Scottish Episcopal Church:

St James’, Stonehaven.

St Philip’s, Catterline.
APRIL 2007
 

Services for Holy Week.
St. James’ and St. Philips

Thursday, 5^th April: Maundy Thursday

 St James’. 7 pm – 8 pm Liturgy with Eucharist

Followed by a vigil watch until midnight. (please feel free to come and keep watch for whatever time you wish)  Rita Acarnley

Friday, 6^th Good Friday
St James’. 11.30 – Noon. Eucharist

Followed by service of meditation until 3 p.m. (People are free to come and join in with this time of quiet for as long or as short a time as they wish.)

Saturday 7^th
St Philip’s , Catterline.  Vigil.  7 – 8 pm Rita Acarnley

Easter Sunday
St James’.10.30 am Festival Eucharist.

Bible Reading Fellowship Books.
They are now available at the back of St. James;.  Payment is now due,
£10.50p, please, to Jane Early on 1^st April

Front Cover
After much deliberation, the drawing submitted by Calum Lawrence was adjudged the most appropriate for this Easter edition. All four entries are now on display at the back of the Church. I think everyone will agree the children are to be congratulated on catching the meaning of Easter.
Thank you, and  well done, Shannon, Rebecca, Daynd and Calum

Holy Week

Monday April 2 – Thursday April 5 

Joint Churches Kids’ Holiday Club at the South Church 9.30 am – 12.30 pm

Monday 2 April 7pm

“Time For Jesus” (an Easter Musical by the Life & Mission Choir) Fetteresso Church

Tuesday 3 April

St. Bridget’s 7 pm – 7.30 pm

Lenten Service and Address

Leader: David Stewart :  Preacher: Douglas Lamb

Wednesday 4 April

St Bridget’s 7 pm – 7.30 pm

Lenten Service and Address 

Leader: Rita Paterson and Arma Iles:  Preacher: Bob Adams

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday Liturgy with Eucharist at St James’ 7 p.m

Followed by a vigil watch until midnight. (Please feel free to come and keep watch for whatever time you wish)  Rita Acarnley

 Good Friday

St James’ the Great

11.30 am – noon. Eucharist

Followed by service of meditation until 3 pm (Please come and join in with this time of quiet for as long or as short a time as you wish.)

Saturday 7^th April

St Philip’s Scottish Episcopal Church – Catterline

Vigil  7 – 8 pm Rita Acarnley

Easter Sunday

At the harbour 8.30 am

Leader: David Stewart : Preacher: Bob Adams

Breakfast at St. Bridget’s after the service

St James’ the Great

10.30 am Festival Eucharist

 Dear All,

As I write this I am conscious of the journey we have already made through Lent together. This has been a time of many funerals I have been asked to conduct; of moving out of 3 Ramsay Road and then back into it again! It has been a time when all of us have been coming to terms with change, loss AND the promise of new and ongoing life.

So we are so very like Jesus and his friends as they travelled together, towards Jerusalem, knowing change and loss were in the air, but not quite believing anything could interrupt their lives, but it did. The crowd of welcome became the crowd of fear and condemnation and Jesus was sent to his death.

When loss hits any of us it is hard to see God in the midst of the darkness. But with quiet trust and patience we dare to wait in the moments of loss and separation for a new dawn and for new life.

This is a vital part of our life of faith together, and we dare to claim such hope for ourselves and for our World.

Your Vestry and I have been quietly working away this month to both continue life together and to prepare for the Interregnum and for the advertising for a new Rector. I am confident that with continuing prayer and discernment and with an understanding that the God who walks beside us in the today has already walked ahead of us into our tomorrows, the next few months will lead you ever on.

We need to live with such trust and confidence because others look on, as we deal with the vagaries of life, and they need to see within us the life of hope and new life that is God’s eternal Easter gift to us all. For the sake of our World and the Church I wish you a hopeful, joyful Easter and the many blessings of many new tomorrows.

Rev Rita Acarnley

From the Registers:

The funerals of the following people took place over these last weeks:

Daniel Bevan Marks: Jessie Collie: Harry Cadd: Ada Paterson:  Aubrey Dare.

May they rest in peace and rise in glory. Our condolences to their families and friends.

News from the Action Groups 

Sunday School: Anne Geldart

There will be no Sunday School on 1^st, 8^th and 15^th April because of the school Easter Holidays.

However – Palm Sunday is a lovely service and many children would enjoy it – and Easter Sunday is special this year (it’s always special anyway!’) but this year we have a Baptism and there will be many children in church.

The Youth Group met on 30^th March to have fun discovering hidden Easter Eggs in the church and to make their own decorated eggs for Easter. The Group are becoming excellent dancers and mime artists and acted out the story around Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Next Youth Group is on 27^th April in St James’ Hall at 7.30 pm

 Prayer and Spirituality: Rita Paterson

The next meeting of the Group is on Tues. 3rd April in St.James' Hall at 11am.  Everybody is welcome to join us for a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits - and then to pray together for the whole world.

Pastoral Care Group:  Jane Early.

At the group meeting, held on March 12^th, Rita Acarnley spoke about the arrangements for the interregnum. A discussion was held about dealing with emergency phone calls and the possibility of dealing with those contemplating suicide.

The next meeting will be on Monday 16^th April. This has been altered from 9^th April (Easter Monday)

Social Committee: Val Cadd

A BIG thank you to everyone who assisted, contributed and attended the coffee morning on Saturday 17th March in the Church Hall.  A fantastic £500 was raised for Church funds.

After Easter there are 2 functions coming up:

On Friday 20th April there will be a Beetle drive in the Hall from 6.30pm-8.00pm.  Everyone will be made very welcome.  During the fun there will be an interval with refreshments.

On the following Monday 23rd April the URY PLAYERS have very kindly offered to perform in the hall and tickets will be on sale at £3 each from the church.  During their show there will be an interval with refreshments.

We did not have any jewellery on sale at the coffee morning but Diana would like to have a stall at the June coffee morning and is looking for summery pieces in particular.  She is also very happy to receive broken or odd pieces of jewellery, which she will forward to Alzheimer’s Scotland to be repaired and remodeled by them and then sold for their funds.

The next Social Committee meeting is on Monday 16th April at 7.30 pm in the church to discuss the Beetle drive, the Ury Players show and other future social events.

Remembering Group: Jean Carrnie

Our March meeting was actually a meal held after the Service to celebrate the Annunciation to Mary. Rita Acarnley spoke at the service about a 13^th century painting of the Annunciation, which was one of the first such pictures to be set in an ordinary living room of the time. She went on to encourage us to see God with us in our everyday lives and within our homes. So it was very appropriate that at the back of the church, she and I had set out tables, lit with candles and with food and wine, waiting for those who joined us. We had a really enjoyable evening and tables, candles, wine and food after services seems like a good tradition to develop! Our next meeting is on Monday 30^th April at 10 am in St James’ Hall, when Rita Acarnley will lead us in a discussion, “New life out of loss” All welcome.

Peace and Justice: Bridget O'Hare

On Sunday 4th March Brownies, Guides and their parents came to St James for their thinking day service. As the colour parties waited outside, shivering, singing practice started in the church. So the colour party moved into the baptistery to keep warm - negotiating the Fair Trade bunting suspended above the entrance. (A big thank you to David Fleming and Rev Rita Paterson for blowing up balloons and pinning them up - together with the ‘Make the Change’ Fairtrade posters).  Then the girls lined up cosily in the nave.  Much banter, and promises of scrumptious chocolate in the hall afterwards followed. 

Thank you everyone who supported the event.  £241.33 worth of Fairtrade goods were sold and a further £30.00 was donated.  Shops which allowed us to sell their Fairtrade products were: Here & Now; Somerfield, Deli-cacies; AllDays(Scottish coop); Gillanotti's; Culenaire and the former scoop shop.  Many thanks to everyone who helped: from coffee ladies to customers.  A big thank you to David Fleming for doing the accounts (yards of prices and labels) and liaising with shops; as well as Sandy Cook who liaised with other shops.

Christian Aid.

April 19^th Belgrave Square, London

Christian Aid and Trade Justice Movement campaigners, will be taking action on unfair trade deals. The aim is to draw attention to the unfair trade deals, which E. U. Governments are pushing on 75 countries, in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. These deals are set to put jobs and economies at risk in developing countries.

Inspire Magazine

This magazine has been highly successful. The original vision was for 50,000 copies, but huge demand has meant that this was achieved in only 5 months, and 70,000 copies per month are now sent out.

Inspire content is now heard on air via UCB and a range of local radio stations. There is a website at www.inspiremagazine.org.uk with fast moving daily news coverage, with 500+ events on the database, multimedia content to watch and listen to. More than 4,000 people worldwide are visiting the site monthly.

The publishers feel that they are just scratching the surface of what is possible with the magazine!  They feel that God is encouraging them to think big and to follow Him as they seek to establish a magazine that will reach a substantial proportion of God’s people in the UK each month.

We are delighted that members of our congregation are enjoying this magazine but we are uncertain of how many readers we have as it appears that some are reading the magazine and bringing it back to the church. We would prefer those readers to pass on the magazine to someone outside of the church to widen the readership. Don’t be worried that we don’t have enough copies to go round everybody; we presently receive 20 copies per month but can get more if we need them.

Sandy Cook

Songs of Praise

‘If you think you have come to a service then you have come to the wrong place’!  

These were the words that we were greeted with when we went to the Cathedral in Dundee to take part in Songs of Praise in February.  Well, it may not have been a service and yet it was truly an act of worship.  The producer opened the proceedings with prayer on both nights, which made us realise that we were taking part in God’s work.

We had been asked to attend for two evenings. The first evening was devoted to singing.  There were hymns old and new, some of which were written by John Bell who was our musical director for the evening.  He was an amazing conductor and encouraged us to sing not only well but also very meaningfully.  In other words, we had to pay attention to the words as well as the music. The recording was completed in approx. 3 hours.  It was so important to get it absolutely right.

We were back the next night for the filming and we were asked to sing along to the recording that we had made the previous evening.  To our surprise, having removed all the many microphones from the previous night, the Cathedral was not brightly lit. This allowed the cameras to pick up the architecture and stained glass of the Cathedral.  Again there were a lot of ‘takes’ before the producer was satisfied.  He had actually stressed at the beginning, that the programme was very meaningful to so many people who watched, so it was important to get it right.  We all had to be very patient!  We were entertained by funny stories in between ‘takes’!  Again, it all took three hours, just for 5 hymns!

We were exhausted after two intense nights but it was all very worthwhile. So, if you are around on Sunday 20^th May then switch on your telly. You never know who you might see!

Margaret Wells

David Fleming

‘Forgive us our debts…’ 

This story dates from before the National Health Service was set up to provide medical services for everyone, regardless of income or social class. It appeared in ‘Indian Christian’ a publication of (I think) the Uniting Churches of South India.

 A Christian doctor in Scotland was very lenient with his poor patients, and when he found it was difficult for them to pay his fees, he wrote in red ink across the record of their debt the one word ‘Forgiven’. This happened so often that his case books had few pages where the red letters did not appear. After his death, his executors thought the doctor’s estate would be greatly enhanced if some of the ‘Forgiven’ debts could be collected. After unsuccessful applications to the poor patients, the executors took legal proceedings to recover the amounts. But when the judge examined the doctor’s case books and saw the word ‘Forgiven’ cancelling the entry, he said ‘There is no tribunal in the land that could enforce payment of these accounts marked “Forgiven”,’ and he dismissed the case.

Anne Geldart

Smiling

Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu,

when someone smiled at me today I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner, and someone saw me grin,

and when he smiled I realized I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about the smile and realized its true worth,

a single smile like mine could travel round the earth.

So if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected.

Let’s start an epidemic quick and get the world infected.

Jean Carnie

A Holiday with a Difference

It may not be what you would choose for a holiday and if I’m honest I’m not sure whether I would have chosen it either, but when I was asked to join some friends for a walking holiday I agreed to go. Having said ‘Yes’, I then kept trying to find excuses not to!

It was at the beginning of the year when my friend, Anne, asked me if I would like to join her and her husband and two other friends to walk the Fife Coastal Path at the beginning of March. She told me that it would be 60 miles and that we would complete it in 6 days! It sounded like ‘A Tall Order’ to me especially as I had never walked a long distance before. And also the thought of going then was a bit off putting as I thought that it would be so cold. Apparently, the reason for going so early was to see an abundance of snowdrops at a place called Cambo, which perhaps you have heard of?

Well, the walk was completed. We started at St.Andrew’s on Mon 5^th March and finished at Inverkeithing on Sat 10^th. It turned out to be a most wonderful experience (apart from when I got stuck in the mud on the first day and almost gave up!)

It was a long haul on the first day. We walked to Cambo to start off with where we admired the wonderful different varieties of snowdrops and enjoyed our first lunch together. We spent the night at Crail and our other stoppings off points were St. Monan’s, Leven, Kirkcaldy and Aberdour.

We had some lovely places to stay, which were all booked in advance of course. We always arrived tired after each days’ walking but once we had had a good meal and a good night’s rest we were raring to go again.

Sometimes we walked along a path; sometimes on the beach when the tide was coming in; over rocks; up cliffs; round headlands; through the woods and sometimes on the road when the path ran out!

Most importantly we had an excellent guide (Peter) who always kept ahead of us to show us the way.

We all had a great time together and really enjoyed each others’ company but I was also made so aware of how beautiful our world is. The scenery was magnificent and the weather couldn’t have been better. I just praise God for His wonderful works of Creation and for the way He cared for us every step of the way.

Would I try that kind of holiday again? Most definitely YES but not next week!

Margaret Wells

Saturday, Easter Eve, 16 April 1870

At 11 I went to the school. Next I went to Cae Mawr. Mrs Morrell had been very busy all the morning preparing decorations for the Font, a round dish full of flowers in water and just big enough to fit into the Font, and upon this large dish a pot filled and covered with flowers, all wild, primroses, violets, wood anemones, wood sorrel, periwinkles, oxlips and the first blue bells, rising in a gentle pyramid. Ferns and larch sprays drooping over the brim, a wreath of simple ivy to go round the stem of the Font, and a bed of moss to encircle the foot of the Font in a narrow band, pointed at the corners and angles of the stone with knots of primroses. At 2 o'clock Hetty Gore of the Holly House came down from Cefn y Blaen and upset all my arrangements for the afternoon saying that old William Pritchard there was very ill not likely to live and wishes to see me this afternoon, that I might read to him and give him the Sacrament. Shall I ever forget that journey up the hill to Cefn y Blaen in this burning Easter Eve, under the cloudless blue, the scorching sun and over the country covered with a hot dim haze? I climbed up the Bron panting in the sultry afternoon heat. Went up the fields from Court Evan Gwynne to Little Wern y Pentre and envied the sheep that were being washed in the brook below, between the field and the lane, by Price of Great Wern y Pentre and his excited boys.

The peewits were sweeping rolling and tumbling in the hot blue air about the Tall Trees with a strange deep mysterious hustling and quavering sound from their great wings.

Pritchard was not nearly so ill as I had been led to expect.

(from the Diary of the Reverend Frances Kilvert 1870-1879)

Bridget O'Hare

The Resurrection.  (From the Glesga’ Bible)

 Early oan the Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene an Mary the mither o James, went tae the grave takin sweet smellin ointments tae pit oan the body.

But when they got close up tae the tomb, the first thing they saw wis that the huge stane had been moved oot the wey.  They went in, kinna feart like.

All o a sudden two men wir staunin in front o them.  The weemen were terrified an cudny even look up.

The men said, “Tell us, why are ye searchin amang the graves for someone who’s alive?  He’s no here! He’s come back to life again!  D’ye no even remember whit he himself telt ye when he wis wi ye in Galilee – that the Christ must be haunded ower tae evil men, nailed tae the cross, an be raised tae life again oan the third day?”

Then, sure they remembered whit Jesus had telt them.  So they raced back in joy tae Jerusalem an telt the eleven disciples an aw the ithers, “He’s alive!  Jesus is alive!”

URY PLAYERS CONCERT PARTY.

Monday 23^rd of April, is of course St. Georges Day. It is also the day in which the Ury Players Concert Party will present their extravaganza of song, dance and poetry, in St. James’ Church Hall.
The concert party, under the direction of Mrs. Pat Riddell, perform weekly, in sheltered housing, residential homes, and at other venues in Stonehaven, Deeside and Aberdeen, from February through to the end of May.
Much of the material is written by Mrs. Riddell, aided and abetted by Mrs. Iles.  The colourful costumes were made this year by a combined effort of cutting, pinning, tacking and sewing, in Arma’s sitting room.  Rehearsals which have been on going since last September, have ensured that this band of thespians, present a concert of one and a half hours, rich in colour, song and comedy.
Come along and bring your friends to St. James’ Hall on Monday April 23^rd.  Tickets are now on sale, priced at £3.00, this includes refreshments.

Arma