FAITH IN ACTION

A series of features which offer updates from the Faith Action Programme.

Rev Dr Scott JS Shackleton

Head: Faith Action Staff – Ministries & Mission Support

I hope you have had a good journey through Lent and Holy Week, as we approach Easter Sunday on 9 April. This is a special date for me, marking the day in 1945 that one of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, died in Flossenburg Concentration Camp. From his prison cell Dietrich wrote these famous words in a letter to his friend: “What really matters is who is Jesus Christ, for us, today?” This is the question we must ask ourselves individually and as a Church. When we have a sense of the answer in light of the Easter experience, we cannot but be blessed. Happy Easter!

Karen Hendry

Convener: Faith Impact Forum

Just as in Advent we celebrate the light shining in the darkness, so at Easter we celebrate new life in Christ in the midst of life’s often harsh reality. To do so is to stand with suffering people in the conviction that God is both with them in their suffering and wills their freedom. Easter hope is seen wherever the body of Christ is present in solidarity with people across the world, and the Forum’s work has been to encourage that through partnerships formed over the years that make a real difference both here in Scotland and in many other countries, in some of which people really struggle to flourish, or even survive. As our Church re-shapes to meet the demands of what lies ahead, I know that this work will continue to show our commitment to live out our prayer – Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Sabine Chalmers

Co-ordinator, Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees

Sanctuary Sunday – The God Who Sees Me

In Genesis (16, 21:8-21) we read the story of

Hagar, Sarah’s slave. At first, she doesn’t seem to be anyone of particular note, especially in contrast to the big promise of a son to Sarah and Abraham. Hagar is a foreigner from Egypt, mistreated by Sarah, fleeing into the wilderness, returning only to be driven away again by her masters. Her time in the wilderness is marked by despair, sorrow and fear of death. But there is One who sees her; One who provides safety, protection and care – sanctuary, in the hardest of places. Both times that Hagar is displaced it is God who seeks her out, cares for her and restores her. In response, Hagar calls God ‘El Roi’ – ‘the God who sees me’. This is a God who knows her pain deeply and doesn’t leave her alone in it, but instead offers her a safe place, promise, and sanctuary from her hardship.

Hagar’s story will be familiar to many people fleeing their homes and seeking sanctuary in Scotland today. Disowned, dehumanised, forced away, scared, searching and hoping, often with children in tow. My biggest wish for people arriving on our shores is that they too can say: “God sees me. God knows my pain, is providing for my needs, and is offering me a place of sanctuary”.

How can we be the hands and feet of God and offer sanctuary to refugees and asylum seekers? How can we embrace the joys and talents that sit alongside their pain and loneliness? I would like to invite you to consider this as we mark Sanctuary Sunday on 25 June 2023. This special Sunday is set aside to say to the refugee and asylum seeker, “We see you, and there is a God who sees you too”.

Congregations across Scotland have welcomed people from all over the world who are seeking asylum, as well as displaced people from Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria. Let’s draw alongside the stranger in our midst and offer up our prayers to Jesus for their safety, protection and integration in our communities.

Visit the Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees website for the latest resources you can use to include in and shape your Sanctuary Sunday services: video testimonies of people seeking sanctuary in Scotland, prayers written by those displaced, reflections and much more!

www.sfar.org.uk/get-involved/promote-sanctuary/ sanctuary-sunday-2023/

Rev Dr Lezley Stewart

Ministries Support Manager

Support for those in Ministry

People serving in ministry offer a great variety of support to those in their parish, congregation and community through some of the happiest and saddest times. But what about support for those who are ministering to others?

It is hoped that those serving in ministry are supported well … by their family, friends, church, community and colleagues.

While many ministers will naturally form their own support networks, the Presbytery also has a role to play, and many Presbyteries have chaplains, or their equivalent, to provide local support.

Faith Nurture also takes the support of those in ministry seriously, and has a small but dedicated Support Team based in the National Offices. The team advises on matters of health and wellbeing, and can access a variety of support opportunities, depending on individual circumstances. As a confidential service, it can be helpful as a starting place, just to talk things through.

As the Church faces many challenges and opportunities, ministers can feel these demands keenly, serving alongside many people with different opinions and outlooks, and from a calling of deep faith, hope and trust in God. If we forget that ministers are like everyone else, with the same work, life, health and family challenges that emerge in life, then we can also begin to presume, wrongly, that ministers are made of stronger stuff than the rest of us!

There are lots of support opportunities for ministers to take advantage of, and one of the most basic is to have time off. Ministers are entitled to seven Sundays’ pulpit supply in a calendar year, an extra Sunday to attend the General Assembly as a Commissioner, and up to two weeks study leave each year after five years’ service. Taking the time off is important, and congregations can do much to encourage their minister in that.

Ministers can also access counselling and coaching services, regular pastoral supervisions and retreats, alongside a variety of learning and development opportunities under the Ascend Programme of Faith Nurture. The team also supports them in grant applications, planning for retirement, and seeking general advice.

In our experience, it is the words of encouragement, understanding of the demands of ministry and the care and compassion of a congregation that go a long way to support ministers in all they do. Thank you for being part of that support network.

Felicity Burrows

Worship Development Assistant

What springs to mind when you encounter the word worship?

You might immediately think of music in a church setting – hymns of praise, hands in the air, perhaps even dancing.

Or you might remember times of spontaneous praise at the wonder of nature, or saying a prayer of thanks when you recognised God’s hand in events in your life.

Worship is all of these things, and more. It’s an attitude and a lifestyle, a way of expressing our love and reverence for God and the whole of creation, a desire to develop our relationship with God. It can be expressed alone or in a gathering. It is word and silence, creativity and action, praise and lament, comfort and encouragement, conversation and listening.

As we reflect on all of these things and find ways of sharing our experiences and insights, we prepare the ground for developing communities that authentically share, pray, learn and worship together. Our “Conversations in Worship” resource is a simple way to share and reflect on our personal experience and encounters with God and how it shapes our worship and spiritual practices. Whether they take place in home groups, Kirk Session meetings, or as an alternative to a sermon, these conversations bring us closer together and provide opportunities to keep noticing God in our daily life.

“ You might remember times of spontaneous praise at the wonder of nature...”

Download Conversations in Worship: www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/conversations-in-worship

For more about the work of the Resourcing Worship team, contact faithnurture@churchofscotland.org.uk

Rev Dr Rory Macleod

Minister Of Strath And Sleat

For our Gaelic readers

’S e àm beothail a th’ anns a’ Chàisg. Tha am fàidh Sechariah a’ cur ri ar dùil is dòchas leis an fhàisneachd aige: “Feuch, tha do rìgh a’ teachd ad ionnsaigh; is Fìrean agus is Slànaighear e; iriosal, agus a’ marcachd air asail” (9.9). As dèidh luisreadh Didòmhnaich na Pailme thig dràma Sguabadh an Teampaill, tiamhaidheachd Diàrdaoin na Bangaid, àmhghar Dihaoine na Ceusta agus, mu dheireadh thall, gàirdeachas Didòmhnaich na Càisge, far an tig a h-uile rud gu buil leis an Aiseirigh. Dè an taobh de bheatha na h-eaglaise no na coimhearsnachd agad a nì thu fhèin fiughair ri bhith air ath-bheothachadh le Dia am-bliadhna?

For further information visit: www.churchofscotland.org.uk