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Thanks for the memories!

St Margaret’s

Scottish Episcopal Church

Magazine

50p

November 2016

2

THE CHURCH OFFICE

353/355 Kilmarnock Road, Newlands, Glasgow G43 2DS

Open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 1.30pm Tel:0141 636 1131

Church administrator: Juliet Mugwanda

CLERGY

Rector: Reverend Canon Dr Scott Robertson BD MA PhD

22 Monreith Road, Newlands, Glasgow G43 2NY

Tel: 0141 632 3292 Email: [email protected]

Assistant Priest: Reverend Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen

2/1, 34 Keir Street, Glasgow G41 2NW


Assistant Priest: Reverend Maggie McTernan

Flat 0/1, 9 Kennoway Drive, Glasgow G11 7 UA


A warm welcome to

St Margaret’s

Should you wish to speak to the

Rector, he is regularly available at

the Church on Wednesdays

between 6 and 7pm (if the church

does not appear to be open, please

ring the bell at the left side of the

small door to the left of the main

West door). Otherwise he can be

contacted on 0141 632 3292.

St Margaret’s on the internet: www.episcopalnewlands.org.uk

email: [email protected]

Diocesan website: www.scotland.anglican.org/diocese/glasgow

Magazine submissions to [email protected],

or [email protected], marked “Magazine”,

or in the drawer marked “Magazine Editor” at the back of the church

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Index

Pastoral letter Page 4 Leprosy Mission Page 17

Around St Margaret’s Page 6 All you need is growth?? Page 18

Calendar and rotas Page 12 Things you didn’t do Page 19

Nimmo’s Memorial concert Page 14 Intercessions Page 20

Help For Heroes Page 16 WWI grave markers Page 22

‘Time to Remember’ Service 3pm on Saturday 12th November

This is the annual occasion when we come together within our beautiful

sanctuary to remember and give thanks to God for the lives of our loved ones

who have died - either this year or longer ago. Please join us for a time of

peaceful remembrance with music, readings, prayers, reflection and

contemplation.

This year, there are many within our Church family who have lost a loved one

– you are especially invited to join us. There may also be others who have

been bereaved for a longer period and still feel their loss keenly – you too are

especially invited to join us.

If you know someone, a relative, friend or neighbour, who would find this

Service helpful and comforting please invite them along - and offer to

accompany them. Invitation cards are available in the Church for you to give

them.

Refreshments will be provided at the end of the Service.

Church Roll

The Church Roll will be on display for three weeks leading up the AGM. Please

check that your details - particularly phone and postcodes - are correct and

tick the relevant box. There are amendment forms to update any

details. With regards to Data protection, please advise me or the office if you

wish your details to be hidden. June Gray

WFO envelopes

Envelopes for 2017 are now available at the back of

the church. Please make sure you collect your

supply.

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Scott writes……

I wonder what comes into your mind when you

hear the word ‘theology’? Over the last few

weeks I’ve been preparing to teach a course for

newly qualified clergy (if that’s a thing), who

want to take their theological education up to

degree level. The course is entitled ‘Christian

Doctrine in Context’, which basically means (I

think!) linking our theology to the world as we

discover it, warts and all. So the course will cover things like suffering, war,

beginning and end of life issues, as well as what is called hermeneutics (how

we interpret texts). Another way of describing all of this is to call it

‘Contextual Theology’. But, when you stop to think about it for a few

moments, if theology is not contextual then there is probably something

wrong with it. If it’s not contextual, if it doesn’t connect with our world at

some basic level, then it probably isn’t theology at all, at least not Christian

theology. Unfortunately, we have managed over the years to develop an

uncomfortable division between theology and the rest of society, including

perhaps especially, the church. Theologians, if not viewed as some kind of

rarefied, impractical breed, are regarded with more than a little suspicion.

One of the great fathers of the Enlightenment, Denis Diderot (1713-84),

illustrates this well:

Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to

guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: ‘My friend, you

should blow out your candle in order to find your way more

clearly’. This stranger is a theologian.

Similarly, the novelist, Robert Heinlein, describes the theologian as the kind

of person who looks for his black cat in a pitch black cellar without thinking

to switch on the light. So the impression persists that theology is anything

but practical. If that’s true, then I guess I’m wasting my time trying to teach

this course. But the assumptions on which this assessment of ‘theology as

pointless’ is based are themselves a bit shaky, built largely on ignorance and

prejudice. Terry Eagleton homes in laser-like on one of the current anti-

religion/theology establishment figures:

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Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only

knowledge of the subject is 'The Book of British Birds', and you

have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins

on theology.

One can’t simply stick one’s fingers in one’s ears crying out, ‘Not listening,

not listening!’ and then claim to be offering a reasonable response to what

the task of theology is. And that is precisely the point. The theologian, if he

or she is doing his or her job well, is actually someone who listens. The

theologian, according to the greatest Christian thinker of the 20th

century,

Karl Barth (1886-1968), has to be someone who carries the Bible in one

hand and a newspaper in the other. There has to be an openness to the

world as it is, and a willingness to wrestle with the issues that we confront

when we open our newspaper or open ourselves to our world. And at the

same time the theologian listens to God.

This dual openness to the world and to God is what characterises the

theologian. It is not an easy task. It requires patience coupled with a sense

of mystery and adventure, but most of all it requires humility. And if you

haven’t realised it already, that means that each of us is called in one way

or another to the theologian’s task. We are all theologians; we all engage

at some level in ‘God-talk’. It’s too important a task to think that it is

reserved exclusively for those in the academy. The conversation between

God and the world goes on and we are all a part of that conversation. And

so to do theology is to listen to God and to God’s world. It is a high and

noble vocation to which all of us are called, and the hope we share is that,

as we journey together, we discover ‘the depth of the riches of the wisdom

and knowledge of God’ (Romans 11: 33).

God bless us as we dare to think, and equally dare to love.

Scott

*****************

Register

Baptism “Suffer the little children to come unto me”)

16 October Mhairi Eden Graham

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Around St Margaret’s November 2016

Choral events

The choir once again sang Compline beautifully on Sunday 16 October. The

short service involved Plainsong chanting from Psalms 4, 91 and 134, of

collects and the Nunc Dimittis. Scott read from John 14, followed by

reflection on Philip’s words “Show us the Father”. It was a reflective

service, appreciated by those attending.

Forthcoming events include Evensong on Sunday 30 October, with choirs

from St Ninian’s, Sherbrooke St Gilbert’s and St Mary’s Hamilton, and

Words and Music for Advent on 27 November.

Second Sunday concerts

The concert on 9 October featured pianist Edward Cohen performing

Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, with Michael providing the

orchestral accompaniment at the organ. There was a large and enthusiastic

audience for this musical tour de force (“unbelievable, fantastic, what a God

given talent; I was on a downer when I came in, but now I am walking on

air!” said one member of the audience).

The concert on 13 November will feature Richard Leonard and his “Slide

Too Far” trombone quartet performing music new and old by Tomasi,

Saskia Apon and Puccini.

Harvest

Harvest festival was celebrated on Sunday the 2nd of October and the floral

decorations were marvellous. As is now traditional, boxes of non perishable

produce were taken to the Glasgow City Mission.

The bread and soup lunch following the service was greatly appreciated;

thank you Jan and your fellow “souper” cooks!

Welcome to Mhairi

We were delighted to welcome Mhairi Graham by baptism to our

congregation on Sunday 16 October. Her parents Niamh and Paul (known

as Paul Michael or PM to distinguish him from his father Paul!) very kindly

provided a wonderful cake which was greatly enjoyed after the service. It

was also good to talk to some of their friends and family and to learn

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something of the Sword of the Spirit fellowship (an ecumenical lay

organisation) with which they are connected. As often happens, a number

of the visitors were greatly impressed by our church building (and some

commented on how welcome they felt because the church was warm!).

Foiled again!

The tin foil bin outside the church has filled up and has been emptied. The

foil is taken periodically to a recycling point and the church receives a

token payment for it. Jan MacDonald reminds us that with Christmas

coming please remember to save up your foil.

Who would a Pilgrim be?

The Pilgrim study group got off to a good start on Wednesday 12 October.

The topic was Who is Jesus, with material taken from John 1, when Jesus

calls the disciples Andrew, Peter, James and John. It is interesting (and an

incentive to evangelism) to note that of these four, Philip is the odd one

out because he was the only one called by Jesus; the others were brought

by disciples. Discussion was lively and (surprise, surprise!) not all the

material was covered in the time available .

The study groups continue fortnightly on Wednesdays 26 October, 9 and

23 November and 7 and 21 December. Each session stands alone, so

come to however many you can.

Alzheimer coffee morning

Jan MacDonald writes: The Coffee morning and Crafts sale in aid of

Alzheimer Scotland will take place on Saturday 5 November from 10.30am

- 1pm in the Church Hall. There will be the usual unique hand-made

crafts, tea/ coffee & home baking and the raffle of the Wednesday

Quilter's masterpiece quilt, which this year is 'Jitterbug in Moda Chic

Neutrals'. Offers of home-baking and help on the day would be

appreciated - please see me.

Eco congregation

The local Eco-congregation group will meet for a discussion on Air Quality

Issues led by Emilia Hanna of Friends of the Earth Scotland Tuesday 8th

November, 7.30pm at St Joseph's RC Church Clarkston.

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Leaf Day

The annual leaf clearing day will take place on Saturday

26 November. The skip will be available from 8am to 12,

so do plan to come early. It is also hoped to do some

work on cleaning and painting the iron railings beside

the memorial garden. Mid morning sustenance will be

provided in the form of Fiona Campbell’s gorgeous bacon rolls!

Sponsor a tree…?

There has been a good response to the request in last month’s magazine to

sponsor a tree to fill the gap which was caused by the felling last year of a

diseased tree on the Kilmarnock Road side of the garden. A beech tree has

been sponsored and will be planted in November.

Swedish link – end of an era

Maria Ottenston and a group from her congregation in Gothenburg will be

visiting us in November, to mark the end of the formal link between our

diocese and Gothenburg. They arrive at lunchtime on Thursday 17 November

and there will be a service in church on Saturday at 5.30pm, followed by a

drinks reception. Maria will preach at the morning service on 20 November.

Church and The Academy

November’s meeting will take place on 17 November (with our Swedish

visitors as guests). The speaker will be Dr Susanne Rappman (Church of

Sweden) on “Theology and Disability”. The December meeting will be on

Thursday 1 December, with Rt Revd Dr Geoffrey Rowle speaking on Anglican-

Orthodox Relations.

Annual General Meeting

This will take place on Sunday 20 November immediately after the morning

service. As a result of retirements from the Vestry, we have vacancies for

the People’s Warden and two ordinary members of the Vestry. Nomination

forms are available from Gerry Wells and anyone who is interested in filling

these posts is invited to speak to Gerry or to Scott.

Copies of the church accounts and reports will be available at the back of the

church from Sunday 6 November.

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Hall Floor

This Hall floor is to be given another coat of varnish on 28 November. This

essential maintenance will keep our floor in good condition.

Children’s Christmas Toy Appeal

Ann Rawson writes: Each year St Margaret's supports the appeal which is

organised by the Glasgow Children's Holiday Club.

There are needy families across Greater Glasgow who benefit from their

work. If you feel you could help, please leave gifts for children aged from

birth to young teenagers. The gifts should be brought to church,

unwrapped, on the 20th and 27th November (leave under the back table).

It has to be so early so that they can be transported to the office in town

ready for distribution.

I am attending their AGM on Thursday 17th November at noon.

If anybody else is interested to attend, the address is:

the Pentagon Centre, 36 Washington Street, Glasgow G3 8AZ.

Mothers’ Union

We have received a leaflet from the Mothers' Union designed to inform

church members about the varied work that is done by the Mothers’

Union; copies are at the back of the church. Please take one. Further

information about the work of the MU can be obtained from Hilary

Moran, 206 Greenock Road, Largs, Ayrshire Tel: 01475 686213.

World Aids Day 1 December

The church will again participate in marking World Aids Day by

floodlighting the church in red from 29 November to 1 December.

SEC Marriage Canon

As mentioned in the July / August magazine it is planned to host a

discussion on the proposed new marriage canon, with the same

programme running on three separate occasions to allow as many people

as possible to contribute. Our sister churches in the South Regional

Council are also keen to participate in these discussion sessions, and they

will take place at St Margaret’s in the New Year, in advance of the

Diocesan Synod in early March.

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Days For Girls Issy Sanderson writes from Poppleton: I shall be coming up to Edinburgh to

run a Days for Girls workshop for St. Columba's -by -the -Castle on Saturday

10 December (in a nearby community hall I think, details to be confirmed).

We will probably have two sessions, morning and afternoon and people can

choose which one they want to attend, probably from around 10.a.m. to

12.30, or 1p.m. to 3.30p.m. I wondered if any St Margaret's friends would

be interested in coming over to attend.

SPIN-OFF!

The Days for Girls Workshop in York Minster on International Women’s Day,

8th

March this year was amazing in itself, with over 300 participants coming

to help make washable re-usable feminine hygiene kits for girls in

developing countries, but the resulting “spin-off “has been fantastic!

The “mountain” of brightly coloured drawstring bags holding the kits which

we produced on that day in the Minster went off to schools and community

projects in many different countries, including Nepal, Uganda, Kenya,

Ethiopia, Pakistan, Malawi, the Gambia and Myanmar. The kits have

changed school girls’ lives dramatically. They no longer have to miss school,

staying at home for a week or so every month because of having no

sanitary protection. They are now in charge of their own situations, and

their highly prized washable kits will each last up to three years!

Additionally, one of the most encouraging things we have also been able to

do is “seed fund” small groups of women to start making kits themselves

out of local materials. For example in remote rural villages near the Afghan

border in Western Pakistan women are now producing hand sewn kits as

community self-help projects. In African market places women are machine

-sewing kits as income-generating initiatives, and with the Teacher’s Packs

which we send with the kits for schools, girls are also being taught to make

kits for themselves.

A colleague and I have been invited to Munster, Germany, later this month

to do a Days for Girls workshop for Rotary ladies there, to start them off on

making kits too! Come and join us when we do a Days for Girls Workshop

again next year on 8 March 2017, International Women’s Day!

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Remembrance Sunday Concert in Greenlaw

Hugh MacDonald is organising a concert in

the church in the Borders village of Greenlaw

on Remembrance Sunday 13 November at

3.30pm. The concert will be a charity event

commemorating the First World War,

featuring music by composers who died in the

war and readings from the work of poets who

also lost their lives in the conflict. The performers in the concert will be the

distinguished Edinburgh-based organist Philip Sawyer, the tenor Jamie

MacDougall, the violinist Catherine Manson and the pianist Peter Evans.

Hugh writes: Greenlaw is where my mother was born and where she lived

latterly until her death in February at the age of 96. (It is also where my great-

grandfather was born and grew up - Ed). While preparing a eulogy for her

funeral in Greenlaw Church, I came across a reference to the village grocer’s

shop where my mother worked when she left school at 14 in 1934 and where

she met my father. The reference to the shop was in the recently-published

WW1 diaries of the composer Frederick Kelly one of those young composers

who lost their lives tragically early as he was killed at the Somme on

November 13 1916, coincidentally exactly 100 years to the day before our

concert date. He had been posted to a training camp outside Greenlaw when

he joined up in 1914, and as an officer had been billeted in a flat above that

shop (which is now an antique shop). In the diaries he writes about playing the

organ in Greenlaw church, which is still there, unaltered, and composing a

Christmas prelude on Good King Wenceslas which he played at the battalion's

Christmas Day service and which was later published. Kelly was a close friend

of Rupert Brooke and another young composer killed in the war, Dennis

Browne.

This gave me the idea for the concert, which will feature Kelly's organ piece,

almost completely forgotten since his death, played on the same instrument

that he wrote it for and played it on in December 1914. There will also be

some other appropriate pieces for organ, some songs by other WW1

composers and a major piece for violin and piano which Kelly wrote on the

ship that, following their Greenlaw training, took his regiment out to serve in

Gallipoli. There will also be readings from his diaries, and of poems by people

like Rupert Brooke, who was a great friend of Kelly.

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November Diary of events

Tues 1st Holy Communion 10am

Short and Sweet” Reflection 7pm

Vestry 7.45pm

Wed 5th Rector’s Hour 6pm

Sun 6th Pentecost 25

Tues 8th Holy Communion 10am


Pilgrim Study Group 7.30pm in the church

Sun 13th Pentecost 26 - Remembrance Sunday

Second Sunday concert in the church 3.30pm

Richard Leonard and “Slide Too Far” trombone quartet



Thu 17th Knit and Natter 10am to 12.30pm

Swedish delegation arrives

Church and the Academy, 5.30pm 4 The Square Glasgow

University ; Speaker Dr Susanne Rappman - Theology and

Disability

Sat 19th Service with Swedish delegation 5.30pm

Sun 20th Christ The King followed by AGM at 12 noon

Tues 22nd Holy Communion 10am

Wed 23rd No Rector’s Hour

Pilgrim Study Group 7.30pm in the church

Sat 26th Leaf clearing 8am to 12 noon

Sun 27th Advent 1

Evensong 6.30pm



Thu 1st Dec Church and the Academy, 5.30pm 4 The Square Glasgow

University; Speaker Right Rev Dr Geoffrey Rowle - Anglican-

Orthodox relations

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Readings for November

6 November Job 19: 23-27a

Pentecost 25 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17

Luke 20: 27-38

13 November Malachi 4: 1-2a

Pentecost 26 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13

Luke 21: 5-19

20 November Jeremiah 23: 1-6

Christ The King Colossians 1: 11-20

Luke 23: 33-43

27 November Isaiah 2: 1-5

Advent 1 Romans 13: 11-14

Matthew 24: 36-44

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Nimmo’s Memorial Concert

St Margaret’s was full on Sunday 2nd

October for A Memorial Concert for

Nimmo C M Davidson to mark the first anniversary of his death. It was a

special concert in many ways. Mattie was there surrounded by her family.

The concert was given by the Paisley Philharmonic Choir with their Musical

Director, Ian S Anderson, a lifelong friend of Nimmo’s, who organised the

concert, and accompanist, David Murray; and six pupils from Hutchesons’

Grammar School with their Director of Music Performance, Ken Walton.

The evening opened with a joyful

rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah

Chorus from The Messiah. The

first section of Early Music also

included works by Tallis and

Haydn. Four of the pupils

brought a fresh approach to a

beautiful quartet by J C Bach,

which served to introduce the

next section of 18th

and 19th

century music with works by

Mozart, Fauré and Stanford. Two

pupil solos followed: Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs played by the

quartet’s first violinist, and the percussion piece, Battercada by Rachel

Gledhill. As Hutchesons’ Grammar School say on their website in their article

about this concert, “It was a wonderful public experience for our young

musicians, who excelled themselves through their confident musicianship

and sheer professionalism.” The first half of the concert ended with 20th

and

21st

century music by Howard Goodall and Ola Geilo, and Knut Nystedt’s fine

I Will Praise Thee O Lord.

Throughout the concert, Ian Anderson told stories about his meeting and

friendship with Nimmo and about Nimmo’s dedication to his music teaching

at Jordanhill College.

Music of the Celtic Nations began the second half. We were then treated to

another two pupil solos, this time a movement from one of J S Bach’s cello

suites played by the cellist from the quartet, and a movement from a

Sonatine for flute by W Popp. The last section comprised ‘Music from the

Theatre’ with well-known numbers from J Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Mozart’s

Magic Flute, and Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. The performance of

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these works was a lovely expression of an art form that Nimmo loved and

fostered in his pupils.

The concert was brought to a close with Scott giving a vote of thanks, and

the choir rounding off the evening with Rutter’s The Lord Bless You and

Keep You. Edward and Helen Cais

….and a note from Mattie

The family were extremely pleased by the response to the concert which

took place on Sunday 2nd

October. We are delighted to have raised £1,800

for two deserving causes – and there is still money coming in. The concert

was suggested by Ian Anderson, the conductor of Paisley Philharmonic Choir

and who was originally a pupil in Queen’s Park School where Nimmo was

sent shortly after doing his National Service. So the programme performed

by the choir reflected Nimmo’s life in music - church music, a wide range of

choral music and light opera which Jordanhill School performed each year.

The solo instrumentalists from Hutcheson’s Grammar School were a delight

and inspiration and we thank Ken Walton for bringing them. As well as being

a former pupil of Hutchie Nimmo also sang in the Choral society.

We chose to donate the proceeds to two deserving causes, the Ciaran Pryce

Appeal and the MS support charity Revive. Ciaran, who was at the concert,

was a treble in St. Margaret’s choir and then in his teens, while playing

school rugby sustained an injury which has left him paralysed. He was telling

us that he has now passed his driving test but it takes him twenty minutes

to get into the car! What spirit!

The other charity we chose is Revive, a local support group for people

affected by MS. I hear from two of our members how helpful this is.

I can only say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the concert in

any way - by singing, being part of the very appreciative audience or

helping behind the scenes making tea for the choir, which I know they

enjoyed, especially the soup which was surplus to requirements at the

Harvest Lunch.

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Help For Heroes Douglas Pearson reminds us of the continuing effects of war.

A couple of weeks ago I was nominated by my niece to take part in the “22

press ups per day for 22 days” challenge. I am nearing the end (it feels like

the end!) and sought sponsorship for Combat Stress, the veterans mental

health charity, part of the Help For Heroes family. Since then my wonderful

nephew, Adrian, has announced his intention to continue his long-standing

H4H fundraising by taking part in Burma Trek. If you feel indebted to our men

and women damaged by their experiences while serving our country you may

wish to sponsor Adrian, who tells us his story:

I served in The British Army for 9 Years. I was Medically Discharged

after 4 Operational Tours. I was Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder at a time when it was still very much a taboo subject. Help for

Heroes has changed the gameplay with 2 major troop deployments in

Afghanistan and Iraq. The illness is much better recognised, accepted

and treated.

My late Grandfather

(Douglas’s Dad) served in

The Royal Artillery in

Burma during WW2. I

earned my Maroon Beret

and Parachute Wings in

1994. I was declared unfit

to Parachute with the Red

Devils due to PTSD. I

c o m p l e t e d J u n g l e

Warfare Training in Belize,

Central America, in 1996

and that is the last time I travelled abroad.

I have been Fundraising for Help for Heroes since July 2011. I started off

Street Busking with a flute and collecting donations for wristbands and

lapel Badges. I have been involved in fundraising days and nights in

local bars. Recently I undertook the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge.

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I have raised nearly £7,000 to date and am pushing to breach The

£10,000 mark with this Challenge. I am totally committed to Help

for Heroes as there are servicemen and women far worse off than

me and as my British Army Career was cut short, I feel that I am still

somehow doing my bit.

"Queen, Country, Community, Charity, Others, then Myself.”

www.justgiving.com/Adrian-Pearson2

The Leprosy Mission

Many members of the congregation give to The Leprosy Mission and I

recently received a letter expressing thanks for the donations and giving an

example of the work that The Leprosy Mission is able to carry out as a

result of our and other congregations contributions.

“Reshmi is a 23 year old woman from the remote village of Bihar in

India. She got married two years ago. Shortly after her marriage

she started feeling pain in her right elbow. She visited the village

doctor who prescribed pain relief. She took the medicine but

continued to suffer severe pain.

She moved to Delhi (where her husband was working) to try other

hospitals. She spent their wages and small savings on treatment,

but nothing worked. Refusing to give up, eventually she got the

correct diagnosis, finding out that she had leprosy. By the time she

was diagnosed, her left hand was deformed and she could not work.

She completed her anti-leprosy treatment, but she was still worried

about her deformity. Her doctor referred her to The Leprosy

Mission hospital at Shahdara for deformity correction. The surgery

is completed. Reshmi is now receiving physiotherapy. “

The original letter and a booklet giving ore information can be found on

the table at the back of the church.

Jan Whiteside

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All you need is growth????

Just so much, and no more; let us rejoice in the logic

of the Earth’s economy.

The first commandment of economics is Grow. Grow

forever. Companies must get bigger. National

economies need to swell by a certain percentage

each year. People should want more, make more,

earn more, spend more – ever more.

The first commandment of the Earth is Enough. Just so much, and no

more. Just so much soil. Just so much water. Just so much sunshine.

Everything born of the Earth grows to its appropriate size and then stops.

The planet does not get bigger: it gets better. Its creatures learn, mature,

diversify, evolve, create amazing beauty and novelty and complexity, but

live within absolute limits.

Economics says: Compete. Only by pitting yourself against a worthy

opponent will you perform efficiently. The reward for successful

competition will be growth.

The Earth says: Compete, yes but keep your competition in bounds. Don’t

annihilate. Take only what you need. Leave your competitor enough to

live. Whenever possible, don’t compete: cooperate. Pollinate each other,

create shelter for each other, build firm structures that lift smaller species

up to the light. Pass around the nutrients, share the territory. Some kinds

of excellence rise out of competition; other kinds rise out of cooperation.

You’re not in a war: you’re in a community.

Economics says: Use it up fast. Don’t bother with repair: the faster you

use it up, the sooner you’ll buy another. That makes the gross national

product go round. Throw things out when you get tired of them. Shave

the forests every 30 years. Get the oil out of the ground and burn it now.

Make jobs so people can earn more money, so they can buy more stuff

and throw it out.

The Earth says: What’s the hurry? Take your time building soils, forests,

coral reefs, mountains. Take centuries or millennia. When any part wears

out, don’t discard it: turn it into food for something else.

Economics says: Worry, struggle, be dissatisfied. The permanent

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condition of humankind is scarcity. The only way out of scarcity is to

accumulate and hoard, though that means, regrettably, that others will

have less.

The Earth says: Rejoice! You have been born into a world of self-

maintaining abundance and incredible beauty. Feel it, taste it, be amazed

by it. If you stop your struggle and lift your eyes long enough to see Earth’s

wonders, to play and dance with the glories around you, you will discover

what you really need. It isn’t that much. There is enough.

We don’t get to choose which laws – those of the economy or those of the

Earth – will ultimately prevail. We can choose which ones we will

personally live under – and whether to make our economic laws consistent

with planetary ones, or to find out what happens if we don’t.

(Donella Meadows, reproduced from Resurgence and Ecologist September/

October 2016)

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Things you didn’t do...

Remember the day I borrowed your brand new car and dented it? I

thought you’d kill me, but you didn’t. And remember the time I dragged

you to the beach, and you said it would rain and it did? I thought you’d say

“I told you so”. But you didn’t. Do you remember the time I flirted with all

the guys to make you jealous, and you were? I thought you’d leave but

you didn’t. Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie all over your

car rug? I thought you’d hit me, but you didn’t. And remember the time I

forgot to tell you the dance was formal and you turned up in jeans? I

thought you’d drop me but you didn’t.

Yes, there were lots of things you didn’t do.

But you put up with me, and you loved me, and you protected me. There

were lots of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from

Vietnam.

But you didn’t.

From “Living, loving and learning” by Leo Buscalgia (contributed by

Margaret Macnae)

20

Intercessions

We come before You in faith, Lord, our good and

just judge. Hear these our prayers that we lay

before You.

For the Christian community throughout the world,

we pray for steadfast belief and stubborn faith,

especially in the face of suffering, persecution, strife, ridicule or apathy.

May the Church be a beacon to those who seek a better way to live, a

more responsible way to live.

Bless all those who have dedicated their lives to Your ministry and

strengthen their faith especially when it is tested.

Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for the brokenness of our world, for people divided and whose

hearts are full of hatred because of religion and intolerance of each

others difference.

We continue to believe in Your power to bring peace especially in Syria as

well as in all other areas of conflict and war.


In our own country, we thank You for those who fight on behalf of others

for fairness and equality. May their voices be heard. May those in power

make responsible decisions about the future of this country and may they

be led by their consciences rather than political aspirations.

We pray for those who, because of their limiting circumstances, go

without – place them in the path of those who have the resources and

will to lighten their load and ease their suffering.


21

How blessed we are in this church. Help us that we might continue to

grow together in our faith and trust in You.

May our plans to use our wealth for the good of others in our local

community find favour in Your eyes and may this journey deepen our

individual and collective relationship with You.

We commit to You, Lord, those in our church family who need to feel

Your strength, grace and love at this time - we continue to pray for

George, Ann and their family.

We ask You to watch over Scott, Maggie and Charlotte in their

ministries and as they minister to us.


We commit your child Mhairi into Your hands - richly bless her family

for bringing her to baptism.

Put Your loving arms around all those who feel alone and vulnerable -

protect them and strengthen their faith in You, Lord.

We pray for all those we love and hold dear - in a moment of silence

we name them to You.


Help us trust in You without reservation, our faithful and just God.

You are with us always and we go forward in the sure knowledge that

we need fear nothing because of this.

We ask You to accept these prayers, for the sake of Your Son Our

Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Kalpana Panickar (16 October)

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Diocesan Advent Quiet Day

This will be held at Holy Trinity and St Barnabas church in Paisley on

Saturday 3 December, at 10 for 10.30am until 3pm. Speaker Maureen

Brough on “Encounters”.

22

Finding repatriated WW1 grave markers

We have received this request from the General Synod Office.

During The Great War the fallen had their graves marked with simple

inscribed wooden crosses. In the early 1920’s the Imperial War Graves

Commission (now the Commonwealth WGC), after a programme of

concentration during which outlying graves, Allied graves in German

battlefield cemeteries and

the like were reinterred in

IWGC cemeteries, set

about replacing these

markers with the now

f a m i l i a r P o r t l a n d

headstones.

In a number of instances

the original wood markers

were returned to families

in the UK, some families

went on pilgrimages to the Western Front (and other places) to retrieve

them. The majority were placed in local churches, or church halls and

some in private collections. Given that remains were not returned to the

UK but buried where they fell, having something tangible close by must

have been a great comfort to families who lost a loved one.

Almost 100 years later these markers still survive. The Returned is a

project that a number of amateur historians are undertaking to record for

posterity these surviving markers. Results of our work can be found on

the internet at http://thereturned.co.uk.

May I make an appeal through you to your congregations to let us know

of any that they know either in their own locality or elsewhere so that we

can survey them? I can be contacted by email at scott@noble-

scotland.co.uk or write to me, Scott Galloway, at the following address:

6A St Andrew Street Alyth Perthshire PH11 8AT

24

If God had planned to allow modern society’s

permissiveness he would have given us, not Ten

Commandments, but Ten Suggestions.

Some look at the Ten Commandments as an exam paper:

eight only to be attempted.

St Margaret of Scotland, Newlands

Service details

Sundays

9.00am Said Eucharist

10.30am Sung Eucharist,

Crèche, Sunday School & Youth Group

Tuesdays

10.00 am Holy Communion

Morning and Evening Prayer

Mon, Wed, Thu and Fri 9.00am and 5.30pm

For other services not listed please see Diary inside Church Website address: www.episcopalnewlands.org.uk

Scottish Charity No SC 008953

Next issue 27 November

Copy deadline Sunday 13 November 6pm

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