Notice Board

What's happening at St John’s

Sunday 23rd August

Sung family Eucharist-10:30am

with Rev Stuart F Gray 

Tuesday 25th August

Said Eucharist 6pm 

All are Welcome to our Services

Revd Stuart F Gray BD PGDE

Broad Street, Alloa, Clackmannanshire FK10 1AN

Tel No 01259 724550

Email office@sjea.org.uk

Website - www.stjohnschurchalloa.org.uk

Facebook- https://en-gb.facebook.com/stjohnsalloa

 Twitter - St John’s Alloa @StJohnAlloa

Instagram – stjohnsalloa

St John's Alloa Growing in God's love and sharing it Newsletter 23rd August 2026 We've all heard of bats in the belfry. But St John's belfry had some different residents. Have a look at the story in the St John's News section. READINGS FOR 23rd AUG 2026 Theme - 'Who do you say I am?' asked Jesus. Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Who is Jesus to us in this time, in this place? Exodus 1:8-2:10 Psalm 124 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20 SERVICE TIMES Sunday 10.30am Family Sung Eucharist until around 11.30am then all are welcome to stay for refreshments and time to chat.  Tuesday 6pm Quiet Service of Eucharist until 6.30pm. ST JOHN'S NEWS Park Primary School Uniform - As in previous years we are hoping to provide uniform and supplies for some pupils in Park Primary. The Tea and Coffee money will go towards this for the next 4 weeks. Park Primary is also asking Alloa Tesco for funding to help with their project to encourage the children to grow healthy food. So next time you're in the store, how about popping a blue token or two into the box? Pilgrimage to Iona - We have provisionally booked Bishops House in Iona from the 9th till 14th October 2027 for 5 nights. Our plan is to do fundraising to enable the price to be as low as possible for everyone.  If you haven’t already expressed your interest, please let Stuart know. Information will be given soon on how much to pay for the deposit. Bible Study - Alison is exploring if we'd like to start a bible study group for mutual exploration of what bible passages mean for us today. If you think you might be interested, fill in the sheet on the coffee counter with your preferred meeting day and time and how often you'd like to meet e.g. weekly, fortnightly or monthly or speak with Alison. Recycling - We now have bins for plastics, tins, glass and paper at St John's. Please recycle where you can. Tai Chi Cafe starts up again on Thursday 3rd Sept from 2-3pm followed by tea, coffee and friendly chat. Suitable for all abilities and popular with church members and the wider community. Speak to Laurene or email taichicafe@warpmail.net for more info.     The Fellowship Group meets on Tuesday 8th Sept at 1.30pm for friendly chat and delicious tea and cake. Everyone is welcome. Ken Thomson, one of St John's bellringers, found something interesting in the belfry. Here's what he writes: What's in the Belfry? I'll give you a clue, it begins with the letter “B”. Obviously bells are an option - more on this another day. Some might say bats and for all I know they may be correct. Would anyone guess bees? Honey bees on this occasion as it happens. A swarm took up residence in the gap between the bell tower door and the inner wall. They entered through the extractor fan vent. Among my leisure activities I claim to be a Beekeeper, (it's not entirely clear whether I keep the bees or they me). So on seeing the evidence of a swarm I felt I should offer to help with this. I made contact with another “Beek” from the Dunblane and Stirling beekeepers association who has 40 years experience and is also a joiner. On the morning of the recent solar eclipse we set about “cutting out the swarm". Along with vast experience, the aforementioned Beek, came with a “beevac”. This is a box with a suction device built in, which can be helpful in extracting bees safely from tight spaces. Opening up the wall we found a small colony forming a nest below and behind  a breeze block. Long story short - after a couple of hours we had moved the bees and their honeycomb to the beevac and a small hive box ready for transport to a safe place. I took the bees to my apiary at the Mill of Keir. As I transferred them to a new home I was fortunate to find the queen bee. This is a hopeful sign. They are a very small colony , but I will try to help them develop and maybe survive the winter . I will keep you posted.   Your news - If you have some interesting things that you think the folks at St John’s might enjoy, please send it to News@sjea.org.uk, or speak to Laurene and we'll do our best to include it in the Newsletter. Safeguarding - Please remember that if you have any concerns about children or vulnerable adults at St John's, please speak to Stuart or our own safeguarding coordinators, Ailsa and Pam.   NEWS FROM FURTHER AFIELD The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that almost half (47 per cent) of all low-income families that responded to their survey said that they had “cut back on meals, skipped meals, or went hungry in the last 30 days”, because they didn’t have enough money for food. Scaled up to the UK as a whole, this equates to 5.6 million households going without food because they cannot afford it. Many families rely on foodbanks. Thank you everyone who contributes to The Gate foodbank basket in our doorway. And thank you those who load it up and transport it to The Gate. AND BEFORE YOU GO... Is it too early to think about Advent? 🤔 If you like to plan ahead, for yourself or as a gift for others, The Archbishop of York’s Advent Book 2026 "Walking with Angels" by Eleanor Sanderson explores the words of angels throughout the Bible and encourages us to enter Advent with a deeper awareness of the connection between the heavenly and earthly realms. Contacts For general or non-urgent matters please use the email office@sjea.org.uk . If you wish to contact Stuart urgently or in confidence, please email him at priest@sjea.org.uk  Have you looked at our Facebook page yet for more photos from St John's? Revd Stuart F Gray BD PGDE St John's Alloa 18 Broad Street Alloa FK10 1AN office@sjea.org.uk 01259 724550 www.stjohnschurchalloa.org.uk To unsubscribe contact office@sjea.org.uk