Rector’s Letter – August 2024
St 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
29th July 2024
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Rector’s letter for August 2024
Personal Notes
July seems to have flown by. Aiding the perception for me of time flying was my ten days stay in Windsor Castle as a participant in conversations about how we talk about God in relation to issues people face in the 21st century. There were 23 attendees, mainly from the Church of England, but a few from the Church in Wales and from the Church of Ireland, plus two from the USA. We stayed in St George’s House, adjacent to St George’s Chapel, which made it somewhat easy to be up and in chapel for Choral Mattins at 7.30 am each morning followed by a Communion service at 8 am. We also attended Choral Evensong at 5.15 pm each day.
We were allocated to one of three discussion groups for the duration of our stay. Each day we engaged with a different theme: Today’s church; Reading Scripture; Extremism; Assisted Dying; God and the Arts; Artificial Intelligence; Free Speech; and, Charity and Christian Aid. For each theme, after breakfast we started with a Bible study, then discussed a book, article or film. After a break we had a two-hour presentation by an expert in the theme. After lunch we had two hours free time, but many of us used it to read again the 3,000 word paper written by the participant who was going to lead a discussion on the topic that afternoon. After Evensong we had a time for collecting our thoughts from the day’s discussions and agreeing a summary within our groups. Each group had a facilitator. The facilitator of group I was in was Canon Martin Poll, Chaplain to the King, who proved to be an able facilitator and an excellent raconteur as well. Our group included people from a wide range of backgrounds and diverse church contexts, and their wisdom was shared generously.
Sunday was a day of ‘rest’, with no structured conversations. However, we did attend the main services of Mattins and Holy Communion in St George’s Chapel and do the tourist’s tour of the Castle.
On the last morning each group gave a short presentation trying to encompass our overall thoughts from the sessions. It was hard to try and condense it down to about ten minutes, and one of our number did a marvellous job of presenting our views to the other two groups.
I arrived home with my head buzzing with the content we had discussed, the views we shared and how we handled disagreement so well, with a sense of gratitude of being able to worship in such a beautiful and historic chapel, but also troubled by the ‘bubble’ I had lived in for those ten days of comfort, of wealth, of plenty. I also came home very tired. It was a full-on ten days and there was little opportunity for some quiet down time. The wee chantry chapel for William IV was a gem of a place where it was possible to be quiet, to pray, and let God speak, but it was hard to carve out the time for this. As one wise person said to me this last week, I needed a week’s retreat after that to make sense of it all. Instead, like all the other attendees I returned to my role and got back into the day to day activities and planning of services. It is my intention to find time to look at my journal full of notes from those ten days, rather than consign it to my cupboard and quickly lose the benefits of the time away. I need to set some time aside to ask myself the question I always used to pose to attendees on training courses I ran, ‘what one thing will you do differently after attending this course?’
One thing I will do, is take some time to read the poems in the book assigned to the theme ‘God and the Arts’, called ‘Seamus Heaney, 100 Poems’, published by Faber & Faber. I seldom make time for poetry but when I do, I find it a mixture of frustration and inspiration. Some poems I seem to have an affinity with, some I struggle with. Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘St Kevin and the Blackbird’ was one I instantly liked, perhaps because I have visited Glendalough and could envisage him in the tower, in his small monastic cell.
It was a great privilege to attend these conversations, and I need to do them justice by spending more time reflecting on them. I think there is quite a lot of sermon material in what I experienced at Windsor.
I asked Peter Woodifield for an update on his health, which is below. Please continue to hold Peter in your prayers.
At the end of this week, it will be six weeks since I had an urgent operation to deal with the infection in my new hip following surgery in April. At the end of the week, I will have completed a four-week course of oral antibiotics and have had a blood test to see if they have succeeded in killing off the infection in my hip. In mid-August I will have another blood test to check that it hasn’t returned. If both the blood tests come back with the ‘right’ results, it will then be a question of agreeing a date with the consultant for a permanent replacement hip to be fitted, which I guess will be sometime in September. If they don’t, I am not quite sure what the next steps will be!
Walking with elbow crutches and only allowed to be partially weightbearing has been an interesting challenge – I have yet to master the art of carrying a nearly full cup of coffee or glass of water, but have managed to improvise for lots of other things (including doing the ironing!) – but nevertheless it has inevitably given Markie an awful lot of extra work for which I am very grateful. I can now walk into West Linton, but going up hills etc is still out of bounds. On the other hand, at the end of this week I will be able to start driving again, which will give both Markie and myself a bit more freedom. Sadly it will be a good couple of months before I am able to start taking services again, so I am very grateful to those who have stepped into the breach.
Having returned from Windsor, I have tried to both catch up on work and also get ahead of myself for August, as I take annual leave from 1st to 17th August. I shall be attending the Iona Community’s Community week from 3rd to 9th August, in Erfurt, Germany. We shall be staying in a church conference centre that used to be the monastery where Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic priest. Our theme for the week is based around migration, with invited speakers from a range of different organisations. After that I am heading to Leipzig for five days, then heading home. Along with six other members from Scotland with whom I am travelling, we have chosen to avoid flying so the journey will by train and ferry (Newcastle to Ijmuiden/Amsterdam). It is apparent that Deutsche Bahn (DB) is not quite so reliable as it was – our planned train journeys have been revised twice since we booked them, the latest most unhelpful one was to say our journey was no longer possible! Not really what you want to hear a week before you travel. However, after some research I think I have found an alternative for that trip that does get us to Erfurt. It is a shame that the ferry is so much more expensive than flying, but the holiday starts the moment I get on the bus to Waverley and I can sit back and relax on the train to Newcastle and also on the ferry overnight. With an Interrail pass it is easy to travel across the Netherlands and Germany despite DB’s best efforts to cause us problems. I just hope I have the same opinion at the end of the trip. For most of the time my daughter and son-in-law will be staying at the Rectory in my absence, looking after Misty.
News and new things happening
Vestry meetings
The St Mungo’s Vestry next meets on 19th August. The St James the Less Vestry next meets on 27th August.
St Mungo’s service on 25th August, with added choir and BBQ!
It has become a bit of a tradition to hold a BBQ at St Mungo’s at the end of the summer holidays, and this year it will be held on 25th August. In addition, the Crescendo Choir, who rent the church on a Thursday evening for their rehearsals, are going to come along, to join us in worship and sing two songs in the service. Of course, I am biased as I sing with them whenever time allows, but the choir produces a lovely sound. Pass the word to others, come along even if you haven’t been for a while, and bring your friends. Please let me know if you are planning to attend so we can plan the BBQ.
St Mungo’s Congregational Forum – meeting on 31st August
The first of the sessions where we can get together as a congregation to continue to listen to each other and share our faith journeys will held on Saturday 31st August. We will meet at 10.00 and finish with lunch at 1 pm. You do not need to have attended the two congregational conversations held already to join us. Please let me know if you are attending so we can order sufficient food and teas and coffees.
St James the Less participating in Midlothian Open Doors – 14th September
St James the Less is taking part in this scheme this year. We are looking for volunteers willing to act as stewards/guides during the day, and for others to provide some lovely cakes etc., and for others to help serves refreshments. Please let me know if you are able to help on the day.
Season of Creation 1st to 29th September
In both churches we use the five Sundays starting from the first Sunday in September as our season of creation, when our preaching reflects the wonder of God’s creation and the issues facing us in this time of climate crisis. The fifth Sunday, which this year is 29th September will be our service for Harvest Festival.
St Francis’ Day and Pet Blessing Services
St Francis’s Day is on the 4th of October, and so this year I have decided to reintroduce the pet blessing services that never really got going because of the COVID lockdown. I am planning a service on Saturday 5th at noon at St Mungo’s, and on Sunday 6th at 2.30pm at St James the Less. Spread the word, and bring your pet, or borrow someone else’s (and bring their owner too)!
Faith Development and Bible Study Groups – Autumn 2024 programme
I would be interested in knowing what material or styles of presentation and discussion would interest you for these groups. What time or days would suit you best?
October – Preaching Theme on Prayer
On the Sundays in October our sermons in both churches will be considering different forms of prayer. On Saturday 2nd November we shall hold a quiet day in both churches for people to come and spend time in prayer, with a short service during the day. More details to follow closer to the time, but for now, put this date in your diary.
Recycling Medicine Tablet Blister Packs – At St James the Less
The box for blister packs was filled within a few weeks of being put in the hall. It just shows how much we can save from landfill by using this facility. Please keep on bringing them in.
St James’ Fellowship Lunch in August
The Fellowship lunch on the 4th August will be ‘bring and share’. We shall invite people to donate to our ‘Penicuik Mission Fund’. This is a restricted fund which from time to time Vestry makes decisions on allocating some of the funds for the benefit of the residents of the district. During the school summer holidays there is an increased demand for foodbank supplies as school-age children are not getting a free lunch at school. We also support the work of Mid-Aid, that supports the settlement of refugees and others into the district – more families are being resettled into our areas this summer and need support to turn an empty house into a home. Vestry wishes to support both of these initiatives this summer, and whilst we do have funds available, we will need to top them up. I ask you to be generous with your giving to our ’Penicuik Mission Fund’, so we can offer support to those in need.
In Other News…
My daughter and son-in-law will be bringing their Cocker Spaniel puppy, Maisie, with them when they come to stay in the Rectory. She has much shorter walks than Misty, so you may see her being carried on her ‘walks’…
The Olympic Games in Paris have just started. On Saturday 22nd June I attended a service at St Giles Cathedral for the Eric Liddell 100 celebrations. It is 100 years since Eric Liddell won the 400m at the Paris Olympics. During the service, the Salvation Army Household Band played superbly, including ‘Be Still My Soul’ to the tune of Finlandia, which the Salvation Army band played under Eric’s window as he lay dying in the Japanese internment camp in China on 21st February 1945. It was quite an emotional moment in the service. Bishop John will be authorising 21st February as a date to add Eric Liddell into our Diocesan Liturgical Calendar, on the back of my proposal that he be added to the Provincial Liturgical Calendar that is working its way through the Committees and Boards before being put to the General Synod at some point in the future.
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 1st 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 14th August.
Whim Hall, Lamancha: We visit Whim Hall Care Centre on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Our next visit is on 22nd August.
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.
Faith Development 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 much of August.
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.
We alternate each week between a study of the previous Sunday’s sermon and lectionary readings and in the other week using Lectio Divina to explore scripture from the previous Sunday.
Monday Study Night
If you have a subject you would wish us to explore when we resume in mid-August after our break for the summer, please let me know.
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 are:
29th July: ‘Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World’, by Henri Nouwen (published by Crossroad Pub Co., ISBN978-0-8245-1986-5)
30th Sept: ‘Grounded: Finding God in the World, a Spiritual Revolution’, by Diana Butler Bass (published by Harper One, ISBN 978-0-06-232856-4)
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 4th August 2024. 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.
Diocesan and Provincial Activities
I attended the Diocesan Personnel Committee meeting in July. Our next meeting is on 26th August.
The Ministry Team
We continue to meet monthly 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)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/6289561588?pwd=aGtNeE1ZM3l1Tkluckp3bVJtZkRHQT09
Meeting ID: 628 956 1588 Password: 040775
St Mungo, Holy Communion at 10.30 am on Sunday.
Join Zoom Meeting
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.
Join Zoom Meeting
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)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96303841875?pwd=YmZiYkdNNzZJeWI5cmtZL2RLUWc1Zz09
Meeting ID: 963 0384 1875 Password: 040775
Wednesday Evening Compline at 9 pm (all year) (Zoom only)
Join Zoom Meeting
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