The Manse : Late May towards June

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My dear friends,

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A little of Shakespeare goes a long way to help us appreciate Love…and Life!

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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

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William Shakespeare : Sonnet XV111

 

As signs of summer hesitantly appear and life in all its loveliness and beauty returns, with new-born excitement as the restrictions on our daily living become gradually less, we dance our way into June with hope and renewed zest as the nation begins to recover: recuperation and renewal are perhaps our best watch-words for this new beginning. We have good news! A good number of Weddings will happen once again in both Congregations and the first Baptism  since October 2020 will take place in St John’s on 25th July.

 

A time also to recalibrate and review and how about a return : to worship? On Sunday mornings we are now allowed to have at least 120 worshippers in St John’s and 100 in St Leonard’s in the Fields. Further good news!...each Sunday a Cantor leads us in our Worship- what a difference it makes to hear again the singing from our finest voices. If you haven’t been for a while, why not return?

 

Please consider how your presence and your contributions in different ways would enhance the life of your Congregation. Each of us has different talents to be offered for the benefit of our fellow followers of Jesus Christ. We all can give more time to work for the ongoing mission of the Church. Also, it does not take too much of a vivid imagination to realise that for these last sixteen months there has been a massive downturn in our financial affairs.

 

Come back to Church please! I would urge you to consider how best you might wish to offer even more to help to sustain the life of the witness, the fabric, and the ministry of our Church life. There is much to do and every member must take seriously the Vows we all took when we were confirmed and committed ourselves to serving God and His Church for life.

 

To inspire us there are great figures in the life of the Church whom we remember in June: St Columba’s Day 9 June, St Barnabas’ Day 11 June, St John the Baptist’s Day 24 June, St Peter’s Day and St Paul’s Day 29 June : but may I end with pointing us toward one of the early pioneers of faith, Irenaeus, whose day is 28th June, the day he died in the year 200 AD. He was a Greek Bishop who did much to expand the Christian Church and defend it from heresy in the south of France and he famously said:

The glory of God is men and women fully alive.

 

Let us together thank God for all those who have gone before us and who have inspired us to lead lives which give Glory to God. May we be the people we were created to be, in the words of St Catherine of Siena, and we shall indeed set the world on fire with our vibrancy, Christian hope and our life-giving empathy to the needy, the heart-broken and the joyous.

 

I send every best wish for all that the summer of 2021 will bring you and ask for God’s Blessing on your life and all in your family.

 

John

 

The Rev’d John Murdoch

Worship During Covid 19

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 The Scottish Government has removed the cap on the maximum number of people allowed to worship at one time. Each congregation is responsible for establishing their building's capacity level based on guidance provided by the Scottish Government. Our risk assessment  has been updated and the  maximum number of worshippers we feel can safely attend our weekly worship is 120. This is without using the Knox Chapel which is available should we require to accommodate more people