Author: sheumais

‘Anglican’ Christianity: A four-part series in Advent 2022

sheumais Events, Notices
Richard Hooker

What does it mean to be an ‘Anglican’ Christian? 

Over 40 Churches around the globe, consisting of no less than 85 million people, identify themselves as ‘Anglican’. Yet, Anglicans are divided among themselves in terms of doctrine and practice as demonstrated in the most recent Lambeth Conference (Summer 2022). This Series looks to four staples that Anglicans have classically identified as the bases of their belief and behaviour to highlight harmony rather than discord.

The Series will be offered on the Mondays of Advent 2022 at 7pm (GMT) in four 30-minute webinars, each of which will be posted on YouTube. The Series is meant to be a resource for Anglicans/Episcopalians to use creatively during the Season of Advent, for example as a refresher course for individuals or a conversation starter for church groups, with discussion questions at the end of each webinar.

  1. Holy Scripture: ‘all things necessary to salvation’ and the rule of faith (Monday 28 November)
  2. The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds: symbols and statements of faith (Monday 5 December)
  3. The Dominical Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Monday 12 December)
  4. The historic Episcopate: a universal and locally adopted means of unity (Monday 19 December)

Presenter: Revd Dr Michael Hull, Director of Studies and Tutor, Scottish Episcopal Institute, Edinburgh.

Time: 7pm to 7.30pm (GMT) on Monday evenings in Advent 2022.

Registration is free. All are welcome. Register is here.

We did Remember

sheumais Local, News, Reflections

In Flanders Fields

BY JOHN MCCRAE

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Advent Study – the Book of Amos

sheumais Events, Notices

The topic of our Advent Study year is “The Book of the Prophet Amos”.

There is clearly much for us to reflect on in this Book, which is well worth reading even if you don’t make it along to the study group sessions.

Amos, a shepherd and a farmer, found himself recruited by God to be his prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel, though his message extends to other nations, including the southern kingdom of Judah. Amos saw a society and a religion on its last legs, but nobody else did.

Standards in Amos’ society had declined. Authority and the rule of law were despised, national leadership, while revelling in the publicity and privilege of position and quick to score debating- points, wasn’t facing up to the real issues and standards of public morality were at a low ebb.

Affluence, exploitation and profit were the main motivators of those in power. The rich were affluent enough to have multiple houses, while the poor and defenceless were shamelessly exploited or simply ignored.

Religion at the time adored what was traditional, sacrifices were meticulously offered, the musical side of worship was keenly studied but religious observance had become a self-justifying enterprise, self-pleasing and abhorrent to God.

The state of Amos’ society provide the context for his ministry and also invites us to considering that he might have something to say to us today as there are undoubtedly parallels between Amos’ society and our own. 

Groups start in the week beginning 25th November. 

There will be one session after the midweek service in St Finnbarr’s
at 11am on Wednesday mornings 30th Nov and 7th and 14th Dec

A second session will be held after the midweek service in St Andrew’s hall
at 7pm on Thursday evenings 1st, 8th and 15th Dec.

All are most welcome whether or not they’re members of any of our congregations.

We Will Remember Them

sheumais Reflections

So you were David’s father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Ewart Alan Mackintosh

Services on Remembrance Sunday

sheumais Services

Our Service Times vary a little from usual on Remembrance Sunday:

Dornoch – there is a parade from Cathedral Square at 10:30, followed by a service and Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial. St Finnbarr’s service will therefore start at approximately 11:30am.

Tain – The service at St Andrew’s will start promptly at 10:50 with an Act of Remembrance and two minute silence at 11am, followed by the usual Eucharist. James will lead prayers at the Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Tain Collegiate Church at 12:15pm.

Lairg – There will be a service at the War Memorial at 10:45am, followed by a Church of Scotland service in the Parish Church.

Brora – There will be a Service of Remembrance at St Columba’s at 4pm.

All Souls Day – service tonight 7pm in Tain

sheumais Services

Today is All Souls day, a day when in some parts of Christianity the living pray for the dead and specifically those that we have loved but see no more. Throughout the world there are many traditions associated with this day, though it probably observed less in ‘Reformed Christianity’ in the West.

There are references to prayer for the dead in a number of Books of the Bible, including: 2 Maccabees, Zechariah, Sirach, and the Gospel of Matthew. Reacting against flagrant abuses in the Church, when Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, he omitted the seven books of the canon which refer to prayers for the dead (except interestingly Matthew’s Gospel). He then introduced the doctrine that people are simply saved, or not, and argued that there is no need to pray for the dead to get them into heaven.

“Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kindred in the sepulchres of their ancestors….They turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out.… therefore they made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin..“

2 Maccabees 12:39, 42,45

All Souls Day is celebrated in much of the western world on 2nd November. The Eastern Orthodox Church has several such days throughout the year, mostly on Saturdays.

Different cultures mark the day differently. In North America, Americans may say prayers or light candles for the departed. In parts of Latin America, families visit the graves of their ancestors and sometimes leave food offerings for the departed. The Mexican traditions surrounding this day are probably the most widely known. They celebrate the day as “El Dia de Los Muertos” (“The Day of the Dead”). Today they traditionally visit graveyards and have a picnic and leave food out for their dead relatives who are on their journey to heaven.

Here in this part of Christendom, we mark the day with a special Eucharist, when we pray for the dead and read out a list of names of the friends, relatives and members of our congregations who have died, both recently and also in former years. Many of us find this a very moving experience.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us“

Hebrews 12:1

We generally have just one service which alternates between St Finnbarr’s and St Andrew’s, but we read the names of those provided by members of all our congregations and drawn from our Registers.

This year, the service is as follows:

All Souls Requiem

St Andrew’s, Tain

7:00pm

Wednesday 2nd November

All are most welcome

“Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace.”

The Season of Remembrance

sheumais Pastoral Letter, Reflections

We are now entering what some call the ‘Season of Remembrance’. It starts with All Saintson 1st November (though this year we will celebrate All Saints on Sunday 30th), followed by All Souls on 2nd and continues with Armistice Day on 11th until Remembrance Sunday (this year on 13th). It’s a time when we remember the Saints of the Church, those men and women who are recognised as having an exceptional degree of holiness and who are felt to have a particular likeness or closeness to God. We remember also friends and family members, who we have loved but see no more. And of course we remember those who’ve given their lives in the armed conflicts of more than 100 years. In churches and communities across the United Kingdom, all of these events are marked with public acts of worship and of remembrance.

On April 5, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and teacher, was arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into prison; on April 9, 1945, he was executed. Whilst incarcerated, he wrote a collection of the letters, essays and poems. They were addressed to his parents and to a friend, and form an extraordinary picture of a sensitive man whose faith and dedication to service never wavered, whose spiritual depth enabled him to overcome the most trying of circumstances.  Tain CoS Film Club will be showing a film about him on Friday 11thNovember at 7:30pm (see Diary).

He was a man of great faith, intelligence and compassion, who understood so well the problems of the modern world. Resisting ease and compromise, he was constantly ministering to his fellow prisoners right up to the time of his death. He was a saint, a friend to many and a casualty of war and therefore part of each element of our Season of Remembrance.

One of the short pieces that he wrote to his friend Eberhard Bethge is called “Stations on the Road to Freedom”. In it there’s a short verse on each of four ‘stations’ on that road: Discipline, Action, Suffering and Death. This last he described as “the supreme festival on the road to freedom”. The verse on Death reads as follows:

Come now, Queen of the feasts on the road to eternal freedom! 
O death, cast off the grievous chains and lay low the 
thick walls of our mortal body and our blinded soul, 
that at last we may behold what here we have failed to see. 
O freedom, long have we sought thee in discipline and in action and in suffering. 
Dying, we behold thee now, and see thee in the face of God.

“Stations on the Road to Freedom” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Blessings

James

Tain Parish Church Film Club

sheumais Events, Notices

Tain Parish Church is delighted to be re-starting their Winter Film Club evenings.

This Armistice they will be screening

‘BONHOEFFER Agent of Grace’,

which dramatises aspects of the life of Dietrich Bonhoffer, the German Theologian who was executed by the Nazis.

The details are:

Friday 7:30 pm,

Tain Parish Church Hall.

Cert PG. 

Refreshments will be served.