PSP 202106 by Pilrig St. Paul's Church

PILRIG St PAUL’S CHURCH JUNE 2021

Please consider making a donation by visiting our website www.pilrigstpauls.org.uk and donate using the PayPal button. You can also use the QR code below by scanning it on your mobile phone.

We have also set up a JustGiving page and the url is https://www.justgiving.com/edinburghpilrigstpaulsparishchurch We do have to pay a handling fee for any donations received through PayPal or JustGiving so don’t receive the full amount donated. If you shop online you can support the church when you shop on Amazon. If you are using their webpage can you go to https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ and you can select Edinburgh: Pilrig St Paul’s Parish Church of Scotland as the charity. For certain purchases we will receive up to 1.5% as a donation. You can now change the settings on their app and select the same charity name. Thank you for your continued support and hopefully we will all be able to meet again soonish to worship together. Mark Wexelstein Email treasurer@pilrigstpauls.org.uk

Phone 0131 665 6881

INFORMATION re PILRIG St PAUL’S MAGAZINE We welcome articles and thank you letters from members and friends. Articles are published in both the printed magazine and on-line, unless otherwise arranged with the editor (eg. where personal information is concerned, including the names in the prayer corner, it would normally be omitted from the on-line version). All contributors must provide their name, please, which is normally attached to the article. We reserve the right to edit articles. Changes other than spelling or grammar will, where possible, be discussed with the contributor. The views expressed are those of individual contributors and not necessarily those of Pilrig St. Paul’s Church or the Church of Scotland.

PILRIG St PAUL’S CHURCH JUNE 2021

Services take place in the Sanctuary (please pre book) They will also be live streamed on Facebook, and available afterwards. To use our booking system for attending worship, please text 07738 620369 or email bookings@pilrigstpauls.org.uk (preferred). You can also phone and leave a message. We will contact you if we are able to accommodate your booking. The number of seats in the church is now increased as we can use the gallery if needed. We look forward to welcoming more people over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate people turning up at the door on a Sunday without a confirmed booking. Please book your place by midday on the Friday before the service.

From our minister

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Acts 2: 4-6 Dear All, At Pentecost, the borders and boundaries of Jesus’ followers were rapidly extended as the Good News of God’s deeds was broadcast far beyond their original audience. The message that was being shared amongst a select group of people was suddenly expanded to include all of the known world. The Holy Spirit had been set loose and things would never be the same again. This has been a year of reinvention and innovation in the Church. The development of online worship, zoom coffee mornings, digital newsletters, and Facebook Live has rapidly expanded our audience far beyond the boundaries of our buildings and our lists of previous worshippers. The reach of many local churches has never been wider. However, as we return to normal the temptation will be to go back to how things were before the pandemic, and to see these innovations as temporary solutions to a specific situation. But having had the doors of the church flung open wider than ever, the Spirit is calling us to keep our reach wide. The Spirit calls us to continue welcoming those who would never have found us without the new innovations of the past year. This new audience can not be expected to revert to our former ways of doing things – especially when it comes to our worship. 4

You will read elsewhere about a move towards a Church that is more people-centred and less building-centred – a Church that seeks to send out the Good News of our faith to where people are at, rather than a Church that seeks to bring people in to fill its pews on a Sunday morning. Just as on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been set loose again and can’t just be shut back inside our buildings. The Holy Spirit is moving us to communicate the Good News of our faith to others using the languages and technologies of today’s digital society. Blessings Mark

During the Christian Aid week service we enjoyed hearing about present projects providing clean water. If you would still like to donate, it can be done either by putting a marked envelope in the plate on Sunday, using our other methods of giving outlined in the front cover, or go to: Christian Aid Week 2021 - JustGiving www.justgiving.com › campaign › caw2021 If you can, please continue collecting……… Plastic milk bottle tops: blue or green with a 2 or 4 on them. At present we do not need any other types of top, thank you. Flower bags Stamps: cut out used postage stamps leaving a 1 cm margin Thank you for all those donated recently. 5

THE CHURCH REFORMED AND REFORMING The restructuring of The Church of Scotland is a subject of national, regional and local effort at present. Many of our traditional Church structures and systems belong to a different time in history, and we are wasting a lot of precious resources (time, energy, and money) in keeping these structures and systems going. Those of us who have grown up in the Church of Scotland are familiar with the traditional Parish model of church life, but if we are to fulfil the church's mission in sharing the gospel to others, we need to be a people who are prepared to incarnate the gospel in the many and various expressions of contemporary culture. At the same time the Church also needs to address the issues of declining numbers of members, ministers, and income. In order to tackle these issues the Church is proposing a radical shake up from top to bottom. In order to free up some of our resources to become more missional and innovative, we need to make some substantial cuts to many of the traditional systems and structures we currently have. The number of Presbyteries, Ministries, and buildings across the Church of Scotland is having to be heavily reduced. In some parts of the country cuts in Ministry personnel will be as high as 40%. e.g. the Ministry allocation for Edinburgh is to be reduced to 48.5 full time equivalent posts (a cut of 30 ministries from the previously imposed quota of 2011). When it comes to our buildings, great effort is being put towards ensuring that we keep “the best equipped spaces in the right places”. Sadly this means that many Church properties will need to be sold. Every Presbytery has until December 2022 to devise its own plan to reach these new targets. 6

At a local level, the One Church for Leith group is already looking at ways to implement this new legislation from the General Assembly. We are seeking to develop a Team Ministry approach for the Leith Churches. At present it is not known what Ministry allocation we will receive from the Presbytery, but a reduction in the number of Ministers will need to be made. We will also have to decide how many of our current buildings we need to retain, how many we may need to re-purpose for other uses, and how many we may need to sell. All of which will need to be done over the next 3-5 years. Such adaptation and innovative risk-taking finds roots in our Reformed tradition – Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda - "The Church reformed and always reforming".

THANK YOU We have received thanks from many members for prayers, flowers, cards, visits, phone calls, texts and support received following illness, celebrations, bereavements and accidents.

THIS IS A REDUCED VERSION OF THE MAGAZINE FOR GENERAL PUBLICATION. MEMBERS AND ADHERENTS WHO WOULD LIKE A FULL PRAYER, PASTORAL and BEREAVEMENT OR THANK YOU LIST, OR A FINANCIAL UPDATE ARE ASKED TO CONTACT: magazine@pilrigstpauls.org.uk

PASTORAL CARE AND MAGAZINE Dear All, It has been good to see more people in Church. I have enjoyed being there and think it is worth the effort of booking. We all look forward to a time when that is not necessary, but we have no date for that yet. We have phoned and sent cards and flowers to several members this month, thanks to Mark Foster, Christine Edington and Aileen Fraser. and all members of the telephone trees scheme.

Like many others, I have enjoyed Worship in different places. One was the American Episcopal Church in Rome. We enjoyed the Service (except the chewing gum on my hymnbook!). Afterwards Bill went to talk to the organist and when I had handed the offending hymnbook to someone on duty, I went outside for coffee. As I got to the serving table the person in front of me was saying “We should keep him in the Pulpit!” When she turned round and saw a stranger she was flustered briefly, and then explained “the girl who makes the coffee didn’t turn up today, so Father Peter made it and it tastes of – well nothing really – I would advise juice!” There will be a magazine in July this year, but not in August. Thank you for articles received this month. Please may I have articles for July by 20th June? Catriona Blackwood Pastoral Committee Member and Magazine Editor 554 6183 magazine@pilrigstpauls.org.uk

Prayer Corner Please remember in your prayers members and friends of the congregation who are ill or infirm at this time. A full list is available in the printed version of the magazine. Please let the minister or me know of someone to include in this section. Catriona Blackwood

CHURCH ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL INFORMATION As well as the magazine, updates are available on the website and facebook page. Radio, TV, Internet Audio and Visual clips and some live streaming worship services that you can listen to and watch from home: Thought for the Day: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00szxv6 BBC Radio Four Sunday Worship: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnds Songs of Praise: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006ttc5 Recommended Podcast: https://robbell.com/portfolio/robcast/ WordPress site at https://onecfl.wordpress.com/ where you will find prayers, reflections and other items provided by the Ministers from the four Leith churches. Church website: http://www.pilrigstpauls.org.uk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pilrigstpauls/

If you wish to follow the readings that we use in church each Sunday you can access them at https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu// For information regarding Girl Guiding and Scouts: www.girlguiding.org.uk hello@scouts.scot

Perils of Weather They came to fix the chimneys, the chimneys, They came to fix the chimneys – weeks and weeks ago! The rain demanded a look-in, a look-in, The rain demanded a look in - for days and days and days! The men, they worked whenever they could, whenever they could, The rain fought on steadfastly – guess which one won! The scaffolding was in the garden, the garden, The scaffolding was in the garden, for weeks and weeks on end! We planted the seeds in pots, in pots, We planted the seeds in pots, to transplant soon. The seeds they grew - the scaffolding it stayed, The plants will bloom in pots this year There’s no other way! CB

CONTACT DETAILS PILRIG St PAUL’S CHURCH 1b Pilrig Street Edinburgh EH6 5AH www.pilrigstpauls.org.uk

Church Office 0131 553 1876

HALL LETS - NO BOOKINGS ARE BEING TAKEN MEANTIME When we are able to re-open our halls we will publicise this on our website, intimations and the magazine. Scottish Charity no. SCO07277 www.leithchurchesforum.org.uk