Rector’s Letter – September 2025
James the Less Penicuik and St Mungo West Linton
Scottish Episcopal Churches
The Rectory
23 Broomhill Road
Penicuik
EH26 9EE
01968 678254
07950 607574
Rector.pandwl@gmail.com
1st September 2025
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Rector’s letter for August 2025
Personal Notes
I have just got back from a holiday solely in the UK! I travelled south stopping off at various places on my way to Kettering, of all places. I was heading there to attend the annual three-day Greenbelt Festival, in the grounds of Boughton House, just north-east of Kettering. The festival has its roots in the Christian faith, with a blend of ecology and care for creation. Their website states it is a place where artistry meets activism, where the political meets the practical. It goes on to state, ‘Our history is firmly rooted within a Christian tradition which is world-affirming, politically and culturally engaged. Ours is a belief that embraces instead of excludes. And, as such, the festival is an inter-generational celebration, inclusive and accepting of all, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, background or belief.’ The theme for this year was ‘Hope in the Making’.
It was my first time at Greenbelt, and I went because my daughter Lorna had urged me to attend as she had been many times and really enjoyed it. I chose not to camp on site, but to stay in a local inn, with a comfy bed and a hot shower! On arrival on the Friday morning I made my way to the Wild Goose tent, home for the Iona Community for the festival, as I was helping out on their bookstall for several hours over the three days. It was good to catch up with friends and the talented members of the Wild Goose Resource Group. I spent quite a while looking through the festival guide, choosing what to attend, over the fourteen venues on site. Some were large tents, some were much grander structures, including the main festival stage called ‘Glade’ where there was a eclectic range of musicians playing over the festival, including folk singer Kate Rusby who is a favourite of mine. The other live music venue was ‘Canopy’ opposite Glade, so as one band finished the other music venue would start up within a few minutes. In between the two music venue was a large beer tent called ‘The Jesus Arms’, with a great range of beers. I had been recommended a local stout called ‘Bejing Black’ which was very good.
I attended a fair number of talks, conversations with authors, academics and politicians, poetry recitals, presentations on a range of subjects including climate change tipping points, life in the West Bank at the Tent of Nations, and of course, several events in the Wild Goose Tent. Saturday at 11:00 in the Canopy saw me at ‘Beer and Hymns’. It was the first time in many a year that I had a beer in my hand at 11.30 in the morning, and I don’t think I have sung any ‘Primary School Bangers’ whilst drinking a beer before. Late on Saturday evening the Iona Community members gathered together in the Wild Goose tent to hold Kathy Galloway in our prayers and to tell stories of our memories and encounters with her, along with some poems she had written, as we knew Kathy was entering her final days. Kathy had been a leader of the Community and a very active member for many years. Kathy died on Monday 27th August. We shall be singing one of her hymns at St James on 7th September.
On Sunday morning there was a choice of two venues for eucharist, the main Glade stage, or the smaller ‘No Fly Zone’ stage where John Bell and other Iona Community folk were leading the service. I sat down on the grass at the ‘No Fly Zone’ and chatted to the people sitting beside me, who happened to live in Skirling and fairly recently started attending the house group. Was that a coincidence, or meant to be? I also met three of the young adults I went to Taizé with in July.
I enjoyed the festival, enjoyed leaving every night to my nice comfy bed, and enjoyed the community that forms at any such gatherings. It had a wonderful relaxed and peaceful feeling. It helped that the sun shone, the ground was dry, the food on sale was good quality, and the beer was also good. I also ‘only’ bought three books whilst I was there – I think I showed admirable restraint. Might I go back next year, from 28-30th August 2026? I don’t know, but I will return at some point, God willing.
Whilst I was away, on 24th August, St Mary’s cathedral held a choral evensong as the farewell service for Bishop John, who formally retired on 31st August. We now enter into the process of electing a new Bishop.
The three meetings of the Electoral Synod are provisionally set for:
- 27th September 2025 (preliminary meeting with the Preparatory Committee)
- 7th February 2026 (meeting with the candidates)
- 14th February 2026 (meeting to elect a Bishop)
There is a prayer for the process of searching for a new Bishop, that we are asked to use in our own personal prayer life and in our services:
Living God, you walk with us in all seasons of life calling us to follow you with joy, hope and love as we share in your work of renewing the world; give us humility and discernment to hear your voice, that those discerning their calling and all involved in our bishop search may be encouraged in your ways and open to your creative Spirit. Amen.
I was looking at the website called Red Letter Christians a few days ago, and came across a most powerful pastoral letter to Donald Trump, exploring the free gift of grace that he could receive if he so chose. You can read it here: https://redletterchristians.org/2025/08/29/a-pastoral-letter-to-donald-trump/ It is a great example of practical theology and what people need to do to receive God into their lives, and coming to know the truth that sets you free. I recommend it to you.
On my drive back up after Greenbelt, I stopped off at Lincoln to visit the cathedral there, and also at Bishop Auckland to visit the Bishop’s Palace, the Faith Museum, and the Miners’ Art Gallery. The Art gallery has some stunning paintings by miners and ex-miners. One of the paintings called Bearpark Colliery, by Jack Roach, had a narrative board beside it stating, ’Jack Roach was encouraged to paint mining scenes by fellow Spennymoor Settlement member, Sid Chaplin, who realised that the embryonic National Coal board was actively collecting mining art.’ The Sid Chaplin mentioned was Colin Chaplin’s elder brother. It was lovely to find that connection with a member of St James’ congregation and valued neighbour of mine.
On Sunday 31st August at St James’ we held a ‘Wee Sing’. This was a chance to learn songs from the Iona Community, or songs curated by them from other countries. Many thanks to the musicians who helped support the singing and to all who attended. We may just have to do it again sometime.
The Season of Creation starts today, 1st September and runs through to 5th October, when we celebrate with our Harvest Festival.
News and new things happening
7th September at 3pm- Government Mobile Phone Alert System Test
Nothing to do with church, but for those with mobile phones, they will go off and make a bit of a noise at 3pm on 7th September. Despite knowing this, I am sure I will jump when it goes off on Sunday afternoon!
Tuesday Afternoon Bible Study
We shall restart our Bible Study in September. Our Daily Prayer readings recently have been from 1 and 2 Samuel. It seemed appropriate to do a Bible study based on these books, plus 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. We shan’t be reading the texts in detail each Tuesday afternoon, but instead we shall discuss their authorship, the context in which they were written, the major themes and characters that appear, and what wisdom we can apply to our current times from these writings from 2,500 years or so ago. This will run from 2nd September to 14th October. You may wish to read these books of the Hebrew Scriptures in advance of our discussions, but you don’t have to.
Monday Study Group – 1st – 29th September at 10 am St James’ Church Hall
Today a small group of us came together to listen to an interview with Walter Brueggemann and discuss the issues it raised for us. We have three more sessions, on 8th, 15th, and 29th September at 10:00, for a maximum of two hours. We shall not meet on 22nd September. The format will be to gather over tea and coffee and listen to a podcast, stopping at various points through each one to discuss issues people want to raise.
8th September: Interview with the late Rachel Held Evans on Unravelling and Reravelling the Bible
15th September: Discussion with Pete Enns and Jared Byas on Teaching the Bible to children.
29th September: Interview with Diana Butler Bass on Reading the Bible as an Experience and Relationship.
St James the Less Fellowship Lunch – September onwards
The soup and a roll lunches will recommence on 7th September, the first Sunday in the month. We shall be asking for donations for Medical Aid for Palestinians. You can find out more about MAP at their website https://www.map.org.uk/what-we-do/what-we-do
We ideally need three volunteers each month to make soup for about ten people each. The soup should be vegetarian and gluten-free. Please contact me or Marion Mather if you wish to help out one month.
Planting Daffodils Fundraiser
To make better use of some of the Rectory garden, and to have a very close supply of daffodils for the Springtime Daffodil Tea at St James, I am asking for people to donate money to St James to cover the cost of buying a lot of daffodil bulbs this autumn and also for volunteers to help with planting them in the autumn. Please donate by bank transfer with ‘daffodils’ in the reference section, or else hand cash to John McCulloch.
Night Church at St James
A group of volunteers came together in August to explore ideas for ‘Night Church’. From that meeting came ideas for five sessions. These quiet contemplative sessions will be held in the church hall at 7.30 pm, with a short closing service of night prayer in the Peace Chapel at 8.50 pm. The sessions will be:
Sat 11th October – theme of ‘Life’.
Tues 18th November – theme of ‘Peace’.
Sat 13th December – theme of ‘Nature’.
Tues 13th January – theme of ‘Community’
Sat 14th February – theme ‘Life’
Tues 10th March – theme is yet to be decided
A publicity flyer will shortly be produced for the Night Church.
We Make the Road By Walking – a Year Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation and Activation
This is the title of a book by Brian McLaren. It is split into four seasonal quarters, each with 13 chapters. In the introduction Brian states: “The title suggests that faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank or a warehouse. Instead it was to be a road, a path, a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones. As a road or way, it is always being extended into the future… To be a living tradition, a living way, it must forever open itself forward and forever remain unfinished.”
If this introduction intrigues you and you want to embark on a journey in faith, this may be a book for you. Each chapter has a couple of Bible readings to read and reflect on, and then the chapter offers a response to those passages. You are invited to respond to Brian’s interpretation and application, not necessarily agreeing with his. At the end of each chapter there are some questions to engage with, to reflect upon, and possibly use as a starting point for deeper reflections and journalling.
If this approach interests you, you may want to do this on your own or perhaps share this and meet with a few others to do one of the seasonal sections – you don’t need to do all four sections one after the other. If you wish to meet up with others from our congregation let me know – I shall put you in contact with one another. Or you may wish to invite some friends or neighbours to create a non-denominational group to explore the Bible and Brain McLaren’s approach. Used copies of the book can be bought from about £5 from www.bookfinder.com The easiest way to search for the book is to use the ISBN number: 978-1-444-70370-2.
In Other News…
One of the books I bought at Greenbelt was Martin Wroe’s new book of poetry, called ‘This Heart: Poems from the Universe Inside’. I occasionally hear him speaking in the Thought for the Day slot on BBC Radio Four. You may have heard me read one of his poems in a service a while back, called ‘Julian of Norwich’s Tea Bag’. I don’t always manage a poem a day, but it is good to stop and read one and have a time of quiet to consider it amidst the bustle of most days.
It is now ten weeks since Misty broke her rear right leg. She has recovered very well. Misty is allowed four fifteen minute walks a day. The vet suggests that might be here limit in terms of distance because of the osteo-arthritis in her hips. She would walk further if I let her, even if it would be sore, because Collie’s will just walk and run if you let them. It made me wonder what we do out of habit that might be harmful for us… For now, Misty is proving an example of accepting the need to slow down and ‘be’ for after all we are human beings, not human doings.
Nick Bowry
Regular Activities
Ministry in Care and Nursing Homes
Cowan Court, Penicuik: We have been part of a rota with the other Penicuik churches, visiting Cowan Court on a Sunday afternoon for the last year. We visit Cowan Court about once every 5 or 6 weeks. Our next visit is on 21st September.
Aaron House, Penicuik: We are part of a rota with the other Penicuik churches, visiting Aaron House on a Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. As with Cowan Court we will visit once every 5 or 6 weeks. Our next visit is on 8th October. If you able to join the team offering this ministry, please let me know.
Whim Hall, Lamancha: We visit Whim Hall Care Centre on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Our next visit is on 11th September.
If you are interested in supporting this rewarding ministry by being part of the visiting teams then please let me know. Normally three of us attend each time, so we can support and guide people through the service and have a chat afterwards with whoever attends. We use a simplified form of the Liturgy for Reserved Sacrament and sing a few well-known hymns. Your prayers are welcome for this increased activity in and for members of our local communities.
Bible Study for all
We hold our weekly Bible study at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon, online, for up to an hour and a half. We have a break for July and August. We shall be commencing our reading and study of 1 & 2 Samuel on 2nd September.
We come together with the common aim of exploring the texts, understanding their context, and just as importantly, exploring how it speaks to us and how it informs us today. We enjoy exploring our different understandings and learning from each other. Please do join us, we are always happy to include more people.
Monday Study Night
We shall continue to take a break in September, whilst the morning sessions are running, but will return in October., when explore the book, ‘Making Sense of God’s Love’.
Faith Development ‘Faith Books’
When we have a fifth Monday in the month, we hold a discussion at 7.30 pm about a book as a way of introducing people to different authors which may pique an interest to read more of their work (or not!). In looking for new or used books, I have often used www.bookfinder.com I am sure there are other search sites that will help people find the books on our reading list. The books we shall be discussing in 2025 are:
29th Sept: ‘A Rabbi’s Bible’ by Jonathan Magonet (published by SCM, ISBN 978-0-334-02506-1)
Morning and Evening Prayer
We meet online Monday to Friday at 9.00 am and at 5.30 pm. It is a good way to start and end our day, coming together for worship, with daily readings including the psalms; a good rhythm for worship in the Anglican tradition of saying the Daily Offices. Please do consider joining us.
If you wish to access the Daily Office liturgy with the daily scripture readings, go to the Provincial Website, www.scotland.anglican.org and place your cursor on the ‘Spirituality’ heading. A submenu appears and you can select the appropriate Daily Office from the right-hand side of the page.
I circulated the Daily Intercessions booklet we use by email on 26th February. If you would like a paper copy, please let me know.
Mid-week evening services on Zoom
On the first Wednesday of each month, at 7.30 pm, we hold a service of Prayers for healing online. If you wish someone or a situation to be prayed for, send an email to me or Marion Mather.
At 9pm every Wednesday evening we hold the service of Compline. Please do join us for this short service of calm and settling prayers before sleep.
Continuing our Mission: Leading Your Church into Growth Prayer
Each weekday morning, we pray for growth in our church. If you are not able to join us online for Morning Prayer at 9 am, can I encourage you to pray this once a day. The prayer is given below.
God of Mission, who alone brings growth to your Church,
send your Holy Spirit to give:
vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, and power to our witness.
Help our church to grow:
in numbers, in spiritual commitment to you, and in service to our local
community, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Touch Magazine for St James the Less and St Mungo’s
In Touch is circulated to all on email and is issued in paper format to those who do not have email. The cost of a paper copy is £2 for an A4 version, and about £1.50 for an A5 version. We print a very limited number of paper copies to keep out costs down, and to reduce our consumption of paper. If you receive an email version but would also like a paper copy, please let Sue Owen know and we invite you to make a suitable donation (preferably by bank transfer rather than in cash) to cover the cost. The deadline for content to be submitted for the next issue is 2nd November 2025. I would like to encourage you to submit something for inclusion in the magazine, a poem, a review of a book or a film, an article on a subject of interest. If you wish to submit an article, please send them to intouch@stjamesthelesspenicuik.org
Financial giving to St James the Less or to St Mungo’s
If you are able, can I ask you to prayerfully consider setting up a recurring monthly payment to the church via on-line banking, to contribute financially on a regular basis. Details of the bank accounts are given below for each of the churches.
St James the Less:
Monthly donation by bank transfer (include your name in the reference line when setting this up – only the Treasurer knows the name of the donor). Bank details are: St James Episcopal Church Penicuik, acct no 17117264, sort code 80-22-60. If you wish to make a donation by cheque, please make out the cheque to ‘St James Episcopal Church Penicuik’.
St Mungo:
Monthly donation by bank transfer (include your name in the reference line when setting this up – only the Treasurer knows the name of the donor). Bank details are: St Mungo’s Vestry, acct no 00817851, sort code 80-09-39.
Ecumenical Relations and Community Involvement Work
The Penicuik Ministers continue to meet every month in the Storehouse for a chat. Once a month the Penicuik Churches Together (PCT) has a joint Sunday evening service. The schedule detailing where the services are each month is on the PCT website. http://penicuikchurchestogether.org.uk/ I continue to meet with Revd Dr Tony Foley to discuss joint services and matters of mutual interest, in West Linton.
Diocesan and Provincial Activities
I continue as the interim Pastor for Peebles and Innerleithen during their vacancy. Please pray for both congregations as they discern their futures and the profile of the person they wish to be called to lead them. The advert for a priest-in-charge is now in the Church Times.
The Ministry Team
We continue to meet to plan for the coming months; planning services and faith development activities as well as exploring other aspects of what is offered to the congregations and to our local communities.
Zoom Links for Services
We have a regular pattern of services. Details of these are set out below. You can access them using the Zoom links.
Morning Prayer at 9 am, and Evening Prayer at 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. (Zoom only)
https://zoom.us/j/6289561588?pwd=aGtNeE1ZM3l1Tkluckp3bVJtZkRHQT09
Meeting ID: 628 956 1588 Password: 040775
St Mungo, Holy Communion at 10.30 am on Sunday.
https://zoom.us/j/93417190423?pwd=K1ZoS0xKUWpRVENGTzFYL3NvakFHQT09
Meeting ID: 934 1719 0423 Passcode: 062021
St James the Less, Holy Communion at 10.30 am on Sunday.
https://zoom.us/j/92002197798?pwd=REp5NHQwVEdSd3A4a09lN1lHOUdnUT09
Meeting ID: 920 0219 7798 Passcode: 040775
1st Wednesday Evening Service at 7.30 pm (not July or August) (Zoom only)
https://zoom.us/j/96303841875?pwd=YmZiYkdNNzZJeWI5cmtZL2RLUWc1Zz09
Meeting ID: 963 0384 1875 Password: 040775
Wednesday Evening Compline at 9 pm (all year) (Zoom only)
https://zoom.us/j/95345457224?pwd=TDNoT20vR2dYMVQ5STdsS0lzR0dMQT09
Meeting ID: 953 4545 7224 Password: 040775
Zoom Links for Activities
‘Monday Evening Studies’ at 7.30 pm (Zoom only)
https://zoom.us/j/97670406222?pwd=WWUzL0dLNHdWdFJ0YVNnLzdvY2w2Zz09
Meeting ID: 976 7040 6222 Passcode: 202101
Use this link for Monday Evening Studies and the ‘Faith Book’ discussions.
Weekly Bible Study: Tuesdays at 2pm (Zoom only)
https://zoom.us/j/92510962481?pwd=L1hsaCtiWTh0ZFFib3N0WlluaVlaUT09
Meeting ID: 925 1096 2481 Passcode: 040775