The Shuttle November 2019 Marchmont St Giles’ Parish Church at the Heart of the Community

THE SHUTTLE NOVEMBER 2019 MARCHMONT ST GILES’ PARISH CHURCH AT THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY Ronald Douglas Malcolm Fraser died died 25 years old 20 years old Andrew Gillespie David Doig died died 31 years old 21 years old 1a Kilgraston Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2DW Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and www.marchmontstgiles.org.uk 1 Meeting Matters Every Saturday 10 - 12pm Morning Coffee Every Monday 2 - 4pm The Lighthouse Group Every Tuesday 10.00 Prayers & Reflection South Transept Every Wednesday 12.30 Butterflies Plus - Lunch for the Over 60’s November 10 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Service of Remembrance 17 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Morning Worship 6.00 Teens Meeting 19 7.30 Guild - Bettina Hather 21 12.00 Neal’s Yard Pop Up Sale in Cafe 24 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Morning Worship 11.30 Flower Convenors in St Giles with flower calendar 2.00 Cork & Cask Wine Fair 25 2.00 MSG Walking Group - Blackford Hill - Craigmillar GC 27 10.00 MSG Cares December 1 9.45 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Morning Worship 2 7.30 Kirk Session 8 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Morning Worship 2.00 Blue Service 15 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Service of Nine Lessons and Carols Last date for handing in gifts for children 22 9.50 Junior Church 10.30 Nativity Front Page The photos on the front page are taken from an exhibition by Chris Stewart on some of the men and boys whose names are on the War Memorial from Warrender Park church. 2 Reflections O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job 19:23-27 Eleanor Roosevelt described the Diary of Anne Frank as "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read.” The diary has spoken to many adults and I suspect even more children down through the years since it was first published in the 1950s. Her incarceration, hiding from the Nazis with her family, is one of those primary sources which instil the reality and horror of the Holocaust and allow the readers to enter into a world which most people, fortu- nately, will never have to encounter. They also speak to us of the consequences of humanity extremism and why we should always oppose views which demean and scapegoat the other. Both of my children, like the 1.2 million who visit Anne’s home each year in Amsterdam, have experienced the all too human stories they heard and they saw there as part of a school trip. When we get our children to engage with how far humanity can fall and use others for their own political ends, then there is a light in the darkness for the future. 75 years ago Ria Plate also lived through that dark winter, known in Holland as the Hunger Winter. By that point in the war the Gestapo were hunting down the Jews who were hiding in the homes of Dutch people. Anne and her family were discovered in August and around the same time, Ria’s parents were betrayed and her father sent to Auschwitz and the Cohen family, whom they had hidden sent to Belsen and Dachau. That winter both Ria and her mother survived, and like many other people ate tulip bulbs to survive. 3 It is almost unimaginable what that must have been like; not knowing where your next meal was coming from and also not knowing if you would ever see your husband and father again. That is why as individuals and as communities, doing nothing in the face of intolerance and bigotry and extremism is not an option. When we hear our politicians, the ones whom we have elected, engage in language and aspirations that are unacceptable, then it is for us to say enough. That goes for those who use social media to perpetuate slurs and threats of violence. We must not sleep walk into a situation where the violent word and the violent action is condoned or even expected. Diaries tell us so much; they allow us into someone’s world and cast a light on both the good and the bad, but let us not live through another time when we have to read the diary of a child informing us of the depths that humanity can descend to. At this time of Remembrance let us commit ourselves to beat swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, where nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore, as Isaiah says. Remember the armed service personnel, but also the children and the parents and the grand- parents of every side and none, whose lives were lost and who still speak to us down through time in their words and their memories. Dr Moffat shares her father’s story A special insert comes with this issue of The Shuttle based on conversations with Dr Margaret Moffat whose father served in World War 1 and with distinction. A trench constructed at Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen has been named in his honour. General Election 2019 Vote for ???? Your next MP X Plans are underway to host a ‘Hustings’ at Marchmont St Giles’ before the upcoming election on the 12th December. All candidates in the Edinburgh Southern constituency will be invited to attend to promote the policies of the party they represent and to answer questions from the voters. Please come along and hear what your prospective MP has to say. Posters will be available soon with more information 4 DONALD CASKIE -THE TARTAN PIMPERNEL A Church of Scotland minister who helped prisoners of war escape a hilltop fort through a sewer system has been honoured in France. A memorial plaque to mark the heroic exploits of Rev Dr Donald Caskie has been unveiled at Fort de la Revere near Nice. Rev Dr Donald Caskie was the minister at the Scots Kirk in Paris when the Second World War broke out. He and his associates in the Resistance orchestrated the daring escape of RAF airmen under the noses of German soldiers and spirited 36 of them back to Britain in a submarine. Known as the Tartan Pimpernel, Dr Caskie, a crofter’s son from Islay in the Inner Hebrides, helped save more than 2,000 men during the Second World War. The plaque at the former military fort, which is located 2,283 feet above the village of Eze, was installed by an organisation called Le Devoir du Memoire which honours those affected by the war. The minister’s nephew, Tom Caskie, attended the unveiling service along with around 100 people, including local dignitaries, and said he was “bursting with pride.” The Edinburgh man said: “The memorial is simply wonderful and it was very emotional to see Uncle Donald honoured in this way and seeing the Saltire on display. “He was a hero of the Second World War and is still remembered with affection for his time as the minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris and the things he did with the Resistance to save thousands of lives.” Mr Caskie and his brother, Gordon, were presented with a commemorative medal to mark the auspicious occasion on 19 October. The event featured Highland dancing, Scottish songs including a performance of the ‘Ballad of Donald Caskie’ by Paisley school teacher, Gordon Whyte. Dr Caskie, whose codename was Monsieur Le Canard – Donald Duck – was leading the Scots Kirk in 1940 when the Germans invaded Paris. 5 He refused to return to Scotland and fled to Marseille instead and ran a Seaman's Mission, living a double life and passing the close scrutiny of the Vichy Police, and helped British and Allied soldiers to freedom across mountains into Spain. Dr Caskie was eventually recruited by British Intelligence officers and was told that his mission was the last link of a chain of safe houses that they had set up, which stretched from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France to Marseille in the south. The story of how he helped liberate prisoners from Fort de la Revere in 1942 is outlined in his book, The Tartan Pimpernel, which is described as “more thrilling than any adventure story”. Dr Caskie was officially acting as a chaplain to the PoWs and one day he discovered an opening to a sewer behind a large bush near the fort. He passed the information to his Resistance contact, General Sir Albert-Marie Guerisse who was code-named Pat O’Leary. Dr Caskie wrote that the entrance to the sewer inside the fort was in the boiler house and within 90 minutes, 36 men had escaped. “Another 22 men followed them, each ready to take his chance on making a solo getaway. Still more would have escaped but for a tragi-comic miscalculation involving a fat man, a squadron leader from the RAF, who got stuck in the tunnel. The poor man struggled furiously to get through the aperture and succeeded only in becoming more tightly wedged. Fourteen of the solo escapees were recaptured, eight got clean away.

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