Hello everyone,
In talking to a few people last week everyone agreed that February has been a ‘Meh’ month. There is the promise of better days but they are not here yet. We know the sun is getting higher in the sky and getting warmer but it sure doesn’t feel it. Windy doesn’t quite cut it, many a trampoline or piece of garden furniture has been blown around. All in all its meh because we have the expectation of better days but are living with the reality of them not being here yet. Those conversations brought back into my head the teaching I received in systematic theology that the Kingdom of God was both here now and yet not fully here. We are called to live in a world which we try and make more and more like the Kingdom of God yet understand the full Kingdom of God will not be realised until Jesus comes back. So we live with hints and glimpses but only when all things are fulfilled will we see clearly. Perhaps this is something of what Paul was thinking when he wrote his great passage on love in 1 Cor 13.
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor 13 verse 12
As you go about your daily routine I hope and pray you get a glimpse of the Glory of God in this amazing world.
Please remember in prayer this week:
Week beginning February 23rd Aberlady & Gullane
We remember in prayer this week the leadership and all involved in the life of this community.
Pray for God’s guidance with regard to the planning of property projects and that the young leaders of their Ejam and Jam Clubs (children) continue to flourish.
Week beginning March 2nd Ale & Teviot
We remember in prayer this week the leadership and all involved in the life of this community.
Decisions taken under powers over the last two weeks were:
11/02/2025 Presbytery Council Concur in the disposal of Bedrule, Minto and Southdean church buildings as per the approved Presbytery Mission Plan
13/02/2025 Presbytery Council Presbytery Council give permission for the Mission Committee to develop and deliver a twinning visit to and from the Church of North India and to report back to Presbytery at a later date.
18/02/2025 Presbytery Clerk Appoint Rev Robin Hill to act as Interim Moderator in Northesk during maternity leave for Rev Hayley Cohen.
Agendas Attached
Both Planning and Mission Committees have met and I enclose their latest agenda’s for you to read.
Passing of a Retired Minister
It's with great sadness we have learned that one of our former ministers, Rev Colin Donaldson has died. Colin served with great distinction in the linked charges of Ormiston and Pencaitland before he retired in 1999. He passed away in hospital on Monday 17th February 2025 following a stoke on Wednesday 12th February 2025. This allowed his wife Marion, children (Peter and Gillian) and their spouses to spend time with him. There will be a service in St Leonard's Church, St Andrew's, on Monday 17th March 2025 at 2.30pm. Thoughts are with his wife Marion and his family at this sad time .
A chance to serve
We have received the following from the Nominations Committee of the General Assembly. They are the people who nominate to all the other national church groups. They are looking for a couple of woman elders from our Presbytery. If you want to be sondiered, please send me your contact details and a couple of sentences about your experience. Norman
The Nominations Committee of the General Assembly have a few vacancies and we are keen to try and ensure that we have good representations of individuals and places. To that end we are looking for your assistance in suggesting a couple of names of female elders who may be able to serve for varying lengths of service to complete some vacancies (you are blind copied into the email but we are looking for some people from your presbytery!). It would be good for us to try and move things forward as soon as we can and therefore ask you to help in suggesting a couple of names from your presbytery (along with a wee sentence or two about their experience). We are not necessarily asking you to speak to the person right now, but rather identify them to us so we can put their names into our mix. It would be helpful to have your ideas before the end of the month if at all possible!
Adverts
The Upper Room
An evening of music, words and images by international storyteller, photographer and musician Christian Stejskal.
Yetholm Kirk
Saturday 15th March, 6.30pm
We are delighted to host Christian Stejskal at Yetholm Kirk - please come along (and bring a friend!).
Christian Stejskal is an award winning photographer, violinist, and storyteller. Over the past ten years, he has performed his multimedia shows in nine different countries in Europe, including a critically acclaimed appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe. At the age of thirty, he received a calling from God to travel on foot from his birthplace of Vienna, Austria, via Jerusalem, and then on to the holy city of Axum in northern Ethiopia. He walked on foot across 10 countries in 20 months. In between touring with his multimedia performances, he lives on an island on the Nile in Egypt, where he documents the local farmers and fishermen with his camera.
Christian says: ‘In my performance The Upper Room I narrate chapters 13-17 of John faithfully and by heart. I have travelled the Middle East in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and photographed the cultural landscape in Israel and Egypt in search of visual motifs, illustrating the Biblical scenes, which I display on a screen while rendering the Holy Scriptures’.
More information about Christian can be flound HERE
The performance will last approximately 75 minutes
Doors open 6.00pm
Entry by voluntary donation.
Everyone welcome.
God Bless you all in your walk with him and each other. As always, feel free to share these emails, they are not confidential. Anyone who wants added to the mailing list let us know. Anyone who wants to get involved is most welcome. Anyone with suggestions on how to do things more effectively is even more welcome!
God Bless
Norman