ST. LEONARD’S-IN-THE-FIELDS CHURCH
PERTH
Minister—Rev. James K. Wallace M.A.,B.D.,S.T.M.
[Manse Tel: 621709]
Church Office:
Open Tuesday and Thursday mornings 9.00 a.m.- NOON
[Office Tel: 632238]
[e-mail: office@stleonardsinthefields.co.uk]
Is it really September already??? I can't believe it's nearly autumn - but there are always things to look forward to in the coming days and weeks. All sorts of activities are starting up - the Friendship Club, for example. Their first meeting is always worth a try and who knows, you might be tempted to join them! ( and that's all of you, men as well as women.) The summer has passed us by, I know, but let's look ahead to an interesting and productive season of fellowship together.
Dalene Radin,
Editor.
New Time for our Sunday Service
At its meeting on 19th May, the Kirk Session reviewed the first few weeks we have enjoyed with Jim Wallace as our minister. It has become obvious to many that the demands on the minister of having a service in St John’s at 9.30 followed by ours at 11am were resulting in some stress. The minister has to restrict his time with his St John’s congregation after their service, and he does not have time after arriving at St Leonard’s to speak with the organist or others he would like to consult before the beginning of our service. The Session is also aware, that with St John’s, it will have to review service times to ensure that the worship in our Linked Charge is being fairly provided.
The Session unanimously approved a proposal that for a trial period of 3 months we move our service to an 11.15 start.
This trial began in July and will run through to September when the Kirk Session will review the change to see if it should become permanent. Please let your elder know what you feel about this altered time before our September meeting.
David Combe
Session Clerk
Dear Friends,
I hope that the summer has provided you with some rest and refreshment. I spent a short break with my family in the little town of Macduff a few weeks back. We had some long walks on the beach (our dog, who had come with us, was a very enthusiastic participant in these) and we enjoyed the lovely scenery of the north-east coast where I’m glad to report it was bright and sunny almost every day! Some of you may still have holidays to take. For others, September signals a return to normal routines. Schools are back so bedtime curfews are restored. Work picks up pace for many in the autumn. Clubs and organisations resume meetings which were stopped for a while. Church doesn’t stop for the summer, of course, but there is no doubt it often gets a bit quieter. With July and August now behind us,however, we might say that “normal service has been resumed”.
One of the joys I have discovered, having been minister at St. Leonard’s-in-the-Fields for all of four months, is finding a well-attended church Sunday by Sunday where people come to worship with enthusiasm. I encourage you to maintain that commitment. Indeed, to extend and deepen it. Worship is at the heart of our life as the people of God. In it we give God the honour he is rightly due and we are also nourished ourselves. And we gather for worship as a community – not simply a collection of individuals but a community. This is something we really do together. We need one another. In fact people who come to church quietly but faithfully often do more than they ever know. I can think of a good many folks in different congregations who did not stand out as leaders and who would never have spoken up in a meeting or read the lesson for us. They would have thought their contribution to the church very small. They would have said they made little difference. But that was not so. For they could be relied upon. We could be confident that they would be in their place Sunday by Sunday and their devotion – quiet though it may have been – was a strength and an encouragement to the rest of us.
If you are in church regularly – thank you for your commitment. If you haven’t been in a while or you only attend occasionally we’d love to see you – will you step up and join us more often? And if ill health or infirmity prevents you from coming to church please pray for your church family and be assured of our prayers for you also. Names in a church roll book mean very little: the presence of faithful people, though, that’s something to cherish.
See you in church!
Sincerely,
Jim Wallace
Parish Grouping
Our linked charges of St. John’s and St.Leonard’s form part of a larger parish grouping with St. Matthew’s and the North Church. A liaison group has begun holding monthly meetings to discuss meaningful ways of working together. They will continue to meet in this way until early in the new year – they have a great deal to discuss and would be glad of your prayers. In the meantime there are two events coming up. First we will have worship together in the North Church on Sunday, 27 September at 6.30PM. Please mark your calendar now and aim to participate. Then there will be a social event on Friday 13 November as we approach St. Andrew’s day – details of that one to follow.
New Minister at North Church
Perth North has become the latest charge in our prebytery to welcome a new minister. Rev Hugh O’Brien was inducted there on 5 August, having translated from Meldrum and Bourtie in the Presbytery of Gordon. Hugh’s arrival means that all of the vacancies in the city centre churches have now been filled. We welcome Hugh and his family and wish our friends at the North God’s blessing.
Giving Thanks
We will celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving at our morning service on Sunday, 27 September at 11.15AM.
The Friendship Club
The Friendship Club resumes on Wednesday 23rd Sept at 2.30pm.
A warm welcome will be extended to all as we begin our 2009-2010 session.
The programme for 2009 is as follows:
Sept 23rd Rev J. and Mrs. Wallace will join us for tea and chat.
Oct 7th Salvation Army
Oct 21st Craft Workshop – Creative Boxes by Betty Gruar
Nov 4th Dunkeld Bell Ringers.
Nov 18th Speaker from Rannoch Road Day Centre
Dec 2nd Musical afternoon with the U3A Choir
Dec 16th Christmas Party.
We meet in the church hall (enter by the James Street door) .Do join us at any or all of our meetings (gents welcome).
Bette Donaldson
Helpers Wanted
I am about to update the rosters for Readers and Church Officer.
New members for these roles would be welcome. They can replace those who do not wish to continue, but also more importantly, can have opportunities to contribute to the worship.
If you feel you might be able to help but want to know more, then please speak to me or contact me at 01738 633452 or E Mail dg.combe@tiscali.co.uk
David Combe
Coffee Morning
A coffee morning to welcome the Rev Jim and Mrs. Catherine Wallace will be held in the Church Hall on Saturday 3rd October from 10 till 12 o'clock.
Tickets will cost £2.00 and will be on sale on Sunday mornings in September after the Services. It is hoped that there will be a good turnout from the Congregation for this event. There will be a ‘bring and buy’ plant stall in place of the cake and candy stall.
Willie Coupar
WORLD MISSION
This year's General Assembly gave its blessing to a special Sunday focusing on HIV and food, set for 10th January 2010. Robin Hill, Convener of the Church of Scotland HIV/AIDS Project, tells us more about how to get involved.
Souper Sunday? That's a bit unusual. What's it all about?
Essentially, Souper Sunday is all about thinking about HIV in our World, worshipping God,and enjoying a lovely warm bowl of soup on a chilly January day.
In October 2008, the then Moderator, David Lunan, challenged all Presbyteries to raise money for the HIV/AIDS Project to help fund more HIV-related work in Africa, India, The Middle East and Scotland.
Lothian Presbytery rose to the challenge that year with 24 Churches taking part in Souper Sundays when the sum of £9500.00 was raised. This year's Assembly has extended the invitation to us all to participate in January.
There will be more details nearer the time.
More news from World Mission
We are being asked to cotinue our support for the tremendously successful 'Shoe Box Appeal' through the work of Blythswood Care.
Half-way through the year, we are being thanked for the continuing support given the the Stamp Appeal which this year is helping a project in the Czech Republic. The people involved are the 'Roma', who are a minority living on the edge of society. They are subject to various forms of discrimination and prejudice. Please read the 'Letters of Love' poster on the Notice Board.
{Please place your used stamps, cut off the envelope leaving a minimum 1/4 inch margin, in the box in the vestibule}
Ron Ferguson Writes:
AND so it goes on – yet another spectacular archaeological find in Orkney, but this one is a real “biggie”, an astonishing discovery which is really exciting archaeologists. VisitScotland is also pretty chuffed, especially as tourism is expected to take a bit of a knock in the aftermath of the al Megrahi business.
So, what's it all about? Experts have unearthed a Neolithic “cathedral” – a massive building of a kind never before seen in Britain. It has left archaeologists stunned.
This is not like finding a couple of bits of broken pottery. This is literally groundbreaking.
At 82ft long and 65ft wide, it is placed between two of Orkney's most famous Neolithic landmarks, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness.
You may remember that, in one of his TV series, Billy Connolly cavorted naked around the Ring of Brodgar. Nothing quite like one ancient relic dancing around a whole lot of others.
Now the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness are very impressive big monuments, but even these would have seemed quite small in the presence of the cathedral-type building which would have stood on the spot that has now been excavated.
The sites we are talking about go back nearly 5,000 years. In other words, the buildings there predate the Egyptian pyramids. That is what I call seriously old.
My grandchildren sometimes ask me what it was like in the olden days. Well, 5,000 years is definitely the olden days, and I’m pretty sure I wasn't writing columns at that time.
Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, who is leading the dig, said the building was effectively a cathedral for the north of Scotland.
“It's spectacular,” he said. “There were hints at the end of last season that we had an enormous building here and now we are able to define it more.”
What is interesting is that the shape and size of the building are visible, with the walls still standing to a height of more than three feet. They are 16 feet thick and surround a cross-shaped inner sanctum where the excavation team have found examples of art and furniture created from stone.
Furniture created from stone? I’ve known some church pews that felt like that. Not so good for the haemorrhoids, really.
It seems that the building was surrounded by a paved outer passage. This could have formed a labyrinth that would have led people through darkness to the chamber at the heart of the building.
This doesn’t sound very Church of Scotlandy to me. Presbyterians don't really go in for walking through labyrinths in the darkness. They don't go much in for candles, either.
Mind you, this great northern cathedral was built long before Presbyterianism was ever thought of. In fact, it was built before Christianity was even heard of.
Mr Card said: “This is architecture on a monumental scale and the result is the largest structure of its kind anywhere in the north of Britain. It's one of those finds of a lifetime.”
The building probably served as some kind of temple, maybe for remembering the dead. For all we know, it may have been a place where sacrifices, even human sacrifices, were offered up.
Other buildings, over 50ft long and 30ft wide, have also been discovered. This is major, major stuff.
Dr Colin Richards, a leading expert on the period, said the building would have stood at the heart of Neolithic Orkney. “A structure of this nature would have been renowned right across the north of Scotland – and is unprecedented anywhere in Britain.”
It’s clear that those big buildings were designed to create a sense of awe in the punters. They were intended to drive people to their knees.
The instinct for worship has been with humankind for a long, long time. There seems to have always been an urge among people to worship a god or gods. The very existence of the world itself creates a sense of wonder.
Of course, the earliest human beings might have simply been superstitious. They would tend to see the presence of God in a big mysterious mountain, or even in cloud formations. It's easy to see how people would interpret thunder and lightning as evidence of the displeasure of a god.
Of course, we now know so much more about natural phenomena. We tend not to see gods in mountains and rivers and fields. Science has explained so many things for us.
But there are so many things that science can't explain: such as why is there something rather than nothing? There are mysteries which the human mind may never be able to explain..
There is still a human instinct to express gratitude for food, or for the birth of a child. Religious ceremonies to do with birth, marriage and death are still popular, even in this secular age.
This was supposed to be the era when religion would disappear, laughed out of sight, drowned under the weight of its own absurdity. It would be exposed as a sham, a con-trick; it would also be shown to be responsible for most of the evils of the world.
But far from lying still in its grave, the corpse is walking around, creating mayhem and misery while also bringing consolation and delight.
Institutional religion may be faltering in western Europe, but it is flourishing in many other parts of the world.
Religion has many, many faces. Some of its masks are deeply repellent, others are profoundly attractive.
In the Year of Our Lord 2009, whatever is happening to religion, it is not dying. Indeed, it is headline news and a constant topic of conversation. As someone who has been involved in the rough old trades of both religion and journalism, I believe that religion’s persistence – resurgence, even – will continue to confound all critics.
Religion deals – sometimes well, sometimes badly – with age-old human concerns. The northern Neolithic cathedral in Orkney speaks eloquently to a new, and needy, generation.
A Postcard from Coll
I have been taking services on the Island of Coll for the past 10 years. The beautiful little church is on a hill above the village of Arinagour. Wonderful views are to be had through its clear glass windows of the Treshnish Islands, the coast of Mull and further to Staffa and Iona.
Congregations do get into double figures during the summer months. Services in the nearby free church have not been held now for several years and the windows are boarded on the weather side.
Visistors appreciate that the church is always open. Comments written this year in the visitors book include from Sweden “what a beautiful setting for the house of God” and “with my 2 grandchildren, we said a prayer for grandad”.
Stanley Brown
Jambouree Choir
Jambouree youth choir and the John Scrimger Singers with Lesley Mackie will be performing at Perth Theatre on Thursday 1st October in aid of funds for Jambouree. Tickets are available from the Theatre.
SCOTLAND'S CHURCHES SCHEME
The Gathering of Scotland's Churches Scheme was held on 14th July in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh; I was privileged to represent our church at this event - and what a fascinating afternoon it was! The Parliament building, which to some looks a bit odd from the outside, is quite remarkable inside. Thoroughly modern, it is full of light, especially in the debating chamber and there are many unusual features in the layout of the building. Welcomed by the Presiding Officer Mr. Alex Fergusson MSP, (and I was lucky enough to have a front row seat) we were joined by the Scheme's Patron, HRH The Princess Royal.
A report on the activities and progress of the Scheme was given by Dr. Brian Fraser, the Director and it was very positive and encouraging. The Directory of churches is presently being updated and the format is changing from one big volume to several which are specific to the various regions of Scotland.
The Princess Royal then spoke very knowledgeably about the Scheme - I was very impressed by her obvious interest and when she said that the first three volumes of the new guide were on her desk and were proving to be a real distraction, I was curious to see them myself!
We met with the Princess at a reception and I was introduced; she knew about our churches and the link - and asked me to pass on her good wishes to our minister and wish him well in his new challenge.(which I have done!)
The only downside in a most interesting afternoon was that I got soaked getting back to the car park - but that was a minor hitch.
Dalene Radin
Christian Aid
Christain Aid Week this year raised £29,916
Forthcoming Events:
Christian Aid Supporters Evening will be held on Friday 25th September at 7pm in the North Church. All will be made welcome. Deatails on the notice boards.
Christian Aid Christmas cards will be available for sale from Sunday 27th September.
Christain Aid Soup and Bread Lunch will be held after the service on Sunday 29th November.
Please give these events your support.
Evelyn Robertson
Concert
Seafarers UK and the Band of the Royal Marines
Do you enjoy military band music - and how about choral singing? If so, the place to be is at Perth Concert Hall on Wednesday 7th October! Why? The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines Scotland, with Perth Choral Society, present a concert in aid of Seafarers UK ( formerly King George's Fund for Sailors). This will be great occasion and not one to be missed. What is the programme? I haven't the faintest idea at the moment, but rest assured it will be varied, very musical and lots of fun! Perth Choral Society have joined this group of wonderful musicians for the past two years - and we are thrilled to be invited again this year. The fact that our Director of Music, Peter Rutterford, is a former Director of Music of the Band has nothing at all to do with it - we just enjoy the whole experience (even though we only have ONE rehearsal with the band about an hour before the concert!)
I hope you will be able to join us for an evening of delightful music and song - there's bound to be something for everyone. Get your tickets early - from the Concert Hall Box Office. They cost £16 ( with concessions and group rates). Remember - Wednesday 7th October at 7.30pm. Miss it at your peril!
Dalene Radin,
A Stranger for Christmas
Visits from strangers at Christmas began with the arrival of wise men from a foreign land. You could carry on this tradition, by inviting an international student to spend Christmas in your home. HOST is a well-established charity, backed by the Foreign Office and many universities, which links adults studying in the UK with hospitable volunteers throughout Britain. Guests come from all over the world, including many from China. They speak English, are keen to share their own culture, while longing to know more about our way of life. They are prepared to travel to stay with a host far from their university. Welcoming a student who might otherwise spend Christmas on a deserted campus, fosters international understanding, and will make Christmas special. See www.hostuk.org or call HOST's volunteer regional organiser in this part of Scotland, Brian Conn, on 01224 733073. HOST arranges visits throughout the year, so if your 'inn' is full this Christmas, you can still offer an invitation at another time.
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THE BACK PAGE
CREATION
When God biggit the world
Ee stertit on Monday
Feenished on Setterday
Restit on Sunday.
Made Man frae stoor
An Wumman frae bane
Adam an Eve
Begat Abel an Cain
But the Gairden o Eden
Went aw tapsalteerie
Hickerty pickerty
An heeligoleerie
When the sleekit serpent's apple
Stuck in Adam's thrapple.
And.....
in a newspaper recently
A minister who was notorious for talking for too long noticed on one occasion that a man got up and left halfway through his sermon and return much later. Shaking hands at the end of the service, the minister asked the man where he had gone. "For a haircut" he replied."A haircut," said the minister, "couldn't you have had a haircut before the service?" "I didn't need one then," replied the man.