SO WHAT’S THE GUILD ALL ABOUT THEN ?

The 12 best bits!

Having fun, fellowship........and eating together!
Energising our 19,000 members in 850 groups from London to Unst and everywhere in between.
Raising over £750,000 every 3 years for 6 projects at home and abroad.
Bringing important issues like human trafficking and female genital mutilation to the heart of the church.
Fostering positive relationships with Crossreach, World Mission, Faith in Older People, Alternativity, National Youth Assembly and other Councils of the Church of Scotland. 
Nurturing faith in members and friends.
Coming together in thousands at major events to celebrate and showcase our fellowship.
Galvanising members to take action on local, national and international issues
Encouraging young and old to work together in the church and the community.
Providing hospitality and welcome to new people and those on the margins of communities.
Growing grass roots initiatives through practical and financial support.
Supporting the wider church to get involved with The Guild.

Impressed? Well, you should be. The Guild is often seen as an organisation for older women who are set in their ways. This could not be further from the truth as the action points listed above have shown. The Guild is now open to both men and women and often leads the way on important issues, as it did in bringing human trafficking and female genital mutilation to the attention of everyone in the church. Not very easy subjects for us to discuss but these were areas which needed highlighting and we were proud to offer our support. 

THE YEAR AHEAD: 2019-2020

This is the second year in the Guild’s 2018-2021 strategy, “One journey, Many Roads”. Having set out in 2018 by looking ahead and “Seeking the Way”, we now continue our journey together as “Companions on the Road”. 

By companions we are talking about much more than just fellow travellers. It’s not about thinking of who else might be on the same journey, rather who is sharing the journey with us. A companion is defined as follows: 

associate, partner, escort, consort, colleague, workmate, co-worker, compatriot, confederate, ally.

The role of companion provides support and encouragement, empathy and co-operation. I am reminded of marriage vows which talk about “richer and poorer, better and worse, in sickness and in health”. There is something in these phrases about sharing joy and pain and the ups and downs of life’s journey. As we meet in the Kirk Hall, we are going to celebrate the companionship that the Guild offers. There is an opportunity to chat with others around the tables, enjoy a cuppa and occasionally some home-baking although, sadly, not tonight.

It has been our custom to support two projects each session, one national and one international and this year is no different, 

The two projects which we will be supporting this year are “Join up the Dots” and Malawi Fruits.

“Join up the Dots”, our national project, is a collaborative project between Crossreach and the Guild to tackle the problem of loneliness and social isolation in Scotland. Some statistics:

200,000 people over the age of 65 have not had a proper conversation with family or friends for a month
8 out of 10 carers have felt lonely or socially isolated as a result of looking after a loved one
22% of people in Scotland feel they don’t have a strong sense of belonging in their community
11% of adults in Scotland often feel lonely and 38% sometimes feel lonely 

Problems like this have a very damaging effect on people’s physical and mental wellbeing. We see this amongst some of our own congregation and we aim to expose these problems and attempt to provide solutions for them. 

Malawi Fruits is a young Scottish Christian Charity committed to working with young farmers in Malawi by transforming the lives of hundreds of small-scale farmers by providing resources, training and support to enable them to earn a decent living which in turn provides an increase in income for spending on housing improvements, school fees and business development. 

How will we support these projects?

Well, the proceeds from the Afternoon Teaon 21 September will be divided between the two projects. This event has raised in the region of £1,200.

The next major event is the Advent Fairat the end of November. We will be seeking help on the day as well as donations of home-baking, jam, marmalade and anything else that you can think of. Again, proceeds will be shared between the two projects. More about this at a later date. 

In previous years we have given members Smartie Tubesto fill with 20p coins or £1 coins again for the projects. Since we have two fundraising events before Christmas, we are not giving these out until January next year in the hope that more people will fill them.

Now to our syllabus

Our syllabus is varied and enjoyable at least we hope it is. 

Two local enterprises – 

On 7 October we are having a visit from Claire Moore of ‘Jewellery by Design’, the jewellers on the High Street 
and we will be supporting the new Linlithgow Museum when we visit in  November. There will be a charge for this visit as the Partnership Centre has to be opened specially and security needs to be provided by West Lothian Council. 
Who can doubt the support and encouragement offered by Maggie’s Centre?
and then a very present problem we should all be aware of– Financial Fraud;
our four-legged companions are not forgotten as we learn about ‘Bravehound’and ‘Ponies help Children’; we did look into the new charity for dogs trained to identify illness but this is based in England only at present and the cost of having them to our meeting was prohibitive. 
Donna from ‘Neil’s Hugs Foundation’is coming to tell us about how her charity supports those affected by suicide which is an ever-increasing problem. Donna spoke at a meeting of West Lothian Presbytery in 2018 and we were all deeply moved by what she had to say about this ever-increasing problem in our society.
Again two local speakers – the Walkers, Ian and Shona, telling us about their dance or is it a dance? That is for you to find out.
And Norman Cummings talking to us about life in the Rag Trade which I understand is very humorous

So, there you have a taste of what is to come. I hope there is something that appeals to you. It goes without saying that we might have an odd quiz thrown in just to keep these little grey cells working.