St. Anne's Online Magazine
May 2009
Issue 3/588
Scottish Registered
Charity No SC006300
St Anne's Parish Church
Corsrorphine
Rev MaryAnn Rennie
www.stannescorstorphine.org.uk
Services in May & June
May
3rd 11am Morning Worship
2.30pm Struan Lodge
10th 11am Morning Worship
Tea and coffee served in the hall after the Service
17th 11am Morning Worship
24th 11am Morning Worship
31st 11am Morning Worship
June
7th 11am Morning Worship
Church Membership Classes
Those wishing to discuss Christian faith and church membership are invited to the manse on Sunday evenings 10th, 17th and 24th May at 7.30pm. Over a three week period we will look at belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit; a brief history of the Church of Scotland and how it functions as a Christian community; and the responsibilities of church members. If you would like to come along, or know anyone who would like to take part in these classes, please contact Rev. MaryAnn Rennie at minister_stannescorstorphine.org.uk
Minister's Letter
Dear All
This months letter is a letter of thanks. Over this last few weeks there has been much to be thankful for. Those of you who were with us on Easter Day will have seen the spectacular transformation of St. Annes for that days celebrations. We as a church are very fortunate to have a talented and dedicated group in our Church Flower group, and they very obviously put a lot of care and attention into the flowers that make their appearance throughout the year. Easter Sundays displays were glorious, and offered a real sense of Christs risen presence in the bright array of flowers bursting with life. Yet thought is not only put into the decoration of the church, and I know that many appreciate the flowers they are given following Sunday worship as they are reminded of the continuing thought of the church community for more than those who appear on a Sunday morning.
Our journey to Easter Sunday from our Palm Sunday Procession had been planned to offer thought provoking moments during Holy Week, and so we again this year shared our reflective serv- ices with Carrick Knowe and the Old Parish Churches in the Old Parish Church building. Each evening these bring a small but faithful group of people from each church, and the offer a visible sign of our commitment as three congregations to find ways we can share with each other and work together. I appreciate the moments in these shared events when I discover something new of God in a colleague or a friend.
On Maundy Thursday, we gathered in our own sanctuary to share in a Seder Meal. This was a new experience for all present including the minister. It offered a good opportunity for study and learning on my part to ensure that what was offered as worship offered a taste of participating in a Seder Meal celebrated by Jewish people across the centuries.
Good Friday took us to St. Andrews Church, Clermiston where we gathered at the foot of the cross. It was a powerful and thought-provoking service and some of the participants were moved to tears as they shared their words relating to Jesuss final hours. The service closed with members of the congregation taking forward a nail to the foot of the cross and reflecting on the importance of Jesuss death within our own life and faith.
On Saturday, our children were invited to take part in an Easter event which saw them making flowers and posies, decorating an Easter tree and taking part in an egg hunt. All of their work was used to further decorate our church building and the bare cross of Passion Sunday transformed itself to a Cross of Resurrection, covered in flowers and leaves. Thanks go to Mary Patterson, Margaret Pye, Elspeth Boyd, Mags & Liz Menzies, Rosie Faith-Ryan and Susan Nimmo for the work they put in to bringing the event together and supporting the creative efforts of young people.
Easter morning we gathered for Breakfast at 9.45am. At 10am we shouted our Hallelujahs for Christs risen presence on the lawn outside the church, and then returned to the hall to eat bacon rolls and share Christs presence in the fellowship of friends gathering for worship. It was a long morning for the Ditchfield family as they made breakfast and then tea and coffee after the service, but their work was much appreciated by those who were there.
As a congregation we took a risk this Holy Week and Easter and tried some new things. So often we see Christmas as our main Christian event that we pour our efforts into Christmas and celebrate the birth of Christ. This year we wanted to focus a little more on the talking point of the Gospel, the unbelievable story of resurrection and its transforming nature upon humanity.
In some ways it is harder to believe that people will come out to things in the run up to Easter. Its a tough part of the Christian story and there is a fine line between celebrating death and thought- fully considering the tragic events of Holy Week. We are also now into the part of the year when people head off for the weekend and holidays and so were not sure if things will be supported.
However if the Gospel stories teach us anything, they teach us that sometimes God takes risks to ensure that his love is known. We prefer to hide our faith away, or only bring it out when people might be interested. Christ inspires us to be risk-taking people, prepared to share Gods love that others might find the bursting forth of resurrection in their lives.
Best Wishes
MaryAnn
On Board
Following the decision of the Stated Annual Meeting on Sunday 29th March, St Annes will now be moving to a Unitary Constitution. That decision and the form of the constitution and Standing Orders requires to be approved by the Presbytery but by the time you read this the final meeting of the Congregational Board will have taken place on Tuesday 28th April. On the assumption that the Presbytery are happy that everything is in order, then the next few months will see a lot of hard work taking place to put the new Committee/Team structure in place. As indicated there will be ample opportunity for members of the congre- gation to play their part in these Committees and Teams and I hope in the magazine next month to explain more about what will be involved in that.
Roof Repairs
As many of you will be aware the extensive roof repairs that were needed to the church and Kaimes Road premises have now been completed and we hope they will stand the church in good stead for a few years. Many thanks to the Fabric team and in particular Rose Fleming and Stuart Liddle for all the hard work in making sure the project came together and was completed.
Christian Aid Week
10th to 16th May 2009
Once again we will be looking for volunteers to undertake the door-to-door collection. We are looking for 40 volunteers so that we can fulfill our duty and cover the whole of our Parish comfortably. Last year we still had some people doing more than one district which is not an ideal situation, so please come forward and help if you can. Please note these dates and prepare to keep a few hours free throughout the week. If the districts can be kept to a reasonable size it is not a huge commitment, which can be spread over the seven days. If you are able to help, please add your name to the list on the notice board.
The Guild
Outing to Carberry Tower
OPEN TO ALL !
The Guild Summer Outing will be held on Tuesday 19th May and is a dramatized history of Carberry Tower, Musselburgh followed by a walk in the grounds and high tea (4 choices of main course and scones & cakes). The Coach will leave Kaimes Road at 1.30pm returning at approximately 7.30pm. There are 10 places available and the Guild would welcome members of St. Annes and their friends who would like to join them on this occasion and help to fill the coach party. The inclusive cost of coach, tour and high tea is £23.00. Please contact Glenda Paterson or Muriel Gibson if you would like to come.
St Anne's Elders visit Carberry Tower
back in the 1970's!
We still need helpers for the Cake and Candy stall at the church Fair on 9th May. Please see Glenda Paterson or Anne Morison if you can help.
Church Flowers
The first Sunday of May starts off
with wedding flowers and the
following four Sundays in the month
will be arranged by Claire Grant and
Rosalind Gibson.
The Flower Committee will be running the Flower Stall at the Church Fair on Saturday 9th May so we hope to see you all then.
2nd Sunday Coffee
Nancy Wallace will be heading up the May Sunday Coffee team, which will include Moira Anderson, Muriel Philip, Noel Proven and Doreen Will. We hope you will be able to join us for a coffee or tea after the service on Sunday 10 th May when we can recall all the fun of the Fair from the previous day.
Fair Coffee
Many thanks to those of you who have already signed up to help serve teas and coffees at the Church Fair on Saturday 9th May. I am still looking for volunteers, mainly for the last couple of hours of the Fair, and would be grateful if you could offer any assistance. Please add you name to the poster on the church notice-board. Donations of baking (eg shortbread, tray bakes) would also be very much appreciated. These can be handed in at the church either on the Friday evening or on the morning of the Fair.
Fresh Start
Fresh Start is the Edinburgh Churches charity helping to support people who have been made homeless.
Starter Pack Donations
A list of requirements is on the Notice Board. Please note that from now on, as well as the box in the Ladies Cloak- room, there will be a collection point at Second Sunday Coffee
May Collection - This month we need side and tea plates, but no cups or saucers please.
Music in St Anne's
On Easter Sunday the choir made two offerings to worship; the spiritual Were you there when they crucified my Lord? and Jesus is Risen . Were you there when the crucified my Lord? is a lovely example of a spiritual, with the harmony, simple and moving homophonically, in a slow harmonic rhythm, and the tune moving pre- dominantly by leaps. Another key feature of this music is that the top part of the harmony (soprano in this case) holds long notes, while the harmony underneath continues to move.
Jesus is Risen is a piece, which while not technically challenging, is very effective and a wonderful song of celebration for Easter morning
That Sunday also, I played as a recessional Widors Tocatta from his symphony no.5 in F minor. This is a traditional piece for after a large service, a major part of organ concert repertoire as well.
After the service, the performance of Beethovens Variations on a Theme and Handels Judas Maccabeus were played by myself and Stephen Laidlaw on cello. They are based on the tune to which we sung the closing hymn Thine be the Glory . As mentioned by Stephen the variations are also in the standard repertoire for cello performance and they are from a genre only being developed at the time of Beethoven, written in the same year as his first sonata for cello.
The Creche
The Crèche now has a rota of 10 ladies covering Sunday services. There are several babies and toddlers using the Crèche regularly and we always welcome more. The Crèche is in the Guild room, alongside the Beginners Sunday School. Any youngsters from 0 - 2½ years are welcome. It runs with the school terms.
A Challenge
I am part of a team of 16 doing the National 3 Peaks Challenge on 29th & 30th May 2009 to raise funds for the Edinburgh Sick Kids which is an absolutely fantastic and worthwhile cause. The challenge is to climb the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon). We plan to start at Ben Nevis around 1430 on Fri 29th May which means that we will be doing most of Scafell Pike in the dark ! The distance walked is approx 25 miles, height climbed approx 10,000 feet and the distance covered between the mountains is approx 500 miles - all hopefully in 24 hours! The four of us based in Scotland have been in training by climbing every weekend. We started with the Cobbler (a corbett) and have since done Ben Lomond, Ben Chonzie, Ben Vorlich (at Loch Earn) and Schiehallion. In the coming weeks we are planning to do Ben More, Stob Binnein, Stuchd an Lochain, Meall Buidhe and perhaps some others ! Sponsor me by checking out.
Alan Spence.
http:// www.justgiving.com/alanjspence.
Golf
Chris Whytock has again very kindly secured access to Murrayfield Golf Club for our annual
outing.
The date will be Saturday 20th June - more details nearer the time
Presbytery
for Corstorphine
Moderator, Corstorphine St Annes has a parish with 2,500 homes and a few interesting places of work such as the Forestry Commission, Edinburgh Zoo, Corstorphine Hospital and Murrayfield Hospital. The church has two sets of buildings the church and halls at the junction of St Johns Road and Kaimes Road and the Belgrave Hall; all the buildings are well used by Church and Community with profits from commercial lets going to the Fabric Fund. Mrs Rennie works closely with her local colleagues particularly with Corstorphine Old, and with Carrick Knowe in a shared Chaplaincy at Carrick Knowe Primary School .
As with the other churches tonight, St Annes places a high priority on engaging with its community, being open to visitors, being welcoming to all. They have recently conducted a Stewardship Campaign which has successfully increased financial givings and encouraged people to use their talents. The Stewardship campaign was followed with an open weekend in the sanctuary allowing the community to learn more about St Annes, and St Annes to learn more about its community.
St Annes operates using groups of Elders and members. Groups include: Fellowship; Education; Service; Outreach; Worship; Fabric; Business; and Social. Group life is healthy; for instance, the Education Group uses creative ideas for children and adults alike including Bible Studies, Book Clubs, and an Upside Down Sunday when the Sunday School became the Church, and Church became Sunday School. A wide variety of worship opportunities are offered including events such as a Christingle Service with an attendance of around 300 last year. The congregation are led by an able choir and Young Choristers occasionally take part in worship.
Report
St Anne's
Childrens Work is encouraged by the Sunday School, the Education Group and through Uniformed Organisations; and there is a good pool of leaders who think creatively. Some Sunday School type events are held outwith Sundays; the October Holiday Club has an imaginative programme. Adult Education is encouraged through the Book Group, Bible Study, Sunday Night speakers, etc. There is also an active Guild and a Mother and Toddler group serves the community. Recently a production of Joseph was staged by the congregation and that involved members from age 8 to 86 which highlights the inclusive nature of the Church family.
Many successes but there are challenges concern for ongoing finances; an ageing membership profile; building maintenance on separate sites; attracting the young and that challenge is being pursued creatively. The congregation is in good spirits, there is openness to trying new things and an active engagement with all that is happening. This congregation gives change a chance. The visiting team were encouraged by Mrs Rennies enthusiasm and care and by the atmosphere which reflected the happy bunch of folk described by its Minister. St. Annes faces the same challenges as many Church of Scotland congregations in a changing society, and it faces these challenges with enthusiasm and creativity.
Moderator, I present the report and move the deliverances.
Deliverance
The Presbytery:
a) note ministers enthusiastic and buoyant leadership fostering openness and willingness
in the office bearers and congregation to try new things within an inclusive church
family.
b) congratulate the congregation on its recent Stewardship Campaign and are encouraged
by the benefits this has brought in terms of talents as well as money.
c) are heartened by the all age inclusiveness of the church family evidenced by events
such as a production of Joseph involving members from 8 to 86 years of age.
d) commend the development of Childrens ministry beyond Sundays, the imaginative
October Holiday Club and the strength of toddlers to teens young peoples activates
including uniformed organisations.
e) commend the harmonious, productive and close working relationships with Carrick
Knowe and Corstorphine old as well as constructive relationships with the other
Corstorphine churches.
f) note with interest the development of Fellowship Teams using elders and non-elders in
pastoral care visiting allowing targeted support of members when they are in times of
greater need.
The Seder Meal
When I was young, many years ago, we were brought up in School and Sunday School in such a way that the story of the Israelites and their troubles in Egypt and elsewhere were as familiar to us as the stories of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. The story of the baby in the bulrushes struck a chord in the hearts of the girls, and we boys took a grim but satisfying pleas- ure in the story of the plagues of Egypt. We knew about the Passover meal with the Lamb being eaten with loins girded up, although where the loins were and how they were girded up were never adequately explained. But meat was scarce and rationed and unleavened bread might have been a change from the ubiquitous National Loaf, so we enjoyed reading about the food.
But I had never heard of the Seder Meal to which we were invited on Maundy Thursday. Although I thought I knew a little about the Passover, it was fascinating to find the front area of the Sanctuary laid out as for a family meal, with white tablecloths, knives and forks, plates and glasses and a variety of dishes, familiar and unfamiliar. I recognised parsley and eggs, but others were less recognisable. While this might seem surprising in a Presbyterian Church, we recognised that the Passover was celebrated as a family meal, familiar to Jesus from his youngest days, and adapted by the Christian Church to celebrate the message of its Founder.
The service began by the Minister setting out the order of the meal, the Sanctification of for the good things of life, then the breaking of the unleavened bread, and so forth throughout the whole service. Fortunately we had been provided with an Order of Service, giving in detail the words and actions so that we could follow and appreciate what was being said and what we were doing. But it should not be imagined that we were merely following an ancient Jewish ritual which had no real relevance to life in the Christian Church of today. The service had been supplemented in the light of Jesus words and actions at the Last Supper, so that we were in fact celebrating our own kind of Communion Service but giving us an understanding of how Jesus moulded the ancient Service for our benefit, but without losing sight of the traditions on which the Christian Church was founded.
The whole very moving experience must have taken our Minister and her band of helpers a great deal of time and effort to complete and certainly gave those present a greater insight of our own service and why we do what we do at Communion.
It is not possible in the
space available to detail
the whole elaborate ritual
with its actions and
responses, but perhaps if
you spoke nicely to
MaryAnn, she might let
you have a copy of the
Order of Service, which
is certainly worth
meditating on and
preserving.
W J Gay
Kirk Cat
Mewsletter
Dear all,
You may remember my Auntie the Kirk Cat I know you havent heard from her for some time and Im sorry to have to tell you that she has nearly come to the end of her nine lives and has now gone into retirement in a purrfectly peaceful cat loving home where she is very settled.
If you can cope with me, a wee sparky tabby called Tabitha, I would be happy to write you an occasional letter.
I am very new to the Kirk Cat job and am still looking for all the wee quiet places to rest when there are lots of goings-on in the Church, but am also looking out for vantage points to keep an eye on all the happenings as well as doing my job as chief mousecatcher. (Its easy to call myself the chief mousecatcher as I am the only one, but it looks good on the CV)
As you all know there have been many wonderful and interesting happenings these past months in fact, since Joseph, then all the Christmas activities, the Open Weekend followed by the Burns Supper and then the arrival of the new Piano and lots more time has just flown by.
There was a hive of activity for the Guild Coffee Morning and even more activity expected to begin very soon with the Church Fair in May that should be interesting for me never been to a Church Fair before. Like Auntie, I also have quite a long tail and will endeavour to keep it tucked out of the way when I am lying quietly watching all the interesting activities at St. Annes, but I also do enjoy a wee tickle behind my ears.
With best wishes from
Tabitha
Juniors
May is the month for our fair. The word means a gathering of stalls and amusements for public entertainment.
In Roman times fairs were holidays so people looked forward to them. In later centuries fairs were held to celebrate the special day of a saint. Many of these fairs were held beside the church that was named after the saint. Pedlars came to sell their goods before travelling to the next fairday in another town or village.
Great numbers of people came to the fair so there were always disturbances. Because of this a fair could only be held by permission of the King. Any fighting or dispute was sorted out by the pye powder court. The word pye or pie means dusty feet or pedlar. Remember the pied piper who came to the village of Hamelin.
Our fair will have stalls of goods and food. There will be amusements and pony rides. Enjoy yourselves and remember you are taking part in a tradition going back hundreds of years.
Sunday School
Shoe Box Appeal: Many thanks to all who have already handed in shoe boxes so that we can improve on our total of two years ago. We have about 20 boxes so far and many items for packing inside them but we need lots more. If you have any boxes, wrapping paper or contents for the boxes (cuddly toys, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, notepads, pencils, crayons, colouring books, hats, scarves, small balls, small toys, and hair ornaments) please leave them in the Kaimes Road Hall on any Sunday and I will store them until they are needed.