Volume 57 2022

A Cloud of Witnesses – An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints

The Revd Dr Alan Falconer

This was the address given at the Annual Meeting of the Society in 2022. In it, Alan Falconer, formerly Director of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and latterly Minister of St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen, proposes that the church returns to a project which was never completed: the creation of an ecumenical Calendar of Saints. He suggests that the way ahead would be to invite the Joint Liturgical Group of Great Britain to take up the task.

Heart and Hands and Voices – The Music that Makes Worship

The Revd Dr Douglas Galbraith

This was an address given to the Friends of the Music of St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. It suggests that music be seen not as an adjunct to worship but as integral to it. This is explored by reviewing the different genres of music at a recent service in St Giles' (examples were played) and discussing the effects of each on the liturgy.

The Primacy of Worship and the Necessity of Mission – Some Reflections

The Revd Dr Liam Jerrold Fraser

The Convener of the General Assembly's Theological Forum explores the relationship between mission and worship in a post-Christian context. It examines the Five Marks of Mission, the purpose of the Church, how the ascended Christ works upon and within the church to achieve this, how Christ's action in worship leads to missional fruit and what the relationship between worship and mission should be. It argues that to supplant worship with mission, or to place mission before it, will only weaken mission and harm both church and world. It concludes that worship, teaching, and sacraments precede mission theologically, temporally, and practically, and mission is contingent on them. Mission is not the root of the Church but its fruit.

Pilgrimage – An Old Idea Finding a New Meaning

The Revd Dr Richard Frazer

Dr Frazer of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, whose book on travelling the Camino, Travels with a Stick, has been influential in establishing the current discussion in the Church on this subject, reviews both biblical references about how wild places can awaken the spirit and some earlier experiences in the history of the Church of pilgrimage, and how one may find local sites that once were the focus of pilgrims. He discusses how 'the eternal seeps through the physical', both physical activity and the physicality of the landscape through which we travel, which as we become one with it begins to 'read us, interrogate us'. People may go on pilgrimage because they have lost faith in the institutions of religion. These potential springs of refreshment have become blocked. The Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum and the revival of Scottish pilgrim routes. Some disparage this movement, but there is always a place for revisiting old practices and re-framing them in a new context.

Yuletide Carrells

The Revd Dr Robert K Mackenzie

Arguing that to sing of the incarnation is enhanced when one does so in one's first language or dialect, the author offers his own reworking of the Christmas Carol in Scots language, giving three examples.

The Exorcism

The Revd David D Scott

The Editor recalls a liturgy written in response to a request for exorcism. He outlines how he approached the planning of this event, the principles on which he based it, and the consultations with the family concerned. The liturgy moves through the different focal points of the house.

 

Books Reviewed

Various

George Matheson and Mysticism – a Biographical Study, by Scott McKenna (Christoph Wutscher) The Long and the Short of It: reflections on reality in different measures, by John L Bell (Pamela Strachan)

Secretarial Notes

Items on the death of the Very Revd Ted Luscombe, the 2022 annual meeting, a new post for former Secretary Martin Ritchie, the forthcoming study day on 'Streaming the Sunday Service', and a new feature on the Society's website (of simple hymn arrangements).