news

This is the
churches' news-sheet
for
October 2009
'Year of Homecoming'

from the manse

'Have you seen my watch?' is often heard in the Manse as I look around in all the usual corners. The reply from 'er indoors' is usually 'Yes, and its very nice!' Not the answer I'm looking for of course, but the usual response to my forgetfulness. The other response 'Where did you leave it?' is equally provocative! Time is all so important to us and yet often we take it for granted, don't we? Shakespeare frequently took inspiration from time. He speaks of 'Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time'. Mostly, these days we don't often have the time (sic) to reflect on its mystery. Perhaps, like the old saying, whose origin has been lost in the mists of time, 'Time and tide wait for no man' .This is thought to mean that that no mortal is so powerful as to stop the march of time. 'Tide' in this incidence didn't refer to our contemporary meaning of the word, i.e. the rising and falling of the sea, but to a period of time. When this phrase was coined, tide meant a season, or a time, or a while. The word is still with us in that sense in 'good tidings', which refers to a good or special event.

The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes perhaps helps us to understand the mystery of time. It begins with 'For everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time' and ends 'God has made everything to suit its time. I know that whatever God does lasts for ever; there is no adding to it, no taking away. And he has done it all in such a way that everyone must feel awe in His presence'(Eccl 3:1 ,11,14)

By the way, do remember to change your clocks on the 25th October!

May God bless you and keep you. Regards, Duncan

Your Newsletter

At our monthly meetings in the Manse to prepare the Newsletter, Brian Millar and I looked at and discussed ideas about a new layout. Sadly, Brian did not live to see it, but I feel sure that this format would have met with his approval. If you wish to comment on the change please don't hesitiate to get in touch with me. Regards, Duncan

Time like an ever rolling stream?

There is no doubt that the church in which many of us grew up was a very different church from today. One of many changes to our way of being church is how 'christian' is the context in which we live. Once almost everyone belonged to church, and it was assumed that everyone was more or less Christian and knew about Jesus and his way. Now we recognise that our churches are islands of faith in a vast sea of secularity. Some writers have suggested that this new age can be regarded as a new mission era. They suggest that in the Apostolic Age (the first 300 or so years after Jesus) the church was similarly small islands of faith in a hostile sea. In that time the mission frontier, that place where mission began, was the boundary of the local faith community. In his book The Once and Future Church , theologian Loren Mead says: 'Much of the congregation's life was defined by its sense of being on the mission frontier to a hostile world. But it also perceived that the meaning of its life was to build up its members with the courage, strength and skill to communicate God's good news within that hostile world. Its internal task was to order its life, to establish roles and relationships that nurtured the members of the congregation in the mission that involved each member. Members perceived that the power to engage in that mission came from tha Holy Spirit'. Loren B Mead, The Once and Future Church , Alban Institute, 1933, USA.

Cross about . . . . ?

A nurse in Exeter, Shirley Chaplin, said on Monday that she will take her hospital trust to an employment tribunal, claiming religious discrimination, after she was asked to remove a cross at work. Mrs Chaplin has worked as a nurse for 30 years, and said she wears the cross as a symbol of her Christian faith. But her employers, the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, ordered her to remove the cross, saying it was a breach of their uniform policy and a health risk to patients. Mrs Chaplin said that there had never been an accident in relation to the cross or a complaint made about it in her entire career. She described the trust's policy as a 'blatant piece of political correctness', which was part of 'a blanket secularizing and neutralizing of the NHS intended to stop Christians from expressing their faith in the public services'. On Monday Mrs Chaplin stood down from nursing to take an administrative job at the trust. Andrea Minchiello Williams of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Mrs Chaplin, said she took the new job 'under duress', and 'was left with no other option than to accept'. But a statement released on Sunday disclaimed any discrimination. It said that its uniform policy did not allow 'staff to wear necklaces, with of without anything attached to it'. This case was 'the first time a member of staff has not co-operated with a request to comply with this policy, but no disciplinary action has been taken because we have endeavoured to be sensitive to personal choice, even when not a requirement of faith and when it does not comply with Trust policy for all staff'.

Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker for BA at Heathrow Airport, lost her case at an employment tribunal after she was asked to remove a small cross she wore around her neck. This year, another Christian nurse, Caroline Petrie, was suspended before being reinstated after she had offered to pray for a patient.

(From the cradle of health care, at one time only provided by Nuns and Monks, crosses would have been very much in evidence and even 'used' to ward off evil diseases! In today's health services, within clean and sterile environments, do crosses constitute a risk of infection? Your views? Ed.)

A Nurse's Prayer

Give me strength and wisdom, when others need my touch; a soothing word to speak to them, their hearts yearn for so much. Give me joy and laughter to lift a weary soul; pour in me compassion, to make the broken whole. Give me gentle, healing hands, for those left in my care; a blessing to those who need me, this is a Nurse's prayer. (Allison Chambers Coxsey - c1997)

Resting Place of St Paul

Three years ago, archaeologists unearthed a marble sarcophagus beneath a slab that is inscribed with the words 'Paulo Apostolo Mart' (Paul, apostle and martyr). The discovery lent support to the theory that Paul's body was removed from the catacombs on the Via Appia, and placed beneath a church built in his honour. New carbon analysis of the grave's contents confirmed the presence of bone fragments dating from the first or second century. In response to the news, Pope Benedict said, 'All this fills our souls with profound emotion'.

October Events

Parish Register

Our condolences to all family members
4th September - Mr Brian Millar, St Aethans Rd Burghead.
5th September - Mrs Jean Dunbar, late of Alves.

The Post Script by Adeline Extra

'Doctor, doctor my wife thinks she's a rubbish bin! '
'Take her out tonight! '