Dear Friends

France is a favourite country of ours. Over the years there have been many excellent holidays in the country. Brittany, Paris, Chartres, Carcassonne, Bourges, Toulouse, Poitiers, Tours, Avignon, Annecy – each has provided (some more than once) the centre for touring surrounding towns and countryside. We have close friends who live in a small town outside Toulouse, so some of our visits have been close to living like locals – which is always a different experience.
Sadly, in many country villages visited, a visit to the local church has proved sad and depressing. The sense of emptiness and abandonment is sometimes very tangible. Like a rose well past its full bloom, gently decaying while still giving glimpses of its former glory, the church will stand in a village square, bypassed and feeling forgotten. An occasional funeral may come to the churchyard, and bring a crowd, but on a Sunday worshippers are few, and the interior seems always dark and musty.

Historians could sketch for us the reason why the Church in rural France has come to this. Why church attendance is dying out.

There are parts of Scotland, where there are similar concerns. Many of our rural Borders churches labour under the same sense of becoming meaningless to the general population. Not all of them by any means, but we do detect signs of disconnect. How many children and grandchildren no longer are to be found in the pews where their grandparents sit?

It’s part of the task ahead of us, looking towards days when Covid-19 is under some degree of control, to encourage people to take up again the habit of church going. After all, several months of no church for some will lead to a breakdown in a life-long habit. And yet, the congregation gathered in worship is a powerful factor in the nurturing of faith. Our religion has always recognised that worship is best done together. The cry of the people of Israel by the waters of Babylon could well be our cry – “how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land”. In other words, can we really truly worship God in a society where church attendance is falling away?

The answer in ancient Babylon was the emergence of synagogue worship. Although far from the Temple in Jerusalem, the faithful could approach God in prayer and praise.

As you’ll read elsewhere, for the very best of reasons neither the Old Parish Church or Edddleston are likely to open for Sunday worship for a time yet. But as soon as it is wise and careful of the health of our people to reassemble we assuredly will.

If that is going to be a joyful moment, then think on these things. How can each one of you contribute to a good return? Think on that question. Pray about it. What can you say to your friends and neighbours to perhaps get them thinking about it too. We need a feeling of calling, and an intentionality about our return. Just to drift in and think that things will carry on as before, well that may be too weak a response as, together, we seek to reboot church! For the glory of God, and the spiritual sustenance of the people.

Grace and peace,

John

Dear Friends

When I was a student in Geneva in the early 1970’s, I lived in a student college in Celigny, a small village about 20 Kms from the city. Also in the village lived Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Burton spent a lot of time there, and occasionally came to dine with the Principal of our college.

Our pub was the Hotel de Soleil, but Burton favoured the Cafe de la Gare. As was fairly normal, on the day of his death he had spent a convivial evening with the locals and his guest and fellow actor, John Burt. At closing time, they crossed the railway and went home to the Burton house, where he suffered a massive stroke and died.

The next night, le patron of the Cafe had a special offer in place. Here was the very bottle from which the famous man had partaken his last drink. Perhaps the customer would like to sample a glass. Of course, in the circumstances….it would be necessary to charge a little extra- mais oui!

The miraculous thing was the number of subsequent evenings on which the same offer was made to any new face that entered the bar. There were two suspicious circumstances. Firstly, it was inconceivable that Monsieur Richard would leave a glass behind in a bottle of good wine. Secondly, the level of wine in the bottle never dropped. Nor did it seem to go stale with the passing days. Un vrai mystère!

When I think back to that fascinating time, it occurs to me that the bottle of red wine could be referred to as “the gift that kept on giving”.

It’s an interesting phrase. It brings together concepts of giving and receiving for example. There’s no direct biblical quotation that has Jesus saying it is more blessed to give than to receive. But the Apostle Paul is quoted in Acts, as he says farewell to the Ephesians “the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” So it’s a quote by Luke, of a quote by Paul, of a quote by Jesus. But I think we would be happy enough to recognise something that our Lord would be likely to have said. Another Beatitude really.

In the context, Paul was drumming up the Ephesians’ generosity to the weak and poor. Who in the equation would be receivers? And it’s often seemed to me that giving and receiving are both difficult things to do sometimes. In the same way that it is sometimes much harder to be a guest than a host.
In the current Covid 19 crisis – and it IS current no matter what the crowds on Bournemouth beach imagine – there have been many examples of good and bad coming in the form of good and bad behaviour. Vast numbers of people have served their fellow citizens in professional roles or in volunteer positions. And done so uncomplainingly and bravely sometimes. While on Bournemouth beach……..

But speaking to people around the congregation and elsewhere it is obvious that there are huge numbers of quiet acts of care and love that far outweigh the selfish ones.

So the gift that keeps on giving, what of that? In the turmoil of these times we could think of several words on which to alight. So I offer you this thought. In every act of picking up the phone, extending an offer to bring shopping, or go to the chemist. In every time spent listening to someone struggling with the loneliness which has often been the companion of lockdown. In these things there is love – the gift that keeps on giving. And the First Letter of John reveals to us the Christian response to Covid19, and the myriad woes of this world.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

Grace and Peace

John

Dear Friends
I need a barber! And a dentist! (Those who follow peeblesold.online will have noticed that I have lost a crown.) And a chiropodist, and someone who can operate on my mobile phone). Such are the ongoing frustrations of the coronavirus. On the positive side. I’ve used hardy any petrol, and I haven’t been to an ATM in ages.

Of course, these things are utterly trivial compared to the heartbreak, suffering and loss that COVID-19 has wreaked on our lives. I was pondering this morning. I was born and brought up in Dumfries, a busy traditional Scottish county and market town. The UK death toll from the virus has now exceeded the population of Dumfries. A whole town wiped out and more!

Some of the deaths have affected us even more closely and deeply. And when we take into account the many who have been ill and recovered, the majority of us will know folk who have had to fight the virus.
Add to all that the worries about jobs, unemployment, schools, the economy generally it is a heavy burden our society is having to deal with. What surprises most is the speed with which our ways of life have been comprehensively changed. We all wonder, I think, will the old ways return? Perhaps not all of them will. Perhaps some of them should not.
Which of us wholeheartedly embraces change? Very few. It’s part of the human condition to be wary of disturbance around us. And yet our survival as specks on the panorama of the universe depends on gradual restoration and transformation.

Our Scriptural record shows it. Jeremiah stood at the Temple gate and said: “Look for the ancient paths”! Restoration! The same prophet also warned the people not to think that by chanting “This is the temple of the Lord…the temple of the Lord….the temple of the Lord” that they would be saved. Transformation! That’s where we are. Perhaps where we have always been.

Finlay Macdonald, elsewhere in the magazine, will be saying something about the current thinking of the Church of Scotland – which had begun a process of deep self-examination when Covid-19 came along.

Here in the Old Parish and in Eddleston we are following the rules carefully. We do not want to put anyone in any kind of danger. So many things in our corporate life have been put on hold. In worship terms, we produce a new set of worship resources every week. What we are doing is fairly unique. We are not streaming a church service. But ministers, organist, and church members (oh, not forgetting the bell ringers!) are coming together to provide tools to bring worship into your own homes.

We recognise that not everyone has access to the internet. So now
you can listen to the material, too, by dialling 0113 467 8156. Anytime, 24/7. If you have a calls package from your telephone provider, this should be free. Otherwise you just pay your standard rate. The call will last approximately 20 minutes.

The choir continues to meet on a Thursday evening, courtesy of Zoom. I popped in to say hello, (online of course), and I can assure you that they are all in exuberant mood.

Pastoral contact has to be by phone. I’ve been phoning round folk, basically to introduce myself and to enquire how things are going for them. Thank you for so many hearty, warm welcomes. And look forward to the day when we can meet face to face.
Rev Pamela Strachan has been able to join the ministry team again after an enforced overstay in New Zealand. We are delighted to see her back, and she will be contributing to worship from time to time. She is now serving as Locum Minister in Upper Tweeddale, where she lives, but is able to offer us a day each week as part of the new arrangement. The ministry team has identified the fact that after the sore loss of Lorraine Mulholland the Eddleston Kirk folk will need support and pastoral accompaniment in particular ways, and to begin with at least Pamela will make that healing process the focus of her work. This is not to say
that either Finlay or I will not be available to Eddleston in our respective roles, but we are very grateful that Pamela brings her sensitivity and pastoral kindness to the folk there in this time of need.

Grace and peace to each one of you

John

Revd John R Smith
Locum Minister