THE MANSE Revd Scott S

March/April 2016 Issue 218 Scottish Charity SC000785 RAPEV NE GMayfield Salisbury Parish (Edinburgh) Church of Scotland SCIENTISTS IN CONGREGATIONS SERMON: BIRTH WITHIN INTERVIEW: PETER GRANT www.MayfieldSalisbury.Org THE MANSE Revd Scott S. McKenna Dear Friends, In Hell there grew a Judas Tree PASSION NARRATIVE Where Judas hanged and died Because he could not bear to see The Passion or ‘suffering’ of Jesus lies at His master crucified. the heart of the Holy Week story. It is a corrective to any notion that God crudely, Our Lord descended into Hell mechanically, intervenes in human history And found his Judas there in the manner of a Hollywood miracle. For ever hanging on the tree God is able to creatively respond to prayer, Grown from his own despair. in and through us, through our thoughts and actions, through our openness to the So Jesus cut his Judas down Presence of the Sacred. And took him in his arms ‘It was for this I came,’ he said Through the days of Holy Week, Jesus is ‘And not to do you harm the calm centre of the story, a story in which He is betrayed, abandoned, My Father gave me twelve good men ridiculed, abused, tortured and brutally, And all of them I kept shamefully, murdered. He is at peace Though one betrayed and one denied during the interrogation by Pilate and, on Some fled and others slept the Cross, with love, He is able to speak to His mother and the disciple whom He In three days’ time I must return loved especially. In all that He faces, Jesus To make the others glad is never in doubt that He and the Father But first I have to come to Hell are one. And share the death you had In prayer, be with Christ: allow His calm My tree will grow in place of yours and peace to penetrate your soul; let Its roots lie here as well yourself be filled by His Spirit; be aware There is no final victory that He dwells in you. Jesus invites us to Without this soul from Hell’ share in His union with the Father, that we So when we all condemn him may taste eternity now. As of every traitor worst One prominent character in the Passion Remember that of all his men narrative is Judas, who led the authorities Our Lord forgave him first. to Jesus in order that He be arrested. In the end, Judas commits suicide. One of Every blessing, my favourite poems for Holy Week is by Ruth Etchells, called the Ballad of the Judas Tree: Scott 2 PETER GRANT Kirstine Baxter missed out on a lot of the later involvement in my home church. So when did you first come to Edinburgh? As a student at the Heriot Watt, travelling daily by train from Leven for the first two years and having digs in Edinburgh from Monday to Friday for the third and fourth years. I did electronic engineering; I was a light current man. Then I went to work for Plessey in Portsmouth in the south of England. They were designing parts for military radios. I was working on integrated circuits, trying to make the radios smaller and smaller. In 1966 that was very new. After four years there I returned to Scotland, worked for a year in Glenrothes, and then came back to Were you born and brought up in Edinburgh, to the University this time, to a Edinburgh, Peter? No, I was born in St Andrews and brought up in Leven in Fife. research position. I have two sisters. One sister lives in Ottawa in Canada and the other sister lives Is that when you started coming to in Musselburgh and also in Lochcarron, as Mayfield Salisbury? After I came back to she travels between the two. Edinburgh, I met Marjory. Marjory lived in Mayfield Road and attended Mayfield Church, so I have been coming to Mayfield Was yours a church going family? Yes, my uncle was session clerk for years at with her since 1973. Marjory and I were Scoonie Parish Church in Leven. My married in Mayfield in January 1974 in the father was also an elder, later in his life. He middle of the three day week! There was kept refusing, saying he was too busy no heating in the church and the slates running the Leven Musical! Leven were flying off! I had a house in Currie. So Amateur Musical Association was formed after we were married we lived initially in in 1872 and is the longest running such Currie, but we always came to Mayfield. society in the UK. My father was secretary for 30 years. Mother too was a church goer Have you and Marjory always lived in and we were taken to Sunday school and I or near Edinburgh? Not completely. We was in the Life Boys, but I went to spent a year in California in the 1970s and boarding school when I was 11. So I a year in Boston in the 1980s. When we went to California our daughter, Jennifer, 3 was only 8 weeks old, and our other convener is responsible for the daughter, Lindsay, was under two, and we maintenance of the church buildings and, had no where to stay! A PhD student as they are old buildings which are very drove us around to find some well used, we are constantly trying to catch accommodation! So when we went to up! Recently we’ve been doing quite a bit Boston, and we were living in our present in Church House, the windows have all house in Grange Road by then, we made it been refurbished, for example, but in the clear that we had to have somewhere to church some of the stained glass still needs stay from the start! Both girls were attention and we need some new doors at therefore for a time in elementary school the west entrance. We get contractors in in the Boston suburbs. I remember for these big jobs, of course, but William Jennifer was told to go and wash her hands and I also do quite a bit ourselves. For at the faucet, to which she said, ‘What’s the example, we returfed part of the front faucet?’! Today Lindsay lives in Aberdeen garden, and we repainted the railings, wire where she is a GP and Jennifer, who is a brushing them all first. That was a long lawyer, lives in Morningside. We have three tedious job! We have also been replacing a grandchildren: Catriona and Louise in lot of the fluorescent lights in the halls Aberdeen, and Mitchell in Morningside. entrance with LEDs. Marjory and I look after Mitchell each Wednesday afternoon. Both girls were I’m sure you are involved in other married in Mayfield Salisbury, Jennifer on things at church too? I think it was in our 39th wedding anniversary, which was about 1980 that I became an elder, and I’ve rather nice. been involved with the Salisbury Fund with Alan Paterson since Salisbury joined with And you continued to work at the Mayfield in 1993 and the Shierlaw Fund. University in Edinburgh? Yes, in 1989 I Marjory and I go to the 9.30 service on became Professor of electronic signal Sundays, but I also help at the 10.45 processing. Then in 2002 I was involved in service, for example, on the sound desk amalgamating the different engineering and as a banker for the offerings. departments into one ‘school’ and it was after that that I became Regius Professor And apart from church? The biggest of Engineering. I retired in 2009, but I thing is my involvement with the James volunteered to return part time, working Clerk Maxwell Foundation at 14, India on a Government research exercise Street. I’m the secretary. Last year it was measuring the relative research expertise in 150 years since his famous paper on his each discipline in each University, though equations, which the BBC latched on to I’m fully retired now. and made a TV programme about it. This caused a lot of renewed interest, especially At Mayfield Salisbury, you are now on from overseas visitors. The displays at 14 the Business Committee as Fabric India Street had become very tired. So I’ve Convener. How is that going? The fabric been doing a lot of work, with one of the 4 trustees, on designing new ones on Marjory and I go regularly to the theatre. Maxwell’s life: his scientific achievements There’s always plenty to do in Edinburgh! and his poetry. Also the statue in George Street does not have any panels on it at all, Thank you very much, Peter, and thank you for and so I’ve been working with the Council all your hard work at Mayfield Salisbury on our to get something done about that. At least behalf. We are extremely grateful that you were we now have a brass panel on the stone willing to become Fabric Convener. The care of the work at India Street! I also have a classic fabric is an essential task in any community, but car, a red Triumph TR7, and I play a bit of especially in buildings which offer not only those golf. I play at Prestonfield, often with who worship, but also the wider community, such Michael Sharp and Martin Little. And benefits. SCIENTISTS IN CONGREGATIONS Douglas Blackwood With contributions from very many members of our congregation, this booklet, through prose, poetry and illustrations, is a response to claims that religious beliefs have been overtaken by the amazing progress of science.

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