I’m sure that many of you will be glad to hear that from Sunday, congregational singing will be allowed at St Mary’s once more. We will still need to wear masks during the service to protect each other but at the 1030 a.m. service we will once more stand for hymns, the Gloria, the Peace and the Blessing. We will continue to keep alternate pews vacant for now but more people can sit in each pew if they wish to do so, so long as a 1 metre space is kept between households. Please let the Welcomer know what you would prefer. This means that you will no longer need to book a place at a service in advance although welcomers will continue to make a note of your name for Contact Tracing. We will be reviewing the arrangements for attending church at our next Vestry meeting on 18th August. Please get in touch with any thoughts.
Our next Monday afternoon gathering will be on 26th July in the church hall. This is open to anybody who would like to meet with other members of the congregation over a cup of tea or coffee between 2.30 and 4 p.m. There will be a short time of prayer and you are welcome to bring a crafting project, a table-top game or just yourselves! Two-metre distancing will be observed in the hall and all other precautions will be in place.
A new way of providing refreshments after the 10.30 service is being explored. The idea is to hold mini coffee mornings so that church members or groups from the wider community can raise money for a charity they support. If you would like to know more, to volunteer or to get involved by ordering supplies or keeping the calendar, please get in touch with me. The scheme will be trialled on a monthly basis from mid August.
The deadline for contributing ‘back to school’ items for needy families in Castlemilk is 30th July. Please bring them to the Rectory or get in touch if you wish for them to be collected. The Rectory garage is starting to fill up once more with donations of children’s clothes, toys and baby equipment kindly donated by Dunblane families.
Dear friends,
I wonder how many of you watched Jimmy McGovern’s gritty prison drama starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham? Its title, ‘Time’, is obviously an allusion to the saying ‘doing time’ but there’s more to it than that. It got me thinking about our attitude to time, especially since our freedom has been curtailed by the pandemic. Then, this graphic appeared on my Facebook feed …
I suppose some people will see the whole of 2020 as a weird loop in the chronology of their lives; a period when time stood still, nothing moved forward, and everything was wasted. For these people, time is measured according to targets met, goals achieved, and life is all about pursuing progress. For people of faith, however, our growth is gauged by the grace we offer and receive. No step is wasted as we walk with Christ the path of prayer that leads us to become more wholly human, more fully faithful. Our aim is not to go further, faster, but to go deeper, dancing to the easy, unforced rhythms of goodness and grace.
The shape of a labyrinth is a visual reminder that the journey of life is rarely linear, and yet as we follow the twists and turns of the path, we are drawn ever nearer to the centre of God’s love.
This summer, I invite you to take time to find a pattern of prayer that suits you and enables you to go deeper with God. You are welcome to walk the labyrinth on the Rectory lawn or to explore the finger labyrinth included in the July-August issue of the St Mary’s magazine.. You may prefer to experiment with the imaginative method of reading scripture called Lectio Divina, to set aside a time to reflect on your day using the Examen as your framework, or to try using set prayers or words to help you connect with God. For guidance visit the ‘Ancient Prayer Rhythms’ page at www.24-7prayer.com or speak to me or another member of the Ministry Team.
By the time you read this, we will be in Ordinary Time, the longest season in the Church Year, stretching from Pentecost to the beginning of Advent. After the extraordinary year we’ve experienced with its great uncertainties and challenges, its many losses and unexpected joys, I for one am looking forward to settling into the rhythm of the tempus ordinarium which literally means ‘measured time’. With the great festivals of the church behind us and the easing of restrictions to our worshiping and our meeting together, my hope is that the summer and autumn months will be a time for us to enjoy some of the ordinary things of church life, things we took for granted before March 2020.
In his poem ‘The Bright Field’, R. S. Thomas recalls his experience of seeing sunlight breaking through onto a small patch of land. It is only later that he realises with regret that the field contained the treasure for which he yearned. I hope that you will join me, if you can, in making the most of any opportunities to worship and meet together in the weeks ahead. It won’t be as it was before the pandemic or as it will be when the danger of the virus has passed, but, in the words of the poet,
Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past.
It’s so easy to miss the pearls of great price that lie along our way because we are too busy looking over our shoulders or scanning the horizon.
It was only when they sat down together with the risen Christ that the two on the road to Emmaus recognised him in their midst. Sometimes it takes a turning aside, an inner shift, to enable us to catch glimpses of the glory of God in the ordinary present of our lives and to become aware of the Spirit of Love at work within us and among us. My prayer for the weeks of Ordinary Time is that despite the limitations imposed on us, we as a congregation would take pleasure from our time together in God’s presence, be that in our Sunday services or when groups gather once more in the hall.
I hope that we will continue to listen deeply to each other as we discern together the way ahead, embracing new initiatives, encouraging and supporting those who ready to work for the future of St Mary’s. Members of the Vestry and others are making great progress on different fronts to ensure that there will be opportunities for growth in the years ahead, Leaders of Young Church are experimenting with new patterns to make our worship more accessible to families with children, and members of the Pastoral Care Team are figuring out ways to better respond to the needs of those in our midst who are lonely or bereaved. Please pray for them and please get involved if you are able.
I hope that we will also listen out for the voices of those in need in our local community and across the world and find ways to respond with compassion. It was a privilege last month to host the service to launch Christian Aid Week in Dunblane and to learn more about the way the charity is helping those living in Climate Chaos and raising a voice on their behalf. Over £6,000 was collected by means of the envelopes and the Just Giving Page. Thank you to everyone involved.
This month we will return to the ‘Faith into Action’ conversation series of previous years, focussing on the way God is calling ordinary people to serve others in extraordinary ways. We will start by marking Carers Week in the company of Kate Sainsbury who has founded the Appletree Community near Auchterarder to provide a home for her son Louis and other young people with profound and complex needs. Look out for an opportunity to add prayers for carers and those who are cared for to a noticeboard in the church porch. These will be read in the services on Sunday 6th June. For more information on Carers Week and to add your voice to the call to Make Carers Visible and Valued, visit www.carersweek.org
Later in the month you will be invited to make ‘people chains’ to help show our readiness as churches to walk alongside all refugees and asylum seekers and their families. On World Refugee Day, 20th June, Hugh Grant will introduce us to Forth Valley Welcome which helps New Scots to integrate into their local community. I hope that this will be the starting point for a conversation about ways in which we at St Mary’s might wish to be involved in supporting displaced people both locally or globally. For more information, visit www.refugeeweek.org.uk
The livestreaming of the 10.30 a.m. eucharist and the distribution of the Materials for Worship at Home will continue for the time being with a review at the end of the month. Please get in touch if you are benefiting from these resources and wish for them to continue.
During Lent, members of St Mary’s have worked with Revd Jeanette to produce a prayer resource for Holy Week.
Here is Jeanette with a word of explanation:
Those of you who have been to the Holy Land have probably in the course of you trip walked the Via Dolorosa, following in the steps of Jesus as he made his journey to the cross. There is now historical doubt as to whether that actually was the route Jesus took, but that does not make it any less of a journey in faith with Jesus to the pilgrims who walk it. Nor should it.
The Stations of the Cross we have created, replicate that journey remotely, going even further on in the story and ending with Jesus in the tomb. With Bible readings, reflections and prayers, they help us to understand more deeply the agonies Jesus must have suffered as he willingly gave his life for us.
Stations as we know them today developed over the 15th and 16th centuries, with a varied number of Stations, anything from 7 – 30, but the 14 we now have became the standard. They can be found round the walls of many Churches, and different denominations, Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic, either pictures or plaques with the number of that particular Station. St Luke’s Glenrothes had a set of embroidered ones, which were simple but lovely. Holy Trinity Stirling also have a set around their walls.
The set of images we have used are paintings by Seiger Koder, a German priest-painter who died in February 2015, shortly after his 90th birthday.
Thanks to the following for taking part: Rob Smallman, Alison Diamond, Peter Holmes, Mary Birch (Readings), Alastair Christmas, Jill Wisher, Martin Wisher (Prayers), Jeanette Allan (Reflections), Moira Langston (Song), and a huge thank you to David Jamieson for putting the video together.
Can anyone attend a service at St Mary’s? Yes, and you would be made most welcome. If you have any questions, please drop an email to Nerys on rector @ stmarysdunblane.org or phone the Rectory on 01786 824511
What happens as I enter the building? A welcomer will greet you and give you an order of service and a hymn book. There will be an opportunity to sanitise your hands and you are welcome to wear a mask if you wish.
Where will I sit? You are welcome to sit wherever you wish. If you prefer to sit apart from others or would like to be near the exit, please let the welcomer know.
What if I need to use the disabled entrance? A welcomer will show you where to go or if you prefer, contact Nerys before hand. There is a space for a wheelchair towards the front of the church and towards the back.
What about children? Children of all ages are welcome to attend and take part in Sunday services. A Whole Church Service is held roughly once a month. On other Sundays children and teenagers gather in the hall or in the grounds at the beginning of the service and join the rest of the congregation for communion. Please consult the Calendar and contact Liz on events @ stmarysdunblane.org for more information.
What will the services be like? The early morning service at 8:30am is a said Communion Service using traditional language. It provides a calm space for reflection and prayer. The main Sunday service at 10:30am is a livelier and more interactive communion service with readings and prayers, a short address and hymns played on the organ or by the band. The Night Service at 8pm is a short, reflective, candlelit service using a variety of styles including traditional and modern Compline, Taize and Iona.
What about music? There will be hymns and organ music most Sundays at the 10:30am Service and the band will sometimes play. At the Night Service there is often singing and instrumental music.
Will there be a collection? There will be a bowl at the back of church for you to leave an offering if you wish but if you attend regularly, we would prefer you to donate by BACS or by standing order or direct debit, if possible. For details, please contact Alastair at treasurer @ stmarysdunblane.org
Will the service be filmed? The main service is usually livestreamed so that those who can’t attend can watch it at home. It is broadcast on Facebook Live, which can be easily accessed via our Facebook page and will hopefully appear on your ‘home’ screen if you follow St Mary’s on Facebook. A video recording will appear on the St Mary’s website, www.stmarysdunblane.org, soon after the service. Only those taking part will be filmed. The camera is switched off during the distribution of communion.
What about communion? Every baptized Christian is welcome to receive communion at St Mary’s and anyone can come forward for an individual blessing. If you wish to receive communion but are unable to come up to the altar please speak to a welcomer who will alert the priest. Receiving communion in the form of the bread alone is regarded as complete in the Anglican tradition. You don’t need to drink from the common cup if you are not confident to do so. Just return to your seat after receiving the bread.
What happens at the end of the service? You are welcome to join us in the hall which is behind the church, for tea or coffee and a chat.
What if I need to go to the toilet? There is a toilet in the church (through the door to the Vestry which is clearly marked) or in the hall.
What if I need to speak to a priest? Whoever is leading the service will be around outside at the end of the service. You are always welcome to phone the Rectory on 824225 or send Nerys an email on rector@stmarysdunblane.org to make an arrangement to see her another time.
What provision is there for those who can’t attend services? In addition to the recording of the main service, every Saturday, Material for Worship is sent to those on the congregational email list and distributed to those not online. It contains a reflection and a prayer by a member of the Ministry Team. If you wish to receive this regularly, please contact Nerys.
Can I visit the church at any other time? The church building is open during the daylight hours and you’re also welcome to visit in the grounds which has a Quiet Garden and a Prayer Garden for Ukraine.
What about weddings and baptisms? Nerys would be delighted to hear from you!
The Spring weather has drawn the gardening team back into the grounds of St Mary’s and there’s plenty for all of us to do. One of my favourite jobs at this time of year is clearing last year’s growth as it can make such a dramatic difference to the appearance of a garden and enables new growth to flourish. There is added excitement for me when working in the burial ground at St Mary’s as I never know what I’ll find under the bracken, brambles and ivy. Last week I came across a stone bowl, some seven inches in diameter with four crosses incised into it. I have no idea how old it is or what it was originally used for, but I was delighted to find it as the restrictions on movement in church during services means that we will not be using the font at our Easter services this year.
It’s easy to forget the connection between Easter and baptism these days, when baptisms, especially of adults, are such a rare occurrence. A look at the traditions and customs of past centuries, however, reveals that the practice of baptizing at Easter is almost as old as the Church itself.
We know that around 150 AD, becoming a Christian generally involved three stages: an initial assent to the faith, followed by a period when the new believer was expected to show the sincerity of their new faith by a change in their life patterns, and then a time of fasting and praying during the days before their baptism on Easter morning. By the early third century, the process became much more rigorous: the second stage involving three years of training and the final stage, a week of daily exorcisms, services, prayers, fasting and an all-night vigil leading to baptism at Easter dawn. When Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire in 313 AD, people flooded into the church, but many did not progress past the first stage and were Christians in name only. The bishops developed a solution to this problem by condensing the training time into an intense, serious period of forty days before Easter. Eventually, the whole church community became involved in the practices of Lent, and Easter became a time for us all to renew our baptismal vows.
So as we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Christ once more this Easter, we join with Christians around the world to remember also our own spiritual resurrection at our baptism. This year, as we remake the promises, whether at home or in the church building, I expect that we will experience a heightened sense of rebirth to new life. This Easter is the beginning of a new start for us as restrictions are relaxed and we move towards full life as a worshipping community once more. As we set off on this new journey, my prayer is that the Lord of life will walk with us and through us, leading each one of us and all of us together, to growth, to risk, and to service of others.
With love to you all,
Nerys
P.S. Garden Furniture Wanted
Please get in touch with Nerys at rector @ stmarysdunblane.org if you have any garden chairs or tables in fairly good condition that you would like to pass on. We are hoping to make use of the Rectory lawn and the newly paved area behind the house for small outdoor meetings during Spring and Summer while restrictions to meeting indoors are still in force. Thank you
St Mary’s Gardening Team
Anyone is welcome to help to maintain and develop the grounds at St Mary’s. Any assistance with weeding, clearing, pruning or planting would be appreciated. Please get in touch with James at property @ stmarysdunblane.org if you would like to get involved or if you know of anyone who might benefit from doing a spot of gardening. We work individually and every care is taken to keep team members safe.
I was surprised and delighted with the news this week that we will be allowed to open the doors of the church building not only for Easter services but also for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. We will need to wait for the guidance of the Bishops’ Advisory Committee before we can make any firm plans but I hope that we will be able to move forward into the season of Easter with eucharistic services, whilst offering home communion to those who will not be able to attend. It’s great to be able to look forward with confidence once more after so many weeks of uncertainty. I feel so grateful to the Scottish Government for recognising, not only the importance of gathering for worship for the well-being of church members but the contribution churches have made in caring for their local communities.
Bishop Ian has chosen two local charities from opposite ends of the diocese for his Lent Appeal this year. We at St Mary’s are very familiar with and proud of the work of Start-up Stirling which provides practical help and emergency food for those in financial difficulties. The other organisation, Angus Creative Minds, based in Forfar, was established in October 2019 with the aim of bringing people of all ages and walks of life together to engage in creative activities. The dream was to have a space in Angus where trained artists, photographers and authors could work side-by-side with folk who were trying something for the first time or who are living with loneliness or mental health issues. A building was acquired and adapted in Forfar and volunteers had started running art, creative writing and photography groups and planning larger events when the pandemic struck. Gatherings are now on line and imaginative activities like the ‘Postcards from …’ project have been initiated enabling those in need of support to continue to receive it.
This year’s Diocesan Synod was held on line last Saturday with a record number of clergy and lay representatives attending. Once essential business was completed, we took part in a series of presentations and discussions on the theme of ‘Looking Forward’. We learnt of the plans for a Season of Pilgrimage including events in early September which groups from St Mary’s might like to attend. We are invited to walk a section of the Fife Pilgrim Way from Culross to St Andrews, to take part in a guided pilgrimage by car and bike along the Three Saints Way from Killin to St Andrews and to attend an ecumenical gathering at St Andrews hosted by Bishop Ian. Next year pilgrimages to the Holy Land and retracing the journey of St William of Perth to Canterbury will be organised..
Synod was also introduced to members of the newly formed Diocesan Youth Committee and heard about their plans to provide resources for charges like ours which have young people. This Lent, the group is running a competition called ‘Church of the Future’, encouraging youngsters in the Diocese to share their ideas on what might be done to make their own congregations more eco-friendly. This is a response to the resolution made in our General Synod to work towards becoming a carbon neutral church by 2030. We had an opportunity to discuss on Saturday what local charges can do and what we need help with, in order to reduce our carbon footprint. We were also encouraged to give feedback on the proposals to revise Canon 4 on the election of bishops. As these include important but potentially contentious changes to the way our church appoints the leaders and pastors of its dioceses, consultation is widespread.
To finish this week’s forward-looking newsletter, here is a poem by Emily Dickinson sent to me by Peter H.
It will be Summer — eventually.
Ladies — with parasols —
Sauntering Gentlemen — with Canes —
And little Girls — with Dolls —
Will tint the pallid landscape —
As ’twere a bright Bouquet —
Tho’ drifted deep, in Parian —
The Village lies — today —
The Lilacs — bending many a year —
Will sway with purple load —
The Bees — will not despise the tune —
Their Forefathers — have hummed —
The Wild Rose — redden in the Bog —
The Aster — on the Hill
Her everlasting fashion — set —
And Covenant Gentians — frill —
Till Summer folds her miracle —
As Women — do — their Gown —
Or Priests — adjust the Symbols —
When Sacrament — is done —
Peter writes: Given the year it has been, we can share the poet’s anticipation of better times, and her optimism of what summer will bring. The initial picture she paints is one of ladies and gentlemen relaxing in the sun and little girls playing. It becomes clear that her imagination of their colours and enjoyment contrasts with the paleness of the landscape at the time of writing; the poem is being written, as one can see from the reference to the village being “drifted deep” in snow, in late winter. She offers a lovely comparison of the snow having the whiteness of Parian marble. But what summer will bring is then imagined by a wonderful evocation of the colours and sounds of the natural world.
As is often the case , Dickinson ends the poem with a broader perspective. In the first instance, she uses the image of women folding their gowns to signal the end of summer. The second image, of the priest who is tidying the various vessels associated with communion, gives, I think, a sense of completion and fulfilment: following the expected cycle, the summer, like the service, has come to an end. There is a deep feeling of satisfaction that the ordering and progression of things has been fulfilled.
As with all her poems, Dickinson uses hyphens in place of more conventional punctuation. She was anxious that her poems be heard, so the hyphens indicate how she wanted these breaks to be a part of the music of the poem.
Thank you for your generous response to the appeals for warm clothing for homeless people in Glasgow and for jigsaws and other items for the folks of Clare House. Please continue pray for the Ministry Team and Vestry as we plan for the weeks ahead. I hope to have more information for you in the next newsletter. In the meantime, please be assured of my prayers for you and your families.
I had a funny experience last week which gave me pause for thought. It happened during an on-line meeting with colleagues from across the Province. An item came up on the agenda which was close to my heart. I waited for a chance to give my opinion. I started with a question but instead of responding to me, the next speaker raised another issue. I asked my question again at the next opportunity. Again nobody gave me an answer and the discussion moved on. Puzzlement soon turned to hurt and annoyance. Why were they ignoring what I had to say? Why was my point of view deemed unworthy of a response? What was the purpose of me being on the committee if the rest weren’t ready to listen to me? It was only later in the meeting that I realised that I had forgotten to press the ‘Unmute’ button on my computer to allow the others to hear me!
‘You need to unmute yourself,’ is not a phrase any of us would have predicted a year ago that we would be saying to each other but it has now become a common expression in on-line meetings of all kinds. In our day-to-day life, some of us have a tendency to stay mute on issues that are important to us because we’re afraid to upset others or to be labelled in some way. A church community, however, should be an environment where everyone feels safe to give voice to their thoughts, opinions and feelings. I hope that in the months ahead we at St Mary’s will have opportunities to talk together about thorny issues, not by debating them but by sharing our experiences. It is only by taking time to prayerfully listen to each other’s stories that we can build the trust we need to disagree well and without fear. Please get in touch if there is an issue you would like to learn more about.
At another on-line meeting last week organised by Christian Aid, we were discussing how churches can help change the attitude of world leaders when they meet in Glasgow later in the year for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26). We agreed that the first step is for us to unmute ourselves. We need to start speaking and praying together within our own worshiping communities so that we can then raise our voices together on behalf of those who are most affected. Dr Martin Luther King said, ‘There comes a time when silence is betrayal … Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter … In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’. I hope that as we prepare for Christian Aid Week this year, we will engage with the issues and come together with members of other churches in Dunblane and across Scotland to make our voices heard.
It is very easy in these difficult times to put God’s voice on mute and focus on ourselves. My prayer for us all is that we use Lent as an opportunity to listen to the voice of Love calling us through our praying and our reading of Scripture to walk in Christ’s footsteps.
Last week I came across this little poem on the cover of a Welsh poetry magazine. It made such an impression on me that I decided to attempt a translation.
BUT
In this darkness
something is hiding.
It’s sometimes a shy thing
although it shouldn’t be.
Hope is its name.
And it can’t be killed.
I catch myself saying ‘but’ quite often these days in phone conversations with friends and family and even in my brief exchanges with those I meet on my daily walks. In fact, I have found that questioning the negative attitudes of others has become an important part of my day-to-day ministry. Challenging people’s thinking is not something that comes naturally to me. I had always found it easier to respond with a resigned shrug or a vague smile but the pandemic has changed that. Engulfed by the darkness of so much fear, loss and grief, it is so easy for us to become fatalistic or cynical or judgmental of others. It’s easy to disregard the many blessings we enjoy every day and all we have to be thankful for. It’s easy to blame and criticise others, forgetting to put ourselves for a moment in their shoes. And it’s especially easy to lose sight of the rays of hope which can lighten the darkness and transform it.
As a child I always enjoyed looking for signs of the coming of spring in the hedgerows on my way to school. I learnt where to find the first snowdrops, the primroses, violets and lesser celandine, catkins, frogspawn and birds’ eggs. Now as I read or listen to the news and explore social media, I look with the same eye for signs of hope for the future. Hope is indeed a shy thing, hiding behind the headlines, but we find it in stories of the selfless service of front-line workers, in the amazing co-operation between pharmaceutical companies, in the ingenuity of organisations seeking to support those in need, in the efforts of thousands of volunteers and fundraisers, in countless small acts of kindness and generosity, in a renewed sense of community in streets up and down the land.
A famous preacher once said that hope is like a star. Stars are amazing but we can only see them in the dark. The darker the sky, the brighter they shine. Often people only discover hope when they are facing suffering, when they feel overwhelmed by the darkness of loneliness, grief, depression, anger or anxiety. Sometimes they need our help to see the light of hope and to be reminded that it can dispel any darkness. As a child who was scared of the dark, I loved the idea in Psalm 139 that even the darkness is not dark to God, ‘the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you’.
My prayer is that this Lent, as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus towards the cross and the empty tomb, we may be bringers of God’s light of hope into the lives of all who cross our path.
When I was growing up, we lived next door to two elderly sisters we called Aunty Mary and Aunty Peg. Every Shrove Tuesday, they would come to our house at tea time carrying a plate covered with a cloth with steam rising from it. My reaction would be to run into the pantry for the tin of golden syrup, excitedly shouting, ‘Crempog, crempog!’. The pancakes had arrived and I was in seventh heaven!
We aren’t able to hold our usual Pancake Party in the hall this year, but the Young Church leaders are hoping to create good memories for younger members of the St Mary’s family by gathering together on line for a virtual celebration. We will be dancing to the music of Mardi Gras dressed up in costumes and masks, exploring traditions associated with the day and using the story of the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness to help us consider how we will observe Lent this year.
I hope you also will be able to mark the day in some way and will put aside some time tomorrow for our Ash Wednesday Reflection which will be posted in the morning. There is still time to register for the Dunblane Churches Together Lent Study which will be held at 4 p.m. every Thursday, starting this week. Please contact Anthony on lentgroups @ stmarysdunblane.org You will find ideas of other ways of observing Lent if you in our ‘Preparing for Lent in Lockdown’ post below. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you’d like to borrow a Lent book or a Bible study. I would encourage you to make the most of these last weeks of Lockdown if you can.
John Hamilton, our Christian Aid representative, invites us to add our names to a Climate Justice petition organised by Christian Aid.
Coronavirus disrupted our lives in an unprecedented way. Now we face a choice – we can go back to business as usual, perpetuating the climate crisis and growing inequality.
Or we can take positive steps to build justice after the pandemic, and towards a healthier, safer future for everybody. This year the UK government has some crucial opportunities to do the right thing.
You are invited by Christian Aid to sign a petition to the Prime Minister to ensure that the UK fulfils its responsibilities and its promise to build back better.
Call on the PM to:
• Increase financial support to the world’s poorest countries and push for their debts to be cancelled
• Invest in a green recovery that leaves no-one behind
• Stop the expansion of fossil fuel energy and support clean energy.
Many of you are aware that almost every morning and evening for the last eleven months, I have walked from our home in Argyle Way to the church and back again, a distance of about a mile each way. This routine not only keeps me physically fit but also gives me the time and space I need to keep me well mentally and spiritually. I find that it is helpful as I walk to focus on whatever I can see and hear around me, from the spectacular views of the hills at the start of my journey to the call of the robin welcoming me at my destination .
I particularly enjoy looking for signs of the changing of the seasons, especially now that Spring is around the corner. Early in the new year, however, I had been concerned by the fact that the bank between the Police Station and the India Gate was covered with brambles and the remains of last year’s growth. How would the daffodils which had given me such delight last spring manage to grow and blossom? To my relief, one morning I came across a volunteer from Dunblane in Bloom strimming the debris and within days the green shoots were emerging from the cleared ground.
We are approaching a new season in the Church Year, a time perhaps to seek to clear away those things in our lives that are getting in the way of God’s love. Lent in Lockdown is an opportunity to turn inwards, to deal with any old hurts and fears and the feelings of grief, guilt, unworthiness or anger that accompany them. It’s the perfect time to make more space to allow Hope, Love and Joy to grow in our hearts and minds. We may not be able to meet together to receive a cross of ash on our foreheads this year, but we can take some time on Ash Wednesday to reflect on the meaning of that symbolic action and commit ourselves to allowing God to work in us this Lent, transforming us from the inside out. Readings and prayers will be sent to you next week to help you make the most of this opportunity.
I am looking forward to marking Shrove Tuesday with Young Church families at an online Mardi Gras party. Photos of church members or friends making or flipping pancakes would be welcome for next week’s newsletter…
In his poem ‘The Bright Field’, R. S. Thomas recalls his experience of seeing sunlight breaking through onto a small patch of land. It is only later that he realises with regret that the field contained the treasure for which he yearned. I hope that you will join me, if you can, in making the most of any opportunities to worship and meet together in the weeks ahead. It won’t be as it was before the pandemic or as it will be when the danger of the virus has passed, but, in the words of the poet,
This month we will return to the ‘Faith into Action’ conversation series of previous years, focussing on the way God is calling ordinary people to serve others in extraordinary ways. We will start by marking Carers Week in the company of Kate Sainsbury who has founded the Appletree Community near Auchterarder to provide a home for her son Louis and other young people with profound and complex needs. Look out for an opportunity to add prayers for carers and those who are cared for to a noticeboard in the church porch. These will be read in the services on Sunday 6th June. For more information on Carers Week and to add your voice to the call to Make Carers Visible and Valued, visit www.carersweek.org
Later in the month you will be invited to make ‘people chains’ to help show our readiness as churches to walk alongside all refugees and asylum seekers and their families. On World Refugee Day, 20th June, Hugh Grant will introduce us to Forth Valley Welcome which helps New Scots to integrate into their local community. I hope that this will be the starting point for a conversation about ways in which we at St Mary’s might wish to be involved in supporting displaced people both locally or globally. For more information, visit www.refugeeweek.org.uk
Palm Sunday
‘You need to unmute yourself,’ is not a phrase any of us would have predicted a year ago that we would be saying to each other but it has now become a common expression in on-line meetings of all kinds. In our day-to-day life, some of us have a tendency to stay mute on issues that are important to us because we’re afraid to upset others or to be labelled in some way. A church community, however, should be an environment where everyone feels safe to give voice to their thoughts, opinions and feelings. I hope that in the months ahead we at St Mary’s will have opportunities to talk together about thorny issues, not by debating them but by sharing our experiences. It is only by taking time to prayerfully listen to each other’s stories that we can build the trust we need to disagree well and without fear. Please get in touch if there is an issue you would like to learn more about.
At another on-line meeting last week organised by Christian Aid, we were discussing how churches can help change the attitude of world leaders when they meet in Glasgow later in the year for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26). We agreed that the first step is for us to unmute ourselves. We need to start speaking and praying together within our own worshiping communities so that we can then raise our voices together on behalf of those who are most affected. Dr Martin Luther King said, ‘There comes a time when silence is betrayal … Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter … In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’. I hope that as we prepare for Christian Aid Week this year, we will engage with the issues and come together with members of other churches in Dunblane and across Scotland to make our voices heard.
We aren’t able to hold our usual Pancake Party in the hall this year, but the Young Church leaders are hoping to create good memories for younger members of the St Mary’s family by gathering together on line for a virtual celebration. We will be dancing to the music of Mardi Gras dressed up in costumes and masks, exploring traditions associated with the day and using the story of the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness to help us consider how we will observe Lent this year.
Many of you are aware that almost every morning and evening for the last eleven months, I have walked from our home in Argyle Way to the church and back again, a distance of about a mile each way. This routine not only keeps me physically fit but also gives me the time and space I need to keep me well mentally and spiritually. I find that it is helpful as I walk to focus on whatever I can see and hear around me, from the spectacular views of the hills at the start of my journey to the call of the robin welcoming me at my destination .
We are approaching a new season in the Church Year, a time perhaps to seek to clear away those things in our lives that are getting in the way of God’s love. Lent in Lockdown is an opportunity to turn inwards, to deal with any old hurts and fears and the feelings of grief, guilt, unworthiness or anger that accompany them. It’s the perfect time to make more space to allow Hope, Love and Joy to grow in our hearts and minds. We may not be able to meet together to receive a cross of ash on our foreheads this year, but we can take some time on Ash Wednesday to reflect on the meaning of that symbolic action and commit ourselves to allowing God to work in us this Lent, transforming us from the inside out. Readings and prayers will be sent to you next week to help you make the most of this opportunity.
