THE
UNITED PARISH
of
CARSTAIRS
CARSTAIRS JUNCTION
March 2013
Dear Friends
As I type this there is snow on the ground and we keep telling ourselves Spring is around the corner. Certainly I hope that by the time you read this the daffodils are in full bloom and summer is around the corner. Time is so fluid it is almost like trying to hold water in our hands. We are always looking to the next season, the next event, the next holiday that often we can miss what is happening today, in the present, and before we know it we are onto the next thing wondering what happened to the last event, holiday, season.
The author of Ecclesiastes said “There is a time for everything and everything on earth has its special season.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NCV). At Lent/Easter we are reminded again about the timing of God’s plan – a plan mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, a plan that took hundreds of years to come to fruition. Between the Old and New Testament we have what is known as 400 years of silence. Quite a thought in a world where everything must be done immediately and we comment on how fast the time goes.
During Lent we usually think about giving something up. Perhaps this Lent we could give up wishing time away as we hurry to the next major event or season. Let’s enjoy the time we have been given, yes enjoy it. God meant us to enjoy life in all its fullness so share a coffee and cake with a friend or do that one thing you really want to but never find the time for…or…Yes plans are good and looking forward to them being fulfilled is important but missing out on what is happening now denies what a gift the present actually is. At the heart of the message of Easter is God’s eternal love. We have far more time to play with than we ever realise so take time to enjoy your time!
As the author of Ecclesiastes goes on to say:
Ecclesiastes 3:12So I realize that the best thing for them is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.13God wants all people to eat and drink and be happy in their work, which are gifts from God.14I know that everything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to what God has done, and they cannot take anything away from it. God does it this way to make people respect him. (NCV)
Easter blessings to you all at this special time of year. May you know God’s love in Christ Jesus as we celebrate his life, death and resurrection that all may have the gift of eternity with God Himself.
Warm regards
Interim Moderator
Contact: / 01555 812832
The United Parish of Carstairs & Carstairs Junction
Warmly invites you to join our church family on
Sunday, 3rd March 2013
11am Carstairs Church
When the Sacrament of the Lords Supper will be celebrated
We look forward to your company
If you are entertaining visitors that day we hope you might also ask them to share in this invitation.
CHURCH CAR ROTA
AVAILABLE FROM CHURCH VESTIBULE
We operate a transport service every Sunday from Carstairs Junction to Carstairs Village Church, if you require to be picked up from any of the Junction bus stops please contact Volunteer Driver (1) on the rota. Transport is also available for anyone within Carstairs Village who would like to come to Church but has difficulty walking. If you would you like to be a volunteer or use this service please contact Elizabeth Brown (870787).
Over the last few months we have been blessed to have Rev Susan Cowell working with us and conducting our Sunday Services.
Susan sends us the following message.
Dear Friends
Thank you for your warm welcome--again!It is a privilege to be with you in worship and to visit some of your homes. Because I do not live locally please feel free to speak or phone me if you think there is something I should know.
I am amazed at all the work you are doing and I hope to be involved when and where possible.
I hope you enjoyed all the Christmas Services. We are busy planning the Easter week celebrations now. How time flies!
Two children's hymns come into my mind. ‘The Church is not a building it is the people’ and ‘The Church is wherever God's people are working’....How true!
With best wishes to you all.
Susan
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SUSAN COWELL – THIS IS YOUR LIFE
You’ve barely been in Susan’s Lanark home five minutes and there’s already been three separate phone calls. ‘It’s been one of those days,’ she says hurrying through coffee and biscuits. ‘But this is the joy of the ministry. No two days are ever the same’. After another five minutes pass, suddenly we’ve jumped back several decades, skipped out a few years here and there and the remarkable jigsaw puzzle of anecdotes that make up Susan Cowell’s life story begin to assemble.
Born in Glasgow before moving to Dalkeith aged four, young Susan was active in all manners of local church life. However, she set out to become a school teacher. It was the swinging sixties and Susan duly moved to London to complete her teacher training, housed in a hostel with a strict 9.30pm curfew that she promises she stuck to. On returning north, Susan taught at Edinburgh Academy for some 5 years. After a brief spell at Kelvinside, she sought out a very different and interesting role - ‘just for the challenge!’ This was a church organised endeavour called the ‘Socio-Educational Project among Travelling Families’ based in Perthshire. The unconventional nature of teaching aboard minibuses or outside on campsites with large numbers of children and dogs running riot did not dissuade Susan, who fully immersed herself into this unfamiliar lifestyle setting up after-school clubs with activities, games and plays. One such nativity involved altering well known song lyrics to become: ‘A wean in a manger!’
After finishing in this job, Susan decided to work with special needs children in Edinburgh. ‘Initially, I couldn’t bear to go back to the classroom. I had been teaching in the great outdoors up in Perth. I was making up my own rules and didn’t have to answer to a headmistress or to anyone. I was just enjoying myself. But special needs education was varied enough to accommodate my daft ideas!’ All in all, Susan was a teacher in one form or another for 18 years but, of course, that was all to change. ‘I wish I knew why I changed! I suppose I had always been interested in church growing up. I had taken the Sunday School, I’d run the brownies, run the cubs, served as an elder… played the organ…distributed the magazine…’ she takes a breath, ‘I had done every job I could’ve - except the minister’s job!’
Susan applied for the ministry and went through the rigorous selection process with two days of intensive interviews (including a psychologist’s analysis), emerging successfully to study for four years at New College, Edinburgh. She recalls the very date of her induction, 23rd April 1987, and took up the post at Symington, Coulter and Quothquan – leaving behind a cloud of dust as she raced between her three Sunday morning services in a 21 mile round-trip. The perks of life as a minister brought with it a new home. ‘The problem with the manse was the acre and a half of garden! I had to buy a big strimmer and a tractor just to cut the grass. Of course I drove it myself!’ Susan reveals an interesting regulation that a Manse must have 7 rooms – and by chance her present Lanark home does have precisely 7 rooms!
The tractor driving experience may have served Susan well as 7 years into her stint at the Symington Parish there came another key moment. ‘I went on a convoy of aid to Romania with John Thompson of St. Nicholas. We had three arctic and two 7.5 tonne trucks. But I was driving this small support car…which broke down on the Thankerton Road 20 minutes into a 5 day journey! It was late summer but the only way it would run was with the heating full on. But on we soldiered until we parked up just outside Budapest for lunch, and then there this awful ‘harrumph’ and the whole of the engine just fell out!’
However, Susan completed the remainder of the journey in a hire car in an epic two week voyage. Clearly inspired by her trip abroad, Susan now unwittingly set about her most daring escapade yet. She broke the news first to her congregation at Symington, who expected her to reveal some sort of new job in Dundee, or Forfar, or back through in Edinburgh. They were wrong... ‘I saw this advert: ‘‘WANTED: Minister, Budapest’. I sent for details just out of curiosity but left it a while. One day, amongst my papers, I found the advert again. I thought: I wonder what would happen if I phone this number…’
True enough Susan landed in Hungary on 20th June 1994 to take up her post at the St. Columbus’ Budapest, Church of Scotland. Spookily, this happened to be the very same date that legendary Scottish war-time missionary Jane Haining arrived in Budapest in 1935.
‘Jane Haining, from Dumfries, was there before the war, working with orphans and lots of Jewish children. Even when the church ordered her home, she refused to come. She said: ‘If the children need me in the sunshine, they need me n the showers’. Jane stood by her children during the war until she was taken to Auschwitz. I met an old Hungarian lady who actually knew her. I found this all strange and a bit scary that here I was, following in Jane’s footsteps at the very same school. I was very aware of the past’. Susan went on to contribute to a book profiling Jane Haining, published by the Church of Scotland.
There were some leftover effects of communism lingering around at that time and Susan recalls delivering her ‘Sunrise Service’ in Budapest’s famous Hősök Tere (Heroes'Square) with the Police circling and monitoring her congregation! Much like her earlier work, Susan was completely dedicated, openly inviting local people to ‘come meet the lord and learn English’. At the height of its popularity the St Columbus Budapest congregation had a varied roster of Hungarians, Swedes, French, English, American and 2 or 3 Scots. Despite this, Susan insisted upon Monday night Scottish Country Dancing with a cassette tape, and an annual Burns supper.
She also played a decisive role in bringing together a young couple she was particular fond of. ‘William was always coming round to mine for tea. He had been working in Budapest and was due to leave to return home to America, but it was at one last meeting in my flat, where a regular church-going Hungarian girl brought along her cousin, Hedi. No-one admits it, but I swear I saw their eyes meet!’ Now William and Hedi are happily married with four children, and Susan goes to visit them twice a year like her very own family.
After four wonderful years in Hungary, circumstance brought Susan back to Scotland. Since then she has been doing the rounds at a host of churches and communities. Remarkably, she reveals she has been in every church in the presbytery apart from three.
Helping people has been one of Susan’s great outreaches and she still invites European friends and families over, giving them the experience of a visit to the UK every year. One special sub-character or sub-setting over the years is that of her former Edinburgh flat which has been graced by many of these acquaintances. Whether on church business, studying, working or just visiting – many have enjoyed its hospitality. Susan reveals that she has recently sold the well-serving flat, not before raiding its best furniture to decorate her current residence. Incidentally, it was when Susan had been playing piano for the Celia Orr School of Dance in Lanark that she sought out her present home before it was even built, moving there in 2007.
Some of her greatest personal challenges have come in recent years, but a resilient Susan has battled through cancer, overcome hip replacements and multiple broken bones (she never was too keen on the steepness of the stairs).
At her old Budapest flat, Susan had a visitor book signed with 132 different names. One entry read: ‘Your home is an oasis of refreshment, vitality and peace.’
Susan Cowell’s life is full of charming stories, encountering many characters and undertaking great adventures. She has brought people together, taught them, enriched them and left them as better people for it.
Written by Fraser Bruce
Stated Annual Meeting
Sunday 10th March 2013 at 12 noon
(Following the Church Service)
Carstairs Village Church
CONGREGATIONAL REGISTER
Over the past few months we have lost a few folk, and we remember in our prayers the families of:
Christina Brown, Carstairs Junction
Douglas Paul, Ravenstruther
John Blacklaw, Ravenstruther
Douglas Alexander, Carstairs Junction
Allan Hodge, Carstairs
Sarah Hughes, Carstairs Village
John Kearney, Carstairs
David Jamieson, Cleghorn
Donald McInnes, Beechgrove Care Home (formerly Carstairs Village)
Catherine Cummings, Carstairs Village
Mervyn Graham, Forth (formerly Carstairs Village)
Olive Burnett, Carstairs Village
Billy Henderson, Carstairs Village
Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.
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PRAYER TIME
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. --Philippians 4:6
Did you know that there is a time set aside for Prayer for the work of the Church? If you would like to come and be part of this time you will find us on Monday evenings at 7.30 – 8.00pm in Carstairs Church Vestry. We meet on March 4th & 18th, April 1st, 15th & 29th, May 13th & 27th, June 10th &24th.
Palm Sunday – 24th March, 11.00am at Carstairs Village
Maundy Thursday – 28th March, 7.00pm at Carstairs Junction
(Celebration of Communion)
Good Friday – 29th March, 11.00am at Carstairs Junction
Easter Sunday – 31st March
Easter Breakfast in Carstairs Junction Church at 9.00am. From there we will walk to Carstairs Village for an open air service on the Village Green at 11.00am (weather permitting). This will be followed bya service in Carstairs Church.
Holy Week Labyrinth
“Walk with Jesus from Palm Sunday to Easter”
Carstairs Junction Church
Tuesday, 26th March2-4pm & 6-8pm
Wednesday, 27th March2-4pm & 6-8pm
Thursday, 28th March2-4pm & 5-6.30pm
Friday, 29th March2-4pm & 6-8pm
Saturday, 30th March10am-1pm
Holy week, the last week of Jesus life, can be a time for us to reflect on life and faith; to ask who Jesus is, and what difference can he make to me? For five days we are providing a special opportunity for reflection in the form of a Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is a pathway which will be marked out on the floor of Carstairs Junction Church. We are invited to walk along the path taking the opportunity at various points to stop and reflect, and think about some aspect of life or faith. The Labyrinth gives us time to pause in the middle of busy lives; time to think about ourselves, our loved ones, our world and our God. You arewelcome to come along at any time during the opening hours. We believe you will find this a special and meaningful experience.
‘Bite Back at Hunger’
Christian Aid Week
12–18 May 2013
As a Christian Aid Volunteer it’s very rewarding to know that Christians of different traditions are working together for one common aim during Christian Aid Week.Thousands of churches will stand together this Christian Aid Week to speak out for change. Some 100,000 committed volunteers will go out and put their faith into action, raising funds to help some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
This includes Britain’s largest house-to-house collection, an extraordinary act of witness – demonstrating to our communities that we care about ending poverty and injustice.There is enough food for everyone in the world, but one in eight people will go to bed hungry tonight. This year’s Christian Aid Week tells the story of how Christian Aid is helping communities to bite back at hunger through the lens of land rights in Bolivia, new technology in Kenya and innovative agriculture in Zimbabwe.
You can supportChristian Aid Week by volunteering for our local door to door collection in Carstairs Village & Junction. Please contact Christine Lothian on 07917138387 or email
There will also be a Christian Aid fundraising Lunch at Carstairs Community Centre on 12thMay 2013 following the Sunday service.
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DRAMA GROUP
New members are always welcome for the drama group. It doesn't matter if you are 3 or 83 and no previous experience is required - it's just a bit of fun, a chance to meet other people and try out some new skills along the way!