The congregation of St Andrew’s has been able to keep in touch by using the now tried and tested system of Zoom which gives a challenge to those unfamiliar with technology. Their perseverance has been welcomed and, dare I say it, improvements have been taking place such that it is now possible actually to see those in the group rather than an image of oneself with the group in a tiny corner squeezed in! Those who have difficulty hearing have decided just to smile from time to time and laugh when others do which is lovely.
The main service of the week is of course the Eucharist being taken by each of our seven Bishops in turn but even there where we all expected to hear from our own St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow this week and were poised to hear the dulcet tones of our own Bishop, the service did indeed come from St Mary’s cathedral – but from St Mary’s Pro Cathedral Aberdeen where Bishop Anne Dyer took the service quite alone in that beautiful cathedral but supported remotely by Rev. Canon Vittoria Hancock from St Kentigern Ballater with, as usual, organ hymns magnificently sounded out by Michael Bawtree The first was ‘Lord of all Hopefulness, Lord of all Joy’ where we were able to join in from the comfort of our own homes with varying degrees of musicianship! It is comforting to be able to sing in our own homes without the organist saying that we are ‘off key’ or to put it more strongly – flat!!
We continue with weekly observance of the Eucharist taken from our own church when Rector Andrea takes the morning service and places this on Youtube where we can listen at our leisure – well we have plenty of that.
This week we had our monthly Vestry meeting where we share all matters affecting our church whether spiritual or material. Among other things we discussed ways in which we might be able to help prepare for the COP26, The 26th UN Climate Conference of the Parties taking place in Glasgow in November. The local Justice and Peace group are keen to involve local churches & community groups in raising awareness for this.
Also this week we have had our monthly Book club meeting with the book ‘Motherwell’, an autobiography by Deborah Orr who from humble beginnings near Ravenscraig through various decantings finally lived in London as an award-winning journalist. The book is really a social history of Motherwell from the swinging sixties and from a slow beginning it begins to grip the reader – well this reader!