Pilrig St. Paul’s Church June 2012
SUNDAY SERVICES AT 11AM Holy Communion is celebrated on the last Sunday of January, April, June and October at the 11am Service, and informally as announced. To contact the minister, please ring 554 1842. The “OPEN DOORWAY” is open each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am - 1.00pm. Pop in or arrange to meet a friend there over a cup of coffee. Enter by the main door. Our wheelchair entrances are in Pilrig Street. ORGANISATIONS WITHIN THE CHURCH BUILDINGS: Sundays - Sunday Club, 10:45 am for ages P1-S4 all welcome (Mark Wexelstein 665 6881) Mondays - Rainbows 5.45pm (Christine Buchanan 554 2941) Brownies 6.45pm (Christine Buchanan) Tuesdays The Guild 2.00pm (Irene Wexelstein 476 1385) Pilrig Choristers 4-5.30pm Session Room Pilrig Chorus 7.30-9.30pm Sanctuary Wednesdays - Lunch club 12 noon (Marjory McArthur 553 2323) Vocal Vibes and Singchronicity youth choirs 4-5.30pm Halls (All music enquiries Martin Ritchie 07984 466 855) Thursdays - all Sections Boys’ Brigade (Mark Wexelstein 665 6881) In Pilrig Park School: Thursdays Rainbows (Ann Urquhart 554 8387) 6.15-7.15 Brownies (Ann Urquhart ) 6.15-7.30 Guides (Karen Wood 554 5493) 7.30 - 9.00 In Broughton Primary School: Tuesdays The 5th Leith Scouts Beavers 53/4 to 8 years (6.00 to 7.00 p.m.) Cubs 8 to 10 1/2 years (6.30 to 8.00 p.m.) Scouts 10 1/2 to 14 years (7.30 to 9.00 )
YOUTH ORGANISATIONS TAKE A SUMMER BREAK SEE LEADERS FOR DETAILS EVENTS DURING THE SUMMER see also pages 4 and 5 Forum United Service
Sunday 10th June 2012
This year’s Forum United Service is being held in North Leith Parish Church in Madeira Street at 11.00am on Sunday 10th June. All the Forum churches will be sharing in the leading of this service. The Pilrig Choristers will be taking part in the service and there will also be a joint Forum choir. Please come along and share worship and fellowship together with your friends and fellow Christian brothers and sisters in the other Forum churches. THERE WILL BE NO SERVICE IN PILRIG ST PAUL’S ON 10TH JUNE.
PILRIG St PAUL’S CHURCH
JUNE 2012
Dear Fellow-members, It hardly seems a year since I was writing to you about the coming Leith Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011! Looking back to my letter then I was pointing out that “The faithful few who undertake all the essential jobs in the life of our congregation are having to bear too much of the burden! As the years pass so we are faced with needing others to help share the load.” Another year on, this is still very true – even more so, as major personnel changes are coming ever closer! We are currently looking for one or possibly two people to carry forward the exciting and dynamic musical work undertaken by Martin Ritchie over the past 4 years. Martin is responding to God’s call to the Church of Scotland Ministry and will be stepping down from his musical duties at the end of June. Also, as you know, I shall be retiring at the end of October. Together these changes leave many jobs which will need to be covered – a significant number of them currently undertaken by my wife Marlyn. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the Church needs you – God needs you! Please come forward and volunteer to undertake a Church duty in an area you haven’t helped in before! Meanwhile there is much going on! Our Summer worship services will be running for 6 Sundays commencing on 29th July. If you wish to help in the planning or the leading of these services – please let me know as soon as possible. The Pilrig Choristers continue as a much appreciated and valued part of our Church Choir. All 5 Choristers have now each been awarded their first medal marking the completion of the first stage in the “Voice for Life” Course run by the Royal School of Church Music and thereby their formal inclusion as full members of the Pilrig
Choristers. We look forward to them developing further in their singing abilities. We also hope to recruit new Choristers in the new session, commencing in the Autumn. As part of our Leith Parish grouping - Leith Churches Forum - Pilrig St Paul’s will be taking part in the Forum run Tea Tent on Leith Links as part of the Leith Gala on Saturday 9th June. We are taking part in the Forum United Service on the opening Sunday of the Leith Festival. This service is in North Leith Parish Church on Sunday 10th June at 11.00am. There is no service in Pilrig St Paul’s (PSP) that Sunday. Please come along and be part of the life of PSP – your Church! Enjoy the summer and may you know God’s blessing on you and your loved ones! John
PRAYER CORNER Ina Grierson Isabel Hannay Matthew Green Mary and Jimmy Rennie Jeanette and Stuart Sime Peter Sinclair Murdo and Joy McLeod Linda Connolly Jack McArthur Morag Davidson Lilian Kane Barbara Graham
Jean Stark Cathie Galbraith Frances Chambers Bernhard Scroggie Walter Taylor June Welsh Charlie and Joyce Forman Phil Howe Helena Adie Flora Paterson Norman Lawrence
Please contact Roy Eprile with any names you would like included in this section.
EVENTS DURING THE SUMMER Leith Churches Together AGM Tuesday 12th June Acorn Centre Junction Place. Leith Churches Together welcomes the Very Rev. Dr. Sheilagh Kesting, former Moderator, and now Secretary for Ecumenical Relations in the Church of Scotland to be the guest speaker at the LCT AGM under the title “Where is the Action?” Sheilagh Kesting was the first female minister to be elected as Moderator (in 2007) and her ministry has included working with homeless women, parish ministry in Glasgow and Musselburgh, and ecumenical work at national and international level. The evening will include supper (7pm at the Leith Acorn Centre YMCA). Space is limited so please contact Walter McGillivray, tel. 553 1060, wmcgillivray@googlemail.com by Tues. 5th June if you would like to come (no charge but donations welcome). oOoOoOoOoOo
Outline plans to mark Martin Ritchie’s last Sunday as Organist / Choirmaster of Pilrig St Paul’s Church. Plans are taking shape for a Songs of Praise type service at 6.30pm on Sunday 24 June. This will be followed by some light refreshments and an opportunity to meet with Martin and Soo and wish them well for the future. Please note this event in your diary and plan to come along. Together as a church we owe so much to the commitment, skill and enthusiasm of Martin. His vision of outreach through music is developing well in exciting ways and we thank him for all his hard work in God’s Name, with us and with the people in our community.
SUMMER SERVICES Our Summer worship services will be running for 6 Sundays commencing on 29th July. Flower Diary 3rd June 10th June 17th June 24th June 1st July 8th July 15th July 22nd July 29th July 5th August 12th August 19th August 26th August
Flower Fund Forum United Service Flower Fund Jeanette & Stuart Sime Flower Fund Flower Fund Margaret Cameron & Frances McPherson Irene Wexelstein Flower Fund John Brown Ian Quin Flower Fund Evelyn Torrance
GUILD SUMMER MEETINGS 12th June Lunch Victoria Park Hotel 1pm 10th July 2pm 11th September 2pm PILRIG PARLOUR The parlour runs from 6th-25th August, Monday - Saturday, 11.30am 2pm. SEE PAGE 9 FOR DETAILS OF HOW YOU CAN HELP. SHALLOWFORD YOUTH CHOIR VISIT Concert Crawl on Friday 15th June See page 11
THANKS May I say a grateful and sincere thank you to all the folks who have so kindly asked about my health over the past weeks. The kindness which has been shown to us has been heart warming and both Jeanette and I want to say a big thank you to you all. I still have a few more weeks of treatment but hopefully by end of June the doctors will have a much clearer picture of developments. Thanks once again for your good wishes and the beautiful church flowers which we received delivered by the Minister and which were very much appreciated. Stuart Sime Chris Whelan wishes to say Thank You for the lovely flowers and to Lily Gilhooley for delivering them. Open Doorway Thank you to everyone who staffs the Open Doorway on Tuesday and Thursdays from 11.00am -1.00pm. As always we could do with some more volunteers to help with this venture. If you could help once a month, please give me a call on 554 1842 . The Open Doorway will be OPEN on 2nd of August and then CLOSED for 4 weeks, re-opening on Tuesday 4th September. Marlyn Thanks to all who sponsored our walkers in the Forth Bridge Cross on Saturday 28th April. Thanks also to those who walked and also got sponsors from beyond the Church congregation. The total of ÂŁ349.50 was raised for Christian Aid.
THE MAGAZINE Thank you to the minister, and all those who have contributed to the magazine this year. Particular thanks to John Innes who prints it, Margaret and the team who make it up and distribute it, to Stuart Sime who acts as stand - in printer and general advisor, and to my husband Bill Blackwood who proof reads it. Summer will go by all too fast and in no time we’ll start again! Please may I have material for the September magazine by Sunday 19th August? Catriona Blackwood Margaret Cameron thanks all the team who put the magazine together and distribute it. Without their assistance on the last Thursday of the month the magazine could not happen. Enjoy a summer break - see you again on 23rd August. ELDERS’ LONG SERVICE CERTIFICATES Four of our Elders, Jean Ramage, Jeanette Sime, David Fraser and John Innes have each recently completed 30 years service in the eldership of the Church of Scotland. All of them were initially ordained as Elders and served the congregation of Pilrig & Dalmeny Street Church and are now presently continuing to serve on the Kirk Session of Pilrig St Paul’s Church. Their service over all those years is much appreciated by the local congregation and also by the national Church. Marking this special achievement and milestone, the Minister Rev John M.Tait, BD., BSc., during our Easter Sunday celebrations, presented each of the elders with Long Service Certificates, signed by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, The Right Reverend A. David K. Arnott MA., BD.
ROYAL SCHOOL OF CHURCH MUSIC TRIENNIAL FESTIVAL On Saturday 16th June, a massed choir of voices from across Scotland will be meeting to rehearse and sing a festival service of stunning choral music in the magnificent setting of St Mary's Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh at 5pm. The core of the choir will be the professional voices of the cathedral choir, so the sound should be stunning! Admission is free, with a retiring collection, so please come along if you fancy hearing the end result. Martin Ritchie REFURBISHMENT PROJECT 2012 The Congregational Board are pleased to advise that consultations over the past twelve months have now been concluded and estimates have been received for the Rewiring and Replacement of all the Light Fittings in the Sanctuary together with Redecoration of the church at the completion of the work. It has been a very difficult process trying to find the correct style of lights for the Sanctuary as the type with the onion shaped globes presently in use have been there since 1963. The Property Inspection carried out by the Presbytery some time ago highlighted the need to replace all the existing cabling and lighting to meet current Health & Safety standards as all the cabling is now over 50 years old! It will be a large project to undertake and work will commence on the 1st September this year. With a completion date towards the end of October. We have appointed Nicholson Bros. (C.E.) Ltd., Grange Road, Edinburgh, to undertake the entire project - electrical and redecoration. A scaffolding will require to be installed throughout the church to give access to the roof space and it makes sense for the decorators to follow on when this is in place. The church was last redecorated in 1988. From Sunday 2nd September, 2012 all the church services will be held in the Church Hall which follows the pattern over past times
when we required to redecorate the Sanctuary. We will count on everyone to support this effort which will focus on our witness for the future. More detail will be given in the September edition of the church magazine but we wanted everyone to appreciate what is about to happen. The cost of the work is being met by the funds held by the Church of Scotland Central Fabric Fund on our behalf and which may only be used for work of this nature. If you would like more information or detail please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be delighted to discuss any aspects of the programme with you.
Stuart W. Sime Clerk to the Congregational Board PILRIG PARLOUR The parlour this year is from 6-25th August, Monday - Saturday 11.30am-2pm. We are having the same menu: soup, toasties and sandwiches and there will also be cakes and biscuits on sale. We need people to help in the kitchen, and serve and clear tables from 11am - 3pm. PLEASE VOLUNTEER FOR THIS FOR EVEN ONE DAY - IF WE DO NOT GET ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS THE PARLOUR CANNOT TAKE PLACE - SO PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE IT TO OTHER PEOPLE PLEASE VOLUNTEER Could you give dates suitable to you by telephone or on a Sunday Morning to Irene Wexelstein (476-1385) or Jean Ramage (554-0491)
If you cannot really help with the parlour, please come and support us for a light snack and meet some of your friends. ALL THE PROFIT GOES TO CHURCH FUNDS.
FINDING (A) NEW MUSICIAN(S) FOR PILRIG ST PAUL’S The Kirk Session and Congregational Board of Pilrig St Paul’s Church are looking to appoint (a) musician(s) to sustain and develop the worship and music outreach of the congregation in this lively and densely populated urban parish. The post is located in the wider context of the Leith Church of Scotland parish group (North Leith, South Leith, Leith St Andrew’s and Pilrig St Paul’s congregations) with line management through the Kirk Session of Pilrig St Paul’s Church. In recent years, outreach through music has been formally adopted by the Kirk Session as a key aspect of the life of the congregation and the music programme includes two community youth choirs, a junior choristers group, adult church choir and a community chorus. The weekly music programme is currently: Church Choir Rehearses after the morning service on the first Sunday of each month and prior to each morning service for 30-45 minutes. Pilrig Choristers meets 4-5.30pm on Tuesdays during term time and works to the RSCM (Royal School of Church Music) Voice for Life programme. Vocal Vibes is a community choir for boys and girls of primary 3-5 age. It meets on Wednesdays 4-5.30pm in term time. Vocal Vibes have performed two fun musicals, Peace Child and Ocean Commotion in 2011-12. Singchronicity is a community choir for boys and girls from Primary 6 upwards. It meets on Wednesdays 4-5.30pm in term time. The latest project was a staged production of scenes from the musical Grease
Pilrig Chorus is an adult community chorus drawn from a pool of around 60 singers, which works towards two concerts per year, at Christmas and in the spring. It meets on Tuesday evenings from 7.30 -9.30pm. A full job description is now available. If you know of anyone who would like to see this, please feel free to contact John Innes, Mark Wexelstein or John Tait to obtain a copy or have one sent to an interested musician! SHALLOWFORD YOUTH CHOIR VISIT CONCERT CRAWL ON FRIDAY 15th JUNE Many of you will already be aware that we are hosting a visit from the 60 strong Shallowford Youth Choir, from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on the nights of 14th and 15th June. The choir are the chapel choir of a Presbyterian church and have a great reputation for their biennial Scottish tours, when they have been hosted by many Church of Scotland congregations. Please try to come along to support the young singers in one of their mini-concerts on the evening of 15th June. Admission is free, and the concert schedule is: 7pm Performance at Pilrig St Paul's (30 minutes) 8pm Performance at Broughton St Mary's Church, Bellevue Crescent (30 minutes) 9pm Performance at North Leith Parish Church, Madeira Street (30 minutes) You can come to any, or all, of these performances, and we'll be delighted to see you there. Please help to show a warm Leith welcome and bring along your friends, neighbours and families for what will be a great evening. Martin Ritchie
Funerals
26/4/12 Parish
Mr George Douglas
5/7
Elliot Street
14/5/12 Mr James Leadbetter Bonnington Care Home Taken for Rev Alex McAspurren of North Leith Parish Church 16/5/12 District 14
Mrs Agnes Douglas
18/5/12
Mrs Fiona Moxey
22/5/12 District 11
Mrs Georgina Bell
18 Lorne Street
157 Mountcastle Crescent 7 Connaught Place
MINISTER Rev John Tait B.Sc. B.D. - 78 Pilrig Street (554 1842) j.m.tait@blueyonder.co.uk SESSION CLERK John Innes - 33 Monktonhall Place, Musselburgh (665 9125) pilrig@btinternet.com CLERK TO CONGREGATIONAL BOARD Dr Stuart W. Sime - 1 South Trinity Road (552 9652) stuart.w.sime@btinternet.com TREASURER Mark Wexelstein (665 6881) mark.wexelstein@googlemail.com ROLL KEEPER Mrs Jeanette E. Sime - 1 South Trinity Road (552 9652) SAFEGUARDING CO-ORDINATOR Mrs Catriona E.W. Blackwood - 4 Cambridge Gardens (554 6183) bill.blackwood@tesco.net PROPERTY CONVENER Dr Stuart W. Sime - 1 South Trinity Road (552 9652) stuart.w.sime@btinternet.com HALL LET GROUP psp.halluse@gmail.com 07842047093 (Answer phone) ORGANIST and CHOIRMASTER Martin Ritchie - 18, Catherine’s Wynd, Woodhead, Culross, Fife (07984 466 855) martinsritchie@googlemail.com SUNDAY CLUB LEADER Mark Wexelstein (665 6881) mark.wexelstein@googlemail.com CHRISTIAN GIVINGS CONVENERS Mrs Ella Gilfillan - 8 Paisley Terrace (661 2281) Mrs Irene Wexelstein - 15 Upper Hermitage (476 1385) MAGAZINE Editor - Mrs Catriona E.W. Blackwood - 4 Cambridge Gardens (554 6183) bill.blackwood@tesco.net Distribution Mrs Margaret Cameron - 35 Lorne Street (554 2139)
KY12 8EU
Scottish Charity no. SCO07277 www.pilrigstpauls.org.uk www.leithchurchesforum.org.uk