HAPPY EASTER SEASON TO EVERYONE. SCROLL BUMPER EDITION
This week: 9.30am St Martins; 10.45am and 12noon Scone New Church (Balformo Rd). All services are 25/30 minutes long. All regulations adhered to, in the interests of safety.
Come, Celebrate, Renew or Find Faith – Everyone is welcome and every age!
We were happy on Easter Sunday to see attendances total 104. Though not as many as we would have when in “normal times”, we were off to a good start after lockdown. Ah yes, but no tomb can hold or encapsulate the Christ!
The spirit of all who attended reflected that Joy! And, though the majority were out between 9.30am and 12noon, there was a most encouraging attendance in the evening. Some thought a monthly evening service or experience of worship might be a good idea. It was good for so many to be together to share Easter Faith and Celebration.
Our aim is to continue to grow the congregation in the coming year. If you would like to know more about joining our fellowship, please phone 551942, and leave your name and telephone number.
If you wish to book, phone 553900 and just leave your name and preferred time on the answer machine. We safe space, trace and protect, have hand sanitisers, spare masks if you forget – all is organised for your safety. Duration of the Service is 25mins/30mins.
Thank you to our Organist and to Ian Scott and Mike Moir for the hymn provision, to the Readers and to the Duty Teams, and not forgetting the Beadle, and those who rang the bells and prepared the sanctuaries for worship.
Thank you to the Prayer Group and all who led the Good Friday Vigil. This was a first, and an attendance of over 30 was a good place for further development.
Thank you to all who participated in decorating the grounds of our Sanctuaries for Easter Day. Let’s keep this witness throughout the Sundays of the Easter Season, i.e. for at least the month of April. These sanctuaries look alive and vibrant!
Maundy Thursday was a special day for our two centenarians, George Stewart and Mary Menzies. We feature Mary Menzies and then George Stewart from the Church of Scotland Website, as George had the publicity last week and is pleased Mary has a share.
Mary Menzies into her 103rd year attended the Church regularly when able and was a member of the Guild. Though unable to attend now, she takes an interest in her Church and she has been of amazingly upbeat example through this pandemic. Her strength of faith never wanes. “Always, I say my prayers at night,” she said, “and I recommend prayer to everyone”.
“I enjoy my services”, she said, “when the minister and pastoral committee take them, and I appreciate my home Communion Service. This is a Communion Service for those of us unable through health or age to go to Church. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples before sitting down to his Last Supper, the Supper we now call the Lord’s Supper. He set us an example in loving and caring for others. We must pray for everyone. I can pray and remember everyone and I know many in my congregation are reaching out in His Love and Care. I am so humbled to receive this gift from HM The Queen.”
The retired forester received them through the post because the ceremony was cancelled for the second year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Pensioners who have supported the church and their local communities across the UK are recommended by clergy of all denominations to receive Maundy money.
In her letter, the Queen wrote: “I am delighted to send you the Maundy gift which I hope you will accept as an expression of my personal thanks to you for all that you have done to enrich the life of your community.
“Each year, at the Royal Maundy Service, we have an opportunity to recognise, and give thanks for, work done by countless people for the wellbeing of their neighbours; work that has often been taken for granted or hidden.”
George Stewart with his Maundy money. Mike Moir.
Mr Stewart, a widower who has eight great-grandchildren, said: “I’m very honoured to be given this money as part of a very venerable and ancient occasion.
“I remember every year of the Queen’s reign and I am humbled to be part of a venerable tradition.
“It is kind of Her Majesty the Queen to consider me and to remember me.
“It is a great pleasure.”
The Royal Maundy is an ancient ceremony which originated from the commandment Christ gave after washing the feet of his disciples the day before Good Friday.
A total of 95 men and 95 women have been presented with Maundy money in two purses as the Queen will be 95 this year, celebrating her birthday on April 21.
The white purse is filled with uniquely minted Maundy money – silver one, two, three and four penny pieces – to the value of 95 pence.
In the red pouch is a £5 coin, this year commemorating the Queen’s 95th birthday, and a 50p which portrays the 50th anniversary of Decimal Day in 1971.
George Stewart. Credit Mike Moir
George Stewart – the oldest skier in town. Stewart family.
Rev Maudeen MacDougall, minister of Scone and St Martins Parish Church, described Mr Stewart of Scone as a remarkable man and well deserving of the recognition.
“George is a regular attender and worships Sunday by Sunday,” she said.
“He observes Holy week and is looking forward on Easter Day to celebrating the Resurrection and Christ’s Life over death.
“His faith is strong and each Remembrance Sunday, he lays the wreath in Church and then smartly tackles an incline to lay the wreath at the War Memorial.”
Known as Scotland’s oldest skier, he taught himself to ski with home-made kit while serving as a captain with the Royal Artillery in Italy near the end of the Second World War.
Last year, he took to the slopes in the French Pyrenees with his family to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Ms MacDougall said: “George’s energy and embrace of life is impressive and he walks every day.
“We both read the Queen’s letter and agreed that it was special and so thoughtful, touching on his humanity and expressing appreciation of his service.
“As he recalled Jesus washing the disciples’ feet before the Last Supper and of how the Maundy Money had once been given to the poor, George was mindful of all the people we reach out to and must reach out to during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Love of Jesus Christ.”
Last week’s service, the service for Palm Sunday, is found under Church News. You will find, also, the most recent Church Magazine. It reads like the burning bush is ablaze but not consumed! Thank you to all responsible!
When you buzz into the section right at the top of the page, in addition to the Church Magazine and last week’s service you will find the words, Christian Aid. Peggy Lamond our convener has an interesting update, do read it!
As regards the section, Maudeen’s Sponsored Weight Loss, I have found it a challenge this Lockdown to keep every pound off but have not gained too many. However, I have been offered an incentive to take off a fair whack more in the next three months, to be accomplished by the end of June, and to do this in addition to giving carbs a miss, I’ll be offering to do a Sponsored Walk for Church Funds. Your support in this would be very much appreciated and it would be so lovely to think that the Church Funds would also greatly benefit. Help/encouragement in the training for this would be appreciated too!
A New Book may be found beside, the “Try Praying” booklets, outside the sanctuaries at Scone Old Kirk and New Kirk. The title is, “Life in a Covid 19 World”. Thank you to those who have arranged this. I have had a read of it and it is interestingly written.
And now to our day to day business: Fresh initiatives there have been, and there are more in the active planning stages! It is encouraging the people who have said, yes, count us in as volunteers to help in the new normal. The list is being added to! It is good, too, that not only the volunteers who have supported good projects come forward again, but that when fresh initiatives are in the planning or commencing that new people appear to lead them adding to the fellowship of the Church and allowing those already involved in established projects to continue with them without feeling any additional burden laid upon them. If you are reading this and thinking, yes, Maudeen, I want to know more and be involved too, please phone me on 01738 551942.
In addition to all else, new features are appearing on this website so keep clicking on and encouraging your friends to do so too.
Have you heard this interesting 30minute programme from David Fergusson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJjaZM5svM – it’s interesting in giving thought beyond a soundbite and beyond superficial reaction to life in times of this pandemic – you’ll find reference to attitudes like “Carry on as if nothing has changed”, to ours is a time for hard thinking, careful listening and free debate, to a modicum of wisdom – and he goes on discuss the attitudes to the Providence of God, then Divine Suffering, and the Crucified Christ. He speaks of the shift in world view around 1918 and of how with the Spanish flu’ few people attributed this pandemic to the hand of God and mainstream churches avoided bogus attributes to God. Our calling is not to explain how God sent this pandemic, neither to consider why it was permitted, as if its occurrence were the result of some particular divine cost benefit analysis. . . Nature comes to us wholesale and not by retail. He speaks of the presence of God in the struggle, of relationship, fragility, of personhood, video links may have offered a life line but these cannot entirely replace the physical presence and proximity of the other – hit the link and listen as there is so much more! (for some, even the presence of the beer garden!)
You might be interested in this: Dialogue with Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, and Anthony Kenny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bow4nnh1Wv0 “The nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin”
Have you clicked into this link, a discussion on Faith and its Critics with David Fergusson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T0qb5Tj0e4
Have you clicked into this video on “What is a Good Life?” with Rowan Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkg9aCxOWfs
Those interested in working with young people might be interested in this week’s links. Open the Book. Here is the link: https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/get-involved/open-the-book/otb-volunteers/otb-four-years-of-storytelling/
Godly Play: Here is the link: https://www.godlyplayscotland.co.uk/resources/?v=79cba1185463
Messy Church: https://www.messychurch.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/pdf/New%20beginnings%20at%20home.pdf
Have you heard of Intogether? Click here for an interesting video. https://youtu.be/bXNiYQh9b_M
Have you heard of Bertha Park? Click here for more detail. https://youtu.be/y0MLbQ9XOYk
Now, have you engaged with the Try Praying Website? A goodly number of books were taken from all 3 of our worship sites. They have been refreshed and are on offer anew. Read about Try Praying here: Here is a link to the Try Praying site: https://www.trypraying.co.uk/
Kirsten Walker sent in a link to Simply Church. On this website, click here: https://www.waverleyabbeyresources.org/product/simply-church-updated-edition/ You will find reference to the book by Sim Denby and a short soundbite from him.
This Sunday is traditionally known as Passion Sunday. Sunday 28th March is Palm Sunday. Sunday April 4th is Easter Day!!!
Destiny is now out and well worth a read!
Church News is out. It reads like the burning bush is ablaze and not consumed! Thank you to all who have contributed to a newsy, upbeat, magazine!
Have you heard that the first run off of our Recipe Books was sold out prior to Christmas but we have had some more printed and a few of these are still available from Mike Moir, 01738 551549, at £7.50. To post out there is an additional charge.
One of the new features we are offering is a Recipe a Week. This week we are sharing a recipe for a Simnel Cake. It was tried and tested for Mothering Sunday and was delicious. It came from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible! Why not give it a go for Easter. You’ll find the link under Easy Recipe – see below. Mind you, the Lockdown Recipe Book is full of good recipes and a good number are ideal for Easter Day!
Remember I’m only a phone-call away: Tel 01738 551942. With best wishes, Maudeen
Scone and St Martins Parish Church came into being in June 2010 following a union between Scone Old Parish Church with Scone New Church linked with St Martins Parish Church.
This church serves the villages of Scone, Stormontfield, St Martins, Balbeggie, Guildtown and Wolfhill. There are 2 churches in Scone and one at St Martins. Services are held weekly in Scone and 3 times per month at St Martins, Balbeggie and Guildtown.
The Bible Study Group continues to meet on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm in CR1 at Balformo Road. All are welcome.
Balformo Road, Scone 
Every First Thursday at Burnside Hall
Every Third Thursday at Balformo Hall
