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A day of gifts

This past Sunday was the aptly-named ‘Sunday School Sunday’ - our annual bash  when we celebrate the children and young people among us.

An amazing children’s orchestra accompanied our singing, and all ages took part in the service.

In place of the reflection there was a scratch play about Elijah in his cave, discovering that God can speak in the quiet, everyday things of life; our lives don’t need to be spectacular. The performances, however, were quite spectacular, with plenty of laughs - the ‘broom tree’ pictured below getting the biggest!

Traditionally we hand out gifts to the children on this Sunday. It was moving to see Sallie Gray, one of our oldest members, handing out the gifts to each child as they came up one by one, to be applauded by the congregation. We were reminded what a special gift each one is to our church family. There is something very powerful about applauding another human being simply for existing! Should we do it more often?

After the service, around 60 church members took off for Vogrie Park for a picnic in the sunshine, and hours of fun on the amazing outdoor adventure playground there. Some of us found an outlet for our competitive instincts playing football and rounders, while others lazed under the trees.

I ended the day thankful for the wonderful range of people who make up our family at St James, for the gifts that are among us, for the generosity of church members, and for the welcome given to guests. Sunday felt like a ‘gift-day’ where, without trying too hard, grace was poured out upon us in all sorts of surprising ways. Duncan

Suzanne on sabbatical

Great to read below about all the positive activities we are involved in - young people in Thailand working away for the benefit of children, Duncan and Carol at the Mission conference etc. By contrast, I’m lucky enough to be in a time of INactivity as I have a sabbatical from work this month (June). Sabbatical - what a lovely word!

I’m trying to take my inspiration from the literal meaning of the word - i.e. a sabbath or holy time. Not to be filled up with projects or research or to-do lists, just time to reflect, rest, and attend to my personal spiritual self. This is a bit of a neglected area for me, and it is easy to sweep this fact aside if one is involved with church and working for a Christian organisation!

I had a lovely solo retreat at the start of the month to a place called Garden Cottage in Perthshire. It is open to all and I’d really recommend it if you are needing a bit of time on your own. Check it out at http://www.gardencottagespirituality.org.uk/

Yours peacefully,
Suzanne B x

Ancient apple trees outside the retreat cottage window

Rachel sends greetings from Thailand

Hello everyone,

It’s hard to believe how fast my time out here is going. I have been here in Pakkred Thailand for 8 weeks now. Thankfully the political situation in Bangkok seems to have calmed down for the time being. I am about half an hour outside Bangkok and were at one stage affected by the unrest. I thought I would send a short update of what I am up to and how things are going.

I am working alongside three other British volunteers which is great because we can be great support for one another when things are particularly tough or we see situations that affect us or find difficult. There are also volunteers from other countries and it is really nice to work with them and get to know them.

I cannot express how much I am enjoying working for CCD. I am working in the CCD day care centre at Baan Fung Fah.  Baan Fung Fah is the home for disabled children under the age of seven, but actually in reality the majority of these children are actually older than this. The CCD day care centre is a building next to the  orphanages that the government have allowed CCD to use to take a few children out each day.

There are 4 government orphanages – babies, children, girls and boys. Within these orphanages there are many many wards which split the children up into their abilities and needs.

As volunteers we work with CCD, who really are a fantastic organisation. We are allowed to take some children out of the wards for the day into the day care centre where we work with the. The hope is that some of these children may thrive because of the extra love and attention they can be given and may be adopted. We start work by picking up the children from the wards. They are always waiting for us and are really pleased to see us, which is lovely because we feel we are doing some good for these children. We take them back to CCD and do some music with them, which is usually singing lots of Thai songs, some of them I recognise in English. Then the children have snack. Then we help to shower and change the children (Thai’s like to shower a lot, I guess it has something to do with the heat!). We then have an hour or so before lunch. In this time we are free to play with the children, take them to the sensory room, do some physiotherapy with them and just spending time with them. Then we give the children lunch. Many of the children are not able to feed themselves or have to have special chopped up food so we help feed the children. Some of the kids then go back to the wards, they are usually the ones who require extra care. The others stay behind and have a sleep. In the afternoon we are free to play with the children again. Often some different children come for the afternoon. We sometimes go to the little playground outside the day care centre.  Then later on we take the children back to the wards. Often some of them get a bit upset about going back. This is often really hard to see, we just want to be able to do something more for them.

I am gradually improving my Thai and learning to eat strange foods and cope with the amazing heat. The wonderful rain and dramatic thunderstorms are never more welcome.

I trust all is well at St. James and I would really appreciate prayer support for me and the team as we continue our work here. Anyone who wants to view my blog do so, though it is perhaps not a true representation of all that is going on here. The blog address is
www.ccdthailand2010.blogspot.com

Hammering out a common statement

As I write, I am sitting in a room with around 300 delegates from 5 continents, 60 countries, and fifty different denominations, hammering out a common statement of how we hope the mission of the church might unfold in the next hundred years.

This is either chaos - as people stand up and ask for amendments - or somehow, in the midst of this process, the Holy Spirit  is doing her stuff!

It feels live, edgy, and possibly epoch-making - only time will tell. Pray on…

Duncan

Local meets global

Worship at Edinburgh 2010 this morning was spiced up with a visit from a P6 class from St Mary’s Primary on Leith Links, led by our very own Stephen Fischbacher.

It was very moving to sing together ‘Welcome everybody, it’s good to see you here/ Gathered in this place’, and reflect on the fact that here, for the first time since Pentecost, was a more or less representative gathering of the church on earth!

For me it was an exquisite juxtaposition of the local and the global - Leith kids with Stephen and Carol up front, followed by a homily from a Greek Orthodox Bishop, and a message read out from Pope Benedict XVI.

Worship concluded with the children leading us in singing ‘May you find peace, may you find hope, may you find joy this day.’ I think their prayers were answered. And the delegates loved it.

Duncan

60 nations sing with one voice

The Edinburgh 2010 conference began with a moving, multicultural service in the South Hall at Pollock.

We gathered outside the building in the sunshine to the sound of the bagpipes, surrounded by small ‘peace palms’ seemingly growing from under surrounding bushes. These cloth, embroidered palms were the work of Carol and others in St James.

We entered the building and deposited stones from our various countries on a huge sheet forming the shape of a celtic cross.

John Bell led us in singing in up to four different languages, and Carol led us through a meditation on three  encounters between Jesus and people whose lives were changed. We left the building each chatting with a couple of strangers about which of these gospel character we would most like to meet.

Edinburgh 2010 kicks off

Today marks the beginning of a historic conference which gathers together possibly the most representative gathering of the world church in history - on the centenary of the World Mission Conference in Edinburgh in 1910.

Over the next four days, the 250 delegates will be talking, thinking and praying around 9 themes related to the mission of the global church.

An unexpected quirk met the delegates as they arrived - a protest from some Christian group anxious to avoid ‘unity at the expense of truth.’ I didn’t know such groups still existed, but I did feel a bit sorry for the folk stuck in what looked like a fairly dismal theology - or is it really a psychology? Perhaps ‘unity’ and ‘truth’ need not be polarised as ‘either/or’ options. Who said Christians had to agree with one another before they could live together?

Duncan

Taking Refugio

Refugio is a monthly ‘Reflective Eucharist. ‘ It is hosted by St James, and led by a variety of people from different churches in Edinburgh.

Behind the jargon is an attempt to offer a space where we can engage with word and sacrament with fewer words and more spaces; less with the ear, and more with the eye of the heart.

It is intended to be be ‘reflective’ in that we use some of the forms of prayer and meditation which, in recent decades, have been revived from the historic Christian tradition.

It is also ‘Eucharist’ from the Greek word for ‘thanksgiving’ - recalling that night when Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and shared it with his disciples.  There are several places which offer reflective prayer in Edinburgh: what is being offered in Refugio is reflective prayer in the context of a Eucharistic service.

This is of necessity experimental - and we don’t always get it ‘right’. But hopefully this is a place where St James folk, and people from around Edinburgh, can learn together new ways of being nourished by Spirit, word and sacrament.

Refugio happens on the last Sunday of each month, at 7.30pm. It lasts about an hour, and you are welcome to stay on in silence, or go backstage for a cup of tea or coffee.

Transformed for Pentecost!

Despite the warm weather outside, and the strong desire to sit under a palm tree with a tequila to hand, a small army of brave troops turned out today to help transform our worship space for Pentecost.

Out went the flowers, and in came the flames. The words of Joel’s prophecy were painted on the walls, while the word ‘peace’ was hung in paper flames from the wires, written in two-dozen languages.

The Spirit was poured out on ‘all people’, enabling many from different nations and backgrounds to understand one another - a foretaste of heaven when our differences will no longer divide us.

Jennifer Stark appointed as leader of LCT Outreach Project

The Leith Churches Together Outreach Project has appointed Jennifer Stark to lead the work in Ocean Terminal and the docks/ Leith area.

Jennifer writes:

I am looking forward very much indeed to joining you at Leith Churches Together a month or so from now, and to sharing in the work that you have been doing together for around 25 years. I’ve lived in York for the last 18 years but I am originally from Stirling (though born in Polmont, which is a bit closer to you) and my extended family is mainly from north of Glasgow. I did a history degree at St Andrews and then taught abroad for much of the 1980s, first in Finland, then in France and – by way of contrast – in Indonesia, where I worked for the British Council in project development and teacher training. Since 1992, I’ve lived in York, where I taught at the University for a number of years and also worked with two charity organisations.

My background is Presbyterian, but the experience of living in different cultures and countries, with a variety of religious traditions – Lutheran, Orthodox, Anglican, Muslim, Hindu, Quaker - has fed into my faith journey. For as long as I can remember, my instincts have been ecumenical and they were nourished, for example, through an informal Ecumenical Theology course in York which brought together people and speakers from different traditions. I have particularly fond memories of trips to Lindisfarne, and to the Dales (where I was taught to appreciate single malt whisky properly); we also enjoyed some great walks together. It will be good though to be back within easier reach of Scottish hills!