From the Rector’s Desk
Give the Church a gift at Pentecost
Let’s try and revive the old idea of giving our Church a gift at Pentecost, the birthday of the Church per se. Donations of practical items such as liquid hand wash, washing up liquid, dish cloths etc. are much welcomed and appreciated. Thank you
Thy Kingdom Come
From Ascension Day to Pentecost the Diocese is engaging with the worldwide pryer movement ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. This is a time to pray for the growth of the Church and to pray specifically for those we might wish to see come to faith or to return to church. Members of our families and friends may fall into these categories. Look out for the daily prayer leaflets to help you pray and come along on Wednesday 5th June (see above) and join in an act of prayer or light a candle for those you wish to pray for. We are offering 12 hours of ‘open church’ along with others in the Diocese to ensure that the full 10 days are filled with prayer. When the church is closed a prayer candle will burn throughout the 10 days as a symbol of our corporate prayers rising to God.
BIG SING @ The Cathedral — Saturday 15th June, 1030am
Many of you are familiar with what a ‘Big Sing’ is if you remember our gatherings in the past. The Big Sing at The Cathedral is a Diocesan event and hopes to welcome singers from around the Diocese for a day of singing, fun and fellowship. Even if you don’t sing your are invited along too. Evensong will be sung by the massed Choir at the end of the day as well. Look out for the posters and come along for the day or for Evensong both of which promise to be wonderful events.
Cumbrae19 — 26th June to 1st July
If you wish to join us on Cumbrae for the whole time or a day or two we can usually squeeze a couple more in. This year the addresses are entitled ‘Look Again’ and as last year Dean will hep us explore three paintings through Scripture, eyes and our hearts. Chat to Dean if you are interested.
Murrayfield Club AGM — Wednesday 3rd July, 11am
All are welcome to the AGM. Come and hear how well the Club is doing now that we have secured our funding for another three years and what our hopes for the future are. Coffee and cake will be served.
The Epistle to the Flock
By the end of June, we will be past Midsummer and the days will start to shorten. Thankfully not by very much initially and hopefully we still have many evenings to sit out in the garden to the later hours, without a torch or candle. I am hoping that we have as lovely summer as we did last year and that we can all sport tanned faces and happy smiles. It is always good to be hopeful.
Our faith teaches us to be hopeful and that has been the message of Eastertide as we have journeyed through it. If nothing else the Resurrection is all about hope. Hope that goodness will always overcome the bad, that the light will always find a way though the darkness and that things will get better. Things in the world and in home politics may dismay us and cause us pain but we must hope for better and pray for better too. Alongside hope must always go prayer. Prayer is never to be an added extra, it should be the mainstay of our lives and our faith. We need to pray daily for the needs of these around us, for our country and for our world and our brothers and sisters who in habit it alongside us. At the moment the future may look a bit bleak, are we on a self-destruction or extinction course? I hope and pray not. We human beings, can change things for the better if we can all agree to do so. Things do not have to remain the same, they can change.
Change though is scary because we do not know what change will bring but if we did not change over the years we would not have the Health Service, education for all, met the person we love the most, taken a job we thoroughly enjoyed or whatever. Change is the thing that helps us to grow and it is change that can bring our hopes to fruition. Change is often about steeling one’s self to do something new or different and to see how it goes. Change is needed in our world in order to save the planet from a miserable future and to ensure that our descendants have a future at all. Change is needed in government so that individuals and communities are able to thrive and add their skills and energy to society. Change is needed in society so that all are treated equals and change is needed in our church to help us welcome more people into faith and to journey alongside them as they journey alongside us.
In all this change there is probably not one person who has the right ideas or methods needed, it is more likely that we need to collaborate with each other and to learn from each other in order to achieve more than one or two individuals might achieve on their own.
That brings us back to living our lives in and with HOPE. Hope is the key to our future. For it is with hope that we ask God to guide us through change and into a brighter world.
Keep on praying day by day that ‘Thy Kingdom come O, Lord’.
Yours Aye Dean
The View from the Rectory Cat Basket
Having now been resident in Edinburgh for the last couple of months, I actually believe that I am beginning to feel settled into the city and more importantly into the somewhat bizarre life in the Rectory. I can certainly say that no two days are the same. All the comings and goings keep me entertained. It can at times, however, be quite exhausting greeting the all and sundry and making them feel welcome in my home. I do so feel that this is the role of the Lady of the House and actually being ‘a Lady’ I does I think add a gravitas to the welcome given.
In the weeks since my arrival I have thoroughly explored the house and briefly the front garden. I can’t say that I appreciated the garden at all, so wet and unbecoming. I am quite content, as was my dear Aunt Gladys before me, to remain firmly indoors and to admire the polities from a distance. As Jane Austen said in one of her novels, one can be “quite wearied by a haha”.
One thing I have been undertaking in the house is a tidy up. I often find things in places they should not be and have to remove them for safe keeping until such times as the Dog-Collar can be trusted to put them away properly. (If truth be told Lady Grace is a bit of a ‘magpie’ and likes to collect things for her basket. I do so wish that my spatula and the vegetable knife didn’t end up in her travelling box. Ed) Some people, pointing no paws, do need to learn to put things away when they have finished with them. Men! I will get them trained eventually and that includes Archie. It is all very well his saying that Gladys let me do this or that, but I am not Gladys and I do not appreciate his sleeping on top of me rather than alongside me or hiding his food bowl from me. Honestly, you’d think he would have learned to share his food before now. (Archie, is in two minds about Lady Grace. He is enjoying the company, despite her constant chatter but does resent her stealing his grub! Ed)
No doubt my dear public, things will improve for me as time goes on and I am sure that I will get those men exactly where I want them, even though it may take a little time to get there.
With my kind regards
Lady Grace
Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess
Gentle Grace Fortescue de Monceau of Milgill
2019 Group
Thursday 18th July 2019, 4pm
Summer Fruits — Our annual fête in the church garden with refreshments, stalls, hoopla and, with luck, some entertainment to round off this popular gathering. Tickets: a donation of £10
Sunday 6th October (time to be announced)
Piano Recital — Ancute Nite Doyle has kindly agreed to give us another piano recital Tickets: a donation of £15
Saturday 16th November, 11am
Talk — Simon Green, Project Manager at Historic Environment Scotland will give a talk in the Church on The Lost Buildings of Edinburgh, looking back at what we have lost and also at what was proposed but never built. Tickets: a donation of £6 (Numbers may be limited)