Month: January 2018

Pew alterations at the Old High Church

On 26th January 2018

At the end of February we plan to make changes at Old High. As reported by Jim Alexander in our September 2017 magazine, the purpose of the changes is to deal with problems flagged up by a recent risk assessment: limited circulation space at the chancel area for wheelchair users during services and other events; and restricted access in the event of emergency.
The proposed changes are shown on the above drawing. Pew portions being removed are in red:

Removal of the central front pew
On pulpit side: front pew, cut back to match pew arrangement at audio console control end.
On lectern side: front pew, cut back at both ends to reflect proposed pew arrangement at pulpit side.
Associated work on heating pipes and the floor.

All the work will be carried out with due care and attention to detail in the reinstatement of existing pew finishes. The aim to respect the sanctuary and its symmetry centred on the chancel area.
For more details, please see the September 2017 magazine or contact our Session Clerks.
More details were in the September 2017 magazine

Going Forward Survey: Congregational Retreat

By Pat MacLeod

On 11th January 2018

In News

Congregational Retreat, Saturday 20 January, 10.30am- 12.30pm at St Stephen’s

(Sandwich lunch to follow)
In early 2017, we commissioned a survey of our parish to try to identify needs in the communities we serve which we might be able to meet as a congregation. The Going Forward Survey was completed in August by Kerrera Wilson. We will be discussing the proposals at a Congregational Retreat on Saturday 20 January 2018, at an event led by the Minister.
Download a copy of the full Survey Report

Download the Report’s recommendations.

The suggestions made by the report include the following:

1 Employ a full-time community worker or associate minister for missional purposes.

2 Possible developments of St Stephen’s halls as a facility for older people.

3 Set up Messy Church for families with young children.

4 Explore the option of using OH halls on Academy Street as a dry bar or drop in centre thus supporting homeless people and the local business nearby.

5 Exploring a situation of working jointly in co-operation with another church(s).

For more information about the Going Forward survey and report, please contact us.

Why wasn’t Jesus baptised as an infant?

By Pat MacLeod

On 7th January 2018

In Worship

Peter writes:
Someone asked a good question after my sermon today on the Baptism of Jesus:

Why wasn’t Jesus baptised as an infant?

Jesus, of course, was Jewish. There was (and is) no baptism ceremony for children in the Jewish tradition. There is interesting archaeology at the site of the Qumran Community, an unorthodox sect which flourished around Jesus’ time who created the Dead Sea Scrolls. Their ‘monastery’ apparently had baths for ritual purposes- some kind of purification ritual, the details of which are now lost to us. It has been speculated that John the Baptist was a member of, or was influenced by, the Qumran Community. And it may be that other religious sects of the day had something like the ritual of baptism. Apparently there was also something like a ritual of baptism for Gentiles converting to Judaism. And there are many references to rituals of washing in the Old Testament.
But it is from John the Baptiser that Christianity picked up the practice. Matthew 28.19 has Jesus instituting the sacrament by commanding his followers to carry it out, but he doesn’t seem to have baptised anyone himself. St Paul makes the earliest mention of baptism in the Christian church (Romans 6.4; 1 Corinthians 6.11), but he’s writing about the significance of a rite which already existed in the church. In the Acts of the Apostles there are stories of people converting to Christianity and being baptised, such as the story of the Ethiopian eunuch at Acts 8.26-40.
Obviously the first converts to Christianity were adults. Acts 16.33 mentions Paul’s jailer, and how ‘he and all his family were baptised at once’, which might have included his children (see also Mark 10.13-16). Certainly Christians practised the baptism of their own children early on in church history.
The ceremony in Judaism by which male children were (and are) dedicated as members of the Covenant people was circumcision of male infants at eight days old (still, of course, practices and known nowadays as the Bris). Jesus’ circumcision is mentioned in Luke 2.21, where he is also formally named. In many ways, this is the equivalent to Christian infant baptism, a ceremony of dedicating children to God and naming them, aspects which we have brought into the Christian baptismal ceremony for children.