has chosen for us – “French Connections” – is a “tour d’horizon” of the major peaks of the harpsichord repertoire: Couperin, Rameau, Bach and Handel.

As usual, fresh coffee and tea with home baking will be served beforehand from 10.45 am in the small hall, with the recital in the church at 11.30 am.

Tickets, priced £15, payable by cash or card, (free for accompanied children) will be available at the door.






20th Anniversary Service Sunday December 6th


We will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the union of the former North and South churches to form Bearsden Cross Church at our morning Communion service on Sunday 6th December 2026 at 10.30am.



The Very Rev John Chalmers, Moderator of the General Assembly 2014-15, will be our guest preacher that day and we plan to have a Congregational Lunch in the Hall afterwards.



More details will be available in the weekly Intimations, and in the December magazine, but we wanted you to put the date in your diaries now.



Please email secretary@bearsdencross.org, or sign up on the sheets in the Vestibule or Assembly Area (available from mid-November) if you plan to attend the lunch so that we can organise the numbers for catering.





Warning: Fake Church Lottery Scam

Can we be too trusting?

As a church community, trust and generous hearts come naturally to us. Unfortunately, scammers often try to exploit those good qualities. Even if we feel fraud-aware, modern online scams are convincing and easy to fall for.

Warning: Fake Church Lottery Scam
The Church of Scotland Law Department recently issued an urgent warning about fake, professional-looking websites promoting a "Church of Scotland fundraising lottery"—both nationally and framed as local congregations.
Please note: The Church of Scotland does not run a fundraising lottery.
Spot the Red Flag: One clear giveaway on these fake sites is the web address, which misspells Scotland with two ‘c’s.
Who to Contact: If you have concerns about this particular example, email lawdept@churchofscotland.org.uk
If you or someone you know lost money to this scam, please notify Police Scotland and your bank immediately.

Three Simple Steps to Stay Safe
Look at the advice to protect yourself from online fraud from Take 5, to Stop Fraud. It is a national campaign that empowers individuals
 https://www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/
Stop: Pause before sharing money or personal details.
Challenge: Ask yourself if it could be fake. It is always okay to say no or ignore a request—only scammers will try to rush or panic you.
Protect: If you think you’ve been targeted, contact your bank straight away and report it to Action Fraud.

Free Tools & Alerts
Stay ahead of scammers by signing up for the Which? Scam Alert Newsletter at
signup.which.co.uk/wlp-scamalert-newsletter Its free and can help you to spot and avoid the latest scams.
Scam Busting Tools from Which? offer a round up of some free resources that can help you spot and avoid scams
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/scam-busting-tools-to-know-about-aRrTa7a2zeiF

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For More on the services together with other events see below, also viewable as a calendar or check out the current issue of our parish magazine.

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