Our first service tomorrow is at 10.30 a.m. and is a service of readings and music for Christmas. There will be prose and poetry, traditional and modern words which will start in the stable at Bethlehem, include the travelling Magi and excerpts from the diary of the Reverend Francis Kilvert who was a curate in the 1870s and recorded church life in days which are very different from today. We will be reminded of a Christmas in space and of the importance that Handel’s Messiah played in Yorkshire in times past . We’ll sing several traditional carols and listen to a number of musical items on the organ, including John Rutter’s Angel’s Carol, the traditional Scots Rorate Caeli Desuper and the popular Parade of the Tin Soldiers.
At 5 p.m. we have a service in which we remember those who have died and whose presence we miss, and whose absence we feel always, but especially at Christmastime. There will be a time for reflection, a ceremony of remembrance using the advent candles and a short communion service. Everyone is always welcome at Fogo Parish Church.
This Sunday, 22nd. December at 10.30 a.m, we celebrate the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. We would be delighted to be joined by anyone who wishes to come and sing their way through the Christmas story and join in several favourite carols.
We set up our giant Advent Calendar this morning. It looks superb!
It’s the Third Sunday of Advent and we shall be celebrating by reminding ourselves of the Christmas story using our extra large Advent Calendar with beautiful stained-glass panels behind the doors.
Once we have opened the doors, enjoyed the story, and sung appropriate carols, we’ll round off our service with the ceremony of the Christingle. Our Christingles were made this morning — the oranges, candles, ribbon and sweets have all come together to make something special for our celebration tomorrow. We are hoping that some visitors will come along to join us!
Remember — “You are always welcome at Fogo Parish Church”
We had an excellent meeting of the Kirk Session and Congregational Board tonight. It is quite clear that we shall end the year with all our bills paid and with money in the bank. We celebrated by agreeing to send £300 to Linus Malu, our Missionary partner in Malawi. This tiny sum of money here will enable him to help two people to set up their own businesses there. We’ve also committed ourselves to have a fund-raising event early next year to assist him in his work.
Looking to the future of ministry in our little church we have agreed to ask the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland to allow us to buy a small cottage to which we can invite retired ministers from Scotland, and from around the world, to come and stay with us in exchange for conducting our services. Our presbytery has already given us its enthusiastic approval.
Tonight we also arranged a special planning meeting for the afternoon of Sunday 12th. January. We’ll have a buffet lunch after our church service and then we’ll be helped to dream dreams and develop a vision about our mission strategy for next year.
And of course, we planned our Christmas Services and, after the meeting was over, we used the bodies present to carry our giant advent calendar from the gallery to the chancel where it will be used on Sunday.
2019 has been a good year for Fogo Parish Church. There have been sadnesses — none more than the untimely death of our friend Clare Fleming — but the congregation has continued to move forward over the year. Numbers attending worship are universally good and the family feeling in church is something we all greatly value.
The congregation has enjoyed a number of special events ranging from particular services in church to our summer music festival which attracted a huge audience over the period of an afternoon and evening. Learning events, film shows and preparation for our pilgrimage to the Holy Land have all been part of this year’s programme and we are approaching Christmas with a sense of excitement.
Of particular satisfaction to us has been the link we have established with our Missionary partner, Dr. Linus Malu. Dr. Malu is a lawyer, called to the bar in Nigeria and with a Ph.D. gained in Australia, now working in Malawi.
Dr. Malu is sponsored by the Church of Scotland. He works with young girls whose local culture often leads to their being given in marriage while only thirteen or fourteen years old; he works with women (and sometimes men) who are the victims of gender violence; he works to try to prevent and rescue the victims of human trafficking; he provides legal assistance for those who are arrested and then ‘left to rot’ on remand because they have no one to speak for them. One of our projects for next year will be to raise funds to support all that he is doing on our behalf.
Fogo Folk
A small picture of life within our lively congregation!
Dr. Linus Malu, our Missionary Partner
Tom Stewart (our Session Clerk) presents gifts to our two assessor elders, Bob Kay and Roger Dodd, who have guided us through our first three years of new life as a congregation. Bob Kay and Eck with Clare, one of our wonderful elders, who sadly died recently. Folk enjoying a meal in church after a recent service. John Arthur playing the pipes at this year’s Ceremony of Remembrance. More food, this time in our superb new kitchen. Our new Elders being ordained: John and Kirsten Arthur, Julian French, Pete Gibbens and Laura Thorburn. Fun during our Harvest Festival Service. Pete and Gill Gibbens celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary in church. Alison Wood after her recent Baptism, pictured with Laura Thorburn who was confirmed at the same service. Dane Sherrard
From the Minister’s Desk
With this edition of our Newsletter you will receive a Christmas card and a note of our services over the Christmas period. It would give us enormous pleasure to welcome you to your Church and to enjoy your company at one of our services.
So much has happened to us during this last year. We have completed our three years in Presbytery Guardianship and are now an ordinary congregation within the Presbytery of Duns. We have a fabulous congregation and a building which has been adapted to be appropriate for worship in the twenty-first century.
Our aim when we started was to restore the building and build a congregation which was sustainable into the future. Our building is now a wonderful one — the south aisle is filled with comfortable modern seating while we have, of course, retained the historic box-pews in the east and west aisles. The building is always warm and dry and has been totally redecorated. We have received many gifts, one of which is a huge painting hanging on the north wall, with words often found on the walls of old churches. Tom and Dorothy Stewart arranged for a Swiss mural painter to come to Fogo to create this work of art and it is much admired.
Our new work of art
We recently Ordained five new elders and there were sixty people in church for the service. We feel exceptionally fortunate and can look back over a year with special services of Holy Communion, Baptism and Confirmation. We also welcomed the Presbytery of Duns for a service led by our elders and have had many musical events organised for us by Heather and Harris. (Already we are looking forward to the return of Frog and Henry in January.)
Speaking of January, immediately after Frog and Henry’s visit more than twenty of our congregation will be setting out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and expect to return full of rekindled enthusiasm for helping to move our congregation forward into the next stage of our adventure together.
I value your support and kind wishes and I trust that this Christmas will be a very special one for you.
Clare Fleming was special. As soon as she heard that we were attempting to breathe new life into the little church at Fogo she volunteered her help. Almost as quickly she became an elder within our congregation and was soon shaping many of the plans which have led to our being where we are today. Clare was passionate about Mission. When we held a congregational meeting to make our Mission plans, Clare immediately volunteered her home as a venue. She set up our small library, she took the lead in our flower festivals, she bought books for our church children and she had been so hoping to come with us to the Holy Land.
I got to know Clare well. I learned of the depth of her faith; of her great love for her daughters, Ruth, Heather and Jane; of her commitment to the national Church, not least through its social work arm, CrossReach, on whose board she sat for many years. I gained from her enthusiasm, her friendly encouragement and her constant presence in churchSunday by Sunday. Quite simply, she was the most generous person I have ever met. Her death is a great loss to so very many people. She will be greatly missed.
New since our last Newsletter:
Harvest Pulpit Fall made by Rachel
Our new font, borrowed from Burnmouth Parish Church and originally from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Our new seats have finally arrived — we are very happy with them!Our Church — another beautiful picture taken by Molly Hodges, our photographer who has taken all of the pictures in our Newsletter. We are extremely fortunate to have her.
