mmacphail – Page 3 – St Ninian's & St Clement's

20/12/2023

Preparing for Christmas…

The past week, was truly ‘beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ at St Ninian’s…….First, during 9.30 Sunday Mass, the children’s liturgy group brought smiles to many parishioners faces through their enactment of their ‘unrehearsed’ Nativity play.

Nativity Play

This version of the Nativity acted and sung by the children was very appropriate and made us all think about the true meaning of Christmas- Christmas should not be overtaken by the commercialism of the season. Their final song was very moving. If you’d like to see them and hear them, click the video

Carol Service

On Tuesday evening, a joint Carol Service with St Clements was held in St Ninian’s – a very joyful and meaningful service written by Maureen Ruddy. The singing was considerably enhanced by the children’s voices of St Ninian’s school choir and their rendition of ‘Alleluia’ was beautiful.

School’s End of Term Mass

On Thursday afternoon, the church was filled with excited children from St Ninian’s for their end of term Mass and Carol Concert. It was a beautiful and happy service and a very meaningful one for Mrs Dundas, (Katie) who was retiring after 37 years of teaching, 17 of which have been at St Ninian’s. She will certainly be missed but hopefully won’t be a stranger to the school or the parish. I’m sure, like all the congregation she enjoyed the children’s choir and their singing of her favourite carol, In the Bleak Midwinter and of course, Alleluia

Eco

14/12/2023

Busy Week for Helpers

The Garden Gang were kept busy building the crib for the church while in CC’s, a special Christmas Afternoon Tea was served up to our customers……and of course, our little robin from the Mary Garden, pops up occasionally to let us know he’s not been forgotten amidst all this activity.

Eco / St Ninian’s

07/12/2023

Ecumenical Advent Service

On Wednesday 7^th December, we were joined by parishioners from Auchterhouse, Fowlis, Liff, Lundie and Muirhead Churches and St John’s Cross Church, Dundee for a beautiful ecumenical Advent Service, organised and devised by Maureen Ruddy.

Fr Johney was supported in this prayerful service by Rev. Donna Hays and Rev. Grant MacLaughlin. The service comprised of prayers, readings, reflections, hymns and a candle lit procession which was particularly lovely.

We send a heartfelt thanks to Maureen for making this special event happen and thank you also to Angela, our organist and Colette, our Cantor for the wonderful music.

As one of the parishioners commented, “It was a beautiful uplifting service -so lovely to have the involvement of the other churches.”

View the slideshow below, to get a flavour of the evening…..

Lighting the advent candle
congregation
Praying
Fr Johney leading the procession
Candle procession
Candle procession
Singing

After the service? A chance to chat and make new acquaintances over a cuppa and mincemeat pie.

Eco

14/11/2023

Eco Silver Award Presentation

Sunday Mass was an extra special one as Canon Kevin presented us with our much awaited plaque! We won the award almost two years ago following hard work and dedication as a congregation, to tackle climate change and do our own part, however large or small.

The Church building has undergone impressive changes to reduce our carbon footprint, we have strived to help people locally and overseas and, as a caring and friendly community, we have pulled together to make amazing changes.

We are proud to be the first Parish in Dundee and one of the few in Scotland, to achieve this award. So now, with the support of all our Parishioners, we are GOING FOR GOLD! Thank you to everyone for your efforts.

Eco / Garden / Recycling / St Ninian’s

06/10/2023

CC Juniors Gardening Club

Thursday past, despite the very poor weather conditions, 8 youngsters turned up after school for the first of monthly meetings of CC’s Juniors. (Gardening Club). Louise, Bernadette and Maureen had a busy but fun time with the children- sowing seeds, planting bulbs, making bird feeders from peanut butter + toilet roll!

They also enjoyed a healthy snack of fruit kebabs.

Our CC Junior Gardening Club is in full swing! 🌱 by Margret MacPhail

Eco

01/10/2023

St Clement’s Harvest Festival

St Clement’s, St Ninian’s sister parish held their International Harvest Festival this weekend. Once again, the parishioners rose to the occasion, some dressing in their national costume and all bringing gifts of fruit which is to be distributed between the school, the local housebound and care homes. Well done St Clement’s!

Eco

26/09/2023

International Harvest Festival

This past weekend, as part of the Season of Creation, an “International Harvest Festival” was held during both Masses at St Ninian’s .

Parishioners were encouraged to come dressed in their traditional attire or in bright clothing and many did! They were also asked to bring gifts of fruit and their response was amazing! Both Masses were a real celebration of the fruits of the harvest.

After the Offertory procession and handing over the gifts of fruit to Fr Johney, the children sang their own harvest song.

The fruits of parishioners’ labours were gratefully received by four groups in our community. Their generous gifts of all kinds of fruits were distributed to our local primary schools, St Ninian’s and Tayview. Both schools expressed their appreciation and said the children would enjoy the healthy snacks of apples, oranges and bananas.

The elderly residents of Menzieshill house also appreciated the produce, with staff commenting it was a real treat to get healthy food donated.

The final recipients of their generosity were clients of the Salvation Army hostel in Ward Road. The chef there was delighted to get the plethora of pears and other vegetables and fruits, which he planned to turn into tasty dishes for the residents.
So, well done St Ninian’s parishioners, you are definitely the pick of the bunch!

Eco

04/09/2023

September Garden

It’s hard to tell whether summer is on its way out or on its way back in! We must be grateful for this lovely sunshine at the beginning of September. The Mary Garden is definitely changing, less prolific flowering but nevertheless plenty to see. This week we saw the return of “Jim Ruddy’s Asters” which were one of the first perennials we planted – now blooming for the third year.

The Cosmos (always a joy) are keeping the bees happy and the brambles (which give us such a job because their roots are so invasive in every spare space!) can definitely be forgiven as they are now providing food for the birds – and a few happy gardeners 😉

Author: mmacphail