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Dunnet Newsletter

Please Come Along To A Special Service to Commemorate the 450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation on Sunday 15th August 2010 at 6.30 pm

Everyone  Welcome
............

NB:  There will be a Joint Service in Canisbay on Sunday 8th August therefore there will be no Service in Dunnet that day.

Soup & Sandwich Lunch:  Thanks to all who supported and helped on Saturday 27th February. 
A total of £625.00 was raised for Church funds.

Mobile Library Van:  will be at the Britannia Hall Car Park on  Wednesday 4th August at 12.15 pm and every three weeks thereafter.  See poster on Hall Notice Board.

From our Interim Moderator    (June 2010)

Dear Friends,

The change of seasons is one of the great benefits about living in northern latitudes, compared to living in parts nearer to the equator. Wall to wall sunshine gets boring all year round (as I found in the Bahamas), as is an unchanging routine of life. But here in the north we have a variety of lifestyles to suit the seasons, and that applies also in the life of the church.
The summer months bring visitors to church and community. There are family reunions and easier travelling conditions. There may be family weddings to enjoy. Early morning and long evening light enables us to appreciate life in a greater fullness. We notice more of nature and wildlife. We take more physical exercise. Holidays bring rest and re-creation of body, mind and spirit. Worries recede as faith and strength are renewed. There is more rapid recovery from physical illnesses through sunshine, warmth and exercise (and that is my own recent experience).
In our cultural life, we are able to get out and about to enjoy events like the recent Fiddlers’ Rally, Wick Choral Society concerts, the Caithness Festival, arts and crafts shows, the vintage car rally. There will soon be Gala Weeks and Gala Days.
In the church’s year, we enjoy the season of Pentecost and Trinity, when the focus of our worship moves from following the events of Jesus’ life to learning from his teachings. We have special hymns that are appropriate for the summer weeks. I remember happy times spent on beaches with Summer Mission teams, both as a boy on holiday, and a team member and leader. These were times of faith growing.
So what’s special for Dunnet this summer? We will welcome holiday visitors to the village, the caravan park, and those who visit Dunnet Head with a sense of pilgrimage. We have already hosted a family gathering for the baptism of Antonia Ivy Webb on the 30th May. We will join our friends at Canisbay for a joint service there on the 8th August. We will host a special service on the 15th August at 6.30 p.m. to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation. This will be a civic and ecumenical occasion. The Dunnet Marymas Fair will be on Saturday 28th August.

Yours in the Master’s service, 
Rev. Alastair Gray

From our Locum Minister    (July 2010)

Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that it will soon be a year since we moved here to Caithness. Some folk have asked us if we regretted making the move. The answer to that is most definitely no. Everyone has been so welcoming that we feel very much at home here. Although we are still getting to know folk and trying to remember the names of folk we have met we are gradually getting there.
It’s good to see so many of the traditional Christian values I grew up with still prevalent here in Caithness. Sadly this is not the case in many of our towns and cities. Values such as caring and sharing and looking out for your neighbour; values on which a community is based.
After the summer we are planning to start a Sunday school, although it may not meet on a Sunday and may not be called Sunday school. More information on this will be available soon.
We are having a special service on the 15th of August to celebrate 450 years since the Reformation. I hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you then.
Whatever you are doing over the holiday period, whether you are going away or just having a break at home I hope that you will have an enjoyable and relaxing time.

God’s richest blessings,
Lyall Rennie 
 
From our Session Clerk    (July 2010)

Dear Friends,

This year seems to be a year for remembering important Historic Events. 
Rev Timothy Pont concluded his ministry here in Dunnet in 1610 – 400 years ago.  Prior to that he and his brother Zackery trudged over the most of Scotland when Timothy was drawing the landscapes to form the first accurate Map of Scotland.  That was one mammoth task and they were not afraid of wearing out Boot-leather.
The Oswald Family furnished us with several Ministers and our Church Bell.  The Jolly Family furnished us with three Ministers, one after the other, for an unbroken chain of 105 years.  That surely must be a record of some kind.
On 19th August 1990 – 20 years ago, H M Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, attended Divine Worship in Dunnet Kirk.  The previous day she had been given The Freedom of Caithness at a Ceremony in Wick. During her first year of Widowhood, she  travelled north to Caithness and resided with Commander Clare and Lady Doris Vyner at the House of the Northern Gate, Dunnet.  On the 17th August 1952 she graced us with her first visit.  I was 9 years old at the time and I remember it well.  We attended as a family and the Church was full.  Those were the days when Lady’s wore hats in Church.  Our Ministers on these occasions were Rev Alexander Gordon – 1952 and Rev David Melville – 1990.

Sir Michael and Lady Angela Oswald from Norfolk due to commitments regretfully are unable to attend our Special Service to celebrate 450 years since the Reformation in 1560, but praised the idea and send their best wishes for its success.  Descendants of the Jolly Family, Mr & Mrs Ray and Lesley Purdy from Kirkcudbright, Dumfriess-shire and her cousin Mr Peter Benson from London, also praised the idea and will be attending it.

Christian Aid Collection – May 2010:  Thanks to all who contributed.  We collected in Dunnet Parish £595.96, a tremendous response, thank you.  Also our grateful thanks to all the Collectors who helped me, Mrs Patreen Harris, Mrs Brenda MacAlpine, and especially Mrs Dorene Parr and Mrs Joan Thomson, two spritely Senior Citizens in their eighties.

God Bless you All, Yours sincerely, George M. Douglas
PS.  20th July 2010 -  41st Anniversary of The Manned Moon Landing.

The Guild News    

On 10th June several of our Guild members attended the Caithness Presbyterial Council Summer Rally in Halkirk Parish Church.  The meeting was chaired by Presbyterial Council President Mrs Mary Chalmers from Thurso who is well known in our Church as she frequently leads Sunday Services for us.   The speaker for the evening was Miss Esme Duncan, past National Convenor of the Guild who spoke of the people she met, places she’d been, and highlights of her year as Convenor.  During the service
Miss Duncan presented a certificate from Guild Office to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of our Guild
(13th December 1933).  The Certificate was received on behalf of the Guild by President Mrs Sheila Cormack and will be hung in the Church Hall before the Guild begins its Winter Session on Thursday 7th October 2010 at 7.30 pm.  
New Members will be very welcome to come and join us.
 
A Man from Dunnet

July 4th was Independence day  in the United States of America. Families celebrated the birth of their nation in 1776 when, after a year of war, the 13 American colonies announced that they did not want to be ruled by Great Britain anymore. They wanted to be independent. America wanted to be free.
Few realize that it was a man from Dunnet who eventually helped this happen. He was born next to the church – in the old Manse - to the minister, the Rev. George Oswald
George had 2 sons - James who also became a minister in Dunnet, and his younger brother - RICHARD OSWALD. Richard went south as a young man and stayed with cousins near Glasgow. He became a wealthy merchant, buying and selling around the world. His fortune came from military contracts as well as businesses in America. Like some other rich merchants of the time, he also bought and sold people – slaves. He earned vast amounts of money, bought mansions in London and Ayrshire and came to know some influential people. One such, Lord Shelburne, the Prime Minister, suggested Oswald to King George the 3rd as being of “good sense” , “tactful” and clever – thus, when the peace treaty between Britain and America was negotiated, it was Mr Oswald from Dunnet who was given full powers to lead the negotiating team with Dr Benjamin Franklin of the USA. It was Richard Oswald, who signed the draft peace treaty in 1782 and he and Mr Franklin even exchanged portraits of themselves as a token of their mutual respect and gratitude.
Back in Britain, people thought Mr Oswald had given too much to the Americans so his name never went on the final document. But the wording of the Peace treaty stayed essentially his – there was no time to change it. So we can be very proud in Dunnet of Richard Oswald, the Minister’s son. He took away the freedom of slaves in the early part of his life but at the end, helped make sure that all American people were free.
Next time you hear the sound of the Church bell, paid for by Richard Oswald's family, let it remind us all of our responsibility to go out and share the freedom we have in Christianity!

Sources (1) Walford, Edward The county families of the United Kingdom, or Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. 25th annual pub. London: Chatto and Windus, 1885 (2) Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of national biography. Vol. 14. Myllar-Owen. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1909.  (3) Calder, J. T. History of Caithness. Chapter 15. Full-text online (http://www.caithness.org/history/historyofcaithness/chapter15/ )
AEL, July, 2010

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