Queen's Park Govanhill Parish Church

08/09/2026

The Bible is not a book, is it a pharmacy?— Psalm 84

(You can listen to this Daily Worship post at: sanctuaryfirst.org.uk/daily-worship/bible-not-book-is-pharmacy)

The Bible is not a book. It’s a library that spans multiple genres, languages, cultures and perspectives. While all of the Bible contains insights about faith and life — some of it is much harder to read than other bits. Sometimes because of intense scenes, sometimes because of the density of the language, or obscure references, or a host of personal reasons.

We Christians have often done a disservice to the Bible by suggesting every page is a universal, readily applied cure that can be indiscriminately used to treat any and every situation.

Imagine a pharmacist who stands on the street outside the pharmacy and tells you that you can get any cure you need inside. “Just go in” he says with a warm smile. “But I haven’t told you what’s wrong…” you mumble. He holds the door open and says sagely “It doesn’t matter, what you need is in there, just go and grab it.” He puts a hand gently on your shoulder and shoves you in.

So now you’re standing, on your own in this strange place. You have no idea where to start. The labels are full of long words you can’t make head nor tail of. There’s countless creams and ointments and pills and bottles and you just grab a box at random. You want to catch a word with the pharmacist on the street but he interrupts you, “See, the pharmacy is great isn’t it? It’s such a wonderful place. I go in all the time and always get exactly what I need.” You head home with a prescription you’ll never use, I mean where would you start?

Imagine how different it would be if the pharmacist had come in with you? If they pointed you to a helpful aisle? If they’d listened? If they said what shelves they go to themselves.

I am no medical professional but here’s a prescription for Psalm 84 to be taken for a week daily. It’s an ancient song expressing a deep desire to be close to God. The Psalms are an incredible archive of poetry, song and human emotion. Like a new album, the psalms benefit from repeated spins. Spend time with it. What does it tell you about God and your relationship with God when you read it every day for a week?

Prayer:

Dear God
Be with me
as I spin
Psalm 84 again and again
Amen.

James Cathcart, Sanctuary First

08/09/2026

07/09/2026

07/09/2026

You can’t go it alone — Exodus 3: 1–6

(You can listen to this Daily Worship post at: sanctuaryfirst.org.uk/daily-worship/you-cant-go-it-alone)

The Bible is not a book.

It’s not so much a thing we read, as a place we go.

So let’s go with Moses to the far side of the wilderness. We stand with him and the herd. It’s quiet. As Scott Preston writes in his novel ‘The Borrowed Hills’ for sheep “standing and eating are the same thing”. So we hear only their persistent munching jaws and a low crackling sound coming from a bush…

Moses is alone with his thoughts. But we’re not. We stand with William Tyndale a 16th century English priest, taking in this scene and trying to find the words for it — to plug his readers straight into the ancient Hebrew.

And then, depending on our journey to this place, there are others here with us too — parents, friends, Sunday School teachers, preachers, politicians and historians. Many have trodden this path with Moses — wondering what it is like to take off their shoes on holy ground.

We never come to the Bible on our own. The Bible is a communal work and is intended to be read in community. Even when we’re on our own reading it there are countless hands who have brought it to us. Then there are the musicians and artists, speech writers and inscribers who have used it to justify all sorts of things — much we agree with and much that we don’t.

You cannot come to the Bible alone. Most of all, because God always joins us through the Holy Spirit.

In the Bible we meet our ancestors and our contemporaries, our friends and our enemies, our God and ourselves.

And that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

The Bible is not just something that happened — it’s something that ‘happens’ when we honestly and humbly bring all of who we are to all of what it is. We cannot ‘go it alone’ in life and we can’t go it alone with the Bible either. We travel with those like William Tyndale who opened the door wider. And Moses — the loner ex-con turned reluctant people’s champion — who would tie his life to his community, who would no longer ‘go it alone.’

Prayer:

Bind us together God,
as we learn what the Bible is
how it is
and why it is.
Keep us compassionate and hospitable in this place
this place like no other.
Amen.

James Cathcart, Sanctuary First

06/09/2026

Dolly Day will take place on Friday 25th September at 5pm in our Welcome Hall. Entry is by ticket only, available to buy on Sunday mornings, or by paying £12 at our Church office. This includes your fish and chips, bread and butter, tea or coffee, and Dolly Parton's fabulous film 9 to 5. Come and join us. Everyone welcome.

06/09/2026

Today we talked about creation and looking after our God given world together. Watch our service on our YouTube channel to find out how wool, a little garden, and some rubbish helped us understand our responsibility a little bit more.

06/09/2026

Our beautiful flowers today were in memory of Stuart Bruce who led worship in Govanhill Trinity Church.

05/09/2026

Our weekly service of worship takes place tomorrow morning at 11am led by Mr Euan Gibb. We will have our usual tea and coffee and children's activities available and we will be livestreaming to, and leaving it on, our YouTube channel in case you cannot make it in person. Everyone is welcome. Come as you are. We look forward to meeting you.

Call to worship
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created.
He established them forever and ever.
He issued a decree that will never pass away

05/09/2026

As we will be thinking about creation tomorrow at our service, we are sharing this very relevant message from the World Council of Churches.

Humanity must stop pretending it doesn't know what it's doing to the Earth.

That's the message from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, marking 1 September as both the start of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year and the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Natural Environment, an observance the Ecumenical Patriarchate established in 1989 and which now brings Christian communities together worldwide: "a symbol and practical promotion of the unity of Christians," as he put it.

"Humanity must at last cease acting as though it does not know and definitively cast aside the illusion that planet Earth can in perpetuity withstand the burdens and destruction caused by human activity, or that nature has the power to renew itself of its own accord."

He's calling for "ecological responsibility" to become "a categorical imperative," for individuals and for humanity as a whole, pointing to the Gospel's parable of the "foolish rich man" as a warning against the consumerism still driving the crisis. What's needed, he says, is nothing less than a "Copernican Turn" in how we understand progress and creation itself.

Read the Patriarch's full message, and find out how your community can join the Season of Creation 👉 https://www.oikoumene.org/news/patriarch-bartholomew-calls-for-global-ecological-solidarity

➡️ More about Season of Creation: https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-to-join-season-of-creation-prayer-amid-climate-extremes

📷 Albin Hillert/WCC