ISSUE 1/20

The Church of Scotland

February 2020

Registered Scottish Charity Scottish Charities Number SC006856

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Dear Friends, The last time I wrote a pastoral letter, we were preparing for

Christmas. While only one month ago, it seems a very distant

memory. Each new year we hope that ‘this’ year will be a much

better year. Rarely does this happen as the troubled world we live

in does not seem prepared for any change. The tension in the

middle East, the starvation in Africa and oppression of people carry

on regardless of the year.

People often ask, where is God in these situations? Well He is right

at the centre suffering with those most sorely affected. He is there

offering comfort and support to those who are willing to turn to Him

and put their trust in Him.

It is people who make life difficult not God. So many rulers and

political leaders are greedy and selfish. They are not interested in

the needs or wellbeing of their people. Power and wealth are all they care about.

Sadly, that is the kind of world we live in. Why? Because so many people have turned away

from God. While we as ordinary folk may not be able to influence world leaders, we can still

help. The most powerful tool we have is prayer. We can always ask God to help in ANY

situation. We can do this safe in the knowledge that God will love, care for and guide those

for whom we have prayed. We can support various charities who do tremendous work

around the world. The most important thing we can do is show God’s love through our words

and actions.

Think of the number of people you see during a week. You may pass them in the street, see

them in a shop or sit beside them on a bus. The first thing we do when we see someone is

form an opinion about them. If we are going to be ambassadors for Christ, then we have to

ensure that we always do our best in HIS name. A warm smile, a kind word, a willingness to

listen or to help are good starting points. These little gestures can go a long way especially if

the other person is lonely or worried. When in doubt ask yourself – what would Jesus do in

this situation?

Well, the world may be a troubled place but when we put our trust in the Lord, we find a

special peace and joy. This prepares us for whatever we have to face. When we work in

Christ’s name and allow Him to guide us, we can make our corner of the world a safe,

peaceful place in which HIS children can grow.

Many blessings, Katie

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CONGREGATIONAL ROLL

Admission by Transference:

Name Address District Elder Catherine (Irene) Lebeter 5 Melrose Court, Rutherglen, G73 3PB 8 M Clark We extend a very warm welcome to Irene. Members who have left

Name Address District Elder Jean Doherty 20 Balvaird Drive, Rutherglen, G73 2PY 5 W Cowan Elizabeth (Betty) Mahon Flat 9, Eastcroft Gardens, Rutherglen, G73 3AG 7 E Paton Change of Address:

Name Address District Elder Louise Shepherd from 260 Main Street, Rutherglen, G73 3AD 7 E Paton

to 43 Parkhill Drive, Rutherglen, G73 2PW 8 M Clark The following members have died:

Name Address District Elder Jessie MacIntosh Georgia Care Home, Cambuslang, G72 8YN 27 K Morrison Jean Hannah 27 Coldstream Drive, Rutherglen, G73 3LH 12 H Millar Funerals: 13/11/19 Jessie MacIntosh Georgia Care Home, Cambuslang, G72 8YN 25/11/19 Ann Montgomery 26 Avenue Street, Rutherglen, G73 1AS 27/11/19 Carol Georges 49 Stonelaw Drive, Rutherglen, G73 3PA 29/11/19 Jean Hannah 27 Coldstream Drive, Rutherglen, G73 3LH

ANNUAL PARISH VISITATION

Thank you to all members of the congregation who assisted in any way (whether by delivering cards or praying for the success of the visitation) with our annual Parish Visitation at the end of last year. Hugh Millar Session Clerk

FORTHCOMING COMMUNION SERVICES

The main quarterly celebration of the sacrament of communion will take place during our service on Sunday, 1 March. We also celebrate Ascension (24 May) and Pentecost (31 May) in short communions during our morning services.

While all are welcome to attend any of our services, a special invitation is extended to anyone wishing to attend our communion services.

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SCOTTISH BIBLE SOCIETY

Recently, in East Asia, SBS staff witnessed the extreme persecution of Christians in Laos, in

Cambodia. Government, Society and the Community are all against them, and send spies

into their church and meeting places. Christians are prevented from getting government

jobs. A local Pastor was beaten and jailed for his convictions but, when the authorities

realised he would not be stopped, even in prison, he was released. 97% of the community

are Buddhist, 1% are Muslim, 1% are Christian and 0.9% other. In spite of all the difficulties,

the Christian church is growing and ask for our prayers that their members may worship in

safety and peace, as we do.

Marjory Greig

SBS Contact

WOMAN’S GUILD

The Christmas fayre held in November was again well supported, raising £1283. The Guild

were therefore able to donate £1300 to church funds in December.

The guild project this session is Sailors society. To raise money, the guild members and

friends fill Smartie tubes with 20p pieces. At the close of the session we hope to have raised

as usual a very healthy amount.

Unfortunately, we have had to make the decision not to hold the annual guild outing. The

cost of the coach hire is now very expensive and even looking at smaller coach, which we

did last year with not much difference in cost, it will of course get more expensive each year.

Our numbers in the guild are getting alarmingly low. We lost two faithful members last year

and are just managing to keep in the low double figure bracket. We would welcome very

much any member of the congregation and friends to come along on a Monday evening. We

are one of the very, very few guilds to meet weekly. This is due to our wonderful hard-

working secretaries Janet and Marjory who make a very varied and interesting syllabus for

us. A church without a Woman’s Guild seems unthinkable.

Myra McNair

President

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SCRABBLE

Our group of enthusiasts are still meeting each Wednesday at 2pm in the Session House. Since it has been refurbished, this is a very pleasant place to enjoy games of Scrabble and good company. We always have room for more around the tables. If you have a notion to come along, we shall be there until the end of April and would be happy to welcome you. THE SCRABBLERS

Our Autumn Coffee Morning, held in our Greenhill Hall, raised a whopping £775.45 for CA

funds. Thank you again to everyone who helped and donated.

Our Spring Fundraiser will take the form of a Fun Walk/Run around Overton Park on 7th June

at 1.30/2.30pm. The time has still to be finalised. Entrants can do the whole run or part of

it, depending on their fitness. It is NOT a race, so no matter your pace, you will be welcome

to come along and raise some money for Christian Aid.

Thank you for all the support we get from our congregation.

Marjory and Jean

Christian Aid Committee Members

WORLD MISSION NEWS Due to changes in Central Office, World Mission Council will be changing its name, so we

shall hear in due course what that will be. It will not alter the news we get about global

issues and partnerships etc.

Our Missionary Partner, Anne Davidson, visited us on Sunday 12th January, and treated us

to a film show and update of her work with children in Makululu in Zambia. She is an

inspiring person, and her enthusiasm for her work shines through as she speaks. We were

delighted, the next day, to send her a cheque for £360, which included the Coffee Morning

Proceeds and money donated after the Sunday service. This will be used to help pay for

some of the Primary school age children to be educated. Her work is ongoing and she is

now also running a ‘safe house’ for abused girls, with another one due to open soon. She

leaves Scotland for Zambia at the end of January, and our prayers go with her.

Marjory Greig WM CONTACT

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MONTHLY COFFEE MORNING

We have been delighted to welcome along some ‘new girls’ to our team of helpers. The

more helpers we have, the less we need to ask for your help. If it doesn’t suit when we ask

you, that is fine, we’ll ask you another time. There are no Rotas involved so you are not

committing to rigid dates. If this casual approach appeals to you, just let us know and we

shall give you more information.

We were happy to donate the proceeds (£275) of our January Coffee Morning to our

Missionary Partner, Anne Davidson.

ALISON, BETTY, MARJORY and SANDRA

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAYS

The church is open to the public from noon till 2pm each Thursday for a quiet visit or meditation. We also serve tea, coffee and biscuits, but bring your own packed lunch! This has become a very pleasant interlude for chat and company and any member of the congregation will be most welcome.

Elsa Muir.

A POEM FOR EASTER

THE DONKEY

By G.K. Chesterton (written in 1900)

When fishes flew and forests walked

And figs grew upon thorns, Some moment when the moon was blood

Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil’s walking parody Of all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

Of ancient crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride me; I am dumb

I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet;

There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet.

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GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN

These words can be attributed to Jane Mathison Haining,

who gave her life for the Jewish girls in her care.

Born on 6 June 1897 in Lochanhead Farm,

Dunscore, Jane was 5 when her mother died. From an

early age, she displayed maternal feelings towards her

siblings. She attended the local primary school and in 1909

won a scholarship to Dumfries Academy, becoming the

Dux Medallist in 1915. On leaving school she completed a business course at the Atheneum

in Glasgow, before working as a personal secretary with J and P Coats, Thread

Manufacturers in Paisley.

Jane was a Sunday school teacher in Queens Park West Church. In 1927 she heard

a talk about missionary work among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. Shocked to

hear about the murder of Hungarian Jews following a Communist uprising, Jane told her

friend that evening, ‘I think I have found my life’s work’. In 1931, she saw an advert in Life

and Work for a Matron at the Scottish Mission School in Vǒrǒsmarty utca (street) 51,

Budapest. The school had over 400 pupils and first opened when British workers were

employed on the building of the city’s bridges, the designs of which were the work of Scottish

architects. A large number of the pupils were Jewish; some orphans, and others sent to a

Christian school by their parents because of anti-semitic feelings in Europe at that time.

Jane undertook a course at the Glasgow Domestic Science College; she used her

savings to pay her fees and passed with distinction. After training at Missionary College, she

went to Budapest in 1932. Jane thrived in her post and was popular with staff and pupils

alike, soon becoming fluent in the Hungarian language. With her great love of books, she set

up a library at the school.

Jane and her colleague, Margit Prėm, were on holiday in England when war was

declared in 1939. Their journey back to Budapest lasted many days due to the disruption to

train services. In 1940, Church authorities advised Jane to return to Scotland, but she said

her girls needed her. She disregarded two further warnings, refusing to abandon her

charges. Hungary was the safest place in Europe for Jews seeking refuge, until the country

was invaded in March 1944. Following the invasion, all Jews were herded into ghettos and

this included the mission on Vǒrǒsmarty utca.

Jane was arrested in April. Most likely she’d been reported to the Gestapo by the

housekeeper’s son-in-law. He was a member of the Nazi party, and his mother-in-law would

often give him food meant for the pupils. With the shortages they were suffering, Jane was

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angry and she banned him from the school. On the day of her arrest, survivors state that she

said to the girls, ‘don’t be afraid, I’ll be back soon’.

After a period in isolation, she spent time in Futca prison. Here she was twice

interrogated by the Gestapo. Of the eight charges, the main ones were of helping Jews,

listening to the BBC, and spying. She admitted the first two ‘offences’ but not the latter. From

Futca, Jane was transferred to a holding camp in Kistarcsa and transported to Auschwitz

concentration camp on 15 May.

In her last letter, dated 15 July, to her friend and colleague, Margit Prém, Jane

described her life in Auschwitz as ‘nothing is happening here’. She was keen to hear that the

pupils were getting enough to eat, and asked if Margit could send her some fresh fruit via the

Red Cross. The letter was postmarked Auschwitz 21 July, by which time Jane is believed to

have been dead. The records give her date of death as 17 July.

In 1948 two stained glass memorial windows were placed in Queen’s Park Church in

Glasgow. In 1984, on the fortieth anniversary of Jane’s death, the Jewish community in

Budapest erected a marble plaque in the Scottish Mission in her memory. She was

honoured at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1997, the posthumous medal now in St Mungo

Museum in Glasgow.

A memorial cairn to Jane was erected in her home village of Dunscore in 2005. For

over twenty years local people have worked tirelessly to ensure that her name is never

forgotten. Girls who were in her care, now in their eighties and nineties, describe Miss

Haining as a kind and caring Matron. A solid silver medallion, the ‘British Heroes of the

Holocaust’ medal, was awarded posthumously to Jane and is now housed in Dunscore

Church. Reverend Aaron Stevens, minister of Jane’s old church, St Columba’s on

Vǒrǒsmarty utca, made an exciting find in an old safe in the church; a bible presented to

Jane in 1931 by her fellow Sunday school teachers and a book on plants, a school prize

from Dumfries Academy in 1910. These precious items are now in the Foundation’s

safekeeping. A stone from Lochanhead Farm, wrapped in the Scottish saltire flag, was gifted

to the synagogue in Budapest.

The school in Budapest is still open but is now run by

the State. Thanks to the Jane Haining Foundation, each

summer the three top students and one of their teachers win

a paid trip to Scotland to visit Dunscore. They are given

accommodation and hospitality by the members of Dunscore

Church. It is hoped that one day a film will be made of Jane’s

life and sacrificial death.

Thanks to Irene Lebeter for submitting this article

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CONGREGATIONAL GIVING

W F O Open Plate Other Income Fabric Total

B/f £38,151.84 £1,007.69 £15,335.07 £4,700.00 £59,194.60

Nov 3 £1,625.40 £33.00 £3,024.16 £4,682.56

10 £570.00 £293.89 £352.50 £1,216.39

17 £680.60 £20.65 £13.60 £714.85

24 £1,114.80 £13.20 £1,128.00

Dec 1 £2,548.80 £40.00 £1,520.35 £4,109.15

8 £688.30 £9.30 £309.00 £250.00 £1,256.60

15 £891.30 £22.50 £1,630.00 £2,543.80

22 £720.80 £31.00 £5.00 £30,000.00 £30,756.80

29 £868.60 £24.00 £449.06 £1,341.66

Aug 11 £60.00 -60.00

£47,920.44 £1,495.23 £22,638.74 £34,950.00 £106,944.41

Income for period ending 31/12/19 (excluding Fabric) = £72,054.41

Budgetted income requirement per week = £1,401.00

Budgetted income requirement to 31/12/19 = £72,852.00

LEPROSY MISSION

As a congregation, we collect used stamps for the Leprosy Mission. Please use

the envelope in the vestibule to donate your used stamps.

New leprosy collecting boxes are now available in the vestibule along with the

summer issue of their magazine. Please take one if you are interested.

Elsa Muir

GIFT AID

Are you a Taxpayer?

If so your offerings and any other donations you make to the Old Parish could have 25p per pound added to them.

For further information please contact Jim Alexander, Gift Aid Convener.

25 pence per pound added to them.

For further information please contact Jim Alexander, Gift Aid Convener

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February to May Flower List

Date Donor Deliverer Driver

02/02/20 Ms E Cunningham Mrs E Duncan Mr T Duncan

09/02/20 Mrs M Robinson Mrs I Campbell Mrs P Cumming

16/02/20 Mrs C Brodie Mrs C Brodie

23/02/20 Miss E Paton Mrs J Caldwell

01/03/20 Mrs J Alexander Miss M Dobbin Miss M Dobbin

08/03/20 Mrs M Robinson Miss A Bennet

15/03/20 Mrs A Brown Mrs A Brown

22/03/20 Miss I Kay Miss J McTaggart Mrs M Greig

29/03/20 Mr I Lindsay Miss I Kay Miss I Kay

05/04/20 Ms E Cunningham Mrs J Keenan Mrs J Keenan

12/04/20 Easter/Committee Mrs E Duncan Mr T Duncan

19/04/20 Mrs S Horne Mrs I Campbell Mrs P Cumming

26/04/20 Mrs C Brodie Mrs C Brodie

03/05/20 Mrs J Hurst Miss E Paton Mrs J Caldwell

10/05/20 Mrs S Stevens Miss M Dobbin Miss M Dobbin

17/05/20 Mrs P Caughey Mrs M Robinson Miss A Bennet

24/05/20 Mrs A Brown Mrs A Brown

31/05/20 Miss J McTaggart Mrs M Greig

If you have an interest in flowers and would be willing to join the weekly rota please contact Alison Bennet Tel No 647 4415 or speak to any of the flower arrangers who are listed below for further details. M Alexander, R Bradley, S Horne, J Keenan, and M Greig. If you wish to make a donation to the Flower Fund this can be placed in the “Flower Boxes” located near the Church doors on a Sunday or if you wish to commemorate a special date please contact Alison Bennet. We thank everyone who contributes to the Church Flowers and our faithful Flower Arrangers listed above. The flowers are very much appreciated by those who attend our services and by those who receive then afterwards.

Alison Bennet

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CHURCH DIRECTORY

INTERIM MODERATOR: Rev Jeanne N Roddick B.D. Tel: 644 1395 Greenbank Manse, 38 Eaglesham Road, Clarkston, G76 7DJ

JRoddick@churchofscotland.org.uk

LOCUM Katie Morrison Mob: 07852373840 3b / 16 Stockiemuir Avenue, Bearsden, G61 3JL Tel: 942 3024

SESSION CLERK: Hugh Millar sessionclerk@rutherglenold.com

137 Blairbeth Road, Rutherglen Tel: 634 4355 ROLL KEEPER: Brian Keenan 56 Highburgh Drive, Rutherglen Tel: 647 8828 CLERK TO THE Alison G Bennet alisongbennet@tiscali.co.uk CONGREGATIONAL BOARD 3 Drumsargard Road, Rutherglen Tel: 647 4415 TREASURER: Irene Kay 15 Ettrick Crescent, Rutherglen Tel: 316 4235 GIFT AID AND W.F.O. James G Alexander CONVENER: 9 Jedburgh Avenue, Rutherglen Tel: 647 0593 ORGANIST: Gordon I Callaghan 18 Reid Grove, Motherwell Tel: 01698 277002 CHILD PROTECTION Alison G Bennet alisongbennet@tiscali.co.uk CO-ORDINATOR: 3 Drumsargard Road, Rutherglen Tel: 647 4415

NEWSLETTER Karen Morris caldwellkaren@yahoo.co.uk

EDITOR: 6 Highburgh Drive, Rutherglen, G73 3RZ Tel: 562 1755 PLEASE NOTE: Anyone wishing to consult the Locum may do so after the Morning

Service any Sunday. Intimation of change of address should be given to the Roll Keeper

as soon as possible.

Website: https://rutherglenoldparish.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RutherglenOld/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RutherglenOld/

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CHANGE OF ADDRESS

To enable the Congregational Roll to be kept up to date would members who have recently, or are about to, change their address please either complete the form below and forward it to our Roll Keeper, Brian Keenan, or telephone him at 0141 647 8828.

RUTHERGLEN OLD PARISH CHURCH

Name …………………………………………. Date ……………………………………. is moving from Address ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. Postcode ……………………………………………. Tel. No. ……………………………………………. to Address ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. Postcode ……………………………………………. Tel. No. ……………………………………………. Please forward the completed form to: Brian Keenan Roll Keeper 56 Highburgh Drive Burnside Rutherglen G73 3RZ