Canopy 2022
Canopy 2022: Having Our Cake and Eating It by Martin Hodson, General Director We are delighted to announce that this year there will be two Canopy events. Canopy Summer on Saturday 11 June in Dunblane and Canopy Online on the weekend of 28-30 October. Let me explain....
Veterans Chaplaincy, Supporting across Scotland
Veterans Chaplaincy, Supporting across Scotland By Rev Ian Millar, Pastor at Gourock Baptist Community Church, and Veterans Chaplain Veterans' Chaplaincy Scotland (VCS) has recently been established under the umbrella of Workplace Chaplaincy Scotland. As I write,...
Keep Fishing
Keep Fishing By Martin Hodson, General Director ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ (Luke 5:4). Simon Peter and his crew have been ‘working all night.’ They must have been physically worn out by their exertions. Despite their hard work they...
Unlocking the secret pain of problem debt – now is the time
Unlocking the secret pain of problem debt – now is the time The credit card bills arriving in January can be a worrying time for many people and spiralling debt can cause anxiety, depression, relationship strain and even suicide. This month we are featuring a guest...
Christmas Interrupted
Christmas Interrupted By Lisa Holmes, Deeper Church Lead at Baptist Union of Scotland So I’m thinking quite a bit about disruption during this Christmas and New Year period … Nothing is certain and everything is open to unwelcomed interruption and as a result there is...
Intentionality in Advent
Advent is here and for many brings with it a sense of excitement and reflection as we open doors to see what treasure is hiding behind. So this year we thought, what better way to celebrate than to open the doors to our Baptist churches across Scotland! For each of...
Thank You to Faith and Belief Communities, from Professor Jason Leitch
Recently the Scottish Government have made a video available to us to use and share widely. In light of the Covid 19 restrictions and the impact on churches gathering in person, you may want to share it with church members and your communities, perhaps online via...
A New Convenor
Martin Hodson says ‘goodbye’ to one Convenor and ‘hello’ to another One of the less prominent but critically important roles within BUS is the Convenor. This is the person who serves as Chair of the Trustee Board, who chairs the Council and the AGM, and who generally...
How many COPs does it take to arrest climate chaos?
Written By Martyn Link As the eyes of the world turned to Glasgow for the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) the question on the world’s lips was “can we keep 1.5 alive?” For some of us this cryptic question may well leave us cold, I have heard some ask “why bother with...
Scottish Baptist Online Advent Calendar 2021
Welcome to the first ever Scottish Baptist Online Advent Calendar 2021! This year Baptist churches from...
Opening the Doors & Stepping Out Post-Pandemic
By Mark & Irene, Westwood Baptist Church, East Kilbride "It required a wholesale change in the DNA of the church..." Prior to lockdown we, as a church, had been re-considering our Church Mission Statement and then working through together what changes would be...
‘A problem only exists in the absence of the right conversation’
‘A problem only exists in the absence of the right conversation…’ I first heard this quote from a good friend of mine, Jim McNeish, and whenever I feel things are going round in circles or the same perceived problem keeps being revisited it often springs to mind. As...
Growth, Challenge and Change for EBF & Alan Donaldson
Alan Donaldson, General Secretary of EBF, shares about both the growth and challenges from across Europe, and how our Scottish churches can play a significant role in God’s kingdom. “The Lord gave me a picture of you and Ruth travelling together with just a few...
Journey to Renew Wellbeing Centre (Cathcart, Glasgow)
Written by Cara Wightman and the Renew Wellbeing Team at Cathcart. Renew Wellbeing Cathcart was just launched on Thursday 28th October 2021! Before the launch there has been significant journey and a stirring of the Holy Spirit amongst several people about the need to...
20 Scottish ‘Renew Wellbeing’ centres launched since Canopy 2020!
Ruth Rice, Director of Renew Wellbeing and Coordinator for Scotland, shares the incredible springboard our BUS conference, Canopy 2020, provided as 20 new centres are launched around Scotland! Renew Wellbeing helps churches open spaces of welcome and inclusion in...
COP26 Resources
COP26 is a massive opportunity for churches around Scotland to really engage with the issues of climate change and there are plenty of insightful and creative resources around for you and your churches to engage with. On the BUS website we have a whole section with...