The
Church Magazine Easter 2009
The picture
below shows how our church looked only a few weeks ago when a few inches of
snow briefly covered the island. Now we
are already approaching Easter; the Resurrection; the basis of our Christian
faith. The Celtic cross banner in our church was stitched by Leila le Messurier
and 
dedicated in the Autumn. There is a photo of
this on page three. The cover photo shows a dramatic modern Celtic cross which
Hilary and Alan Boyle encountered near
Please take time to
read carefully the letter on page four from Vivienne Dickson, the convenor of
the ewardship and Finance Committee at
Alistair MacRae has been mountaineering again. His story on page 12 is entitled “A Walk in the Mountains” but the illustrations confirm that this was no comfortable stroll. Good bed-time reading.
I am grateful to all those who have
allowed me to interview them and write down a part of their life story and
their Scottish connections. Jenny Broekhuizen was born and brought up in
Arbroath. On page eight there are some recollections from her east coast
childhood. On page 10 Helen Scott writes to us from
On “dates for your diary” elsewhere on our web site are details of the services at St Andrew’s in the Grange including Holy Week. I hope you can celebrate the Easter message with us this year.
With Best Wishes from Paul Riley and Alistair MacRae
1
From
the Minister
My dear Friends,
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb….That’s how Mark begins his version of the story of Easter, but no matter which Gospel you pick, they all tell the same, basic story: that the women got to the garden just as dawn was breaking, and found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty…Easter had started without them!
And it wasn’t until another Easter
Dawn a few years ago, standing at Woodhaven on the banks of the River Tay,
waiting for the sun to rise over
And that seems like a good thing for us to remember this Easter, with everything that’s going on in the world.
Things seem to be so dire and bleak for so many, with the growing reality of recession touching all our lives in one way or another, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East dragging on, global warming and global poverty headline news, and, more often than not, religion seeming to divide rather than unite…
But
Easter is coming…I hesitate to talk about ‘Green shoots of recovery’,
but God is at work, way ahead of us, while it’s still dark and long before we
can see the evidence. And that’s the
faith God is calling us to live out in these days, in this time: the faith of
Easter, the faith that miracles and hope happen before we can see them, before
we can imagine them.
The long day
stretched into night
and time crept onward
towards the new day.
With the first gold of dawn
came a resurrection,
a new hope that grew
with the rising sun,
and went out to a waiting world.
Easter
is coming…and before the sun is up, the Christ of history, the Lord of the
Dance, will be up and out, alive and among us, calling us to be His people, a
people of miracles and of hope; a people of faith.
Christ is risen, indeed!
Grace and Peace,
Graeme
2
Here is Patricia McIntyre arranging spring flowers in front of the Celtic Cross in our Church. Extra names for the flower rota are always welcome. This involves filling the vase at the font with a bunch of flowers, also the vase in the porch. Flower arranging skills are admired, but a simple bunch is also appreciated. Gentlemen as well as ladies are on the rota (See back cover) Two or three helpers are also needed each Sunday to deliver the flowers to homes around the island. Do contact Patricia. (Details inside front cover.)
The Mobile Phone and the
Bible
What would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our mobile phone?
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Unlike our mobile, we don’t have to worry about our bible being disconnected because of an unpaid bill. Jesus has already paid the bill in full. And just think – no missed calls. God hears them all! 3 THE MINISTRIES AND Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, At last year's General Assembly, it was decided that all
who belong to the Church should be given more Information about Ministries and Mission
Contributions - the money your Congregational Treasurer sends to the Church
Offices in The information below
shows how your congregation's contribution is used to support Parish
Ministries, Congregation:
Contribution
Parish Ministries (87%) £28289: The cost of ministry in your congregation is £35200 The support you receive from other congregations towards the cost of your minister is: £6,911 This supports the Church's work in resourcing
congregations for Christian education and outreach, in caring for the
vulnerable in society, in partnership with Churches in some of the poorest
parts of the world, and in providing a Christian perspective on the
issues of today. Support. and Services for Councils and
Congregations (7.5%) £2,439 This provides financial, legal,
safeguarding and other services and meets the cost of the General Assembly and the Moderator. Please
note that Ministries and Mission Contributions
only provide part of the
total funding required for the work of the Church listed
above. A fuller picture is given in the leaflet Belonging to a
Sharing church,
which is available free to all congregations. I hope
that this helps you to understand Ministries and Mission Contributions and
shows you are enabling the sharing of the gospel through the money your
congregation sends through the Church Offices to all parts of the
Church of Scotland and
beyond. Yours sincerely
Vivienne A. Dickson Convener, Stewardship and Finance Committee 4 IT’S JUST NOT CRICKET… From the
Treasurer (and it’s not just
cricket.) As I sit down to write this piece at the end of February, I can’t help reflecting on what an unusual month this has been – Guernsey’s heaviest snow fall for 20 years; severe economic recession on a global scale; words from a Church of Scotland spokesman in my CA Magazine (the journal of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland) for the first time that I can recall; and the world of cricket rocked by the double whammy of an underprepared Test Match pitch and allegedly overcooked finances. It was
against this backcloth of events that I first read a copy of the letter from
Vivienne Dickson which appears on the previous page. The letter came to me with copies of two
others from We need to keep a sense of perspective. Looking at the congregational accounts for 2008, we can see right away that our income from Offerings has dropped from £45,433 in 2007 to £44,977 last year. This is the first time in my memory that we have experienced such a fall, (and of course it would have to happen on my watch as Treasurer!) So there are questions which we should be asking. Should we be worried? No. Why not? We think that we understand the reasons, and in any case it’s not the whole picture. Our net assets actually grew last year from £28,823 to £33,917, so the congregation’s financial position became stronger during 2008. Should we be concerned? Yes, of course, because if this became a regular trend, it would have implications for Church finances, and because from time to time it is inevitable that we will face challenges such as the repairs to the bell tower. So, like all good Scouts, we need to be prepared. Can anyone do anything about the situation? Obviously there is not much that we can do about the global crisis, but I believe that together we can certainly make a difference to the Church’s financial position and before the end of this article I hope to offer you the proof. Let’s look first at the words of Iain Grimmond CA, the Church of Scotland’s finance director, in the CA Magazine. “Those charities raising funds directly from the public may be severely hit. As most of our income comes from the offerings of our members we feel its more resilient. Charitable giving is part of the ethos of church membership. Looking at summary figures for 2008, we are cautiously optimistic, but we are concerned for 2009.” It’s a message of hope mixed with concern. 5 Vivienne Dickson’s letter gives the very briefest summary of how the Church of Scotland uses the money sent to it monthly by its congregations, and she has told every congregation quite bluntly whether or not its contributions meet the costs of paying for its Minister. In our case they don’t, so it’s important to understand why and for us to address the issue. The first thing to state clearly is that, whatever the imperfections there may be in the system, the Kirk tries extremely hard to be fair. So the sum which each congregation is asked annually to contribute is based on an average of its last three years offerings. This helps to eliminate the impact of exceptional years and also means that there is less expected of smaller and poorer congregations. Since joining the Church of Scotland in 1973, St Andrew’s in the Grange has always met the contribution asked of it, but that contribution will always have been less than the average sum paid by Scottish congregations. In effect, other larger congregations have been helping to pay our way. They have shared their gifts with us in the true tradition of a sharing Church. Of course, it is true that because of our geographical position and our size we may not have enjoyed all of the potential fruits of membership of the Kirk, but our enthusiasm for membership should not be dependent on that. It’s not akin to shopping in supermarket and paying only for what we take from the shelves; more like being in a golf club and not being able to play at least 18 holes every day. The Church of Scotland has always been there for us whenever we have needed its help. It may not always have been obvious but we have been getting great value for our money and we have a lot to be grateful for –unlike many others. Back to the
cricket. The British media’s biggest
concern in the wake of the “Stanford affair” appears to have been with its
effect on English cricket. Scant
attention seems to have been paid to the impact on the ordinary people of In the last
five years our congregation has dug very deep and shown exceptional
generosity in its giving, raising by its own efforts 90% of the £200,000
spent on the Church and Manse buildings.
The Kirk in 6 Such campaigns can be focused on specific issues such as our recent Hall project or the imminent repairs to the bell tower or be directed towards general fundraising; and they embrace the giving not only of money but also of time and talents, in the belief that everyone can feel encouraged to play a part. The budget for 2009 presented to the Annual Meeting on 8th March predicts general expenditure (excluding the tower repairs) in 2009 totalling £49,000 and income from offerings sufficient to cover that. This is in the hope that income received from other sources – investments, the use of the hall, wedding fees etc - will be freed for use in the work of the Church both locally and internationally, rather than being swallowed up in the maintenance of bricks and mortar. We too need to be able to look beyond English cricket to the real problem areas. Can we achieve this? Unlike Iain Grimmond, I am cautiously optimistic for 2009, and I think we can. It will need an increase of nearly 9% in offerings, and in time mean higher contributions to central funds. It’s very early days but for the first eight weeks this year we are on target. It seems that the stewardship campaign has already begun without the need for me to say anything other than “Thank you again for your continuing generosity.” Dick McIntosh
The music group “Several Hundred
Strings” practicing in the hall 7
A busy day at Jenny Broekhuizen (nee Fraser)
was born in Arbroath between the wars, the youngest of six children. From the
family home in In Summer Jenny’s father swam in the sea off the Arbroath cliffs, returning home for breakfast including cooked seaweed. During the war Uncle David took his thermos and sandwiches to the top of the water tower to take his turn on night duty as air raid warden. Summer holidays were spent on a farm in Perthshire – a different one each year chosen by Jenny’s parents at Easter. Jenny recalls holidays at Glen Fender, Blair Atholl and especially a favourite farm at Loch Tummel. In those days the Queen’s View at Loch Tummel was unspoilt by the Faskally dam and the famous view showed several beaches and an island, now under water. During the latter years of the
war Jenny attended St Trinnean’s School, an Jenny’s mother took the view that young ladies should become “either nurses or nannies!” so after a brief course in domestic science and a year cooking at Arbroath Infirmary Jenny started nursing at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh. This was situated across the meadows from the Royal Infirmary. Neither penicillin nor sulphonamides were then available so bacterial infections such as osteomyelitis required months of hospital care. Tuberculosis cases were nursed on the veranda. 8 Jenny remembers the early
morning birdsong when she was on night duty, and singing carols in the wards
at For a year Jenny was a midwife
at In 1965 Jenny married Len
Broekhuizen in Hopemount church, Arbroath, and moved to Jenny now lives in an apartment
at Blancheland Park She teaches lace-making at La Houguette School, and
organises a lace-making group amongst her friends. Son Niall lives in
Church
Register Baptisms 22
February Jane Merrien, daughter
of Louis and Lara Weddings 31 January Laura
Gallienne to Craig McKechnie 07 February Katherine
V.S. Lewis-Jones to Andrew Ozanne Death 5 March We extend our love and sympathy to the family and friends of Dorothy Nash, of Kirklea, 9 Helen
Scott’s Letter from Dear Friends, “God has
been good to us,” “God has looked after us” Two phrases that I have heard
many times in the last two weeks. They weren’t referring to a good harvest or a new baby …but instead to a
very strong storm which wreaked havoc throughout Ekwendeni. On
December 20th at So why were they telling me “God is good?” In it all, no one was seriously hurt, only two people with minor scratches. The trees fell miraculously away from the houses. It’s so true; God has protected us from tragedy. Since then we have had two other violent storms, though none on the same magnitude as the first. People have worked hard to dry things out and roofs are slowly getting put back. At the primary school, classes are being held in stray structures all over the place. One teacher and her family are living in the staffroom, another two families in the dormitory for the visually impaired children, who in turn are sleeping in their resource room… The secondary school wasn’t damaged by the storm, so we were able to start the new school year in a normal way. It has been a good start. For the first week we had just forms 2 and 4. Now however, we have the new students coming in, many so excited to be coming to secondary school, and the school routine in full swing. We have just heard that the school has been awarded third place nationally for science education! I am no longer a bursar – that was just maternity cover and I was very glad when it came to an end. Two of our teachers are sick however, so I am covering some extra Physical Science classes. On a personal note, some of you will be aware that I was home at Christmas as my father has been diagnosed with cancer. However, his treatment is working very well and is not disrupting his life at all. It was good to be home but I was able to return here at peace that things were under control. Again, God has been good to us as a family. We now have a new parish minister, Reverend Baloyi. The Bible Study group stopped for November and December as most of the group was dispersed, but last night we started again with 16 people which was encouraging. 10 Join me in giving thanks for · The protection we have known these last few weeks · School starting well · The Bible Study group restarting in such an encouraging way Pray for · Everyone who is displaced · People as they endeavour to put their homes back together again · Our teachers who are sick Can I wish
you all a blessed 2009. After being in
the With love in Christ Helen Pastoral
Care Group The
Pastoral Care Group recently held a very pleasant coffee morning at the home
of Sandy and Bill Harcus. We would
like to thank them both for inviting us to their home. We are at present arranging a film
afternoon at the Fermain Valley Hotel, and
arrangements for this will shortly be available. We hope
that soon there will be a prayer book in the Church so that members of the
congregation may make entries for people for whom they wish to pray. If specific information is to be given the
person for whom the prayers are requested should be asked first. Alongside the Prayer Book there will be a Everybody needs a friend, and we know that our church is renowned for its warm welcome and the care that it takes of members who are ill or in need of help. We want to build on this so that all of us take responsibility for one another. What we hope is that the whole congregation will be involved. If you would like more information, please have a word with Jean Lees, Audrey McIntosh, Grace Spittal or the Minister. Our Website The Church website cofsguernsey.org.gg has been running for five years. Do pay it a visit when you are next on the internet. Graham Beveridge would welcome help from anyone with special skill or an interest in developing the site. Contact Graham on tel 257819 or email jgbgsy@cwgsy.net 11 A
Winter Walk Alistair
Macrae
At the end of the last Ice Age, the glaciers that had scoured out the great glens of Etive and Coe retreated, and left behind not just the huge boulders in the valleys, which were the remains of their terminal moraines; they also created soaring mountains 14,000 ft high, alpine in structure, unlike any thing we see in the highlands today. Year by year, with slow weathering, these mountains became the 4000ft majestic remnants we see today, the weathering leaving behind the scree which is so hard on climbers’ knees in a descent. Bauchaillie Etive Mor, in Gaelic the “the Big Shepherd or Herdsman of Etive) stands between the two Great Glens, presenting its impressive and unmistakable pyramid shape towering high over Rannoch Moor below. Bauchaille Etive Mor is the name for all four peaks that make up the the long ridge of “The Big Shepherd” (pictured above) and on Thursday 8th January this year, together with two friends Kenny and Mark, I set out to climb the highest of these peaks at 3350ft, Stob Dearg. We had three days together in Glen Coe and the first day, the Thursday, gave the best weather prospects, the following two days giving a deteriorating outlook with torrential rain on the way. When we arrived though,
Bauchaille Etive Mor was shrouded in cloud, with at least half its great bulk out of view. The prospects did not look
good after all.
3 There had been snow in the mountains, but by now it was largely confined to the
mountain tops and the gulleys. Expanses of frozen burns scattered across our
way ahead quickly became our biggest problem, as each one in turn required us
to climb carefully up to its narrowest point, gingerly cross over the ice
tumbling away into the gulley below, and then to backtrack to the pathway
again. 12 Climbing slowly up the huge steep scree slopes, we eventually arrived at the bottom of the snow filled corrie known as Coire na Talaich. This was as far as we had intended to go, but above us the clouds parted temptingly ahead and we decided, given the weather forecast, that we should go for it. Cutting toe holes in the snow face with an ice axe, we made our way slowly up the corrie, carefully avoiding the man-sized hole which was taking up half the width of the gulley, and climbed onto the ridge. It was covered in deep virgin snow. It had taken us three hours to get this far. With only 300 feet to go to the summit we had just enough time to get to the top and back down to base, before the January light would begin to fail, and negotiating the frozen burns below in the dark would become treacherous. As fast as we dared, we picked our way through the snow covered boulders as the clouds swirled in again and the snow began to fall. After several frustrating false summits we eventually summited Stob Dearg, reaching the cairn at the top, which seems to sit at the edge of the void below. With deepening snow and an arctic wind it was no place to stay for long. The gulley where we had cut our toe holes in the snow would now present us with the inevitable problem - It is easier to go up a snow face than to come down one. The plan we had made to come down, half crouching, half standing, digging our heels into the toe holes, was not going to work. Steadying ourselves with our outstretched arms against the ice-covered rocks, we came down slowly on our bottoms, heel hole by heel hole, turning round as we came to the man hole, to face the snow for the final part of the descent down to the scree below. Dragging snow into the heel holes as each of us moved over the snow, the grip became less and less for each of us in turn. Being the third to come down I inevitably lost three points of grip and set off at some speed into Mark, who fortunately, heard me coming, (something to do with language!) and braced himself successfully against my descent. Nobly, he made light of the fact I had crushed his pinkie against the wall with my boot, declaring that he didn’t use that pinkie much anyway! Further down it occurred to me how much hatred one can work up for scree, and how many times you can nearly fall over on it when you are tired. Light was fading fast as we negotiated the last of the frozen burns, but at last we could see the climbers’ hut clearly below, and within the hour we should be back at the car and soon off to a log fire and some decent food. It was then the flu I thought I had thrown off two days before returned with a vengeance.....but that’s a different story…. What mattered was…..We had done it! 13
Celtic Cross at Luss, Two day after
the dedication of our Celtic Cross Banner, Alan and I were walking through
the Luss,
historically, is a place of Pilgrimage, given its connection with St. Kessog
who founded Christianity in the area in 510AD. It is a tourist conservation
village with few young people living in the area due to a lack of affordable
housing. The church does not have enough children for a CoSY group. However
the Minister had the vision to build on its history to encourage young people
into Faith. Part of the vision was to bring young people from other countries
to work on the Glebe land to form a community from across the world. As a
result groups of young adults from Everyone is keen to return next year to continue the work and develop their friendship and faith. Although the project is due for completion in 2010, in time for the 1500th anniversary of St. Kessog’s arrival in the area, the congregation have seized the vision and are pledged to continue the ethos of the ‘Church Without Walls’. Future plans include the performance of Mystery Plays to augment the pilgrimage experience. Hilary Boyle 14 Rosters April/May/June 2009
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