Sanctuary First

This week the team discuss signs in the Bible, signs in our lives and signs of the times. Expect rainbows, uncanny moments and surreal tangents. We are delighted to be joined by Katy Emslie-Smith our Daily Worship writer for the week. She teaches medicine as a GP and greatly enjoys working in a partnership network with refugee families in Dundee to combat isolation and technological poverty.

This week the team discuss the season of Lent which began on Wednesday and continues for the next several weeks until Easter Sunday. Traditionally a time of reflection and contemplation in the Church, how can Lent - especially this year - be a time of transformation and renewal as we look around us with renewed vision at the things that truly matter… Joining us is this week’s Daily Worship writer John Povey Parish Minister of Kirk of Calder, Mid Calder.

A short guided meditation developed for our Lent 2021 Retreat ‘Seeing with new eyes’. This is the rural version. How can the natural world around us sing to us and reveal God’s glory anew, prompting our prayers in response?

A short guided meditation developed for our Lent 2021 Retreat ‘Seeing with new eyes’. This is the urban version. How can the vivid interplay between the natural and built-up world around us from street signs, to public art and striking architecture speak to us of God’s glory and prompt our prayers?

Tonight on the Weekly Review the team are crying freedom! We will be exploring how to find freedom in Lent, freedom in one another, and our ultimate freedom in Jesus Christ. We will also be chatting about our free digital Lent Resource Booklet and our Lent Legacy action prompts to encourage us to travel mindfully together through the season. We are delighted to be joined by this week’s Daily Worship writer Robert S.T. Allan, Minister of Falkirk Trinity Parish Church.

Join Laura Digan and Linda Pollock for their new monthly podcast series Time of the Month. Each month Laura and Linda welcome a guest to discuss the women of the Bible - the well-known women, the loved women, the unnamed women and the forgotten women. Each month they will also spend time talking about issues affecting women today. Episode 1: This month Laura and Linda are joined by Moira Wintersgill to discuss Hagar from the Old Testament and the pressure of home schooling during the lockdown.

Albert, Laura, Iain and Scott Shackleton are thinking about the importance of small beginnings. Keeping in mind The Parable of Social Distancing could could one man socially distanced raise 39 million? The Bible verse says: “Don’t despise the day of small beginnings.”

The theme we’re going to talk about is human resilience in the face of great adversity. We wlll also look at the capacity we have within us to forgive and start again. We’ll take a look at Fiona Reynold’s reflections and see how her thoughts this week ink into the human spirit we all require to get through our present crisis Tonight we are delighted that Peter Cochrane, an amazing singer-songwriter who is one of our regular contributors to the Live Jam Sessions, joins us on the Weekly Review.

This instalment of the weekly review comes from a line in Amanda Gorman’s beautiful poem ‘The Hill We Climb’. Tonight the team talk about trains, awakening and the light at the end of the tunnel. Tonight Albert, Laura and James are joined by Jamie Wells.

Tonight on the Weekly Review the team are discussing bling, fool’s gold, being a fool for Christ and weaving the golden thread of love into our lives. Gold is a bit is like love, on the one hand it’s delicate and easily broken but on the other hand it endures — never rusting, or corroding or tarnishing. And both can come out of fire more refined. This year what changes can we make to continue to build the precious, generous love of God into our everyday lives? An enduring love that catches the light like gold… We are joined by Rev Rhona Cathcart of Inverurie West Parish Church who has been writing about gold in our Daily Worship this week. From her prayer on Sunday 10th: “Help us to uncover the warmth, the lustre which you planted deep inside us, that we might gleam with gratitude, wonder and praise.”

he dream team of Albert, Laura, Iain and James will be getting to grips with our new theme for January by asking - So what exactly are humans anyway? When it comes down to it, what are we made to be and what are we called to do? We will go spiritual, medical, poetic and far off the beaten track as each of us try to answer from our unique perspectives what it means to be human.

Join Albert, Laura and James (sadly Iain was out on call!) as they look back over a year of Sanctuary First and indeed a year of Weekly Reviews. We started doing these shows back in January and we have had a blast - there’s been tears, laughter, insights, songs and seriously bizarre tangents. In this special pre-recorded edition the team reflect on their favourite moments from 2020 and anticipate all 2021 has to bring us.

Look up! Tonight on the Weekly review the team are gazing upwards and discussing how the skies are wide open to let in Christmas! We are joined by Allan Vint a minister and keen astrophotographer who will be leading our Daily Worship (and sharing his pictures of stars and outer space) over the Christmas week. It will be all kinds of cosmos chat this evening as we get astronomical and find out more about an upcoming celestial event…

The Weekly Review - an hour of banter, discussion, theology, anecdote and whimsy! This Advent we have been opening up Christmas at Sanctuary First and tonight we want to ask - how open are our hearts? Open to God? Open to one another? Open to our own fears, longings and hopes? Alongside the regular team to discuss stitching our hearts to our sleeves is this week’s Daily Worship writer Lily Cathcart who has been running with the theme of hearts in her writing. Join us for heartfelt musings, ramblings and insights!

Tonight on the Weekly Review Advent is underway, the days are getting shorter and we are looking for light and hope in the darkness! We are delighted to be joined by this week’s Daily Worship writer Jane Denniston, Minister of Campsie Parish Church, and to welcome Daniel Ferguson from Westhill. Daniel is a singer-songwriter, worship leader and youth pastor in Westhill Community Church. His latest single “Sympathy” draws attention to the struggles many young men face with issues of mental health. Daniel writes “The work I’ve been doing with mental health is through ‘THERE IS HOPE’ - facebook.com/thereishopeuk” “The little message we have on the page is this: THERE IS HOPE. This is our message. We want to provide a community for people struggling, raise awareness of mental health and say: THERE IS HOPE!”

In this week’s episode of the Weekly Review Albert, James and Laura are joined by Norah Summers, this week’s Daily Worship writer. They discuss following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd. As apprentice shepherds we do what we can to seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.

Tonight on the Weekly Review the team discuss how to keep the faith alive… despite everything! It’s been a strange year. Perhaps a time of losing faith in some things and gaining faith in others. How do we nurture our faith when we are up against it? Joining the team to explore this is Pete Phillips of the Centre for Digital Theology at Durham University who has been writing our Daily Worship this week.

Albert and Laura are joined by this week’s Daily Worship writer Scott Shacklton and Jack Steel from the SF team to chat about remembrance and how to be church and show God’s love in today’s modern/socially distant world.

This week on the Weekly Review the team are thinking about saints - remembering all those souls who have got us this far and anticipating all those to come who will lead us on from here! In strange and turbulent times we can draw strength from the ongoing Communion of Saints that inspire, encourage and challenge us. Joining us for the discussion is friend of Sanctuary First George Sneddon a student minister who will be collaborating with Laura on an upcoming Sunday Live service. Find out more about our November theme All The Saints.

Tonight on the Weekly Review - How do we leave a legacy that makes a good future possible for those who come after us? We discuss Moses, fatherhood, giving thanks for the past, rejoicing in the present (regardless of circumstances), and how we can inspire others to move forward. This week we are delighted to welcome back the man himself Dr Iain Jamieson - fresh and ready for all the banter along with special guest Scott Shackleton who lends his insight on leadership from the perspective of Navy Chaplaincy.