St Giles’ Cathedral: The High Kirk of Edinburgh St Giles’ News January 2020 St Giles’ Cathedral is a registered Scottish charity SC003565 A Message from the Minister A Happy New Year to all! As the New Year begins we find ourselves liturgically in the season of Epipha- ny (which means ‘appearance’) and we celebrate the manifestation of Jesus to the world as saviour. The traditional focus for the festival is the visit of the wise men to pay homage to the child Jesus in Bethlehem. The story of the visitation of the wise men has, of course, been a favourite of poets and artists throughout the years. Have you ever wondered why this story has been such an inspiration to the painters and poets who even today return to explore its meaning? Perhaps it is because of the simple mystery of these anonymous star-gazers, gift-givers and dreamers; or maybe it is that the story has something so basically human about it – mother, baby, visitors – that it connects with our experience and transcends time; and I am sure that the theme of jour- ney is one which resonates with many people who (rightly) understand faith not as a destination but a pilgrim- age. I think it is safe to say that in addition to any of these, the story fascinates because of the paradox of these important men of the world who have audiences with kings, travelling to an insignificant corner of an insignifi- cant town to kneel in front of an ostensibly insignficant child; a paradox that is prophetic of the new kingship God anoints. Blessings on your journey of faith in 2020 and beyond. Calum Homeless Sunday—Charity Concert Sunday, 26 January, 2020—6.00 to 7.00pm in St Giles’ Very kindly presented by the Kevock Choir Collection in aid of Bethany Christian Trust Organised by the Neighbourhood Group For programme and more information—see page 9 Page 1 Content Page 1 Message from the Minister The Congregational Noticeboard Due to the renovations, current- Page 1 Homeless Sunday—Charity Concert ly being undertaken in the Low- er Aisle, the Congregational Page 2 Noticeboard & Heated Trolley Noticeboard has found itself Irina Pages 3 & 4 News from the Session situated in the middle of a worksite and in consequence Page 5 Presbytery Report h a s h a d t o b e Page 6 The Arabic Prayer ‘decommissioned’ on a tempo- rary basis. Pages 7 A Lunch Party by coincidence However, we have been as- Pages 7 & 8 Neighbourhood News sured by the Convener of the General Committee that this situation will only be Page 9 Chinese Lanterns & Charity Concert for a short period; restricted to just a few weeks. Pages 10—12 C of S—Structural Changes As with all active churches, the Noticeboard is an e s s e n t i a l Pages 14 & 15 65 years in the Ordained Ministry m e a n s o f passing on Page 15 ‘Discovered Lives: Ladies of St Giles’ important and time-sensitive Pages 16 & 17 Dr Martin Fair—Moderator Designate information. Page 16 I Spy! The current Page 17 The Wise Men situation is making life extremely difficult in our efforts to com- Page 18 Visitors to St Giles’ in 1909 municate effectively. So, please bear with us and hopefully the Noticeboard will once again be oper- Page 19 Recollections of a Steward ational within the next couple of weeks. Page 20 Contact Details Bethany Care Shelter—and a heated trolley Teams from St Giles’, organised by the Neighbourhood Group, have provided full catering facilities at the Care Shelters organised by the Bethany Christian Trust for several years. Until recently the Bethany Care Shelters, providing overnight accommodation and a meal to homeless individuals, have been based at a variety of church halls and other such venues that would vary from evening to evening. However, Bethany, with the Church of Scotland and others, has now converted a former church (Stenhouse St Ai- dan’s) into a bespoke and permanent venue. This facility can accommodate up to 70 individuals on a nightly basis—the new venue is now known as The Diadem. When the St Giles’ team was recently catering at The Diadem, it identified that the abil- ity to serve hot meals was being severely hampered due to the lack of a heated food trolley. As a result, and with the generous support of the Tekoa Trust managed by a member of the congregation, funds were combined so the heated trolley, together with a range of appropriate accessories, could be purchased. A good and helpful result. Page 2 News from the Session Message from the Session Clerk A full Cathedral at all the services over Christmas reminded us of one of our key mis- sions as the High Kirk of Edinburgh - to act as a focal point in the City for the many resi- dents and visitors who may not regard themselves as church goers or perhaps even reli- Mark Batho gious but for whom attending church at Christmas has some significance. It doesn't mat- ter if it's the building itself that they come for, or its atmos- phere, its services and music, the candles or the welcome they receive. What does matter is that we are here for them. And in the same way, not least through the won- derful work Willof theBriant Neighbourhood Group, collecting money, food and gifts and dis- tributing these, the Cathedral is there for people in our Parish who need a bit of help at this time. I make these points in a report that is supposed to be focussed on the work of the Kirk Session, simply because our last Session meeting, just before Christmas, was a demonstration of the 'nuts and bolts' deliberations that take place there, whose pur- Iain in action pose is, ultimately, to make sure that the Cathedral is able to welcome our Christ- mas congregations and to reach out to our parishioners. For example, at that meeting, we were able to agree an increase in the resources Getting ready for Christmas available for the Neighbourhood Group's work; we received a report from the Ses- sion's General Committee on the work being undertaken to introduce an up to date fire risk assessment and prevention strategy - absolutely essential for keeping the building safe; and we heard about the plans for re-fitting the lower aisle area and once again making available a facility for the congrega- tion to meet and enjoy coffee after services. And we also had an important discussion about the need for continuing vigilance in relation to luggage that visitors are wont to bring into the Ca- thedral and which is sometimes left unattended. The connection between all this and a full Cathedral belting out 'O come Mark Oakley all ye faithful' at the Watchnight service is maybe not always seen. But it is real and it is a connection that is, I know, always in the minds of Ses- sion members. And as I close this piece, I should mention that at our last meeting, the Session gave thanks for the service of two Elders - to Elisabeth Downie, who has retired from active eldership after many years of devoted service to the Session and to the Cathedral; and to Harold Mills, long-serving as an Elder, as a former Cathedral Treasurer and as the organiserWill at work for many years of the large-scale civic and national services that take place in St Giles', who passed away in Novem- ber. All of us at St Giles' owe both of them a great debt of gratitude. Mark Will Tamblyn FINANCIAL MATTERS Message from the Treasurer—John Robertson At the time of writing, we have just passed the end of our financial year on 31 December 2019. It is too early, therefore, to give hard and fast details of the year’s results. While year-end adjustments have still to be made, it looks as though income in 2019 was John Robertson very substantially up on 2018. This is due in large measure to the increased visitor income, achieved by the hard work of our Heritage and Culture staff, and the volunteer guides, but offerings and donations appear to have held up well, too. Expenditure will also have risen, but, subject to the year-end adjustments, and provided the final figures do not disclose any significant oversight on my part, I am hopeful that we shall have achieved a modest surplus before extraordinary items. As to extraordinary items, we have been fortunate in 2019 to have received legacy payments of a little over £40,000. In addition to that, our Heritage and Culture staff were able to obtain for us payments from film com- panies of some £30,000. John Page 3 News from the Session—cont. GENERAL COMMITTEE REPORT Continuing the ongoing maintenance and development of St Giles’ - John Andrew Mark Batho In this edition of the Newsletter, I am pleased to report on the continuing work to maintain the fabric of St Giles’ and the added work, which is already underway, to investigate and de- velop a future maintenance programme. In the following report I will update on the works, investigations and future improvements to the fire protection systems and also give an up- date on the ongoing repurposing of the Lower Aisle. In previous articles for this Newsletter, I have outlined the investigations that were instructed John Andrew by the General Committee on behalf of the Kirk Session following the events to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April last year.