6 mins
LETTERS
Plate Preservation
What strokes of genius for Jackie Macadam to find out in the course of her inquiry into uniting and linking parishes and then to tell us (February’s Life and Work) that elder Kirkpatrick Dobie – with committed help from his wife Rachel after her retirement – has completed decades of work to build a precious database of every piece of pewter and silver communion ware in the care of our churches all across the whole country! And such a fine photo of Kirkpatrick on the job too!
I wonder if the determination of another unique man – also with the help of his wife – to do all he could over the years to record and preserve pewter sacramental ware is as well known and appreciated in the Church as it should be. When the late Alex Neish of Edinburgh, São Paulo and Barcelona discovered early on that churches had begun to sell off their pewter to pay for building repairs, heating and so on, he always made a point of trying to buy it as he felt they were part of Scotland’s heritage. Alex, who died recently, donated his entire collection of British pewter to The Stirling Smith Museum. There is a Scottish section in the inventory which can be accessed at www.pewterbank.com under the heading of pewter displays (exhibitions). The Neish Pewter Collection – a catalogue by Patricia Neish. See Chapters 12 Chalices and Cups and 13.2 Scottish Flagons. In the said ware section there is Scottish Communion Plate. It should all be safe there.
Jack Kellet (Rev), Innerleithen
Pilgrimage Appeal
Mr Kellet’s experience (Holy Land Today, Life and Work, February 2020) sadly reflects the reality of some pilgrimages to Israel and Palestine. Even today, pilgrims (including some groups from Church of Scotland congregations) visit only the dead stones of the holy sites (which, ironically, the Israeli authorities often prevent our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters from visiting), without any attempt to meet the ‘living stones’ or see the realities of the current situation.
To meet and listen to the living stones can be wonderfully enriching.
Here is what someone on a recent World Mission Council pilgrimage wrote: ‘Nothing can match the experiences we had: in a Bedouin village, meeting a former Israeli Ambassador [now a leading critic of the current Israeli leadership], being taken round an Israeli settlement by a settler, making a meal together with women in a refugee camp in Bethlehem, or going through the Bethlehem checkpoint in the early morning with workers.’ And the impact from that pilgrimage has been significant: a Palestinian meal raising funds for a centre for young people with learning disabilities; letters to MPs about the threat of demolition to a Bedouin village the group visited; four people planning to return to Bethlehem to help during olive picking season; donations from congregations for the work of the Church’s partners in Palestine or for the Tent of Nations Olive Grove Chapel; and talks and articles aplenty.
A pilgrimage can, and should, introduce us to people and situations we formerly knew nothing of, but, once encountered, will remain in our hearts and prayers.
The newly-formed Faith Impact Forum has the knowledge and contacts to help you make that happen.
Maureen Jack, lately Convener, Church of Scotland Middle East Committee, St Andrews, Fife
Cartoon: Bill McArthur
Funeral Statistics
The statistics relating to “Crosses in memory of drug victims” (Life and Work – February 2020) sharply illustrate the cruel reality of life expectancy in an inner city parish. The Rev Brian Casey reports of having conducted 500 funeral services in the last five years (an average of two a week over that period). He reveals that drug taking involved over one third of that figure.
Not only am I saddened for the bereaved and their families but also alarmed that Brian Casey has had to personally undertake such a continuous volume of work on behalf of our national church. It is surely time for Glasgow Presbytery to act and ensure clerical support is afforded to the Rev Casey and his momentous duties shared.
Allan C Steele, Giffnock
Disinvestment Debate
Since last year’s General Assembly, members of Dunscore Church Congregational Board have taken a close interest in the arguments in these pages and elsewhere about the pros and cons of the Church of Scotland investing in fossil fuels companies. We have discussed the matter at recent Board meetings and concluded that, at a time of Climate Emergency, we cannot permit our money to be invested in these companies.
Even if the arguments for engaging with the companies and influencing their actions were valid, it is still not appropriate, in our opinion, for our church (or for that matter, the Church of Scotland) to profit from companies that are a cause of increasing poverty and misery in some of the poorest parts of the world.
We have called on the Church of Scotland to divest from fossil fuel companies at this year’s General Assembly. We very much hope that the decision this year will be to divest but, if this is not the case, we will remove our money from the Church of Scotland fund and suggest that other churches might wish to do the same.
John Drabble, Clerk to the Dunscore Church Congregational Board, Dumfries, Dumfriesshire
Landmark Year
With Burns’ Night done again around the world, the air is clear to move on to other anniversaries.
In 1420, the 1st Duke of Albany died. He was Regent for the uncrowned King James I, a prisoner in London, 1406-1424. Magnus Magnusson (Scotland,2001) gives Albany sole credit for St Andrews University (early years 1410-1414), but most still claim Bishop Henry Wardlaw as Founder. Robert and Henry both feature on the 1415 Mace. Albany’s grand-daughter married Sir Walter Buchanan.
In 1520, a Bible in Scots, based on the 1382 Wycliffe translation, appeared. This was just ahead of Luther’s 1522 Bible in German and Tyndale’s English New Testament of 1525. In 1625, King James VI and I died with the funeral in Westminster Abbey.
In 1720, General Wade was despatched to the Highlands to build roads and enhance ‘connectivity’, very much a two-way street.
In 1920 in St Andrews, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club took control of the Open after the Great War hiatus. The 150th staging of the Open will be in St Andrews in 2021.
With all above celebrations, Scotland should be well prepared for the global climate conference in November 2020 in Glasgow – a zero-carbon aspirational city.
J Michael Buchanan, London
Nurturing Faith
I read with interest the article by the Very Rev Dr John Chalmers article ‘Nurturing Faith’ (Life and Work, February) and in it he states that it is often through the influence of a well balanced kindly and inspirational figure who has been part of their life that faith is nurtured.
This person (for me) was the minister in my Sunday School and Youth Fellowship days who later married us in 1965 and in due course christened our three children. In 1966 he asked me to become an Elder, an honour I accepted – and have served ever since.
I became the Presbytery Elder for our church some years ago and was stunned last year when asked to be Moderator of our Presbytery.
Little did I think that the influence of my late minister the Rev Hugh Shankland Young would still be inspiring me today.
R Allan Richardson, Beith
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This article appears in the April 2020 Issue of Life and Work
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