On the first of January, the Feast of the Naming of Jesus, we wish you all Joy and Peace for 2021.
The Naming of Jesus
Author: sheumais
Something to hang on to
A supportive hand rail has now been installed at St Finnbarr’s, to help members of the congregation with the steep path up to the Church. It is particularly welcome as we move into the winter, with the increased likelihood of ice and snow.
Carols, Carols and more Carols
This evening we had a splendid Carol Service on Zoom: two organists, six readers, nine carols, 28 Zoom connections and 45 people taking part (well what did you expect if an ex-statistician reports on proceedings:-).
Zoom behaved itself, broadband connections delivered the speed that they were supposed to, the readers all unmuted and muted at the right times and read clearly, the music was played beautifully and if the singing in each of the other households was anything like it was in this one, there are no words to describe it!!
Suffice to say a wonderful time a coming together as the Body of Christ was shared, praise was offered to God and everyone got thoroughly in the mood for Christmas – what more could any of us desire?
A huge thank you to Simon and Jamie, to Douglas, Rosemary, Ann, Carol, Caroline and James and to everyone who joined in the celebration – some even stayed on for a drink afterwards.
Dressember 2020
We have spent this year living in a state of uncertainty, fear and for some people virtual “imprisonment”. For most this was an unusual situation – but sadly for many in our world, imprisonment is their daily reality. A conservative estimate is that there are around 40 million slaves in the world today and the current pandemic has seen those numbers grow day by day.
Our call as Christians is, as the Prophet Isaiah put it, “proclaim liberty to captives” and we are reminded that whatever we do to the lowest and the least of God’s children, we do to Christ Himself.
In 1943, whilst imprisoned at Tegel penitentiary, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay entitled “After Ten Years,” reflecting on his beliefs and experiences in the ten years since Hitler’s meteoric rise, in it he wrote the following appeal:
“We are not Christ, but if we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer “After Ten Years”
The “freedom” Bonhoeffer speaks of is the freedom we have in the God who has liberated us from our slavery to sin. “For I received from the Lord what I hand on to you.”
Every year a group of students at the University of Aberdeen join a global movement started by a student called Blythe Hill in California in 2013. She committed herself to wearing a dress every day for the month of December and it slowly snowballed from there and became an international campaign against modern day slavery and human trafficking.
The Aberdream Team, as the Aberdeen students are called, including Jamie Campbell, our long-time organist in Tain, are mostly members of a society called JustLove which is dedicated to calling Christians to social justice.
The rules for Dressember are simple – wear a dress (or in Jamie’s case a cassock) every day the whole of December and use social media to educate themselves and others about the slavery and trafficking that affect so many people today. This is not only something that happens far away, but it is going on in every neighbourhood in our country – even in our own communities.
The Aberdream Team target for this year is $6300 (USD because it’s an American fund) – which is the cost of liberating just one person from slavery. The Dressember Foundation acts as a fund that then distributes to 12 approved charities who meet a very strict set of criteria and deal with very specific parts of the freedom process. This goes from the initial multi-agency operation involved in getting the individual out of a trafficking situation, to helping with clothing and accommodation to paying for therapy and other medical support.
To see a breakdown of this, or to meet the Aberdream Team, or to read more about the horrific reality, or to donate you can visit their website at: https://dressember2020.funraise.org/team/aberdream-team
Carol Service – 20th Dec 2020
Christmas Carols
and Lessons
SUNDAY 20th December
7:00 pm
On Zoom
(Zoom details will be circulated by email)
Join in the singing of old favourites
from the comfort of your armchair
you will each have to supply your own
seasonal refreshments afterwards
all are WELCOME
Good News Indeed
There is a phrase in common use just now that troubles me; “My life is on hold just now”. Now I’m no philosopher, but that doesn’t make sense to me. It sounds as though the life in question was on Netflix and you could just press the pause button and start life up again some time later. Our days are ticking away whether we are locked down, locked up or having a ball. The reality is ‘this is your life‘ even though Eamonn Andrews isn’t around with his big red book and things may not be exactly the way that you would wish them to be (twas ever thus).
This week there was “Good News” preached by politicians and screaming out in the headlines of newspapers. A vaccine for COVID has been approved for use in the UK by the regulator MHRA and the narrative has switched to “we can now starting living our lives again”. So what have such people been doing for the last nine months – hibernating?
Sadly I think there is going to be a lot of disappointment around for anyone who thinks that everything will revert to its pre-COVID state any time soon and that Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstroZenica have some magic potion to bring things back to normal, like an episode out of the tales of Hans Christian Anderson.
The Advent theme is that the time of promise is drawing to an end and the time of fulfilment is drawing near. For Isaiah, it’s the end of exile for Israelites in Babylon. For John the Baptist it’s the coming of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. So what is it for us at the end of 2020, when people who want to ‘take their lives off hold’, see that long-awaited fulfilment as being delivery of a pharmaceutical?
Advent is Good News in the midst of the struggle. With the Good News of the Incarnation, God has already entered our struggles. He is himself Good News from the battle front, as it were. We hear the voice that commands us to prepare a way in the wilderness. But the way that we are urged to prepare is not our way. The way we are to prepare is the way of the Lord and that isn’t the same thing at all.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
Our lives are not on hold, we are not missing out, we are being given a unique opportunity to be in at the start of something far more wonderful than the arrival of a pharmaceutical that must be stored at minus 78 degrees and administered in batches of 975 doses!!
Making a Canon
On the Feast of St Andrew (30th November 2020) James was Installed as a Canon of The Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Inverness.
I, James Edward Patrick Currall, appointed to a Canonry in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, Inverness, do solemnly promise, as in the sight of God and God’s elect Angels, that I will diligently and faithfully fulfil the duties of the same, and sedulously observe the Statutes and cause them to be observed by others.
O Lord, save this your servant
Who puts their trust in you.
Send them help from your holy place.
And evermore mightily defend him.
Let the enemy have no advantage over them.
Nor the wicked approach to hurt them.
Be unto them a strong tower.
From the face of their enemy.
O Lord, hear our prayer.
And let our cry come unto you.
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
O Lord, of your mercy stretch forth the right hand of your Majesty over your servant James, that he may seek thee with his whole heart, and that those things which he asks faithfully he may obtain effectually through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
James is led to his Stall by Provost Sarah
A new chapter in the North West
Where do you suppose the geographic centre of the North West Charges is?
My guess is that it would be somewhere on the shore of Loch Assynt near Ardvreck Castle. … and that is exactly where +Mark chose to License Revd Dr Clare Caley as the new Priest in Charge of the North West Charge (St Mary Ullapool, St Boniface Achiltibuie, St Gilbert Lochinver, St Gilbert Kinlochbervie).
19 people gathered in a natural amphitheatre, seated 2m apart for a celebration of the Eucharist on a perfect afternoon; sun shining, little wind, no rain and only a little chilly.
What a lovely occasion and what a wonderful way to embark on a new ministry in a really beautiful part of the world.
The timing was perfect. As +Mark gave us his blessing, the sun slid down behind the hill and we all knew it was time to go (partly because +Mark said it was:-)
O Come O Come Emmanuel
A week or so ago, I was chatting with someone with whom I reflect on ministry from time to time. We were discussing the challenges that we’re likely to face this Christmas. After a pause he asked me “OK so if you strip everything back, what really needs to be done at Christmas?”
I thought about it for a moment or two and said “Announce the Incarnation!” “Well”, he said, “What you need to do is to think about how you and your congregations can do that to the best of your abilities.”
So I thought, how do we usually do that? We prepare to do it throughout Advent as we remember successively week by week The Patriarchs (and Matriarchs), The Prophets, John the Baptist and The Virgin Mary as we light our Advent Candles. We hold Advent study groups so that we can think more deeply about some particular aspect of our faith. We have a collection for the Food Bank.
As we get to the end of Advent, we decorate our Church buildings with flowers, greenery, Christmas tree etc. and then set up our cribs. We sing advent hymns and Christmas Carols and we have Carol Services and join in services held jointly with the other denominations. Then on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we have joyous celebrations of the Incarnation itself and usually welcome a fair number of visitors to our services.
We do all these things and we celebrate in our homes with food and other good things.
The question is, “how many of those things can we do this year?” The answer my sisters and brothers is “most of them”. The principle exception is the singing, but as those of you have been able to celebrate the Eucharist with us over the past four months know, we’ve replaced hymns by humns and our organists have been wonderful in keeping the familiar tunes flowing whilst we humn along. We’ll of course also not be able to meet up with so many people but we can phone them.
This year as any other year, we can share the Good News of Christ coming into our world as a tiny defenceless baby to be Emmanuel – God with us.
This year we face many challenges but it is worth reflecting, as the Christmas story unfolds, on the enormous challenges that Mary and Joseph and their baby faced that first Christmas. And as we do so, let us offer up our prayers for all new parents and their babies, may God be with them all, every step of the way.
Incarnational Blessings
James
From Land’s End to John O’Groats
Revd. Deborah Sandercock-Pickles, who is Priest in Charge of St Margaret’s Church Prestwich and St George’s Church Simister in Bury near Manchester, was in the shielding category during the first lockdown.
In a moment of madness, she decided that she would run from Land’s End to John O’Groats by running around her garden. At planned points she stops and explores the area electronically and visits a local place of worship (virtually of course). Whist she is ‘there’, she prays for the parish and their mission and ministry.
Well she has now ‘arrived’ in Sutherland via Tain and has enjoyed visiting our churches on-line. She writes:
“I pray that God will bless the work that you are doing and encourage you as you seek to serve God in Dornach, Brora, Tain, Lairg and Tongue
Deborah Sandercock-Pickles – 27th November 2020
You are in my prayers. Every blessing, Deborah“
We wish Deborah well for the remainder of her ‘trip’ and can only recommend that she stops off at The Crask Inn for its legendary welcome and hospitality. Our prayers go with you Deborah – haste ye back once you can travel for real.
Scottish Episcopal Church - Dornoch, Lairg, Brora, Tain & Tongue 