60 Years On

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Poem, Religion

In a more sedate manner, although no less glorious, at St Andrew’s on Sunday evening celebrations were also afoot this time nothing to do with animals, but rather an Evensong to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

Although it was Evensong not a Coronation with Communion, as I happen to have a copy of the service which was used on 2nd June 1953, we used parts of it for the service, we would have used more parts of it had I thought to look at it before all the music choices had been made and music ordered – that will have to wait for the Sapphire celebration!

One of the great things about the service was again the number of people who were not members of St Andrew’s who came along, a small group of them having seen it in the local paper.

John Mansefield was the Poet Laureate at the time of the Queen’s Coronation and wrote these verses for the occasion, they really do speak of another time:

This Lady whom we crown was born
When buds were green upon the thorn
And earliest cowslips showed;
When still unseen by mortal eye
One cuckoo tolled his “Here am I,”
And over little glints of sky,
In rain-pools whence the trickles flowed,
The small snipe clattered wing.
The swallows were upon the road,
Nought but the cherry-blossom snowed,
The promise was on all fields sowed
Of Earth’s beginning Spring.

Now that we crown her as our Queen
May love keep all her pathways green,
May sunlight bless her days;
May the fair Spring of her beginning
Ripen to all things worth the winning,
The very surest of our praise
That mortal men attempt,
May this old land revive and be
Again a star set in the sea,
A Kingdom fit for such as she
With glories yet undreamt.

The Angels Cry Holy

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Photography

Eagle Eye

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Photography

Strawberry Tea

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Photography

Jubilee Flowers

Yesterday the sun was shone for the first day of the annual St Andrew’s Flower Festival:-

There was a bit of a Jubilee theme going on, some of the arrangements are sporting patriotic red, white and blue:-

While others are finely dressed in purple and white echoing the 21ft ermine-trimmed velvet Purple Robe of Estate Queen Elizabeth wore after her coronation:-

or a rainbow of celebratory colour:-

The festival continues today from 10am until 4pm so if you want to see the displays in full, rather than these wee snippets, why not pop along?

Meanwhile down the road if planting is more your thing then why not pop along to All Saints with your trowel and give a helping hand with the planting of the Jubilee garden from 9am.

Maybe you will even manage to fit in both in.  If you do I would suggest All Saints first then off to St Andrew’s for the Flower Festival before popping into Friendship House for a cuppa and a slice of gingerbread.

I on the other hand am off to confirmation classes!

I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff

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Liturgical Seasons

With the wonderful Valley of Dry Bones I just felt I had to do it.  Do what you might well ask, well retell the story of the Three Little Pigs with an Ezekiel and Pentecost spin.  So the Holy Spirit huffed and puffed around the three Christians threatening to bring them alive, and despite their insistence that there weren’t dead, they soon found out that there was a difference between living and being truly alive.

It was also the first year I was able to get out my new liturgical icon a wonderful glass flame.

At St Andrew’s it was surrounded by candles each signifying a member of the congregation.

While at All Saints there was plenty of other stuff going on so it sat on the altar.  By the end of the service however the sun streaming through the stained glass windows had added extra flame effects.

All The G’s

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Religion

Yesterday, (yes I know it was Super Friday as my day off is referred to by certain members of the congregations, and no I am not back at work I am still signed off by the GP) nevertheless yesterday I took a trip to the Cathedral for a meeting on the Diocesan Growth Strategy.

This will be so much part of all that we do and plan at both congregational and diocesan level in the future that I had been keen to attend one of the day which was being held this week.  As driving is still no longer an option a trip over the bridge down into Ayrshire, which would have been my first option had my health not been in the equation, was not possible.  Super Friday saw Hubby taking me over to the Cathedral to work for the first time since Easter and deal with some of the brain fog which as my health improves I am becoming more and more conscious of.

It was a good day, good to spend time with my peers, to catch up on how other people are, to start to sift through my grey cells how the strategy might be worked out in this corner of the vineyard.  This is a long-term not a flash in the pan process and can not even begin at either St Andrew’s or All Saints until I am back at work, but that doesn’t stop my brain whirring with the excitement of the possibilities and challenges that lay ahead.

It Was On a Wednesday Morning …

the bishop came to call.

Bishop Gregor has dedicated himself to visiting all the churches in his diocese and spending a day with them, out with what would be the usual times when the Bishop came a-calling.  Yesterday was All Saints and St Andrew’s turn.

We began with the usual Wednesday morning Eucharist at All Saints, I say usual but in reality it was far from usual as the numbers were considerably up on usual.  We were slightly late in starting due to the Bishop’s car and the Church gate post also wanting to meet up, no damage done though.  Then coffee and cakes along with some chat, a flying visit to the MU before heading off to St Andrew’s were the ladies did us proud for a spot of lunch, (soup, quiche and salad) with a visit to Friendship House.

Back in the car and off to visit one of the House Groups where we both saw Isaiah’s calling in the new light of prayer, then another quick cup of coffee and more cake before we headed off to do a hospital visit.

What fun we had not many hospital visits are filled with so many laughs, ‘G’ who we were visiting is a hoot at the best of times and her quick wit and antics have been keeping everyone in the ward amused.  We also discovered in one of those ‘small world moments’ that ‘M’ in the bed beside her lives just across the road from the Rectory.

Who says fun can’t last we headed back to Bearsden for a Wednesday Sunday School and lots more fun.  It might be Lent but due to the timing of school holidays a decision had been made to preview Easter.  The Bishop made himself a new Pectoral Cross

after very diligently colouring an egg which will reappear in the great Easter Egg rolling competition that All Saints have each year.  While the children reveled at having a bishop among them, trying on his ring and questioning him about all manner of things.  Pizza followed, not sure what the delivery guy thought was going on, before the children headed hone and more adults arrived for the evening entertainment of a quiz.

While the Bishop won the quiz (although I don’t think he should have got a bonus point for knowing his own name), the gold star should go to ‘C’ for knowing exactly how many Munros there are.  Meanwhile ‘M’ and I got slightly confused and somehow ended up giving the same answer to about four questions, I blame the medication – mine not hers!

Thanks go to all those who made the day such a great one, Bishop Gregor certainly enjoyed himself.

(I should have taken my camera along to record the day, but I didn’t so sorry there is only one very poor picture taken with a mobile phone.)

Alfred Marvin – RIP

This morning we said farewell to Alfred.  He had been ill since before I arrived at St Andrew’s so I never knew him in his prime, but those faltering conversations we did have were a joy.  He was a man of great faith with a generous spirit and a wicked sense of humour, it was a privilege to be with him at the end and to conduct his funeral.  The tenacity and perseverance of his wife meant he was able to spend his last 5 months in his own home despite what the doctors kept saying.

On the 1st of July they would have celebrated 66 years of marriage and while he had waited all those years ago for her to arrive Rubinsteins Melody in F played in the church (a different church), today it played again as he waited for her to arrive for their last time in church together.

May he rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Indulgence

For some of you this wont seem like an indulgence, but for me it was.

This morning I was able to go to church and I didn’t have to do any readings; or intercessions; or preaching; or leading of any kind.  It wasn’t a special service when other things take over, or I still have to dress up even if I am not doing any of the above.

It was a said weekday Mass for Ordinary Time and I got to sit in the congregation and delight in just being in God’s presence.  Sheer indulgence and such bliss.