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News
from Saint Mary’s and Saint James’s
The May edition of the printed Parish magazine is available. If you would like a copy, please phone the Parish Office at 01358 720366 and one will be mailed to you, or emailed if you prefer. In the meantime, scroll down for news-on-line.
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Click here for a list of this week’s services in the parish
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Parish News
The Rector will bid farewell to Saint James's congregation on Sunday, May 4th, and to Saint Mary's congregation on Sunday, May 11th. A farewell party has been arranged for Gerald and Glynis in the Station Hotel, Ellon, on Thursday, May 15th, and they will subsequently be living at Muir of Ord on the Black Isle, north of Inverness.
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Dramatize, the Parish's children's drama club, presented Little Red Riding Hood in Saint Mary's on Thursday, April 24th. Donations, in lieu of tickets, went to four national charities, chosen by the children. It means that the five pantomimes presented by Saint Mary's over the last four years have raised £5,500 for charities.
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The Rector was installed as Dean Emeritus of Aberdeen and Orkney in Aberdeen Cathedral on Sunday, April 20th. He retired as Dean of the Diocese in early March.
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The first phase of renovation work at Saint James's has been completed. The work involved installing a new heating system, which uses green energy from a ground source 130 metres deep. The second phase, the arrival of new seating, will be completed by the autumn. Grateful thanks goes to Cruden Bay Congregational Church for their hospitality during the nine weeks the first section of work took to complete and to Cruden Parish Church for the loan of (very comfortable) chairs while new oak pews for Saint James's are awaited.
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The time of the late-morning Sunday Eucharist in Saint Mary's has been moved back by 15 minutes. The Sunday timings now are - Saint Mary's Early Eucharist 8-30am; Saint James's Eucharist 9-30am and Saint Mary's Eucharist 11-0am.
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In mid-May there is a four day parish visit to the Benedictine abbey of Pluscarden. The abbey is set in a wooded valley in Morayshire.
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Bibi Rainey has been appointed the chairperson of Saint James's Vestry and Eddie Ellington the chairperson of Saint Mary's Vestry. Bibi lives in Collieston and is a chartered physiotherapist. Eddie lives in Ellon and is a retired Detective Chief Inspector with Strathclyde Police.
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Saint Mary's Whizz Kids meet in the Hall on Sundays at 10-45am and the Saturday Club at 2-0pm on the fourth Saturday of each month. A Sunday evening club for teenagers also meets in Saint Mary's Hall at 7-0pm on alternate Sundays. Dramatize, the Parish's children's drama club, meets in Saint Mary's Hall on Tuesdays at 6-0pm.
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New singers are always welcome in both churches, and if you would like to offer your musical gifts please call the Parish Office at 01358 720366.
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For the story of the 2007 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, click on Pilgrimage
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Easter at Saint Mary's 2008
Rachel Milne writes:-
Apparently it’s the earliest Easter in over 100 years and it certainly feels like the coldest! I’m sitting here typing this watching the snow swirl outside and wondering if my feet will ever get warm again. Certainly it’s very different from the descriptions of Easter Sunday in Jerusalem all those years ago.
Easter has been more intense for me this year, probably because I have seen many of the places mentioned in the Scriptures. Like all those who have been fortunate enough to visit the Holy Land, my imagination can now add the memory of the sights, the smells, and the feelings evoked from last summer’s pilgrimage.
Palm Sunday was the start of Holy Week and rather than a sermon there was a wonderful dramatisation of the events of Holy Week. It was a long drama, and I freely admit that normally my goldfish-like attention span doesn’t weather long sermons well and I end up having to haul my mind back to the subject quite regularly. However I was entranced with this from start to finish; the intensity of the readings, the variations in voices and the depth of the involvement of all the readers were such that my attention never wavered. And more; I felt it. It wasn’t just a story, I could see the events unfold in my imagination, could feel and smell the dusty heat of Jerusalem….
Unfortunately I couldn’t manage to attend the other Holy Week services but the passion of that Sunday’s dramatisation was enough to keep me thinking most of the week and I half wondered what to expect on Easter Sunday, could it equal the previous week? A silly question. The snow outside was a clean, crisp backdrop to a Church which was a blaze of colour with spring flowers everywhere. I was running ever so slightly late and the hymns had already started so I was surrounded by music as I entered the church, a wonderfully joyful atmosphere.
Gerald’s sermons are by their very nature thought-provoking and Easter Sunday’s was no exception. I often think that Gerald has a very special gift. When he gives a sermon you know that you’ve been given something special, but often you can’t repeat it verbatim. It’s perhaps enough to have received the message. I believe that if several people sat round a table and discussed his sermons afterwards, we’d each remember completely separate things, and we’d probably each get something different from it.
For me, this Easter Sunday, it was one particular word. Gerald mentioned that the people of that time would not have greeted each other with “Fit like?” but by saying “Shalom”, a Jewish greeting meaning “peace be with you.” I was fortunate to celebrate my birthday in the Holy Land and Gerald’s sermon reminded me of the card I received from the other pilgrims, I still have that card and I’d like to share the blessing on the front with you:-
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you Shalom.
Happy Easter everyone!
Rachel Milne is an elder at Saint Mary's
On being an Ordinand
Moira Paterson writes:-
Some days I wake up and find it very hard to believe that I’m actually training for ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Having denied for so long that I was being called to anything other than teaching, the fact that others endorsed that call, when it eventually got through to me, came as a bit of a shock! Other days I wake up and wonder how I’m ever going to manage to cram into twenty four hours all I have to do that day. But somehow, so far, it has been possible.
TISEC (Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church) offers a three-year Diploma in Theology for Ministry, which is carried out through residential weekends (five per year) at Kinnoull Monastery in Perth, diocesan seminars, a week-long summer school, a Ministry Reflections course and a placement in each of the three years.
The course covers ten areas of theological study, with assessments. We choose seven areas each year for assessment and there is also an assessment on the placement. This first year I am doing my placement with the Chaplaincy Team in the A.R.I., thanks to Sylvia Spencer and Fred Coutts, starting on Easter Monday. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I don’t see any of you there!
So how am I finding it all? Well, so far I’m really enjoying the studying, especially the discussions with others on the course. At the moment there are three of us in the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney and our seminars are lively and interesting, thanks to the input of the other two as well as our tutor, Alistair Mason, and visiting speakers. The Residential weekends are also very special. They begin at 6pm on a Friday and end after lunch on the Sunday. It is such a thought to rush out of school on a Friday and drive as quickly as possible down the A90 to get to Kinnoull in time – but it is well worth it. There is a real feeling of peace in the monastery and the other students from all over Scotland are wonderful. We have forged a very close bond and support one another.
I also enjoy the intellectual stimulus of study and preparing for assessments. At the same time, it has given me a real insight into how my own pupils must feel when I ask them to prepare an assignment for me. Sitting staring at the computer, wondering what to write or how to rephrase an awkward sentence – or even worse, suddenly deciding that doing some housework is preferable to grappling with an essay that just will not “come” – is an uncomfortable place to be. But it is good for me, I keep telling myself!
Finally, I’d like to say thank you to everyone in Saint Mary’s for your prayers and interest in my progress, and especially to Gerald for his unfailing encouragement and support.
Moira Paterson is an elder at Saint Mary's
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