Rector’s Letter for August 2021

23rd July 2021

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

This letter is arriving early! I am taking some leave over the next two weeks. A chance to potter round the garden and do some weeding, to catch up with friends, and read some books. And who knows, maybe the odd day away at the beach, if the weather holds. I am also doing some decorating for my daughters. Painting can be quite therapeutic. I know I shall spend some of that time in silence but I will also be listening to some music and trying to learn a bit more Spanish. I have download some more lessons on to my ipod so I will be practicing my Spanish as I paint.
This coming Sunday (25th July) will be the first time that both churches will be permitted to sing, whilst wearing face masks. St Mungo’s have been able to do this for the past few weeks as it was in Level 1 whereas St James the Less was in Level Two. We are also able to reduce the physical distancing to 1 metre, which increases the capacity of both churches, which is also good news.
Those who have attended the Sunday and weekday Holy Communion services have been comfortable with the arrangements, with good hygiene practices in place. I am aware that within our congregations each individual will make a personal decision about returning to church services. I hope that our weekday lunchtime Holy Communion services may be a useful route back in to in-person attendance for some, as the numbers attending are less than on a Sunday.
We shall, of course, continue to provide live access to the Sunday services using Zoom.
Our Sunday evening service, which normally has four hymns in it, accessible via Zoom, is at least one place where you can sing away to well-known hymns.

The Labyrinth at St James
The labyrinth continues to be very popular with many people coming into the church grounds and spending time walking it. I get a sense of its popularity by how many people I see walking round to the church garden from my study window, and by how many leaflets I need to print every few weeks to refill the leaflet holder.

Creation-tide and Eco-congregation Membership
The SEC has developed a new Holy Communion liturgy for the season of Creationtide, which runs for five weeks from the first Sunday in September through to the first Sunday in October. We shall use the liturgy and will end the season with our Harvest Festival services on Sunday 3rd October.

Sustainable West Linton and District
The five fruit trees (four apple and one plum tree) planted at St Mungo’s are all thriving and have only needed some watering during the driest spell since they were planted. With patience, we may see a fruit next year, although it is normally in the second full year that we are likely to see a small harvest.
The Sustainable West Linton and District meets on the last Thursday of each month at 8 pm. Details are on their Facebook page.

Faith Development
We hold our weekly Bible study at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon. We are currently reading and studying Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and then from 17th August we shall be start discussing the Book of Nehemiah. On the 12th October we plan to start a study the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation to John. This initial part of the book focusses on the messages to the seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day western Turkey). Ruth Aird, who lives in Penicuik, has written a book on these three chapters. She will lead us in a discussion and we shall use her book as a study aid.
Why don’t you join us to explore the texts, understand their context, and just as importantly, explore how they speak to us and how they inform us today?

‘Well Prepared’
Our ‘Monday Study Night’ sessions recommence on 6th September at 7.30 pm. I shall be leading a six-session course called, ‘Well Prepared’, using a structure developed by the Diocese of Oxford. The six sessions are split into:
1. Be Prepared – looking forward and preparing, including the practicalities of making a will and writing a power of attorney document.
2. The Story of My Life – we explore the story of our lives, who we have gratitude for, how we wished to be remembered, any gems of wisdom we would wish to pass on, drawing the threads of our life together. Do they help us answer the question, ‘Who am I’?
3. Planning my Funeral – what hymns, poems and scripture would you like to be read?
4. The Last Days – advance decisions and living wills, being in control and letting go.
5. Departing in Peace – Spiritual care, ‘music to go out to’.
6. What comes next – open conversations and reflections.

The course is not aimed at supporting anyone who is grieving. Of course, talking about death may lead to thoughts of those who we love and see no longer, and we shall all be sensitive to each other’s experiences of bereavement and loss. The course is primarily to help us have conversations about death and to be prepared for our own death.
These sessions are open to the congregations, but also to anyone else who may be interested in joining us. Do you know someone you might suggest it to?

Faith Development ‘Faith Books’
When we have a fifth Monday I lead a discussion at 7.30 pm about a book as a way of introducing people to different authors which may pique an interest to read more of their work (or not!).

The next 5th Monday is on 30th August 2021. The book to be discussed is ‘Love Wins’ by Rob Bell. The other books for 2021, and for 2022 are listed below. That should leave plenty of time to get the books or borrow them from someone or from the library.

Monday 29th November: ‘Cranky, Beautiful Faith’, by Nadia Bolz-Weber
Monday 31st January 2022: ‘The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions’, by Marcus Borg and NT Wright.
Monday 30th May 2022: ‘Generous Justice, How God’s Grace Makes Us Just’, by Timothy Keller.
Monday 29th August 2022: ‘In The Shelter: Finding a Home in the World’, by Patrick O’ Tuama
Monday 31st October 2022: ‘Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi’, by Ami-Jill Levine.

Diocesan Pilgrimages
This year was meant to be a year of pilgrimage. It was my intention to offer a led pilgrimage along El Camino Ingles, from the town of Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela, a distance of c.117km (c. 73 miles) over 6 gentle days of walking. The plan is to use a mixture of hostels (refugios or albergues) and hotels, and for people to walk with their rucksack. I plan to take a maximum of a dozen people. If more than a dozen are interested, I may offer a second week, walking from Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre and Muxia (c. 118km in 5 or 6 days). This pilgrimage is now delayed until w/c 16th May 2022. If you are interested please let me know.

The Diocese is offering a range of different pilgrimages, some short day walks close to home, others can be done from your armchair. There will also be a Diocesan conference early in 2022 on the subject of pilgrimage. Look out for details.

Mid-week Services on Zoom
Our services on a Wednesday evening at 7.30 pm follow the regular pattern of services set out below. They are not running in August. They will recommence on 6th September. They are all on Zoom.
* 1st Wed of the month: Healing service (if you wish someone or a situation to be prayed for send an email to me or Marion Mather)
* 2nd Wed of the month: Christian Meditation (a time to settle, a short line of scripture, 15 minutes of silence, and a closing prayer).
* 3rd Wed of the month: Iona Abbey evening service liturgy
* 4th Wed of the month: service in the style of Taizé
If you would be interested in helping with these services, please let me know.

At 9pm every Wednesday evening we hold the service of Compline. Please do join us for this short service of calm and settling prayers before sleep. This service continues throughout August.

Continuing our Mission: Inviting Someone to ‘Come to Zoom Church’
As mentioned before, I would like to encourage you to invite a neighbour or someone from within our communities to join us for a service or one of our group sessions. It could not be easier to invite someone you know locally to join us at a one of our Zoom-based services. You can send them an email if you want or pass them the Zoom meeting information. If you invite them to attend an online Sunday service, then do please give them a copy of the liturgy. Let me know their name, so we know to admit them to the service from the virtual waiting room.

In these times, when people may well be considering their life’s purpose and meaning, an invitation to attend a church service or to join a group may be well received.

Continuing our Mission: Leading Your Church Into Growth Prayer
Each weekday morning we pray for growth in our church. If you are not able to join us online for Morning Prayer at 9 am, can I encourage you to pray this once a day. The prayer is given below.

God of Mission, who alone brings growth to your Church,
send your Holy Spirit to give:
vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, and power to our witness.
Help our church to grow:
in numbers, in spiritual commitment to you, and in service to our local
community,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Maintaining Contact – Email, Social media, YouTube, Zoom, In Touch.
If you have not received an email from me and you have an email address, please can you send an email to me, so I can add it to our contact records. In that way you will get more frequent communications and reduce our postage costs.

Zoom
At present all of our Sunday services and Wednesday evening services are available on Zoom. All of our faith development activities are held on Zoom. It is easy to set up on computer, tablet or smart phone. Even if you don’t have a smart phone, you can phone in and listen to a service. Details of the Zoom-based services and activities are towards the end of this letter. Zoom enables the active participation by members of the congregation, and it is great to be able to see each other’s faces.

Facebook and Website
Information is put on our Facebook pages and is a place to share information too. The St James website now holds the sermon texts and audio recordings of the bible readings and the sermon from each of the recent Sunday services.
We now have our very own YouTube channel. If you search for ‘St James and St Mungo’, you will find a number of videos. It includes the playlists for our services, so you can go back and listen to the hymns at a later date. Please do visit it and subscribe to it. With 100 subscriptions we get a formal channel name rather than an anonymous url link below. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuxnmfrlY0Xl2KRduLummsg)

In Touch Magazine for St James the Less and St Mungo’s
The next issue is due out in August. I would like to encourage you to submit something for inclusion in the magazine; a poem, a review of a book or a film, an article on a subject of interest? You will need to be quick as the deadline for submissions is 1st August. If you wish to submit an article please send them to intouch@stjamesthelesspenicuik.org

Financial giving to St James the Less or to St Mungo’s
Church finances are feeling the effects of the lockdown, as the amounts normally collected in the offertory plate are obviously not currently being collected. If you are able, can I ask you to prayerfully consider setting up a recurring monthly payment to the church via on-line banking, to contribute financially on a regular basis. Details of the bank accounts are given below for each of the churches.

St James the Less:
Monthly donation by bank transfer (include your name in the reference line when setting this up – only the Treasurer knows the name of the donor). Bank details are: St James Episcopal Church Penicuik, acct no 17117264, sort code 80-22-60.

St Mungo:
Monthly donation by bank transfer (include your name in the reference line when setting this up – only the Treasurer knows the name of the donor). Bank details are: St Mungo’s Vestry, acct no 00817851, sort code 80-09-39.

Praying the Daily Offices
In the Daily Offices prayer booklet circulated in July 2020 there are specific prayers for each day of the month. I recommend these to you, as an aid to your prayer life. If you can’t lay your hands on your prayer diary let me know and I will email out or post another one to you.

Regular Services
Morning and Evening Prayer and the Wednesday evening services continue to be led from my study. Sharing the Daily Offices each weekday with others is a wonderful way of connecting, praying and praising together with a natural rhythm of the week. Please do consider joining us at 9 am and or 5.30 pm for about half an hour.

Ecumenical Relations and Community Involvement Work
The Penicuik Ministers continue to meet on Zoom for coffee and chat and supportive prayers on a roughly monthly basis – but not in July and August.

Once a month the Penicuik Churches Together (PCT) has a joint Sunday evening service. On that Sunday our usual schedule will be adapted so that members can attend the PCT service. St James the Less is hosting the service on 28th November (Advent Sunday)!

The EH26 Resilience Group continues to meet regularly on line. It remains a good way to connect in with the needs of our community and support how those needs are met. I am also still attending the Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership ‘Care for People Planning Group’ Zoom meetings. They have been a useful forum to know what is going on and how to access resources, and the longer-term strategic planning for the community around Penicuik.

In Other News…
I am still (two months and counting) working my way through Tom Holland’s book, ‘Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind’. I have a pile of other books I might read over the next few weeks. Progress may depend on the weather.
The Rectory garden is still very much a work in progress. I am just about to pick my early fruiting gooseberries and black currants, and some raspberries. My mange tout and broad beans are developing nicely and will soon be picked for my dinners.

This completes the round up for now. Do get in contact if you have any comments.

Blessings
Nick Bowry
Zoom-based Services

We have settled into a regular pattern of services. Details of these are set out below. You can access them by computer, table or smart phone, as well as by phoning in from your house phone to the numbers given below.

Morning Prayer at 9 am, and Evening Prayer at 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/6289561588?pwd=aGtNeE1ZM3l1Tkluckp3bVJtZkRHQT09
Meeting ID: 628 956 1588
Password: 040775
One tap mobile
+442034815240,,6289561588#,,#,040775# United Kingdom
+442080806591,,6289561588#,,#,040775# United Kingdom

St Mungo, Holy Communion at 10.30 am on Sunday.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93417190423?pwd=K1ZoS0xKUWpRVENGTzFYL3NvakFHQT09
Meeting ID: 934 1719 0423
Passcode: 062021
One tap mobile
+442039017895,,93417190423#,,,,*062021# The United Kingdom
+442080806591,,93417190423#,,,,*062021# The United Kingdom

St James the Less, Holy Communion at 10.30 am on Sunday.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/92002197798?pwd=REp5NHQwVEdSd3A4a09lN1lHOUdnUT09
Meeting ID: 920 0219 7798 Password: 040775
One tap mobile
+441314601196,,92002197798#,,#,040775# United Kingdom
+442034815237,,92002197798#,,#,040775# United Kingdom

Sunday Evening Services at 6.30 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98048072946?pwd=aUFMZ0dTUHIwSE9ISUNzNkdhTERMdz09
Meeting ID: 980 4807 2946 Passcode: 201101
One tap mobile
+442034815240,,98048072946#,,,,,,0#,,201101# United Kingdom
+442039017895,,98048072946#,,,,,,0#,,201101# United Kingdom

Wednesday Evening Services at 7.30 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96303841875?pwd=YmZiYkdNNzZJeWI5cmtZL2RLUWc1Zz09
Meeting ID: 963 0384 1875 Password: 040775
One tap mobile
+442080806591,,96303841875#,,1#,040775# United Kingdom
+442080806592,,96303841875#,,1#,040775# United Kingdom

Wednesday Evening Compline at 9 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95345457224?pwd=TDNoT20vR2dYMVQ5STdsS0lzR0dMQT09
Meeting ID: 953 4545 7224 Password: 040775
One tap mobile
+442080806592,,95345457224#,,1#,040775# United Kingdom
+443300885830,,95345457224#,,1#,040775# United Kingdom

Zoom-based Groups
Church life continues in a variety of forms online. Several groups and sessions have been set up. Details of the existing groups and sessions being run are given below.

‘Monday Evening Studies’
This is a series of studies and discussions, open to all who wish to join us, including anyone you wish to invite – they don’t have to be a member of St James the Less or St Mungo’s.
All of these sessions will use the following link.
Topic: Monday Evening Studies
https://zoom.us/j/97670406222?pwd=WWUzL0dLNHdWdFJ0YVNnLzdvY2w2Zz09
Meeting ID: 976 7040 6222 Passcode: 202101
One tap mobile
+442039017895,,97670406222#,,,,,,0#,,202101# United Kingdom
+442080806591,,97670406222#,,,,,,0#,,202101# United Kingdom

We start these sessions again on 6th September, after the summer break

5th Monday Evenings at 7.30 pm
‘Faith Books’
When we have a fifth Monday there will be a discussion about a book of Nick’s choice, in a series called ‘Faith Books’. Nick has intentionally chosen authors whose style of writing is quite different from each other. Some books are classics, some a more modern authors.
The list for 2021 is:
Monday 30th August: ‘Love Wins’ by Rob Bell
Monday 29th November: ‘Cranky, Beautiful Faith’, by Nadia Bolz-Weber
The list for 2022 is:
Monday 30th January 2022: ‘The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions’ by Marcus Borg and NT Wright.
Monday 30th May 2022: ‘Generous Justice, How God’s Grace Makes Us Just’, by Timothy Keller.
Monday 29th August 2022: ‘In The Shelter: Finding a Home in the World’, by Patrick O’ Tuama
Monday 31st October 2022: ‘Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi’, by Ami-Jill Levine.

If people wish to read these books but don’t wish to buy them, I am happy to lend them out. Get in contact with me if you wish to borrow a book.
These sessions are suitable for people at any stage of their faith journey; from those enquiring to those with many years in the faith.

Weekly Bible Study
Tuesdays at 2pm
This is a chance to discover and explore the Bible through reflection and discussion. Join us whenever you can. We are currently studying St Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians and will be starting studying the fabulous Book of Nehemiah. Why don’t you join us to explore the texts, understand their context, and just as importantly, explore how they speak to us and how they inform us today.
https://zoom.us/j/92510962481?pwd=L1hsaCtiWTh0ZFFib3N0WlluaVlaUT09
Meeting ID: 925 1096 2481
Password: 040775

St Mungo’s House Group
Thursdays at 7.30 pm
Contact Markie Woodifield for further information.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85396710553?pwd=SXMzRjBZN25MVWRrRXdRTDc2OVVudz09
Meeting ID: 853 9671 0553 Passcode: 493913

Monthly Book Group
The fourth Monday of each month at 2 pm
Contact Angela Sibley for further information.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/669139189?pwd=amlpZU1JeGFDWWR3VGpaWStvdTVvQT09
Meeting ID: 669 139 189
Passcode: 040775