St Ninian's & St Clement's

St Ninian's & St Clement's, Catholic Churches Together

Category: Eco

Eco / Garden

Local Connections

Following an appeal from Ballumbie Hedgehog Rescue (and following on from CC Juniors hedgehog theme in February!) a couple of us went to visit The Men’s Shed In Invergowrie to try to build links within the local community. Long story short – the Men’s Shed have helped us in the production of a hedgehog house which in turn has helped Ballumbie who are delighted with our efforts to try to provide a safe shelter for a hedgehog! All we have to do now is wait and hope …. 🦔 

The Men’s Shed is a fantastic environment for men (only) who enjoy working with wood and metal and is a place to chat, work, relax and get support from others.  It’s a huge area with lots going on. It really was inspiring to see the projects happening and luckily Jim (Ashwood) was able to work with a friend who is a member there and wow! look at their finished product! 🤩  Thanks so much for a great job Jim!

We are very grateful to The Men’s Shed for donating these beautiful wooden items made by their members. We hope to sell them within the Parish as a fundraiser. They look amazing! Thank you Men’s Shed!

Eco

C.C. Juniors

We had a fun afternoon at CC Juniors last Thursday. We checked up on our winter planting and are looking forward to spring.

Eco

The Big Lent Walk

 Could you challenge yourself this Lent and at the same time raise money for our global family as they try to overcome poverty? SCIAF are asking for our help! The challenge is to walk or run 200km (124 miles) in 40 days. Please don’t stop reading yet! Of course it’s a huge challenge but not if we do it together! 

Perhaps you CAN do it alone, or with a partner or friend, or as a family who add up the total miles together – so a family of five could do 40km each (that’s just a km each per day!) We would also love to have a group from St Ninian’s and St Clement’s who take on the challenge together and build more friendships along the way. We can add up the miles as a team! It doesn’t matter how many miles you can manage, it is about building our community spirit and helping SCIAF in the process. Sign up sheets are at the back of the church or contact us

Eco

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.

Reader
Parishioners
Singer
Fr Johney at the crib
Congregation

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

Toy Donation

Many thanks to Allison, our Community Champion from Tesco, who has given us this “trolley-full” donation for our Giving Tree appeal. She also provided gingerbread men for the children taking part in the “alternative nativity play” and the carol service! I think she’s not only the community champion but a champion in general 🙂 

Eco

Busy Week for Helpers

Robin

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.

Building the crib

Eco / St Ninian’s

Ecumenical Advent Service

On Wednesday 7th 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

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.