Old Parish and St Paul’s Church, Galashiels Old Parish and St Paul’s Church of Scotland, Galashiels, is a Charity, SC010389, regulated by OSCR

~ Linked with St John’s Church, Hawthorn Road, Langlee, Galashiels TD1 2JZ ~ ~ In Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles (www.melrosepeeblespresbytery.org.uk) ~

Newsletter ♦ October 2019

Interim Moderator:

Rev. Dr David 07817 479866 Donaldson

Locum Minister:

Rev. Neil Combe 755869 / 07730 941076

Session Clerk: David Leckey 757631

Board Clerk: Shirley Sandison 758634

Treasurer: Marjorie McKendrick 752540

Newsletter: Peter Sandison 758634

PDF edition available at www.oldparishandstpauls.org.uk/newsletters.htm

The Times They Are a-Changin'

At the Sunday Morning Service of Worship on 22nd September an advisory vote on the future relationship of the Church of Scotland congregations in Gal-ashiels - St. John’s, Trinity, and Old Parish and St. Paul’s - was held in each of the three Churches, with the option between a union or linking of the congre-gations, staffed by a minister and family worker/deacon/or some such person.

The results were announced by Rev. Dr David Donaldson, the Interim Mod-erator of Old Parish and St Paul’s Church, and were as follows:

Old Parish and St Paul's Church: for union - 59; for linking - 22

St. John's Church: for union - 20; for linking - 20

Trinity Church: for union - 70; for linking - 13

A meeting to which all members and adherents of the three Galashiels con-gregations were invited took place at 7 pm on Monday 30th September in Old Parish and St. Paul’s Church. The Rev. Rosie Frew, Convener of the Presbytery's Planning Task Group, spoke about the way forward in the light of the votes, after which there was time for questions, comments and discussion. Rosie began by explaining how the whole Church of Scotland - from top to bottom - was facing difficult times of change and uncertainty, and quoted the title of Bob Dylan’s famous 1964 song, The Times They Are a-Changin'. At na-tional level, the existing 45 Presbyteries would merge to form 12, and a new central structure would be formed. She quoted some of the famous verses from Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot ...

She added that we should take heart from these words from the gospel:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 6-7).

She then read out a prayer for radical change written by the Rt Rev. Colin Sin-clair, the current Moderator of the Church of Scotland. Turning to the challenges facing the churches in our Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles, she recounted that three Presbytery conferences had taken place over the past 15 months with the strapline "the status quo is not an option". Following these, an outline Presbytery Plan had been drawn up using “clusters” based on High School catchments areas. These clusters could work together on issues such as school chaplaincies, providing pastoral cover, united services, joint training for elders and members and worship groups supporting each others' congregations. She had been greatly impressed by the Galashiels cluster: we have started talking and thinking in imaginative ways; hard work has been done to inform congregations and bring them along; and new and good relationships have been built up.

… continued overleaf

Dates for your Diary (further details may be in this News-

letter or the Sunday Bulletin)

Regular Events

Sunday Morning Worship: 11.30 Next Communion: 24th November

Sunday Evening Worship: 18.30 Feb., Apr., Jun., Aug., Oct. & Dec. in St

Paul’s; alternate months in St John’s Communion: last Sunday each month

Bible Study: Tuesdays at 10.00 at 2 Abbotsview Gardens

Badminton for Seniors: Wednes-days at 10.00

Guild: Wednesdays at 14.15

Lunch Club: Thursdays at 12.30

Music Makers: Thursdays at 19.30

Boys’ Brigade: Fridays from 18.00 (during school term)

Other Events

Old Parish & St Paul’s open for all in October: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 14.00-16.00

Ladies’ Away Day (with St. John’s Church): 10.30-14.30 on Saturday 19th October in Peebles Evangeli-cal Church

Church Autumn Fayre: Saturday 16th November from 10.00-12.00 in Volunteer Hall

Tearfund Big Quiz Night: Satur-day 16th November starting at 7 pm in Trinity Church

Communion: 11.30 on 24th Nov.

Tearfund Christmas Concert: Evening of Sunday 1st December, featuring Celtic Carols band.

Presbytery of Melrose and Pee-bles Meeting, at which the Pres-bytery Plan will be discussed: Tuesday 3rd December, 7 for 7.30 pm at Innerleithen Church, Leithen Road, Innerleithen EH44 6HZ

… continued from front page

As a result of all this, she sees a way forward as follows: a linkage of Caddonfoot with Stow and Heriot, and a un-ion between the three Church of Scotland congregations in Galashiels. She acknowledged the 20/20 split in the in-dicative vote at St John's Church and said this would be explored later. Nevertheless, she sees union as the way ahead for the three Churches, and outlined how this will happen. The Presbytery Plan with this proposal will be circulated to congregations and discussed at the December Meeting of Presbytery, which the congregations will be cited to attend. She doesn't expect the Meeting to be contentious, given the prior discussions by the parties involved, and it should gain approval. It will then go up to the Presbytery Planning Task Group at Edinburgh HQ for approval, which should be a technicality. A basis of union between the three Galashiels congregations will then be drawn up. This "Basis of Adjustment" will deal with issues such as parish boundaries, the Manse, the Minister, the name of the congregation, the buildings to be used and the constitution to be followed, with a "unitary" constitution (Kirk Session only) strongly advised. This is the form of constitution we used to follow in Old Parish and St Paul's Church before the appointment of a Congre-gational Board on 22nd February 1994 under the current "Model Deed of Constitution". This agreement could also include details of any intention to have a particular presence in Langlee. The congregations would then vote on the Basis of Adjustment to make the changes happen: this is the vote that really counts. The ending of the pastoral tie between Caddonfoot and Trinity would follow the retirement of Rev. Elspeth Harley next year, with the services of linkage of Caddonfoot with Stow and Heriot and union of the three Galashiels Church-es following thereafter.

Question Time The following points arose from questions raised by members of the congregations present. The type of support worker mentioned in the voting slips should be determined by the joint congregation in the

light of talents needed following the appointment of a new Minister, whether for youth, schools or in some other area of work.

Templates for different bases of union and linkage, as well as a flow chart with legal and voting processes will be made available by the Presbytery Clerk, Rev. Victoria Linford - who was present at the meeting - to Session Clerks. The templates cover issues like naming the united church, use of buildings, etc.

No longer having three Sessions, Boards, and other such groupings should free up time to devote to the missional work of the church.

We cannot rely on financial backing through the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland for converting a build-ing or creating a new one: any such projects would have to be financed from the combined resources of the united Churches, or obtained through other means.

The role of the General Trustees is to help in other ways, such as advice on creating "Well-equipped spaces in the right places", currently the subject of consultations and an online survey (until the end of this month).

Although we may be able to vote on a basis of union before the retirement of Rev. Elspeth Harley, we could not form the new congregation and select a Nominating Committee, etc., until after her retirement.

Existing church groups and organisations, such as choirs, Guilds, etc., would come together in a way the new con-gregation decided collectively.

It would be very advantageous to continue joint services and joint planning over the coming months. Decisions about use of buildings would not be imposed by Presbytery: it is hoped that such a difficult decision

would be made locally, ideally using the principle of the right building in the right place. Until decisions on buildings are made, Presbytery and the General Trustees would be unlikely to sanction major

expenditure on existing buildings. With regard to decisions to be made by a new joint Kirk Session based on membership of the existing Sessions,

which would likely have a variety of potentially divergent opinions, we need to be mindful and respectful of the opinions and views of others; this would also require sensitive moderation! At the end of the day we should all have the same aim: Christ's presence within Galashiels!

New Presbytery Moderator

On Tuesday 2nd September, the current year of the Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles began with a new female elder as its Moderator. Dr Fiona Burnett hails from Banff, and came to Broughton when she was 7 years old. With an academic background in agricul-tural science, researching lamb feed, she applied to the Church of Scotland, and ended up in Zambia, where she discovered that the main vegetable was rape, akin to the kale she had researched back in Edinburgh. Fiona’s nine years in Zambia gave her invaluable experience, not only in her academ-ic field but also in the life of the church, taking services in rural communities. While in Zambia, Fiona met Neil Robinson, and they married in a traditional Zambian wedding ceremony, and when they returned to Scotland in 1997, they set up a computer train-ing centre and guest house in Broughton and ran it for 20 years. Fiona became involved with the World Mission Council at the Church of Scotland, becoming one of two Vice

Convenors, chairing the Africa Committee. She then joined the local Worship Workshop at Broughton and has led worship regularly within the charge of Upper Tweeddale. In 2016, she became Convenor of Presbytery’s World Mis-sion Committee. Over the last year Fiona has been heavily involved in organising the visits of young persons from Malawi and Lebanon to Presbytery and took part in the recent visit organised by Earlston Church to Lebanon. Refreshingly open, and with a positive attitude regarding the church, and the courage to ask questions about why things have to be done in a certain way, Fiona hopes in her year in office as Moderator of Presbytery to be able to encourage congregations, and get further down the road with a Presbytery plan that people can buy into.

Kindly contributed by Rev. Marion Dodd

Harvest Thanksgiving Service

Dear Friends, Many of you expressed how nicely the Church was deco-rated for our Harvest Ser-vice. It was through your generous donations and the team work involved in mak-ing the displays which con-tributed to this. So my sin-cere and grateful thanks to everyone who helped, ei-ther by donating in some way or distributing gifts afterwards: it was all very much appreciated! Thanks to you all.

Betty Thomson

Golf - Doubles Competition

A party of 10 enjoyed fairer weather than forecast - as can be seen in the accompanying photo - for the annual Sta-bleford doubles competition at Craigmillar Park Golf Club, which afforded some spectacular views over Edinburgh, the Forth and beyond. Many thanks to Jim Tennant for organising the event, which took place on Thursday 26th September, and to Rev. Duncan McCosh, a member of the Club, for making the booking and arranging the post-match dinner at the Sun Inn. The results were so close that the first and last places had to be determined by using ”count-back”, with the scores on the inward nine holes deciding, as follows:

1st: 71 (38 points inward) - Iain Affleck & Peter Sandison

2nd: 71 (36 points inward) - Duncan McCosh & Steve Fox

3rd: 69 points - Colin Hanley & Jim Tennant

4th: 59 (36 points inward) - Peter Townsend & Robert Lamont

5th: 59 (29 points inward) - Keith Simpson & Jim Hurt

Fewest putts (32) - Iain Affleck

Longest drive (243 yards) - Robert Lamont

Nearest the pin: Iain Affleck (11th & 15th); Steve Fox (13th)

Save the Date

Coming this December: Christmas carols in support of Tearfund Scotland

~ Old Parish & St Paul's Church, 1st December 2019 ~

This advent season, Tearfund Scotland are coming to Old Parish & St Paul's Church with the New Scottish Hymn Band as part of their annual Christmas Concert tour. An evening of festive cheer with beautiful acoustic carols and original songs is in store for you. So don’t forget to save the date and join in the celebration! New Scottish Hymns Band is a gospel-hearted music ministry, influenced by Scottish folk melodies and the best of traditional hymn-writing. Their passion is for the church to have more songs that help people from different back-grounds and cultures unite under a common theme: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency. It works in around 50 countries, with a primary focus on supporting those in poverty and providing disaster relief for disadvantaged communities.

World's Biggest Coffee Morning 2019

Louise Johnston, with the help of family, friends and her Maz-da Bongo Campervan, ran a Coffee Morning for Macmillan from outside the “Organist’s Door” at the back of the Church, then in the Boys’ Bri-gade Chapel when tempera-tures dropped. Louise writes: “Well what a fun, sun morning! Thank you everyone for coming along to

our tea party. Big thank you to Old Parish & St Paul's Church for hosting us, Tesco for cake dona-tions and the lovely Rebecca Williams for beau-tiful music... total so far for Macmil-lan is £134!”

Friends meet where the Lord provides the House.

Galashiels Town Trail

Have you noticed the new plaque on the pavement in front of our Church, which is part of the redevelopment of the Gala-shiels Town Trail?

Treasurer’s Report - August 2019

Actual General Fund income to date: £48,853 Actual General Fund expenditure to date: £55,918 Income to date: -£7,065

Average weekly offerings compared: £779 (January-August 2018) £739 (January-August 2019)

Budgeted Expenditure for 2019 £77,812

Budget for January-August £56,051

Income from offerings to date £25,136

Gift Aided offerings tax reclaimed to date £7,528

Investment income to date £1,092

£33,755

Voluntary income -£22,296

Income from use of premises £9,853

Other donations to date £4,284

Legacies to date £1,000

£15,137

Income to date, against budget -£7,159

New Scripture Union Borders Regional Worker

Scripture Union Borders is delighted to announce the appointment of a new SU Borders Regional Worker! John Allan will start on the 21st October. John is cur-rently a church youth worker in Peebles, where he leads an SU Group in the local High School and runs a full programme of youth work in the church. We’re so en-couraged to have someone of John’s experience and gifting joining the SU team, and spearheading SU ministry across the Borders.

Hello from the new SU Scotland Borders Regional Worker!

Hi! I’m John Allan, married to Lucie and living just outside Peebles with our three kids Ben, Rachel and Daniel. I grew up in Galashiels, studied Graphic & Multimedia Design in Aberdeen and it was there I first got involved in regular church youth work as a volunteer. After graduating and moving home to the Borders again I was keen to get involved in the local church youth scene and I am even more passionate now to see the younger gener-ations hearing the Gospel and seeing God at work in their lives, schools, churches and communities. As a teenager I loved being part of an SU group and going along to Borders Senior Supper Evenings and camps. I met my wife, best man and some of my closest friends through Borders SU and my journey of faith has benefitted so much from the SU workers and volunteers who were so com-mitted to us teenagers back then. I’m so excited to be joining the SU Scot-

land team to carry on the good work that so many others have been part of before. For the last eight years I’ve worked as Youth Worker with St Andrews Leckie Parish Church in Peebles, leading the youth ministry and working with an amazing team of volunteers. In my spare time I enjoy mountain biking, socialising with friends and family, playing guitar and I’m a bit of a movie geek and coffee snob. I can’t wait to see what God will do in the Scottish Borders and I’m looking forward to getting on the road to meet and work with all you amazing volunteers and young people across this fantastic and unique region.

God bless, John.

Life & Work magazine subscriptions

If you wish to subscribe to the print edition of Life and Work magazine in 2020, please let Peter Sandison (Life and Work Co-ordinator) know by Sunday 26th October at the latest. The cover price of Life and Work will be £2.80. However, Church members get a discount of 9%, giving a cost of £2.55 per issue, which equates to £30.60 annually for 12 issues. There is also a digital edition of the magazine available as a single down-load for £1.99 or on a subscription basis for 6 months (£11.99) or annually (£20.99). Details and sample pages at https://www.lifeandwork.org/subscribe.