Keiss newsletter

Keiss Church of Scotland Church Newsletter


March 2010

Keiss Church Newsletter

Dear friends,

Apart from the expected lambing snows in April, and shuchat storms in May and 'ne'er daring to cast a cloot till June is oot', we can look forward to warmer and brighter days.
Robert Tannahill wrote and sang:
'Gloomy winter is no awa' saft the west-lan' breezes blaw,
'Mang the birks o' Stanely shaw, the mavis sings fu' cheerie O
And Robert Burns wrote and sang:
The winter it is past,  and the summer's come at last,
And the small birds sing on every tree.
And we ourselves can sing of Christ's cross and resurrection as the central reason for our Easter holidays, and the fundamental change from death to life, that makes all renewals, revivings and recreations possible.
Bird sing is a wonderful aspect of spring. Some have a boundless repertoire, and endless variations on their themes. Others croak, but do so enthusiastically. They all sing out of the joy of mating, nesting, reproducing, and carrying on their kind in the world. And so their true worth is measured in song rather than brawn.
Our enthusiasm for Christ and his cause is measured by our willingness to worship. If we did not worship God, no one else in the world will do so, and so our kind would disappear from the face of the earth.

When a well loved leader like Peter Harold is no longer with us, but gone on to Higher Service in Heaven, one way to honour his memory is to take up his areas of earthly service to Christ and his church. So we hope that soon, we will have willing folk to service as new elders and Board members, and so make sure that Peter's work is carried on.
 
Since this time last year, Lyall has come as locum, and he  has been a great blessing to our linked congregations. You at Keiss have the benefit of his ministry almost every Sunday, because you have the earlier time of church service. That has brought a great sense of stability to the congregation, and having a full time pastor just as much as a church with its own minister.

Elsewhere in the Presbytery, the numbers of those ministering to our congregations has risen over the past year with the
appointments of Ken Naithsmith as pastoral assistant to Wick and Latheron, Janet Anderson as Deacon in charge of training the Locally Ordained Ministry candidates (Esme Duncan, Lyall Rennie, Jenny Maxwell, Roger Bowser, Heather Stewart); Robert  Nicol as auxiliary minister and Shona Johnstone as auxiliary minister in training; Alex Kenny as a recognised lay preacher; Fanus Erasmus, Douglas Horne and John Nugent as ordained locum ministers, and most recently Gordon Oliver as inducted minister to Latheron. The benefits of those  sources of ministry spread out to the whole Presbytery.

At the induction service at Lybster on Friday (25th March) for Gordon Oliver, I preached on the way that revival often happens at the fringes of the land or the church. I said, This theme of renewal of the church at the fringe rather than at the centre is one that we have held dear in the geographical fringes of coastline and islands of our country . The late Rev. Alex Muir of Canisbay and Keiss, whose funeral was on Tuesday , often spoke, sung and wrote about revival starting in the far north and then affecting the whole of the land. His vision was of  the fire of revival burning southwards through Scotland from the Pentland to the Solway, and inspired the song:
God has given us a dream of a glorious day to come,
When the light of Christ will shine on every hand.
He'll fulfil our heart's desire when He sends in the heavenly fire
That will sweep in flames of glory o'er the land.
When he moved to Carinish on North Uist, Alex also wrote Gaelic hymns of revival under the title, Fuaim an Dusgaidh, (The Sound of Revival) . One of the tunes is now used in the new church hymnary for Psalm 40, 'I waited patiently for God'
This theme of revival from the north  has been taken up recently by our present locum at Canisbay, Keiss and Dunnet, Lyall Rennie. In a recent sermon to you, he said,
'Revival may not come through the Church of Scotland central offices in Edinburgh. It may come through a tiny congregation in the far north of Scotland. Here we come to church because it is the right thing to do, not because we want to be seen gong to church, nor because we feel superior to others. We are here to worship God, and want to know Him better.

Amen to all that!

Yours in the Master's service
Alastair Gray
Interim Moderator

Dear Friends,

I am frequently asked why I moved from my job as an engineer in the oil and gas industry to become locum minister at Canisbay Keiss and Dunnet. Why did I make the change?
If I’m feeling cheeky I tell them that the lure of fame, money and popularity was just too hard to resist.
But looking back, there was no Damascus Road moment that led me here, just a growing sense of call: an awakening to the truth that, for all my faults and failings, I was being called to fill this particular task within the community of God’s people here in Keiss.
But to be a Christian is to be called to ministry. Maybe not the ministry of word and sacrament – the particular province of those we call ‘clergy’ – but the countless ministries of Christian service that herald the kingdom: showing compassion or kindness, offering hospitality, listening, helping, organising, teaching, leading. The list is endless.
In today’s world, the church is no longer ‘a community gathered around a minister’, but ‘a community of many ministries’.
It’s not just ‘the clergy’ who are called. If you call yourself a Christian, you’re called too. You have a ministry that the church can’t do without. Have you found what it is yet?
I wish you all a blessed Easter and look forward to seeing you at some of our services during Easter time.

Every blessing

Lyall Rennie


April
 Thursday 1st 7.30 p.m. Maundy Thursday Communion service at Dunnet Church, when we sit round the historic long table, and relive the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples.

Friday 2nd 7 p.m. Good Friday service at Canisbay Church. We keep vigil with our Lord on the day he died for us.

Sunday 4th 10.15 a.m. Easter Day morning service

Sunday 4th  6.30 p.m. Easter Day songs of praise, with children from Keiss School, and the Bower Singers taking part.

Tuesday 13th 7.30 p.m. Keiss Guild opening night of the
summer session, led by Isobel Farqhuar (Guild is on the second Tuesdays, from April to July, at 7.30 p.m. All welcome)

May
Tuesday 4th May 7 p.m. Caithness Presbytery (in Wick St Fergus) for ordinary business, and Tuesday 11th May 7 p.m. in Thurso St Peter's and St Andrew's for a special meeting to consider the General Assembly's special commission on same sex relationships and the church's ministry. Both of these are open public meetings.

8th May . 10 a.m. - 12 noon, Spring Fayre in the Keiss Hall. Stalls and teas.

June
Friday 4th June 7.30 p.m. and Saturday 5th June 10.30 a.m. training days for our Presbytery wide Stewardship campaign with Gordon Jamieson, Head of the Stewardship and Finance Committee at the church offices in Edinburgh

Thursday 10th June 7.30 p.m. Guild summer rally in Halkirk Church.

Sunday 13th June 10.15 a.m. Communion  Sunday, service led by Rev Alastair Gray, Interim Moderator.