The Season

The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversation, and commitment together. During the Season of Creation, we join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.

Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Churches, Dimitrios I declared 1st September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. The Orthodox church year starts on that day with a commemoration of how God created the world. On 4th October, Roman Catholics and other churches from the Western traditions commemorate Francis of Assisi, known to many as the author of the Canticle of the Creatures. The beginning and the end date of Season of Creation are therefore linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions respectively.

Since then Christians worldwide have progressively embraced the season as part of their annual calendar. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s adoption of the season official in 2015 and in 2020 he said:

“This is the season for letting our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature…to reflect on our lifestyles…for undertaking prophetic actions…directing the planet towards life, not death.”

Pope Francis

This Season is now observed in most of the mainline denominations worldwide, including several Provinces of the Anglican Communion, and forms a focus for Christian reflection on the environment. Over the years, it has evolved to include justice for the poor as well as justice for the environment and in fact there is a close relationship between these ‘two cries of St Francis.’

In the Episcopal Church

In the SEC, the Faith and Order Board and College of Bishops have now approved the introduction of a Season of Creation to our liturgical calendar, running from the first Sunday of September for four weeks, concluding with Thanksgiving for Harvest on the fifth Sunday.

This reflects the commitment of the Scottish Episcopal Church to responding to the global environmental and climate crisis, which has drawn attention to what has perhaps become a neglected aspect of our faith: that God created the world, that it is good, and that we, as human beings created in God’s image, have a particular responsibility for the care of God’s creation. It is right that this be reflected in our worship.

Introduction on Zoom

The Liturgy Committee will be offering an introduction to the recently published experimental liturgies for the Season of Creation (https://www.scotland.anglican.org/who-we-are/publications/liturgies/season-of-creation-worship-material-for-experimental-use/) and to the on-line forms for feedback.

This introduction will be offered on the morning of Friday, 13 August at 10am, and the evening of Wednesday, 18 August at 7:30pm.

It is necessary to register in advance for these events. If you would like to join either of these Zoom sessions, please email Sandra Brindley at office@anglican.org to register, and you will be supplied with the necessary log-in information.

In our Lent Study this year we will look at Lament and the Psalms.

A quick search in dictionaries for a definition of lament reveals that it’s: to express sorrow, regret or unhappiness about something, or it’s a formal expression of sorrow or mourning. But Biblical Lament is actually much more than this. It’s not just a formal expression of sorrow.
When we experience loss, grief is inevitable. In St. Augustine’s terms, we’re each a collection of loves that bind us to people, places, and practices. Whenever these bonds of love are severed, we grieve. Grief isn’t a choice; we’re subject to it whether we like it or not.

Lament, by contrast, is the exercise of spiritual agency in the face of loss. As a spiritual practice lament seeks to incorporate the experience of loss into the broader story of our lives before God. Where grief threatens to shatter the coherence of our story, lament re-opens our hearts to the possibility of a recovered sense of wholeness. Lament doesn’t internalise our pain, sorrow or loss, but helps us to call out to God. So it’s not just an expression of deep emotion resulting from loss, it calls to God for action and ends in praise to God. To lament is to join a long line of those who have wrestled with God in the midst of their sorrow.

We find lament throughout the Old Testament. Most clearly we find lament in the Psalms and these are referred to extensively throughout the New Testament. The Psalms are the Prayer Book of the Bible. As such they encompass the full range of human experiences—and in particular make room for experiences of suffering through Psalms of Lament.

The sessions will be centred around the following headings:

1. The Need for Lament
2. The Power of Lament
3. Lament and the Suffering of Others
4. Collective Grief
5. Lament as an Act of Love

There will be a group meeting on Zoom
Wednesday Evenings from 7:30-9:00pm
(24th February and 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th March)

Zoom details have been circulated by email

The material will also be available on paper, by email and on the Web Site at:

https://episcopaldornochtain.org/study-group-resources/

For more details or to receive paper or emailed copies of the materials speak to James (contact details).

Can we Christians align our beliefs and everyday habits in the twenty-first century? Christians have been formulating ‘rules of life’ at least as far back as the fourth century. The sixth-century Rule of St Benedict is probably the most widely known Christian rule of life, but a lot has changed since then! Is there scope for a Christian rule of life in the twenty- first century?

Advances in technology and communication, particularly social media, enrich our present-day lives whilst at the same time driving us to distraction. A cacophony of voices vies for our attention: how do we hear the Gospel above them all?

The Revd Dr Michael Hull, SEI’s Director of Studies (above), will facilitate an online discussion of issues about belief and habit, faith and practice, with insights from Justin Whitmel Earley’s “The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction” (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2019) available via: https://www.thecommonrule.org

The discussion will be held on Wednesday 20 January 2021 from 7pm to 8pm and delivered via Zoom. The link and password will be emailed on the morning of Wednesday 20 January. To register, please visit this link.

In our Advent Study this year we will look at suffering.

“The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralysed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims.”

“Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering – for us. And calling us to share in God’s suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.”

Henri Nouwen

The sessions will be centred around the following headings:

1. The Suffering of Job
2. The Suffering of Christ
3. Our own Suffering

There will be two groups meeting on Zoom
Wednesday Afternoons at 2pm and
Thursday Evenings at 7pm
(2nd/3rd, 9th/10th and 16th/17th December)

The material will also be available on paper and on the Web Site at:

https://episcopaldornochtain.org/study-group-resources/

For more details or to receive paper copies of the materials speak to James (contact details)..

Christmas
Foodbank Collection

Thursday 3rd December 2020

St Finnbarr’s Church

10:30am-12:00pm

There will be a Christmas Foodbank collection for the Highland Foodbank outside in St Finnbarr’s grounds.

Every day people in the Highlands are struggling to put food on the table. Even under normal circumstances people struggle as a result of a variety of causes from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. This year however COVID has made the situation much worse for many people.

The Highland Foodbank is part of the work of Blythswood Care and provides a minimum of three days emergency food and support to local adults and children in crisis.

Below is a list of items that they are currently running low on, including essential non-food items such as toiletries and hygiene products, helping people in crisis to maintain dignity and feel human again.

• Tins of ham/corned beef
• Tins of potatoes
• Tins of mince/stew
• Sugar
• Small packets of washing powder/gel
• Small bottles of washing up liquid
• Male/female deodorant
• Shampoo
• Shaving foam/razors
• Toothpaste/individually wrapped brushes
• Shower gel

They currently have an overabundance of

• PASTA,
• SOUP AND
• ALL FORMS OF TINNED BEANS

… so these items are best avoided.

Given the time of year, they are very keen to receive special seasonal treats for all the family.