Last Sunday, our first outside the church building, we managed to put together a short service helped by Chris and Tom. We learned a lot from the experience and had great plans for what we would do this week. However, new rules came into force — eminently sensible rules — but it meant that we no longer had the services of Chris and Tom who were isolated at their own homes.
So our service this Sunday was prepared at Mount Pleasant by the folk who live here — Rachel, Olive and me. We enjoyed putting something together and most of our congregation have shared it today. Many actually watched the service at 10.30 am just as if we were in church. Immediately following (well, allowing ten minutes for folk to make themselves a cup of coffee and get onto our zoom conference page) we had half an hour of congregational chat. It was just as if we were in church, absolutely wonderful and the undisputed highlight was the appearance of Molly who is staying longer than anticipated in Australia because of the virus. We all enjoyed hearing from her and sharing in her adventures. (She had been kayaking in 37 degrees earlier in the day.)
We had only managed to make arrangements to have our ‘after church video link’ last night so one or two people missed the email notification of it; and one or two emails bounced back: so if you didn’t hear from me with the link I hope that you will contact me. We will be doing the same next Sunday.
An innovation for this week has been a reading, a thought and a prayer for each day. I’ve done these this week but the one for tomorrow has been prepared by Tom and Dorothy, recorded in their dining room and sent to me over the internet. It will replace our Morning Service at midnight.
Have I felt ‘locked in’ this week? I’ve actually been too busy to think about it: busy learning new skills and new technology and really quite enjoying myself. It is awful, however, when one stops and considers all that is going on — the suffering that people are enduring, the worries that folk are being subjected to. I suspect we just have to follow the rules we are given and trust that there is a light at the end of this particular tunnel — that and to never forget that throughout all of this we continue to be loved by God, our Father who wishes nothing but good for us his children and who is suffering with each of his children who is suffering here just now.
Normally I would be in church at this time on a Sunday morning — in fact in the years since I took over at Fogo I have only ever missed one Sunday morning service and that was because we were in the Holy Land together.
This has been a very strange week. Strange because we are now all in lockdown, at least it seems that everyone I know is isolated in some form or other, it could that’s because everyone I know is quite old! And strange because we have been told we cannot any longer have services in church. And this came just as I thought that our service was really quite a safe one as regards the virus. We had put sanitizing gel by the door and everyone could have their own box-pew so social distancing would happen naturally. Of course, it is right that these precautions have been taken and we must all do everything we can to stay safe.
But people need to worship as well and congregations need to stay together. I wasn’t sure quite what we ought to do. I checked what some of our neighbouring congregations have planned. Our friends in Duns are experimenting with some kind of conferencing system which sounds quite exciting; while Andy at Eyemouth and Coldingham is streaming his service, presumably with a small group of folk all observing social distancing. Neither of these options is open to us because they both require internet access and that is something which we don’t have at Fogo. So we are putting something up on line and leaving it there just for Sunday. If we are able to, we shall replace it during the week with a reading, a thought and a prayer.
There is nothing more important than keeping our congregation together and I would love to hear ideas from you all about what we should be doing.
I broke off from writing this blog to drive down to church because I wanted to be there at the normal worship time. I met John B who was also sitting quietly in church. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place and one can feel the prayers which have been offered there over the centuries and over recent years.
I’m already getting feedback from our service this morning and everyone seems to have appreciated what we have offered. (Although Rachel has insisted that I have to trim my moustache and learn how to smile — I’ll try!) Please remember that if there is anything that anyone needs, we have folk here who will be delighted to help. Please keep safe and do remember that God loves you,
This is a difficult time to be writing a blog. The television news is full of the dangers of Coronavirus and no-one is quite sure how we ought to be reacting. In Church we have fitted a gel dispenser with appropriate gel just inside the door (we don’t have a water supply in our rural church so this is the best we can do). Normally we encourage folk to sit together but maybe our box pews are going to come into their own as each family can sit separated from other families and observe the social distancing which was being discussed at such length on television last night.
We would normally celebrate the fifth Sunday of this month with a special communion service and the advice we have at present from the Church of Scotland is that, providing certain safeguards are observed, this is still appropriate, however, I think my view is why create worries in peoples’ minds? I’ll use the opportunity to have a totally different kind of service and I’m quite looking forward to that!
On Wednesday of this week we had a visit from the Presbytery Planning Committee to Fogo Church for a meeting which was advertised as being for the congregations from our end of the presbytery (although, of course, everyone was invited). In the event we had Roger Dodd, the Planning Convener, with John Shields, our Moderator, and Susan Patterson, the Business Convener with us and there were folk from Fogo, Greenlaw, Gordon, Legerwood and the minister of Coldstream to hear to what was being proposed.
We learned that the future of our part of the Presbytery (and eventually, perhaps, the whole of our Presbytery) would be a continuation of our existing congregations but with each congregation taking responsibility for its own Sunday worship and for its own spiritual care of the parish entrusted to it. Tim from Greenlaw described it as a Commonwealth of Parishes to which stipendiary ministers would be called with responsibilities to support congregations to do their own thing; one perhaps to assist in training folk to lead worship and in preparing that worship; another to help congregations to develop their own spiritual care as well as to assist in that provision; and a third, should we be so lucky, to assist congregations to develop their own mission strategies — for unless we grow we shall surely die.
I found this to be exciting. I was so glad that we were moving away from the hub idea as I see some of our current ministers really weighed down under the existing hubs: Andrew with congregations at Duns, Bonkyl, Edrom, Cranshaws and Gavinton; David coping with Coldstream, Swinton, Leitholm and Eccles to name just a couple — and as the plan is to cope with a decrease in the number of ministers either the hubs would have to become significantly larger or many congregations would have to be amalgamated or closed down. In my opinion that really doesn’t work in rural areas.
Of course, change will happen gradually as it won’t affect ministers already in post but I think that plans such as this one will breathe new life into many congregations and can lead to the revival for which many of us earnestly hope. We’ve had a generation of secularism, long enough for folk to have enjoyed the freedom which that brings but also long enough to discover that secularism can’t answer any of the really important questions. We’ve also got past the generation of folk who had a passing knowledge of some Bible stories (just enough in their view to enable them to dismiss them as fanciful) to a new generation which is prepared to listen to the Gospel anew and fresh and to be challenged by it. These are exciting times and what a responsibility God is giving to this generation of disciples — but we do what we do in the power of his Holy Spirit.
This Sunday, after church and after a simple buffet lunch, we are having the follow up meeting to our January ‘Developing a Missionary Strategy’ get-together. The results of that meeting have been tabulated and converted into proposals to make that strategy a reality. I’m looking forward to great things and I’m sure that my blog next week will contain an account of what comes out of Sunday’s conference.
Yesterday evening I attended the World Day of Prayer service along with Tom, our Session Clerk. This year it was held at Christ Kirk, in Duns. Christ Kirk is the Scottish Episcopal Church – some folk locally refer to it as the English Church but that really isn’t right as the Scottish Episcopal Church has as proud a Scottish tradition as does our own Church of Scotland.
It was a good service prepared by Christian women from Zimbabwe and was on the theme of ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk’ a reference from the healing at the pool of Bethesda (which we had visited on our Holy Land pilgrimage just a few short weeks ago). It was good to see folk from several of the local congregations. I sat with Father Robert from the Roman Catholic Church and Andrew from the Duns and District Church of Scotland and enjoyed meeting up with them. I was, however, disappointed that from our large area we only managed thirty-six folk for such an important service – but that’s not to take away from the fact that those of us who were there really got something out of being there (and the congregation of Christ Church had prepared excellent refreshments for after the service). It was a really good experience.
On Thursday evening we watched the second part of
the Masada mini-series which, I believe, everyone enjoyed. There is something
very special about going into our church at night – the little lights walking
us down to the church, and the warmth of the air-to-air heating hitting us as
we walk through the door; and then the comfy seating and the teas and coffees
that can easily be made. We are extremely fortunate.
Earlier in the week several of us – both Toms,
Chris, John B and I – had responded to Tom S’s call to gather at the church to
clear out the gallery above the vestry. We did that. It’s something that was
needing to be done and hadn’t been done for years, I suspect. However, during
the clear out we discovered that everything up there – pews, staging (to raise
the pews up from floor level) were riddled with woodworm. Some of it was so bad
that folk were taking fairly thick pieces of wood in their hands and breaking
them in two. The good news is that the base floor itself appears to be quite
sound. Tom has purchased a large tin of woodworm treatment and is going to
treat the floor thoroughly both to ensure that we can use it and that the
infection doesn’t spread to other parts of our beautiful building.
Looking ahead to next week: on Wednesday we are
going to host a Presbytery Planning meeting which has been arranged to enable
the Planning Convener, Roger Dodd, and his committee to present their thoughts
on the future to congregations at this end of the presbytery area. These are
difficult times with few ministers and smaller congregations but just maybe in
finding new ways to go forward we will also find more appropriate ways of being
the Church in our area. I find it all extremely exciting.
Also on Wednesday, this time in the morning, I shall
be speaking at our University of the Third Age group which is looking at the
history of the Church in Scotland. We’ve reached the time of John Knox and the
Church of Scotland is just about to be born!
I’ve also just completed a new edition of our
Newsletter which will be delivered this week. It’s on the website already but
the important delivery is to the homes in the parish. Our members will not find
anything new in the newsletter but I hope that those in the parish will catch
something of our enthusiasm and commitment as they read of our mission plans
and are entertained by a brief account of our trip to the Holy Land.
Our Congregation is planning a Mission Strategy for the Future!
Our big event in January was to hold a Sunday afternoon conference (after a congregational lunch) to discuss our mission strategy for the year ahead.
A detailed report has been prepared and is available on our web-site for all to see. But what might our church look like if the initial proposals were adopted? Here is a vision, a dream if you like, set at the end of this year of how things might be.
“It’s the final weekend of November, 2020, and our Sunday morning Service has just ended. It’s been a splendid service led by one of our elders with assistance from several of our members.
As has been the custom for a number of weeks, our service has been recorded – (there are three small, discrete cameras in the Church: one on the back wall of the south aisle, one behind the pulpit and one on the former Harcarse loft). Later this afternoon the service will be uploaded to our Church website and will be available for all to share.
We’ve had a lot of discussions before we reached this point. Why would we offer our service on-line when several of the bigger and more prestigious churches already do it? We came down to thinking that this was exactly why we should. We are a small congregation in a very rural situation. Folk in Berwickshire who might not identify with big congregations in the central belt would, perhaps, be intrigued by the adventures of a small congregation with which they could readily identify.
This morning, as if to prove the point, we had a new couple with us for the first time. They had been fascinated by all they had read about our little church, but seeing it on line made it real to them and they realised that if they came along there really would be folk here to welcome them!
We learned at Church this morning that progress has been made with the ‘young and old’ church service project — what a mouthful, but you’ll see why it’s called a ‘young and old’ project as I explain.
Over recent weeks some of our members have been working with young folk from our area to create six short services on video – but they are services with a difference. The theme of the most recent is ‘God’s Creation’ – the Bible readings, poems and meditations are presented by young folk and were read and filmed by the banks of the Tweed; the music for the hymns was recorded in our church but as it is played and the hymns were sung, the screen showed pictures of some of the most beautiful countryside in the Borders.
The talk this time was given by the minister, but some of the programmes don’t require a talk and some have talks given by our elders, and it is hoped that some of the youngsters will share in these talks, as well as in taking charge of the technology – filming, recording, editing and so on – in the future.
Later this week a team from the Church will start to visit the nursing homes, care homes and sheltered housing complexes within Berwickshire, concentrating particularly on those where there is no regular worship provided by local congregations.
The aim of the visit is to see if residents would enjoy seeing one of these short services perhaps once a week or once a month. The idea is that the video would be brought by one or two of our team who would introduce the service and share in coffee with the residents afterwards. It’s sad that there is so little spiritual care for older folk in our area.
Our technology is being used in other ways as well. One of the challenges for the future is that there are not going to be many ministers in our area. Elders are often keen to lead worship but less keen to regularly deliver a sermon.
So our team has started to prepare a number of sermon videos. Local people, speaking well, with the finished
article supplied on a memory stick or a disk to those who wish one, and can play them back on a television or project them onto a screen.
Some of the young people involved have written to the Moderator and to the Archbishop of Canterbury inviting them to speak to our congregations on tape, and already videos have been put together featuring several of the Church of Scotland’s missionary partners. Of course, it wouldn’t do to have a pre-recorded sermon every week – even if it were deliberately aimed at our own local situation.
Today we also learned that a retired minister will be moving into our Church cottage at the start of next month. He will conduct two services a month at our Church, but he will also lead worship at several of our neighbouring churches as well. We will all be getting in supplies for Clare’s Cottage to ensure that the minister and his wife feel welcome when they arrive.
We’ll learn all about him very quickly, not just by meeting him, but through our web site and facebook page. A great deal of work has been put into our Church web-site which is now not only up-to-date but contains a great deal of exciting material as well. It all goes back to a conference we had earlier in the year which identified communication as being at the heart of all that we are about.
Perhaps we hadn’t realised all of the opportunities available to us – our own Newsletter and web-site; our Facebook page, our local newspaper (all featuring superb photographs by our resident photographer), and the special tent which we had as part of our annual Music Festival, a tent which told the story of so many of our members and of the adventures of our small congregation.
Since last month we have also enjoyed our half-hour video ‘television programme’ hosted on our website. It’s been good to learn more about our own church, our own people, and the wider work of the Church of Scotland through this medium and again it has been a real bonus for us to have the assistance of young folk in putting all of this together and for the exhilarating musical items which they have added to our programme.
We always knew that our church provided an excellent musical venue, but the facility to share what is seen by a relatively small audience with people from much further afield is wonderful. It was suggested this morning that as well as taking out short services to care homes we might also include one of our video magazine programmes so that folk could be reminded of all that is going on in our area.
In time it is hoped to add the facility to stream events live from our church, but the plan is to take things one step at a time.
It is already such a lot of work preparing the material and making the videos, but it is also a great way of getting alongside youngsters, getting them to share the expertise they have. No doubt it will lead to other opportunities as well as we seek to respond to the challenges which they will bring to us – challenges about our faith and why we do, and believe, what we do; and that, ultimately is where we hope to arrive: to be in a real dialogue with our community; to provide Christian support for the elderly; to assist congregations forced to go through difficult change; and to show to the communities of Berwickshire that the Church is not slowly decaying but is steadily rediscovering its confidence and its faith in sharing the message which everyone needs to hear.
Today was also a special day in our church as during it the new prayer room in the former Harcarse loft was opened and dedicated, providing a small and comfortable place for private prayer and in which our church library will be housed. It will also be the base for some of our learning activities for our congregation and will be made available, as are all our facilities, to groups from our local community.
To mark this opening a small Christian book has been given to every child in the parish, including the sixty or so children of the local nursery. It is good to take every opportunity of sharing Christian resources with the families in our area.
And, of course, as this is the fifth Sunday of the month we had a congregational lunch after our service. Sometimes we have a speaker but today we watched a film together – a modern retelling of part of the Gospel story, which everyone enjoyed. There are so many wonderful resources available to congregations today and we gain so much from using them. We had a small sales table today, part of our fund-raising programme to assist our own Missionary Partner, Dr. Linus Malu, who works with disadvantaged people in Malawi. Linus had sent us a video message which we all watched together immediately after lunch. It has been a great day — but then Sundays always are!”
Of course, that is just a dream but there will be a follow up meeting to our January get-together to make definite plans and this will be held on Sunday 15th. March, after a congregational lunch following our morning service.
Fogo Church Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Towards the end of January a large proportion of the congregation, with a few friends, set off for the Holy Land for eleven wonderful days walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
We flew into Tel Aviv and arrived at our hotel in Jerusalem in the wee sma’ hours — but what a wonderful hotel it was, situated right beside the Damascus Gate with views over the ancient city walls; and what a welcome we received — even although it was well after midnight there was a meal waiting on the table for us. We ate quickly and made our way to bed as we had an early start, as we did every morning of our trip.
That first day in Jerusalem was very special. We started by making our way to the Western Wall to see the place which is the most holy of all to modern Jews — the wall of the great temple and place where Jews gather to pray every day. From there we were allowed onto the Temple Mount, where we walked in the sunshine, admiring the Dome on the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque as special to Moslems as is the Western Wall to the Jews — and all the time we were walking where Jesus walked.
In a cave chapel at the Shepherds’ fields
A visit to Bethesda followed as we made our way out of Jerusalem to board our bus and transfer into Palestinian territory as we made our way to Bethlehem where, of course, we visited the Church of the Nativity on the site where Jesus was born and where Saint Jerome translated the Bible into Latin before we made our way to the field where the shepherds heard the news of Jesus’ birth and where we celebrated communion together.
What a day it had been but the next day was as special. We started with a service in the Garden of Gethsemane before visiting all of the places we read of in the Gospels on the Mount of Olives. After lunch we walked the Via Dolorosa to the Holy Sepulchre, site both of the crucifixion and the resurrection, before making our way to the Garden Tomb — an excitement on the way being that the city gates were temporarily closed because of the strength of feeling in the city at remarks that President Trump had made about his plans for lasting peace in Palestine.
We are in the courtyard of Pater Noster which marks the spot where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer — and it is now on the walls in every language imaginable. (Nael, our guide, is on the right.)
And so it continued as we spent five days in all based in Jerusalem, visiting the Upper Room, Emmaus, the place where Jesus was tried and where Peter denied three times that he knew who Jesus was. We went to Bethany and visited Lazarus’ tomb, visited an Arab school and boys’ home, went to Masada, to Qumran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered) and we floated on the Dead Sea. We also visited the Jordan and saw where Jesus was both baptised and tempted.
As we travelled around members of our group conducted short services and our fabulous guide, Nael, ensured at we were all fully aware of the significance of where we were.
When it was time to move from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee we travelled north by way of Caesarea — where Pilate was based and later where Peter shared the Gospel with Cornelius and his family — and Acre where the crusaders, in later times, established their Holy Land base.
Listening to our guide as we stand in the remains of the first century synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus taught.
The Sea of Galilee was every bit as wonderful as we had expected. We walked where Jesus taught and healed and rediscovered the feeding of the five thousand, the Easter breakfast on the shore, and the sermon on the mount. We also went off to Caesarea Philippi where Jesus took his disciples and Peter recognised that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and we were taken to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James and John watched as Jesus met with Moses and Elijah, their clothes and their faces shining. We visited Nazareth where Jesus grew up and sat in the synagogue where Jesus had first preached and we explored a Bible Village designed to show pilgrims what first century life was like. Best of all, we sailed back across the Sea of Galilee. In the middle the boat stopped for our service as we looked at the hills, and sky and sea and realised that what we saw was what Jesus had seen so many years before. It was a memorable time together.
Now where shall we go next?
Dane Sherrard
From the Minister’s Desk
Such a lot has happened since our last Newsletter in December. We had really great Christmas Services, all of which were well-supported and every one of which was quite different. I will remember the service we had with children from our local nursery as well as the midnight service on Christmas Eve.
And then there was our congregational conference to which so many of our members came and in which everyone participated. We have the basis of an exciting plan and you will gradually see it taking shape over coming weeks.
January came to an end with a visit from Frog and Henry who took Fogo by storm with their music. The church was full and no-one wanted the evening to end — evidenced both by the standing ovations the band received and the encores they were pleased to share.
And then twenty-seven of us set off for the Holy Land for the pilgrimage of a lifetime. I had expected that the trip would be superb but my expectations were far exceeded by the kindness we received and the arrangements which had been made for us. It really was a visit we shall never forget
Now we are back! The journey towards Easter has begun and it will be special for many of us as we remember all that we saw while in the Holy Land.
The minister of four of our neighbouring churches will be retiring soon after Easter and I have been asked to become their interim moderator, in other words to look after them for the foreseeable future. It is going to be quite a challenge, but one in which I will be ably assisted by our wonderful team of folk in Fogo. There’s no getting away from it that these are difficult times for the church as ministers become ever scarcer but perhaps with so many members taking on responsibilities in new ways we’ll end up with something better than we had before.
