“Always be rejoicing. Give thanks for everything.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16, 18

How grateful are you?  
Is it possible to live a life of gratitude in an age of entitlement? 

Gratitude helps us to focus on the positive, recognising all the blessings in our lives and can help us get closer to God. The Bible has plenty to say about gratitude, even when people are faced with struggles and suffering.

Gratitude is our rightful response to all that God is and has done for us. The Bible shows us that becoming a grateful person begins with the recognition that the God who owes us nothing has given us everything. 

This Advent, our study groups explore the theme of gratitude in the Scriptures, and how gratitude is an attitude that is key to our discipleship and Christian witness and that we need to cultivate. The aim of this three session study is to help us develop thankful hearts, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

The Study Groups will meet 
on Wednesdays 6^th, 13^th and 20^th December

Afternoons from 1:30-3:00pm 
at James and Anna’s house in Spinningdale

Evenings from 7:00-8:30pm online on Zoom

More details (including Zoom link) from Canon James 

Our Study Group for the Season of Creation (the month of September) this year will be based around some ideas that Canon James has been exploring in relation to Liturgical Revision to make “Thankfulness for ALL of God’s gifts to us in Creation” more central, as it used to be in the early liturgies of the Christian Church.

There will be four sessions each lasting a little over an hour, one after each of the midweek services in St Andrew’s Tain Hall (Thursdays starting at 6:45pm) on:

• 7^th Sept – Cycles, Seasons and Humanity’s Ingenuity 

• 14^th Sept – Resurrection and Salvation

• 21^st Sept – Creation and Revelation 

• 28^th Sept – Liturgy and Thankfulness

The sessions will be semi-independent, so you are welcome even if you can’t manage all of them.  The mid-week Eucharist (at 6pm) will be integral to the final session (on 28^th Sept) and with +Mark’s permission, we will be using Bishop Thomas Rattray’s 1744 recreation of The Ancient Liturgy of the Church in Jerusalem. If you wish any more information, speak to or contact Canon James.

Every September you can explore hundreds of fascinating buildings across Scotland for free. Some open up once a year, some just once in a lifetime. As it is such a diverse region, the Highlands is split into three areas across three weekends. Inverness, the Black Isle, and Easter Ross is Weekend One (2nd and 3rd September), Caithness and Sutherland are Weekend Three (16th and 17th September) 

The theme for this year is ‘Living Heritage’ so the focus is on the crafts, traditions, and practices of the people of the Highlands – both past and present – and how these traditions continue nowadays. In that context, St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tain will be open on both days as follows:

• Saturday 2nd September – 10am until 4pm for visitors

• Sunday 3rd September – 10:30am until 12:30pm for worship and fellowship (visitors most welcome) and again 2pm – 4pm for visitors.

On both days, we will offer refreshments and the opportunity to look round the building either using a specially prepared guide booklet or by being shown highlights by a member of the congregation.

There is some very fine Stained Glass by Ballantine and Gardiner, A. L. Ward, W. Wilson and E. B. Souden

Mousey Thompson Furnishings

Our lovely unaltered 1914 C & F Hamilton (Edinburgh) organ

and much more.

All are very welcome to visit on either day.

Our entry on the Doors Open Day web site.