Orkney Episcopal

Author: Catriona

  • COP26

    COP26

    Eco-Congregation Scotland invites us to ‘Get involved with your own church’ and have sent this COP26 update:

    Eco-Congregation Scotland continues to encourage churches and volunteers across the country to get involved in activities relating to the COP26 United Nations climate conference, still taking place this November at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow (pictured above). 

    Our new 2-page monthly briefing on what COP26 is and how to get involved is online now. Updated every month and highlighting any new information, please download or visit our webpage for the latest.

    We appreciate the volunteer support of Adrian Shaw, former Church of Scotland climate change officer, for the briefing and COP-related activities. Adrian is also supporting Interfaith Scotland as we link closely with other faith groups and wider civil society organisations in all our collective work towards COP26. We are delighted that Glasgow Churches Together has taken under its umbrella as a special sub-committee the COP26 Churches Co-ordinating Group we initiated in 2019, enabling more ecumenical support and activities relating to COP26.

    COP26 is a timely opportunity for churches and volunteers in every part of Scotland to get more involved in addressing local environmental issues and tackling the climate emergency.

    We are also encouraging you to take part in the world’s biggest ever faith-climate day of action this coming week, Sacred Earth, Sacred People – ringing a bell for climate justice or posting on social media – and sharing more upcoming events. In this first of our regular newsletter focused on COP26 updates, we end with a specific call for church halls in and around Glasgow.

    As we near twelve months of engaging online due to COVID-19 with our own programme of events, we thank you for your support and encouragement which is always appreciated.

  • Celtic Christianity

    Celtic Christianity

    Over the last few weeks, our Fellowship group has been looking at themes of Celtic Spirituality. We’ve been using Michael Mitton’s book Restoring the Woven Cord – studying one chapter each week – and it’s certainly given us a lot to think about.

    Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Celtic Christianity and on a particular key figure, but there’s a fair amount of overlap and the strands are often interwoven. At times, to be honest, we felt that the narrative jumped about a bit – and that could be quite frustrating! But it’s stimulated some really interesting discussions and challenged us in many ways.

    Various things have struck us – the humility of the key figures; the sense of community; the passion for the gospel; the care for God’s creation. We discovered a simplicity and an authenticity that’s sometimes lacking in today’s church. These were people who lived the gospel in an unassuming way and who had what Mitten describes at one point as ‘an infectious holiness’.

    The ‘Application’ section at the end of each chapter has sometimes been particularly challenging. We’ve been challenged to look at our own, personal lives and also at the life of our church. In each of these we’ve found a lot we can feel positive about, but we’ve also begun to appreciate that there’s plenty of room for improvement.

    In the last chapter of the book, Mitton says:

    “The more I read about the Celtic church, the more I am moved and humbled by it, and the more I am convinced that it is speaking to us today.”

    It is certainly speaking to those of us who have been exploring it together.

    Restoring the Woven Cord by Michael Mitton

  • A year to remember

    A year to remember

    On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the Corona Virus outbreak as a global health emergency.  To mark the anniversary of this, members of St Olaf’s organised a Prayer Vigil and invited 12 churches, representing a variety of denominations and Orkney locations, to contribute.

    We were overwhelmed by the response and support.  To avoid technical issues, the bulk of the vigil was in pre-recorded 5-minute sections, each focusing on a particular group or issue.  Each church sent a sound or video file and suggested some prayer points, and these were then compiled and edited by Mike Robertson.  The vigil began with a short introduction from Stuart Little, during which we were invited to light a candle, and Linda Broadley (Church of Scotland) led a short act of worship at the end.

    We were joined on the night by about 70 people – mainly from Orkney, but we also had people joining us from Shetland, Scotland, England and even as far afield as New York – and we’ve had some very positive and encouraging feedback.

    The vigil was recorded and is available on Youtube.