St Serf's News and Events

Rector’s Letter - August

Dear Friends,
In June we begin to wind down for the summer holidays but this year I had the privilege of hosting a three day visit from the Bishop of Calcutta, Ashoke Biswas and his chaplain Nigel Pope. It was a busy three days with visits around the Diocese to Perth, the Angus Glens and Stirling/Bridge of Allan, as well as meeting people locally. The purpose of the Bishop’s visit was to pursue the possibility of a partnership link between our two Dioceses and it very much looks as if we will go ahead and establish the link. This is exciting because we will be linking with a Diocese in the Church of North India, a united church so that there will be possibilities for ecumenical developments here in Scotland. There are already a great many historical Scottish links with Kolkata, the city’s current name though the Diocese retains the old name. Forty years ago several denominations, including the Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist and Methodist churches in North India came together to form one church, retaining elements of each in their governance and their practice of worship.
In November I will return the visit together with Dominic Ind, Rector of St Saviour’s, Bridge of Allan. Dominic is our resource person for interfaith dialogue as well as, like me having previous experience of India. Then in the spring of next year our own Bishop David will go to Kolkata to deal with the formal linkage business. For the future this will mean sharing prayer support, possibilities for mutual service by exchange of volunteers, youth and school exchanges, and training opportunities for clergy and laity. Kolkata is home to the prestigious Bishop’s Theological College and the Diocese of Calcutta has both primary and secondary schools for which it is responsible as well as a range of outreach projects caring for the poor and for AIDS sufferers. I look forward to sharing more about the link after November and I hope we will be able to bring some of our Indian visitors to West Fife in the coming months and years.
Yours in Christ
Val Nellist

Rector’s Letter - June 2010

Dear Friends,
It was good to have representation from each of the ABI Churches at the Casting the Net Gathering in the Cathedral on the 15th May. There were workshop sessions about enlivening a range of aspects of church life; from spirituality and prayer to ‘Messy Church’ and drumming. I went to the ones on ‘Messy Church’, ‘Godly Play’ and drumming which were all great fun, instructive and spiritual too. All three were for children as well as adults with lots of ideas for what we might do as we begin to have more children joining us on Sundays and at other times. Yes, let’s think and act positively!
The next item on the Casting the Net agenda for us in the ABI Group is a meeting for our Vestries with Bishop David. This means we will be undertaking the Mission Action Planning process during the coming year, beginning after the summer holidays. This will pick up from and take us beyond the Making Your Church More Inviting work we did with Mission 21 ten years ago. It will bring us into congregational development and will help us become more outward looking. The preparatory book, ‘Mission Shaped Spirituality’ reminded us that Jesus sent his disciples out to tell people about the good news of the kingdom by word and action. Good news too that some of the workshop sessions from the Gathering will be made available locally at Area Council meetings. Look out for these and you might find out what ‘Messy Church’ and ‘Godly Play’ are about or you could just ask me about them.

Yours in Christ
Val Nellist

St Serf’s Walks 2010

St Serf’s has an active but gentle walking group. The 2010 season of walks is well underway . If you wish to join in any of the walks contact aefchristie@btopenworld.com for further details.
12 June Pittenweem to Anstruther
10 July TBA
14 August Edinburgh
11 September Weekend Away
9 October Kinghorn Loch to Pettycur
13 November Leslie Reservoir
11 December Crossgates or South Queensferry to Dalmeny

Stuart Baynham’s Sponsored Head Shave!!

Rector’s Letter - April

Dear Friends,
At last we seem to be moving into spring, albeit slowly. The ice and snow certainly took their toll in broken bones and head injury resulting from falls. I was glad to see the Revd Jean Cook home from hospital and back on her feet after her potentially serious injury. But I have to confess to rather enjoying the snow, especially as it gave us spectacular views of mountain scenery on our weekend away in Glen Nevis back in February. There has not been snow like that for some years so we made the most of it. For me it brought back happy memories of childhood on a Pennine farm when snow would block our road for weeks, giving us time off school to spend sledging and exploring a changed landscape. However, a hard winter makes us rejoice all the more in the arrival of spring and the longer daylight.
There is of course a correlation between our experience of the hardships of winter and that of the Lenten journey, onwards through Passiontide to the joy of Easter. Those of us who were able to use the Lenten season to wrestle with the book ‘Mission Shaped Spirituality’ found ourselves in the darkness; the darkness of wondering how we might move from the traditional expectation that people will come to us the church, to a different expectation. The different expectation is that of Christ who told the apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. How will we move from come to go? Well, with God all things are possible and darkness is no barrier, so already we have some ideas that we intend to develop over the coming months. The important thing for us all to remember is that we all have gifts and strengths and it is these that God calls us to work with; go with what we have, it will be enough.
Yours in Christ
Val Nellist

Rector’s Letter

Dear Friends,
It was a joy to bring something as positive as the ideas flowing from the Casting the Net programme to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity services at Aberdour and Inverkeithing. The shift in the management of the Diocese so that the focus is on the local churches to enable mission initiatives appropriate to their culture and setting is going to make a huge difference. That is if we in the local churches are ready to think about what those initiatives might be and what we might need from the Diocese in the way of resources and support.
In preparation for the work we will be doing in the ABI Group by Easter each of the churches will have used the ‘Mission Shaped Spirituality’ book either as a course of study or for private reading. I hope that it will be possible to work with the Diocesan facilitators soon after that to look at our mission opportunities and support needs. We have two Casting the Net Liaison Officers for the ABI Group, Marjorie Smith at St Peter’s and Sarah MacMillan for St Serf’s and St Columba’s. They are the channel for information from the CTN Action Group. Sarah has just joined me as a member of the CTN Action Group, taking over from Ian Harper who was in at the beginning of it. In addition Sarah and I will be part of the team of Diocesan Facilitators and I am currently involved in two of the pilot consultations, at Forfar and Kinross. By the time we roll out the full programme after Easter we should have ironed out most of the glitches.
As we enter the season of Lent then, we should be thinking about what it means for us to obey Christ’s command to go with him and be fishers of people.

Yours in Christ
Val Nellist

Rector’s Letter

Dear Friends,
Those of you who have seen us since we returned from Nepal will know that we are still feeling overwhelmed by the experience of visiting Ghunsa school and health post. The two of us were visitors there on the day the men of the community began the construction of their new health post and we were welcomed as VIPs with garlands and khata scarves. As trekkers linked with Community Action Nepal whose project it is, Robert and I had the privilege of representing the charity; something we had certainly not expected to be doing.
So Christmas came early for us and I am not being flippant in saying that. We were part of the joy of a whole community at receiving something they had longed and worked for over many years. There were excited and expectant children as well as their parents and grandparents, there were decorations and speeches but most of all it was the culmination of a series of acts of love and care for that community. Tej Tamang our guide throughout the trek and a local director of Community Action Nepal had a lifelong ambition to bring education and healthcare to the hill villages. Now he is seeing that ambition realised in places across the country. Fund raisers in Britain with a love for the Nepali people are seeing the amazing results of their efforts; much improved health among people where tuberculosis was endemic and excellent results in the field of education which have recently carried some of the young people through into further and higher education. This is indeed good news in a land so recently subject to the violence of Maoist insurgency and military retaliation. I ask your prayers for continuing stability and peace in Nepal, and for the small Christian church in Ghunsa.
Yours in Christ
Val Nellist

Preparing the ground for the new health post.

The old health post in part of the school with the two nurses and their helper.

Ghunsa with the blue roof of the school building.