I wonder if, you like me, have been inspired by different people at different times in your life - teachers, mentors and role models. Many will have known personally but others we may not have but all are people who have made a huge impression on us and influenced our lives. We each have our own but we all share one in Jesus.
In Jesus, God gave us his Son as the perfect living example of a role model, our source of inspiration for our whole life's journey. The gospels are the proof of the impact Jesus had on those around Him and two thousand years later they continue to speak to us.
Jesus inspired Paul; in fact he transformed him from a fierce opponent into a fiery apostle. In recent weeks our Bible Study Group has been following Paul's Journeys - dipping into each of his letters. Letters that he wrote to communities he had visited and to people he knew as well as some to communities he hadn't yet reached. Each letter was written to encourage these new Christian communities to hold fast to their new found faith in Jesus Christ and they have been an source of inspiration to countless Christians ever since.
A Celtic prayer of thanksgiving for All Saints to share:
With love and prayers
Christine
What was being discussed were old fashioned, do-it-yourself activities such as knitting and baking that are apparently making a comeback, not only for financial reasons in our current economic climate but also to engage our creativity. In recent times that has been a growth in organised knitting circles and a college in London has started its own Women's Institute. According to a 'new-age' knitter who was interviewed knitting was calming and meditative - well, she experienced these benefits. The article went on to compare the unsociable aspects of our technological age - Facebook, internet poker and the like with the more sociable pastimes of the past. The article closed with the comment "it's such a good thing we are rediscovering old pastimes and pursuits which cost almost nothing".
I was left with the strong urge to contact the author of the article and suggest "what about rediscovering church, the benefits of which include both spiritual and social opportunities, to name but two!
Bible studies are another suggestion I could have offered, they too would have met the criteria. There is information on our autumn bible study 'Following the Journeys of Paul' elsewhere in this newsletter.
With love and prayers
Christine
On our Christian journey to our true destination we too are not unaided. We enter the co-ordinates - destination God, route varied with many diversions and changes of direction along the way and our faith assures us that each time we divert from our spiritual path God will recalculate and pull us back on track. As Jesus tells his disciples "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". We don't require any fancy and expensive piece of technology, no we just have to pull into a lay-by, tune in, listen and respond, and in so doing get back on track again.
As for the estimated arrival time - a lifetime of trying!
With love and prayers
Christine
For months we have lived with a cloud hanging over us - the global issues, financial and environmental are what we live with day by day. We, living here in this beautiful part of Fife on this spring day could be tempted to think that there is nothing that we, as individuals, as a church family, can do to make a difference. That the challenges have grown beyond our comprehension. But then isn't God's love and action in our world - isn't t this too beyond anything we can really explain; we accept and to trust.
But we shouldn't think that we cannot make a difference, both here and beyond. Not perhaps on a scale that will answer some of the issues being discussed in London this week but most certainly at grass roots level.
There are 2 ecumenical projects that I, along with other members from All Saints, have been involved in in recent months that have reminded me of this.
One was the World Day of Prayer this year hosted by Saint Andrews church on Friday 6th March. In addition to the worship services themselves, there was a planning event, a series of bible studies prior to the event and a follow up event just last week. The coming together of members of our local Christian churches to share in all aspects of this event, which in turn was shared with Christians around the world on the same day was a very powerful witness of caring and sharing - being disciples in the world supporting the women and people of Papua New Guinea. It is hoped that all of our churches in St Andrews will continue to hold the work of the World Day of Prayer movement and the people of Papua New Guinea in prayer, including them in our intercessions on or around the 6th of each month until next year's event.
The other project has been with Pilgrim Care, a St Andrews charity that works to provide accommodation and care for the personal, emotional and spiritual needs of the elderly. Unfortunately the current economic climate has put paid, in the meantime, to plans to set up a Care Home in St Andrews but the Trust is committed to pursue their remit of spiritual care to sustain the morale of the elderly. To this end they have co-ordinated, funded and run a series of training workshops aimed at strengthening and supporting the existing pastoral care practices that are being undertaken by members of each of the congregations in and around St Andrews. A professional team from Edinburgh "Faith in Older People" delivered these workshops, very ably led by Marie Louise's daughter Mary, facilitating each of us to share our experiences, comments and questions. Session by session we have engaged with each other in a most wonderful caring and supportive manner. In addition Mr & Mrs Glasgow have nourished us in a most spiritual way with mouthwatering lunches that we sat down at table and shared.
For someone who is relatively new to St Andrews, and very much a part-timer in the life of our town I have been very heartened by the commitment of fellow Christians to care and share and in so doing make a difference that through the grace of God will bear much fruit.
With my love and prayers of a holy Holy Week and joyous Easter.
Christine
For me there is something very moving in celebrating these acts of worship as a family sure in the knowledge that many, many other families, down the ages and around the world, have been and are still engaged in similar celebrations. We all come together to worship Jesus who came as the Light to the world, to expel the darkness. In so doing God displayed his goodness and his everlasting love for us all. I feel very aware of this connectedness; we may be part of different cultures, have different life experiences but we are all part of the Body of Christ. As the title of this year's World Day of Prayer reminds us 'In Christ there are many members yet one Body (more information on this elsewhere in this Newsletter).
My 'grey day' turned out brighter in the end and that is surely something to give thanks for!
With love and prayers
Christine
The image of 'living in two kingdoms' I found very powerful; being on retreat, away from the day to day responsibilities of life, was almost like stepping out of one kingdom and into another. I was open to and ready to respond to, the little nudges and I tried to try to catch hold of 'something' that was just beyond my grasp. I am sure that I have these nudges at other times, in fact I know I do, I experience them here in All Saints and in other very prayerful places - places where one would expect to encounter God, places I know I go to ready to meet God.
But there, out in the vast open space, God was there for me to encounter as God is day by day except that often I am too much on the move with too much on my mind to take up the opportunity. This time however, I had time and the space in my head to grasp the moment and reflect on it - very powerful stuff but very much to be recommended!!
The busy season is just around the corner; the preparations for Christmas can overwhelm us if we are not careful. The real preparation is Advent, full of expectation and wonder as we watch and wait for the coming of baby Jesus. It is a time when we are invited to stop and sense the near presence of 'the Kingdom'. I am certainly going to try to make time to; I hope that you can too.
I hope that the book we have chosen for this year's Advent Reading Group, another by David Adam - 'the Echo of God' will help us to stop and hear the echo of God during the coming weeks. Father Ian and I are leading the group this year and we hope that you will join us - more about this on page 11.
With love and prayers
Christine
Take a recent rail journey I undertook which was beset with problems from the outset - a cow on the track at Springfield! This resulted in the collapse of my planned itinerary and the loss of booked seats for my journey south. Having missed my onward connection at Haymarket, I, along with many others, had to transfer into Waverley and renegotiate our journeys. Along the way I met a young German student and what started as a shared frustration, and embarrassment on my part for our poor rail service and their apparent lack of customer care, developed into a shared journey that included lunch and much interesting conversation. When we parted to I felt much the richer for the experience.
In June, here at All Saints, we were reaching out to the street children of Ica in Peru, children we will probably never meet but of whom we heard of so movingly from Ken Jeffrey when he came to speak about the project that he and his church are involved in - more on this further on in this Newsletter. It was when I was undertaking the 'penny project', counting my blessings, and my pennies, for the items in my home that I take for granted that I felt a closeness to these children so far away who have so little. We, here in Britain, may be faced daily with gloomy headlines of 'credit crunch' and 'economic downturns' but many of us still have more than we really need.
In June we also hosted a Hindu wedding celebration in our church hall for a couple who had been students at university here. That afternoon the groom's family from Scotland joined with the bride's family from India and together with their friends from around the world they all shared a very special event that 'reached out' across cultures, faiths and generations.
Over recent weeks David our bishop has been spending time with 650+ of his fellow bishops from across the Anglican Communion. As delegates of the Lambeth Conference at a time of great division within the communion they will have been 'reaching out' to each other in prayer, dialogue and hospitality. I hope and pray as their time together comes to an end that they will have shared positive experiences and I am sure that +David will have much to share will us all on his return.
These are just a few reflections of mine, you will have many of your own!
With my best wishes for your continued 'reaching out'.
Christine
Having recently celebrated Pentecost; we have now moved into 'ordinary time' - a way of expressing the periods in our liturgical year that lie outside our main seasons. This year, with our early Easter, we will enjoy a considerably longer period than usual from Pentecost to Advent, 28 weeks in all.
This 'ordinary time' is different from our other seasons - the seasons of preparation; the 'watching and waiting' of Advent and 'walking the way of the cross' of Lent.
However, this 'ordinary period of our church year is in no way ordinary as in plain or common. No, it is a time that offers us, as Christians, a period of time to carry out, day by day, our ministries as part of the body of Christ, His disciples, following His examples. We can share the 'good news', our service in the world, a world that is crying out for 'good news'.
The examples that Jesus left us, that we read of in the gospels and interpret for today came from His day to day activities; the accounts of his teaching and healing, the extra ordinary being found in the day to day of life at that time.
Perhaps over the coming months we too will experience the extra ordinary in our day to day activities and projects. Projects like our support of the Vine Trust in prayer and action during June with us sowing seeds that we can watch germinate over time.
In conclusion may I, at the beginning of this new season, wish you a happy and blessed summer and may the weather improve to bring us sun and warmth to enjoy it.
Christine