Category Archives: 2018

From the July/August Summer Newsletter

Great Attendances, Continued Progress on our Building, and Planning for the New Session — the story of our summer!

Decoration work starts in the old Vestry

Having the Vestry is a real boon. It was exceptionally damp when we began two years ago but the new air-to-air heating system which has removed the damp from the church has done the same for this delightful space. Rev. John Hunter who grew up in the Manse in Fogo when his father was minister here recalls that in his father’s time the window in the picture was the door through which his father entered the church before Sunday worship. It was, he told us, damp even then.

Our pictures are a sequence. Because the vestry had dried out we have been using it for coffees and teas after services, although it is no longer big enough for that purpose and we usually have to spill out into the church itself, or during this good weather, into the churchyard.

This summer the plan is to redecorate the whole of the church and we have started here. The second picture shows Tom, our Session Clerk, laying a new floor — the walls have already been painted and the final picture shows the room as it now is — nice clean walls and a lovely wooden floor. Of course, this is only the start. New seats will be arriving shortly, designed to fit in with the rest of the church with upholstery to match the relatively new church chancel carpet and a mini-kitchen unit will be installed to make life easier for those who make the teas and coffees with even a fridge, to keep the milk cold, included.

Now we can plan to use the room during our new session. It won’t replace the meetings and gatherings we have in folks’ houses because that is one of the things which makes our congregation such a friendly one but it will enable us to plan additional activities, although we shall be commissioning some wall-hangings to absorb some of the echo which the attractive curved design creates. It’s a work in progress but what a good start to our decoration programme, and if all goes to plan the entire building will be completed by the third week of September.

Education Programme Unveiled

At the start of the summer a group from the congregation met to think about a mission programme for the congregation. This was presented to the Kirk Session at the start of June, was reported in the last edition of the newsletter and is now in the process of being implemented.

The next step was to meet to create a similar programme for education. As with last time, a good number of people (about half the congregation) met in Clare’s home to set about the task. The minister said that he had told someone that we were meeting to create an education programme to which the response was, ‘I didn’t know that you had enough children to need an education programme.’ We are fortunate in the children we have, but education, of course, is not something which is just for children; it’s something for everyone. As we started talking in groups we realised that Christian education is something which we need to offer, explore and enjoy as a congregation.

Lots of ideas came forward. Some thought that Bible study was important, others that we needed to learn more of other branches of the Christian faith and of other faiths as well. Some liked the idea of meeting in each other’s homes, others the idea of enjoying a retreat; the opportunity of using films — we already had an excellent film evening earlier in the year — while others thought that we should establish a church library to enable folk to borrow some of the new and exciting Christian books which are available.

Over an excellent time of refreshment and chat it became very clear that we had enough material and ideas to run an educational programme which would last ten years! So the idea emerged that we would run a monthly programme from September to March and that this would be a series of one-off different methods of learning. After Easter next year we will be ideally placed to sit down and review what we have done and see how our programme might develop.

So here is our programme, still very much in draft form. It has been agreed that we shall meet on Wednesdays and provisionally the following dates have been suggested:

Wednesday 26th. September at 7 p.m. A film about the life of St. Paul, chosen because the theme of our summer services is the Book of the Acts of the Apostles in which Paul plays such a large part. One of the things we have discovered is that there is a good range of modern Christian films being produced and perhaps a regular film night might become part of a future programme.

Wednesday 17th. October at 7 p.m. A study group evening in which we will work in groups to produce our thoughts on the question “What should it mean to live as Christians in the World today?” It’s a huge subject and we will sort it out in just a couple of hours (with refreshments as well)! We’ll have worksheets and Bible passages to guide us and we’ll see how we like this kind of learning together.

Wednesday 21st. November at 7 p.m. A Congregational Question Time. We’ll take a bit of time to plan this event but the thinking at this stage is that we might invite members of different faith groups in the area to come and take part in this evening so that at the end of it we might be more aware not only of what other faiths believe but how they are acting out their faith in this area of Scotland.

Wednesday 19th. December at 7 p.m. A Congregational Christmas Party with a ‘So You Think You know All About Christmas’ quiz. We’ll have enormous fun but perhaps learn a little as well!

Wednesday 16th. January at 7 p.m. A book evening. We’ll choose a book, make it available for everyone to read and then come together and discuss it. With so many books to choose from this too could be come a regular feature of our education programme. A suggestion, and it is only a suggestion until more folk have had a look at it, of what our first book might be is ‘The Shadow of the Galilean’ by Gerd Theissen. This book is unashamedly a theology book but it is written in the form of a novel and many have found it to be both exciting and challenging.

Wednesday 20th. February at 7 p.m. We’ll meet together as a House Group. House Groups have played a huge part in the Christian development of many people in our country and experiencing the informal worship, learning, discussion and friendship which such a group generates may suggest that this is a way forward for us.

Saturday 16th. March. A congregational Away Day or Retreat. We still have to plan this event but it will include an invited speaker, eating together and the opportunity to review all that we have done over the session to this point.

We hope to have the library in place by the start of September and a number of events in the Mission programme are also educational, notably the trip to the Holy Land planned for January/February 2020 with its own programme of monthly meetings to prepare for this pilgrimage of a lifetime. Full details of this will become available in October. We hope that others may wish to join us for this adventure.

Flower Festival and Congregational Scrap Book

This is a picture of the Kirk Session and Congregational Board meeting at Charterhall. It must have been taken by Alice because Eck can be seen taking another picture over his father’s shoulder at the far end of the table.

Our Flower Festival, held in June this year, told the story of the Church and its community. This display was prepared by the children of our Fogo Nursery and told us something of the story of this important organisation.

The next three pictures show some of those present at our Education Programme meeting. Normally all of our pictures are taken by Molly but as she is in one of the pictures this hasn’t been the case on this occasion! Lots of happy smiling faces. How fortunate we are.

Finally, four lovely pictures taken by Molly. The picture was painted by June and we hope to host an exhibition of her paintings later in the year. The third picture is of a display of flowers which all have medical properties. What a lot of very talented people we have in Fogo Kirk!

A note from the treasurer:

Olive writes, “We have had this week a letter from 121 (Church of Scotland “Headquarters”!) to thank us for meeting our commitment to Mission and Ministries in full for 2018. Thank you all for enabling us to do this.

We also have a lot of exciting projects now to help us move forward as a congregation — the congregational meetings on mission and now on education for example — and these of course all have resourcing implications. I am therefore writing this note to keep everyone up to date on where we stand.

Our beautiful old church building has clearly been loved over the many years it has been the centre of worship in Fogo. We can see this in the way it has been adapted to cater for changing circumstances over the centuries. Now we have a building that has been protected from environmental factors and provides a warm welcoming worshipful place for all the normal activities of a worshipping congregation. As we move on, how wonderful that the simple decoration of the vestry and its flooring has revealed what a beautiful room it actually is!

We have decided that we cannot therefore simply fill it with the cheapest furniture we can find – we have to respect the love that the church deserves. We are therefore going to equip it with seating in keeping with the décor of the rest of the church and ensure that any improvement to facilities is in keeping with this tradition.

We are also setting up a store to hold the necessary resources to enable us to respond quickly to opportunities for mission when they present themselves and an education resource centre (these arise from the congregational meetings). To this latter end as a first step we have purchased an appropriate bookshelf which will fit nicely into the end of the Church. Filling this will of course be expensive – I am suggesting that for a few weeks we support this endeavour with sales of those books we all have that we have read and will never read again. Please let me know if you agree this would be a good way to finance the books we need – and contribute if you are willing to!

Any further resourcing needs and ideas for how we meet the expense will be very welcome – we are so fortunate to be able to meet our essential expenditure from your regular generosity, and look forward to exciting times ahead!”

From the Minister’s Desk

Dane Sherrard writes:

By the time the next newsletter comes out we will have completed two years of our three-year Presbytery Guardianship and it will be time for Presbytery to come and review our progress.

I will be delighted to tell them that, as they asked, we have set up a Community Trust, prepared to take on the ownership of the Church building. I will be delighted to tell them that we now have a wonderfully loyal and enthusiastic growing congregation which meets every Sunday of the year; that we are self-sufficient in terms of income and personnel; that we have developed programmes to take forward our mission and our educational commitments as a congregation.

I will want them to see how beautiful the church building has become, to see that the damp has been expelled and that the church feels like the centre of worship it is.

I will share my excitement at the support we get from our community, at the special events we are able to host, at the children who choose to worship with us.

I will make sure that they understand how much of a privilege I feel in having been allowed to share in this adventure and how much I am looking forward to all that God has in store for us all in the years which lie ahead. Thank you all for your generosity and your support for your parish church here in Fogo:

“You are always welcome at Fogo Parish Church.”

Flower Festival: your invitation!

Fogo Parish Church

Please come and visit our Flower Festival this Saturday 16th. (10 a.m. until 4 p.m.) and this Sunday 17th. June (12 noon until 4 p.m. — there is a welcome waiting for you. There will also be a Songs of Praise on Sunday at 4 p.m.

A special leaflet has been prepared to assist you when you visit. It is printed here as well.

“Welcome to Fogo Parish Church for our Flower Festival reflecting on the history of the church and its current Christian life.

This short leaflet has been prepared to help you get the most out of your visit.

We are blessed with having a most attractive little building nestled into a sheltered hollow in the centre of the village of Fogo. The name is derived from ‘Foghow’ which is the name that was used when the church and surrounding land was gifted to the monks at Kelso by King David 1 in the 12^th century. I have read that the term ‘fogo’ means an area of rough tufted grass but the term is also associated to other word meaning ‘a place of fire’.

The Tironensan Order originating from Tiron Abbey in Perche, Normandy, (France) who built the Notre-Dame of Roxburgh at Kelso sent a monk to found a place of Christian worship here, the Chapel of St Nicholas, of which there are no visible signs today. There is a plaque, on the wall beside ‘the monk display’, showing the seal of the order. There are more details about this in the display on the wall.

This makes Fogo Kirk a very early site of Christian worship. Although the original cell may not have been where the current building is today it is wonderful to consider the ancient roots of this parish, which I am sure adds to the spirituality of the present building.

There is a map in the display showing where the original building may have been and it is hoped that this site may be investigated at some time in the hope of finding archaeological evidence.

The building, on the present site, would originally only have been very small and the vestry, as it is used now, is probably the oldest part. During the time of Henry VIII the monasteries in the Borders were destroyed and there is a record of the destruction of ‘Fogoe Towne’ between the 14^th-15^th of September 1545. Any trace of a building present then, and there may have been two, would have been razed to the ground.

The church was substantially rebuilt in 1683. There are records of major repairs done in 1755 and1817 when the pulpit was installed along with the box pews.

The two lairds’ lofts each with its external staircase were built slightly later. The west loft is that of the Trotter family of Charterhall and the east one the Harcarse (Hogg) family. The Trotter family originally had a box pew but in 1854 had the loft built at their own expense. There is still a close connection with the Trotter family to this day but the Harcarse (Hogg) family sadly have died out due to a loss of the male line.

The box pews were family pews built to keep draughts out and dogs in. It was commonplace at this time for dogs to come to the church with their owners, usually farmhands, and of course the family would walk to church so the dogs came too! I am sure at times this made for a lively and noisy service. In September 2017 an animal service was held in the church and the box pews were used as originally intended. The dogs present were all very well behaved and seemed to know that they were welcome. My own 10 week puppy went sound asleep!

The communion table was gifted by Col. David Milne of Wedderburn in 1898. The communion chalices dating from 1662 are purported to be the oldest communion plate still in current use in Scotland. They were gifted by Mr George Trotter of Charterhall and made in Edinburgh.

I have not mentioned any ministers but there is a list on the incumbents within the display.

In 2016 Fogo Church was put into guardianship by the Presbytery of Duns for a three year period. There have been structural repairs done to the building internally and externally, most notably the installation of a heat air exchange pump. The latter has dried out the fabric of the kirk preserving it and also, not least, made it a warm and hospitable place for Sunday worship. The final thing that needs doing is the repainting of the interior and this will happen shortly.

The Reverend Dr Dane Sherrard is the interim moderator. Plans are advancing for the church building to be owned by a Trust and the current congregation to continue as a Church of Scotland congregation. We are growing and lively and the wall display will, I hope, give you a taste of our activities.

Several of the displays are accompanied by art work done by individuals from our congregation which have been inspired by their spiritual life. We are very grateful to them for lending us their work.

We also have a display in recognition of 100 years of Women’s Suffrage. Also this year, 2018, marks 50 years since the Church of Scotland agreed to admit women to the ministry. This was celebrated at The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh in May

This weekend we are concluding the flower festival with a Songs of Praise at 4pm on Sunday: do come and join in.

I so hope you have enjoyed your visit here today. Don’t forget to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and cake before you leave.

Thank you for coming and haste ye back!

“Everyone is always welcome at Fogo Church.”

Have a look at our website; www.fogokirk.org

Thanks to:

Pete Gibbens for information,

Molly Hodges for photography

Ref: The Churches and Graveyards of Berwickshire by Alan Binnie”

Kirk Session Mission Report

At the June meeting of our Kirk Session and Congregational Board we considered this report on Mission. It is printed here in full to enable everyone to share in our discussions:

Towards a Mission Plan for Fogo Parish Church

Following the last meeting of the Kirk Session an open meeting to discuss our mission as a congregation was arranged and held in the home of Clare Fleming. This meeting was very well attended with more than half of our regular congregation present.

The meeting discussed our worship and witness through worship and then, following wonderful refreshments, considered the things which we might do as a congregation to reach out to other people. The meeting ended with a request that people present at the meeting think on the things which had been discussed and share thoughts with Dane, and with an agreement that once a mission plan had been drawn up there would be a second meeting which would look in more detail at our worship.

In the first part of the meeting there was a general agreement that we had nothing to fear from going it alone in the years ahead. Dane spelled out to the meeting that no matter how well we did as a little congregation there was no possibility of a stipendiary minister being appointed to serve us. It was possible that once our period of presbytery guardianship was over presbytery might incorporate us into another church grouping but in that circumstance it was very unlikely that there would continue to be a weekly service at Fogo and indeed in the future regular worship at Fogo might cease as the shortage of ministers and decreasing size of congregations continued.

Against that background the meeting was sure that the way forward for ourselves was to take control of our own destiny. There was nothing to be feared in planning to organise our own services. John spoke about his experience working abroad and sharing in leading worship because a Christian church was not permitted there. He and Kirsten would be delighted to share in this here. Chris echoed this thought and explained that for several years he had been a lay reader in the Church of Ireland. He was keen to play a full part in conducting worship. Dane also said that he, too, would hope to be allowed to continue at Fogo. He would be seventy-three by the time that our Guardianship came to an end in September, 2019 and would hope to be able to offer at least the following two years to the congregation – and longer if the congregation and health permitted.

A pattern began to emerge – services provided by ourselves in a building owned by our local Fogo Parish Church Community Trust – but with additional input from outwith the congregation. It was noted that one thing the Church of Scotland had in abundance was retired ministers. The idea was floated that we seek to have the use of a cottage to which we might invite ministers to come and spend six weeks, three months or whatever, enjoying a holiday in the Borders in exchange for conducting Sunday morning worship. If it is argued that the supply of retired ministers will inevitable eventually dry up as the number of ministers within the Church severely declines then there is the whole of the rest of the world from which to invite ministers to come. American ministers, in particular, are very keen on exchange visits, but what of those same ministers once they have retired and have nothing to offer by way of exchange? A base in the Borders in exchange for conducting services would be an attractive offer to many.

Against this background the meeting stated very firmly that in seeking to take control of its own destiny, the congregation wished to remain part of the Church of Scotland. This was not a seeking to declare independence from the Church of Scotland but a way of enabling a small historic congregation with a beautiful building and a small but growing number of members to remain an important part of the Kirk. The congregation will continue to pay its presbytery dues, and its ministry and mission allocations to the central offices of the Church of Scotland. It will also continue to be the Church of Scotland presence in the parish of Fogo.

In bringing this stage of the discussion to an end it was noted that we as a congregation are rich in resources: we have a committed regular attendance of around thirty-four folk with a further dozen or so who come from time to time. We don’t always see everyone in church but this is in large part because our congregation is so mobile. On one recent Sunday we had members in Australia, China, the West Indies, Budapest and the south of England – and yet we still mustered twenty-two in church! We have fabulous music which enables our services to be joyful and enthusiastic. We have a keen band of those who ensure that there are refreshments after the service and many are happy to read lessons or lead prayers during worship. We regularly have children in church and this enriches worship for adults as well as giving us the opportunity of remembering that church is for all ages. Anything we try to do is appreciated and supported and we have a great deal of good will from the parish and beyond. In terms of finance we are fortunate to have no concerns. We ended last year with at least £10,000 more than we started with and now many, if not most, contribute by direct debit ensuring that our treasurer can face the future with equanimity.

Finally in this stage of the report, it may seem strange that a meeting called to discuss mission started by considering our worship; but congregational life centres around worship. It is what we do as a church – we worship God – and any mission which is about sharing the good news of our faith and the love which we experience and which underlies our faith has to be underpinned by our worship and our commitment to enable that worship to continue at the heart of our community.

The second part of this report grows out of the second part of our mission meeting. However, it also incorporates the proposals and suggestions which have been brought forward as a result of that discussion. Within these following paragraphs you will perhaps recognise the voices of Tom T, Liz and Pete and others as well.

It was agreed that mission isn’t about one-off activities although there will inevitably be a number of such activities. Rather mission is a mindset in which everything we do is based on mission. Our service has to be about welcoming new people and sharing with them – having new folk in church changes who we are, keeps us fresh, challenges our views and keeps us growing. Everything we do we have to weigh against the question, ‘How does this help us grow?’ How does it help us grow and develop our faith as individuals and as a congregation and how does it help us reach out to other people to share God’s love because that is the purpose of the church and that is why our church was built so many years ago and why it has been so constantly rebuilt and altered over the years. If we are not using it to grow God’s kingdom then we are letting down all those who have done so much in times past.

It was Pete who expressed the view that it was important that people knew that there was a goodly congregation in church because it was difficult to come along for your first visit if you felt that there might be only a handful of folk present and you feared you might stick out like a sore thumb. He explained that this was why he and Gill had decided to come for the first time on Palm Sunday when they felt sure there would be a good congregation. Incidentally this is also why our music is so important. We are fortunate to have music which leads worship – no matter what obscure hymn the minister chooses we know that the organ will lead and support singing and, as a result, worship takes off.

Building on Pete’s comments our first mission proposal is that we plan a special service for late summer, early autumn to be an ‘Everybody here Sunday’. On this Sunday each member will be asked to bring a friend – not a friend from another church but someone who doesn’t attend church. We will produce invitations to enable members to use them and also to send to other folk. We will produce an accompanying new members handbook or welcome pack to give to those who come. We will end the service with a picnic lunch using gazebos and maybe Pete’s famous bar-b-cue. We’ll distribute the invitations as wide as we can. We’ll seek press coverage and we’ll all get together and prepare something really special for the day. Then we will burst a gut in being welcoming and making folk who come wonder how on earth they could manage before they came into contact with Fogo Parish Church! We’ll go into it all absolutely convinced that it will bear fruits and we’ll throw off our inhibitions and shyness about speaking to people and inviting people and it will be hugely successful.

Our second mission proposal is based on the realisation that now we are living in a situation which is so different from any previous time. Our Scottish story is of a country at the heart of which has been Christian faith. In times past everyone has known the Christian stories. In the more recent past people have known bits of the Christian story but much of it has been garbled and not properly understood at all. Now we have at least one generation which doesn’t know even the most basic Bible stories so we have the opportunity of telling the story without so much of the impedimenta of the past; and we do it at a time when many have enjoyed the freedoms which changes in society have brought but which folk are already beginning to realise do not answer the important questions in life — and we do it at a time when there are so many resources unavailable to previous generations. We can visit the Holy Land by DVD and see the places where everything happened; we can watch dramatised accounts of the Bible story; we can buy cheaply books filled with pictures and written by experts in the faith. We are not on our own.

Against this background Liz noticed that it is hoped to set up a Duns Branch of the University of the Third Age. This group sets up courses of talks, reading groups and trips for its members who are, as the name suggests, now usually retired. Her suggestion is that she offers to host a group which would explore something like ‘Our Bible and how it came to us’. This might run weekly for a season or monthly for a session. Dane would be asked to lead the course and several of us would be encouraged to attend to befriend and encourage folk to take the step beyond learning about something which is deliberately historical to joining in a faith group – ours at Fogo. Obviously we have to wait until the University of the Third Age is set up here and then we would have to see if folk were interested in something along the lines suggested by Liz but it could provide a way in for us to those who are on the verges and for those people it could provide a way into a community of faith.

Our third mission proposal (can you hear Tom T’s voice in this?) takes seriously the responsibility of every congregation to reach out to young people, one of the generations which is missing from most congregations. We can claim to have every primary school-age child living in our parish present at worship but as that only amounts to two children we cannot be complacent, although caring for their Christian upbringing is very important and the opportunity of doing that is a privilege we appreciate and for which we thank their parents. Last year we made a small donation to the Berwickshire Christian Youth Trust. We have also over the past eighteen months welcomed several teenagers into our regular concerts where they have astounded us with their musical talents. Also we live in a glorious rural setting. This proposal seeks to take all of these opportunities and make of them something which might be quite special. It can only be a tentative proposal because it would require the permission, help and support of several people to make it happen but if it did it might create the start of a real youth ministry.

The suggestion is that we seek the use of a field and arrange a one day (afternoon, bar-b-cue, and evening) Youth Christian Music Festival. We would ask Heather and Harris to take a leading part in the music side of the event. They could bring many youngsters from Berwickshire High School – but we would cast the net wider. Harris could also bring many of his musical contacts and, as we have seen from recent concerts, he has many of huge quality. The Berwickshire Christian Youth Trust might help with the preparations and be able to bring in some good Christian communicators, as well as working with us to help us create something through which we might reach out to young people. We would staff bar-b-cues (there you are again, Pete), look after the logistics and be the responsible body behind the event. The idea would be to plan the event at least a year ahead because much of the value would be in the planning stages which would bring youngsters together with us and during which we might hope to engage some of them with us in our worshipping family, always recognising that in so doing we may have to make changes to what we do to be relevant to them. It could be quite a thing and who knows where it might lead!

Mission is also about developing ourselves and developing our own faith so that we may become better missionaries. Another suggestion, our fourth mission proposal, originating with a word from Tom T is that we plan a congregational pilgrimage to the Holy Land for those who might like to take part. Dane has led such pilgrimages before so we have the knowledge, skills and ability to do this. The proposal would be to discover if enough people wanted to come on such a pilgrimage and, if so, when would be the most convenient time. (We are sure that people from other congregations might wish to join us.) Having planned a time at least a year ahead we would then meet once a month as a group to learn about the places we would visit so that when we went we would really get the most out of our journey. Everyone would have the opportunity of leading, or sharing in the leading of a short service at one of the special pilgrimage places and would come back refreshed and enthused by the experience. Dane has the programmes of previous pilgrimages and a great deal of extra information such as the daily Newspapers he used on the tours he led. If we wanted to take this forward, the first step would be to arrange a meeting and invite those interested to attend.

Our fifth mission proposal is that we take a look at our church setting and see how we can make it speak more of our welcome to those who pass by. This proposal might include the creation of a more attractive and welcoming notice board, or maybe even more than one; it might include arranging ourselves to cut the grass in the church yard (at least on either side of the path) now that the council has said that grass cutting will be much less frequent due to financial constraints. It might include the preparation of attractive information leaflets in the church encouraging people who visit to learn not only about the building but about the welcome which would await them as worshipping members. It might also include seeing that the church is signposted from the different road end approaches. Making people feel at home is very important. That is why we print a full Order of Service each week – so that everyone knows exactly what to expect and printing the Lord’s prayer each week so that no stranger feels awkward. It’s why we produce large-print versions for those who have difficulty seeing and full scripts for anyone who might have difficulty hearing. All of these things matter because they help us show that everyone really matters.

Our sixth proposal is something which is beyond our control. It is certainly true that there are communities adjacent to our parish who have not felt a Christian presence for quite a while. In these days of ever increasing parish size, perhaps we should be offering to serve a slightly bigger area – Polworth, perhaps, or Ladyflat – always being careful to avoid any home which attends another church (although we have been unable to discover attending Church of Scotland members from many of such areas). As we have the energy to visit folk and make contact with people in their homes possibly we could consider asking if this is a way in which we might help the wider church?

Our seventh proposal is a bit of fun. We could ask all of our members to take one of our post cards (made by Molly) and take it with them when they go away and when they are far from Fogo ask them to have their picture taken holding the postcard. We could make a great display of such pictures which would truly record all the places our folk get to. It would certainly create a picture of church folk which would be a bit different and if it made others think that these are folk who sound quite fun and I’d really like to get to know them, then who knows, someone might just come along and visit us!

Our eighth proposal is another small proposal and it is about creating identity. It’s very simple. Let’s have some Fogo Kirk mugs made. We can give them to special visitors such as our musicians, and they will remember us. We can sell them to ourselves and if we use them when friends come for coffee it can open the door easily to a conversation about our fabulous congregation and our beautiful church. Sometimes it’s hard to find ways of talking to folk we know well about our church and our faith and a simple little mug could be a real missionary aid.

Our ninth proposal is that we hold a summer fayre. Maybe not this year, although that is not excluded, but possibly planning this for next year which would give us time to make or purchase some stalls and develop a full programme of events for the day. We could hold it on the ground in front of the churchyard, or possibly even in a garden. If we set it a year ahead we could each bring something back from our holidays for a holiday stall and we could have a colour stall, where each of us would bring something in the colour of the year, perhaps yellow with yellow scarves, yellow ornaments, yellow covered books and all of the things we will each notice are yellow over the course of the year. We could explore our attics for things we no longer have room for but which would be special to someone else. We could set about making some fun fayre games, organise a tea tent and perhaps it wouldn’t even need to be summer and could be Christmas instead.

Our meeting and its ensuing conversations has been extremely worthwhile. Here are nine proposals, more may be in the pipeline. Whether we adopt them all or abandon them all, we can be sure that mission is now firmly on our agenda.

From the May/June Newsletter:

Beautiful Music in an Idyllic Rural Setting

Music has become a very important part of all that goes on at Fogo Parish Church. It’s important on a Sunday morning when we enjoy a service which is full of music, which is always joyful and which enables us all to sing enthusiastically as well. We also have been delighted to welcome several local (and not so local) musicians to play in our church and in so doing have been able to share our building with many more people than would otherwise come to visit.

We are very grateful to Heather Cattanach and Harris Playfair who live just next to the church and who have arranged all of our special concerts over the last eighteen months. Usually these concerts have involved pupils from the Berwickshire High School (where Harris teaches), or the pupils have been supporting other artists; sometimes they have performed on their own supported by Harris and Heather.

On the last Sunday evening of May we welcomed Jenna Reid, a celebrated Shetland fiddler. To support her, Harris brought the Berwickshire High School Folk Band, six fiddlers and a bass player, who provided some spectacular music and who are pictured at the top of this page.

All of us who were present — and the church was very well filled for the occasion — were simply blown away by the music. Jenna took us from Dundee to Newcastle and Perthshire but most of the music came from Shetland, some of it old and traditional, others contemporary, some slow and melancholy, others gloriously exuberant and played so fast that we wondered how Jenna’s fingers were able to cope.

At the interval folk from the congregation had provided a finger buffet and although there were more in our audience than we had anticipated there was still food left at the end — and what a superb buffet it was! The money raised by donations — there was no charge for admission but folk donated extremely generously — was given for music projects at the school and we hope its musicians, and Jenna, will return to us again quite soon.

Some of our audience — not a lot of room!

Jenna with members of the Folk BandJenna Reid — celebrated Shetland fiddler

John and Kirsten take charge!

John and Kirsten welcoming Clare and Bridget to church

We had a particularly special service on Sunday 3rd. June. It was conducted by two of our own members, John and Kirsten Arthur.

It wasn’t the first time that they had led worship as they explained to us during the service, but it was the first time they had conducted a service in a church in Scotland.

Kirsten explained that a number of years ago they had lived in Saudi Arabia where Christian churches were not permitted. As a result members of the British community would meet in the Embassy on a Friday and conduct their own service. Occasionally there would be a visiting minister who would come and administer a communion service but on other Fridays it was down to the community itself to make its own arrangements using its own resources.

Later on when John was in Afghanistan with the army where he served as a doctor, he would stand in for the chaplain because the chaplain had such a large number of units to cover. Kirsten worked in education and became accustomed to leading assemblies, so together John and Kirsten brought a great deal of experience to this Sunday in Fogo.

We all enjoyed the service enormously — really good hymns, a great talk from Kirsten with the children during which she explained that we were all members of several families: our own personal one, the larger family of Fogo Church and the huge family of the Church world-wide. All of this she did using a large collection of family bibles and little figures to represent the folk in the family.

Kirsten talking with Alice and Eck during the service

John spoke about prayer and particularly about the way that prayer can be used to help healing which is something which all of us need. Prayer is what the Church does.

It was a good service, very well attended, and afterwards all of us were invited to Kirsten and John’s home for a wonderful lunch. There were tables in the garden and in the house and an abundance of good food and great company, itself a picture of what Church is all about.

Our church plan for the future is based on the premise that some of our services will be conducted by members of our congregation. John and Kirsten have given us a grand start and reminded us of the considerable talents we have within our congregation. We are looking forward to their next service.

One of several tables filled with happy lunchers after a very happy service!

Kirk Session Report on the Way Forward: our Mission Plan for 2018/19

Our Kirk Session and Congregational Board met on Wednesday 6th. June for its regular meeting. Our numbers have increased dramatically over the last year and the complement of our combined Board and Session is now seventeen — surely a healthy sign for the future!

We heard that our finances continue to be sound and our income has exceeded our budgeted target. We heard too that exterior work on the building has been almost completed and we agreed to proceed with a complete redecoration of the church during these summer months.

Most of our meeting, however, was given over to discussing mission — one of the fundamental purposes of the Church. In preparation for this meeting an open-to-everyone meeting had been held in the home of one of our elders; a meeting which was attended by more than half of our congregation.

After talking about the way forward, a way forward which will demand real commitment from us all, we moved on to talk about what mission really means. It’s not, of course, something that we engage in from time to time — ‘Oh, let’s do mission this week!’ — but rather something which has to be at the heart of everything we do. When we seek to involve new folk in our worship, that’s mission. When we talk with our friends and tell them how much our church and our faith means to us, that’s mission.

But there does need to be a framework of events to help us to keep mission right at the forefront of our consciousness and at our Session we discussed nine different ideas which had grown out of that initial meeting.

With limited space this article can only outline the proposals but each will be more fully fleshed out in coming editions of this Newsletter.

First of all we are going to have a special service on the third Sunday of September. It will be a Harvest service but it will be even more than that. Our working title is an ‘Everybody Here’ service. There will be special invitations and we will end the service with a picnic lunch and maybe even a late season bar-b-cue.

Our second proposal is to offer to run a course, not aimed at Church members, but at folk who don’t come to church at all. We’ll base it on the story of how our Bible came to us — it’s a really fascinating story and one which might be of real interest to folk who have not considered it before. We’ll use one of our member’s homes as a venue and we’ll see what happens!

Music, especially with young folk, is hugely important. We live in a gloriously rural setting, we have great musicians in our community, so we are going to plan a small afternoon and evening open-air family music festival to which we invite some of the folk who have already entertained us in church and share in a bar-b-cue.

Mission is also about developing ourselves. We are making plans to conduct a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and spend a year preparing for it with a monthly meeting learning about all we will see. We are possibly looking at January or February in 2020 and we hope other folk from the area will want to join us.

Many come to visit our church — making it more accessible and ensuring that visits can be really informative is our fifth proposal. We are also conscious that our presbytery is struggling with lack of staff and extra large parishes so our sixth idea is to offer to help by taking on some of the load of visiting a larger area than we do at present.

Our seventh proposal is just a bit of fun. Our small congregation seems to have folk in it who travel the world. Next time folk set off we are going to ask them to take one of our Church postcards and have a picture taken holding it in an exotic location and then give us the picture. We’ll make up a board which shows just how widely we reach into our world.

Another idea about creating identity is to produce some church mugs. They will make splendid conversation starters when folks come to our homes for coffee.

Our final proposal is to start now to prepare for a summer fayre next year. We’ll be planning holiday stalls, a stall where everything on sale is of one colour, and we’ll be making up some funfair games and organising a tea tent.

Now these are just the sketchiest outlines of what exists as a five-page report but the important thing is that a discussion has now begun and we hope to begin to be seen by our community as a church which is really active, which has good things to say and exciting ways of saying them, and, of course, everything will centre around our Sunday morning worship every Sunday at 10.30 a.m. to which everyone is and always will be welcome. We would really love to know what you think of our plans.

Flower FestivalA display from last year’s Festival

Please Come to Our Flower Festival

After the success of our first Flower Festival last year, we are having our second festival this year. It will be held on Saturday 16th. and Sunday 17th. June and will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Clare Fleming who is organising the Festival tells us that she is gathering historic facts about the role of Fogo Kirk in Christian worship and this information will be linked with the decorations throughout the church.

Refreshments will be served during the time that the Festival is on and everything will come to a climax with a Songs of Praise service on Sunday 17th. June at 4 p.m. to which, of course, everyone is invited.

If you have only heard of the changes which have been made to our beautiful church over the last year or so, and haven’t had an opportunity to see these for yourself, then why not plan to look in at our Flower Festival and see all that has been going on? We can promise that you will be made very welcome.

From the Minister’s DeskDane Sherrard

This is a joint edition for May and June. There wasn’t a great deal of special news to share in May and it may be that there is going to be too much news for June but I didn’t want to put out an edition which just seemed to be saying the same things over and again. It is true that things are going well for us and it is true that we are moving forward month by month but by now I expect that all of our readers know that.

In particular I wanted to be able to include the plans made at the Kirk Session on June 6th. These are exciting times. We now have the Trustees in place for our Fogo Parish Church Community Trust. These are the people who we hope will eventually take ownership of the Church on behalf of the community. It is an excellent team, eleven strong with one outside expert, Bob Kay, who has been Property Convener of the Presbytery of Duns for many years and is currently an assessor elder in our Kirk Session, and ten local trustees, six of whom live within the parish of Fogo and four very close by. Five are men and five are women and all are members of the congregation.

The complete list of Trustees is John Arthur, Liz Casey, Heather Cattanach, Clare Fleming, Olive Gardiner, Gill Gibbens, Bob Kay, Chris Scott, Tom Thorburn, Fergus Torrance and Alexander Trotter.

Alexander Trotter will be the first chairman of the Trust, Olive Gardiner the secretary and Liz Casey the treasurer. At present the Trust is being registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation with the Scottish Charity Regulator.

I should also tell you that we are trying to share the information in our Newsletter more widely than before — and with it the invitation to join us at worship any Sunday at 10.30 a.m. There is always a good crowd in church so you can count on being made welcome.

Plans are afoot for our next concert which will be in September. The date is not yet finalised, and will include the flute quartet who played at our very first concert and whose return has been long anticipated. Our plans for next year include a Family Festival of Music building on what Heather and Harris have begun with their regular programme of concerts.

We now have our own church website. It can be found at www.fogokirk.org and information can be accessed there in between the times when our newsletter is published.

This next year is going to be an important one for us as we move from trying to establish a congregation and stabilise our building to setting out detailed plans about our worship, mission and education programmes for the future — our preliminary thoughts are included in our Kirk Session report on page three.

Glorious Music in an Idylic, Rural Setting!

Jenna with members of the Berwickshire High School Folk Band

We are getting used to superb musical concerts arranged for us by Heather and Harris — how fortunate we are to have them as our next door neighbours! On Sunday evening (27th. May) Harris brought his friend, Jenna Reid, to play for us. Jenna is a celebrated Shetland fiddler — and how we were entertained, both by Jenna herself and by members of the Berwickshire High School Folk Band led by Harris on his electric piano.

We listened to music from Perthshire, Dundee and from Newcastle but, of course, most of the music came from Shetland and it was all absolutely wonderful.

The church was extremely well-filled with many local folk and also many who had travelled a distance especially to hear Jenna. Refreshments were served at the interval by members of the congregation who had really gone to town. We ate and drank extremely well.

It was a splendid evening and already we are looking forward to the next in the series which is planned for September.

Flower Festival 16th. and 17th. June, 2018

“All things bright and beautiful” from our 2017 festival

Clare Fleming writes:

“We are hoping that this will be a joyful festival of glorious flowers decorating our historic church. Many hands make light work and so please contact me if you are able to help in any way.

We will be serving teas and coffees with cake so baker please prepare.

Flower arrangers and those who can put flowers in vases are invited to prepare the church on Friday15th. Please let me know if you have a favourite place in the Kirk which you would like to decorate and I will reserve it for you.

I am gathering some historic facts about the role of Fogo Kirk in Christian worship and will link these with our decorations.

Together we can do this and culminate with a Songs of Praise at 4pm on Sunday 17^th at 4pm.”

Whitsunday Celebrations

Our Whitsunday window decoration

We had a wonderful Whitsunday celebration: lots of folk in church, joyful music and a challenging and enthusing Bible message based on the events of the Pentecost immediately following the first Easter. Of course, we shared in the sacrament of Holy Communion and then, because Whitsunday marks the birthday of the Christian Church, we had a huge chocolate cake which everyone enjoyed.

April 2018 Newsletter

Newsletter16

It is possible to enlarge the pdf file above and read the newsletter. However, I have set out each of the articles below in a form which I hope will make it easier to read and enjoy:

Easter Season in full swing!

Sometimes small pictures tell big stories! This is the little table just inside the door of the church. There’s a vase of daffodils which have almost come to symbolise Easter and Spring and the start of everything coming back to life. There’s the glass decorations with the flowers because someone has taken enormous care to decorate the church for this special time of year. There’s the basket of eggs, another Easter symbol, all carefully dyed and ready for church rolling — and so many of them. We expected a full church and we certainly weren’t disappointed. There’s a small pile of Orders of Service, a reminder of the care and attention which goes into the preparation of every service — most have already been distributed but there are still a few left over because we always plan for more people to come and join us.

Of course, numbers are not the most important thing, but we did take satisfaction in having more folk this Easter than last Easter; we rolled more eggs, we ate more cake and we really celebrated the most wonderful day in the whole year!

One of the particularly happy coincidences this year was that on Easter Sunday we had people with us in every decade of life: children, teenagers, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. A real family Easter!

On Good Friday we had the simple wooden cross with a single red rosebud on the upright. On Easter Sunday we had a beautiful display of lilies around the base — a symbol of new life and of the fact that Jesus who was dead is now alive.

It was a lovely visual picture of what Easter is all about and we are grateful for Erica for preparing it for us.

Erica at work on the Easter decoration.

One of the highlights of Easter is Easter Communion. This is always particularly special for us because we use what we are told are the oldest silver communion cups still in use anywhere in Scotland. They were donated in 1662 by the Trotter family.

It is quite something to remember that not only are we sharing in a sacrament which goes back to Jesus himself, but we are drinking from the same chalices which have been used for over three hundred and fifty years — a real link with those who have gone before us — and which will continue to be used for at least that time in the future. Others will drink from these silver cups and remember those of us who worshipped in this special place in years gone by.

Mission Discussion Evening

It grew out of the last meeting of the Kirk Session and Congregational Board. We spent too much time talking about all that we planned to do with the building and too much time discussing out finances and, as a result, we left ourselves with too little time to talk about mission and the way forward for our congregation — the really important matters, although the other things matter too!

It wasn’t that we had run into particular difficulties. On the property side, the last bits of damp in the building were to be removed by cutting out the plaster, removing the rubble underneath (which was holding the damp) and replacing the plaster work, all of which has now been done, and then planning to have the building redecorated, both inside and out.

On the financial side, we learned that we had ended last year with a surplus of around £10,000, money which will enable us to develop our future plans for this year with confidence that whatever problems we run into, they won’t be financial ones!

As we ran out of time we agreed that we would hold a special meeting in Clare’s home and we would invite everyone who wanted to come along and share in a discussion about where we are going to be in eighteen months’ time. (The significance of that timescale is that we are now half-way through the three years of presbytery guardianship agreed when Alan Cartwright retired.)

Almost half of the congregation turned out for this evening meeting and to say we were delighted would be a huge understatement! Everyone contributed to the meeting and we had some grand discussions. Several people wanted to ask what would happen at the end of our three years and we teased the answer to this out together. The building of Fogo Church has been declared surplus to requirements and, as a result, we have been engaged in creating a Community Trust, to take ownership of the building sometime next year and to hold that ownership on behalf of the community of Fogo and for the ongoing use of the congregation. Local trustees have been recruited: more than half live within the parish of Fogo, there are the same number of men and women on the trust, and there is a wide range of experience and background represented. By the time the trust takes ownership of the building we will have ensured that it is in a really good state of repair for the future.

A church building, even an historic one like Fogo, requires a congregation. So how are we getting on in that regard? We have around thirty-four folk who we can count on always to be in church if they are at home but our folk do get about: last Sunday we had members in Australia, China and the West Indies and several were on holiday in different parts of England. We also have around another dozen or so who come from time to time and then there are the occasional visitors. To ensure that we are fully sustainable we need to push that thirty-four up to fifty. That’s not beyond us; in fact it will be achieved if every two of us succeed in bringing along one friend, and it is less that the number of new folk we have welcomed in the last year!

What then about ministry? There is, of course, no way that the presbytery will be able to provide us with a minister. So the choices are that we would ask to be put in with another grouping of churches, or that we would attempt to go forward on our own. Several people present at our meeting encouraged us not to be afraid of going on forward on our own. John spoke of services conducted in a foreign embassy in a country where Christianity was not permitted. The community held their own services at a Friday Coffee Club, several folk took a turn of leading worship and the little congregation thrived. Taking worship responsibility ourselves would enable us to continue to worship together in Fogo every Sunday, something which it was felt was important.

Everyone agreed that it was important to us that we remained firmly as a Church of Scotland congregation. Even although we would own our own building and be responsible for our own ministry we would continue to pay dues both to Presbytery and to the Church of Scotland. We would also continue to have the parish responsibility of Fogo under the oversight of the presbytery.

As we talked more about ministry, it was hoped that our present ‘minister’ (technically our interim moderator) would continue for a while to come but that we explore ways of using our members fully in leading worship — most Sundays already, several members share with the minister in leading the service.

It was also suggested that we explore the possibility of having a church cottage to which we might invite retired ministers to come and spend a summer in exchange for leading our Sunday worship. We may be short of ministers but we have so many retired ones — and the borders is a beautiful place to spend some time.

It was an enthusiastic meeting — plans were made to hold some special events and some additional welcoming material is to be produced and we all went home feeling enthused about the future.

Steve Hunter

Steve Hunter’s funeral was in Fogo Kirk on Thursday 19th. April. Friends and family from all over the country and from Cothill filled the church for the service and I print the words I spoke on that day about a very special gentleman.

Steve was born at Walkergate in Newcastle sixty-nine years ago. It was there that he grew up with his Mum and dad and with his younger brother, Laurence. It was here too that his education began. At school he concentrated on chemistry and biology, loving also to spend time playing and watching football, naturally supporting Newcastle, and playing drums in a band, although his real and growing passion was for animals.

He kept guinea pigs and showed them as well. He also kept snakes and mice, rabbits and slowworms. With Laurence, he would explore and look for wildlife, taking delight in discovering frogs under stones. Steve bought Laurence his first fishing rod and Laurence, I’m told, has been fishing ever since.

When it became time to go to University, Steve enrolled at Glasgow to study agriculture. He would have liked to become a vet but there were not enough places available at that time. Steve returned home every two weeks to support Newcastle. By this time he was also into motor-bikes and cars –- uncle Robert was an engineer and taught Steve all he needed to know to keep them on the road. Unfortunately he had a motor bike accident but, always positive, he bought a bubble car because he could drive it on his motor bike licence. He never lost his love of cars and driving.

University successfully behind him, Steve moved out of the family home which he had shared not just with his parents but with his grandparents and Uncle Robert as well. He sold his drums and bought a home in Chapel House in Newcastle and got his first job working for West Cumberland Farmers selling animal health products, partly from the depot in Hexham and partly out on the road.

In 1974 he married Marilyn at Newcastle Civic Centre. Their families had long lived in the same street and both Mums travelled to work on the same bus. Marilyn recalls that Steve had been sent up on an errand to hand in a pair of football boots for her brother Paul, but while at the house ran into Marilyn and invited her out for a drink. So began the courting which led in time to the wedding. They danced, listened to music, went to the clubs and visited the cinema before setting up home at Haxby near York where Steve worked for Pfizer before moving to Chester where he made the change from working on animal welfare to human health, gaining additional qualifications and working for Astra Pharmaceuticals in which company he rose to become the National Sales Manager.

The call of animals and also of being his own boss was strong and in 1992 Steve set up his own Aquatic Business based in the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Garden Centre. Now his life centred around fish and aquariums and ponds, and leisure time often saw Steve and Marilyn on their narrowboat ‘Cat’s Whiskers’ which they sailed on the Shropshire Union canal and from which Marilyn and their daughter Ailsa have so many happy memories.

In 2007 Steve retired, the canal boat was exchanged for a motor home and together Steve and Marilyn explored so much of the country, enjoying everywhere from Devon and Cornwall to the Lake District and sometimes stopping off in Wales where their friends Lindsay and Ann had a hotel which they loved to visit and sometimes to help run to allow the owners to go on holiday, and where they met their great friend Judith.

They loved these times but Steve and Marilyn yearned for somewhere quiet to call home. Cothill was absolutely perfect for them –- secluded and quiet, with a site on which they could build their ideal home to their own specifications and, of course, not too far from Newcastle, their spiritual home.

These then are the bones of Steve’s life, but what was he really like? Let me share some of the words Ailsa and Marilyn used when they talked of Steve. They described Steve as ‘a bit of a joker’ and as one who could be forthright and assertive but as one who was very kind –- nowhere is that natural kindness seen more clearly than in his love of animals, something which stayed with him throughout his life. Here at Cothill it was the hedgehogs which caught his attention. He built them little houses and rigged up cameras so that he could watch how they were getting on. He rejoiced to see the deer in his garden of a morning –- he really enjoyed his garden and being a handyman he was able to do a great deal to make it the way he and Marilyn wanted it to be.

If he wasn’t in the garden you might find him listening to music, probably Jimmy Hendrix, or Led Zepplin, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. If the television was on it was probably Formula One motor racing, or football or golf. You wouldn’t find Steve’s nose in a book –- not unless it was a book about Newcastle United — he had so many treasured mementos of his team and its players and managers over the years — or perhaps about Winston Churchill. He loved to be involved in local politics and gave his time unstintingly to the work of the local community council, enjoying working with other local people to make this area better for everyone.

Sitting with Marilyn you might have found them talking about their love of walking –- together they climbed lots of mountains in Scotland, England and Wales –- and Steve loved taking photographs.

His firm friends were Peter and Alan and he always enjoyed their company. But if you asked him what was most important in life he would speak of Marilyn and Ailsa. He was so proud of Ailsa and it was quite simply Marilyn’s love that made life the joy that it was to him. Steve will be missed. He will be missed by so many people but it is Ailsa and Marilyn who will miss him most and we offer them, and all the family, our love and our prayers today.

Dane Sherrard

From the Minister’s Desk

By the time you get to this part of the Newsletter you will probably already have read everything else but I hope you won’t mind me highlighting something of what this issue is about. Naturally we have started with a bit about our Easter celebrations. The Church is about Easter: Jesus, who was dead, is alive. We know how much God loves each one of us and we can face the future, whatever it is, in the confidence of that love — even in a world where so much appears to be so wrong, so unfair, so callous and so pitiless. If we can learn to share, to stand up for what we believe, to love each other then we can start to make a difference where we live and in turn can start to change the world — there’s no doubt at all that those eleven disciples locked in an upper room in Jerusalem never thought that they could change the world in the way they did but they reckoned without the power of God’s Spirit and I suppose that we often make our plans thinking too that it will all be down to us.

This edition also sets out more about the way forward for us as a congregation, describing some of the discussion at our special meeting (but making no mention of the wonderful food which has become such a part of all that happens at Fogo!)

A number of people said things that night which have stuck with me. Pete said that in his experience new folk often chose to come along for the first time on one of the ‘special’ Sundays in the year in part because they knew there would be quite a lot of people there and they wouldn’t stand out like a sore thumb. Maybe we need to have a special Sunday when everyone is there and let that be known so that others can feel that it is safe to join us. The other thing that is important to say is that we have now reached the stage when there are always a good number of folk in church so no-one needs to worry about arriving and sharing the service with just a handful of others.

Clare spoke about the importance of other events to enable visitors to see the church and to enable us to meet them and invite them to join us, possibly to suggest we meet and come along together because once folk come they always seem to want to stay! We have some concerts planned and a flower festival about which there will be more information to follow.

Molly undertook to prepare a small welcoming card to ensure that visitors and others we met knew how welcome they would be — and this has already been done! (Thanks, Molly — your photos throughout the Newsletter are great, as always.)

I realised from what was said by so many that mission is not about special events and organised activities, although these are important: it is about a new mindset. Everything we do has to be about mission. Welcoming new folk is what we are about. As we welcome others we often end up meeting Jesus in the guise of a stranger — that’s the message of the Emmaus Road and it’s quite a thought that we too may be the face of Jesus to others.

Finally you will notice that I have included the words which Marilyn and Ailsa helped me prepare about Steve for his recent funeral. I enjoyed meeting him as I delivered Newsletters round the parish. He was a real character and he will be greatly missed.