By Jo Clifford (From Seeds February – March 2023)

Jo Clifford has been in Karachi, Pakistan, for a production in Urdu of her play Light in the Village. While there, she met Pastor Rafique.

There’s a garden at the entrance to Holy Trinity Cathedral, Karachi: one of the few peaceful and pleasant green places in this troubled and squalid city.

Armed guards stand at the compound entrance. Every building has its armed guard. But they’re particularly needed here because not so long ago someone threw a bomb over the cathedral gate.

Pastor Ghazala Rafique and her family live in a modest house just inside the compound; and just by her front door transgender women and men gather to worship on Fridays. They meet there because the pastor’s clerical superiors do not allow us to worship in the cathedral itself.

They are also planning to sell the patch of land on which her house, and our sanctuary, stands. Trying to stop the sale of the land is one of the many battles the pastor is fighting; along with rescuing young Christian girls when they are kidnapped by Muslim fundamentalists and forced into marriage and conversion to Islam. She also very publicly speaks out for women’s rights.

All this, and above all her very public support for transgender people, lays her open to accusations of blasphemy and puts her life at risk.

When I meet her, I am struck both by the extraordinary pressure and danger that surrounds her; but more by her serenity and grace. There’s an extraordinary calm to her; no trace of hatred; the powerful energy of love.

We meet and we talk, and then she rushes inside to put on her vestments. She wants to be photographed wearing them: because they represent the sacredness of the work she is doing. ‘This is the work I am called to do’, she says, very simply, ‘and God protects me.’

By Rev Fiona Bennett (From Seeds February – March 2023)

This year, Lent begins on Wednesday 22 February. It is the season when we are invited to strip back to what is truly important.

Matthew 6: 19-21: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The giving up, or taking up, of activities for Lent are disciplines to help us focus in on that which is of eternal worth.

I have been reflecting this year that the strikes across the UK, the wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, the conflict over the Gender Recognition Bill*, and the climate crisis all cast particularly pertinent perspectives on Lent. They have drawn me to the passage in Matthew 6 (the lectionary reading for Ash Wednesday).

As I listen to the strike messages: yes, it is for better pay, but it is also for classroom budgets so teachers are not paying for food for their pupils; it is for minimum levels of staffing to be achieved in hospital wards; it is for safety on trains. As a society, what does this say about where our collective treasure and heart lies? I have followed the creation of the GRB* as it seeks to offer a measure of dignity to people who often experience stigma and hatred – and I wonder, where are our treasure and heart as a culture when the protection of vulnerable groups becomes a battlefield rather than a meeting point for collective strength to develop non-violence and dignity for all?

And using the same lens, as I look at my own life (or the life of the church locally and as a denomination) and how I (we) use time, money and energy, what does it say about where my (our) treasure and heart truly are? Lent is a season of stripping back to ask hard questions, but sometimes what it can reveal is surprising.

Several years ago, the city centre churches in Edinburgh did an audit of the hours they donated room space to support groups and gatherings (such as Alcoholics Anonymous, mental health drop-ins, food banks etc.) and the numbers were astoundingly high, revealing a significant and strong layer of care in Edinburgh city centre. Where our treasure is, there our heart is also.

As we think about what could be useful disciplines to give up or take up this Lent, I hope we can find ways to reveal to ourselves where our treasure and heart are, so that we may choose to continue or change our lives and habits to invest ourselves in God’s Dream or Realm, which is of eternal worth.

Visitors from across Scotland were welcomed into Augustine United Church this past weekend, as the congregation welcomed all-comers for Doors Open Day. With numbers of around 150 crossing the threshold from George IV Bridge, it was a great opportunity to share the story of both our building and our congregation. Many visitors said they’d passed our doors on many occasions but never had the opportunity to look inside. One visitor has travelled especially from Ayr for the day; another from Fife. There was a real sense of people venturing further afield again post-pandemic. Many people admired the Robert Burns stained glass windows; others were glad to share stories of their own churches and to experience a thriving community in Edinburgh’s city centre. This year, Doors Open in Edinburgh was organised by tenements support charity Under One Roof, who offered the theme Standing Strong. Our building has stood strong since 1861, and we added to our heritage resources with a brand-new display showing how the church sanctuary has been adapted over the years. We also demonstrated the ways we’ve tried to make our old building more sustainable and environmentally friendly – a vision we continue to pursue. Welcoming guests was an encouraging experience for volunteers, who found themselves in all sorts of interesting conversations. As one volunteer said afterwards – “It was so much fun!”

From Seeds September – October 2022

As reported in the May edition of Seeds, the Centre Property and Finance team have begun trialling six key indicators to illustrate how things are going across our remit and reporting in a more visual way. Recognising the impact of Covid, we use the most recent equivalent pre-Covid quarter (in this case Q2 2019) adjusted by CPI for comparison purposes.

We hope you find this style of reporting helpful, and would love to hear your feedback so that we can make these updates as informative and digestible as possible.

BUILDING UTILISATION (CHARGED AND OTHERWISE).

There were 270 bookings compared to 414 for the same period in 2019. In Q1 2022 we were still hosting the Grassmarket Community Project which masked an otherwise underlying change in church activity. In particular in-person ministry and mission activity has yet to return to pre-Covid levels.

BOOKING & RENTAL INCOME

Booking and rental gross income was £33,242 compared to £38,502 for the same period in 2019. It should be noted that our room booking charges increased by 7% in January. We believe we are still very competitively priced versus comparable city centre venues.

OFFERING INCOME

Offering income was £11,099 compared to £8,865 for the same period in 2019. We are very grateful for everyone’s contributions whether financial or otherwise, especially in these challenging times.

BUILDING REPAIR COSTS

Building repair costs were £7,004 compared to £9,291 for the same period in 2019. The figures exclude the work to repair the Finials on the Church Tower, for which our insurers will only meet 50% of the cost. Other recent works include dealing with drainage issues in the Pend (the cause of THAT smell!), Filter flies in the Archive space at Pend level (still under investigation) and an ingress of water in the Sanctuary ceiling.

UTILITY COSTS (ELECTRICITY, GAS, WATER & PHONE/BB)

Utility costs were £4,524 compared to £5,458 for the same period in 2019. We are fortunate to be on a fixed price deal for electricity which will provide stability until March 2025.

BUILDING RUNNING COSTS (EXCLUDING UTILITIES)

Building running costs were £22,745 compared to £29,432 for the same period in 2019.

By James Julian (From Seeds September – October 2022)

I do voluntary work at Redhall Gardens, which is a SAMH project (Scottish Association for Mental Health) intending to help people with mental health issues.

It is a sacred place to me. It is somewhere I find peace and tranquillity as part of God’s garden.

On the 1st of August, during my tea break, sitting quietly by myself on the bench, I was looking at a flower in a pot, which had a bright yellow centre and pink petals. A bee flew past and landed right in the middle of the flower. It was only a few inches from me. It was beautiful and wonderful to watch God’s little creation moving around at the centre of the flower.

I don’t know how long it was there, but eventually, it flew off. I was left with a sense of how fortunate I was to have had that connection with nature and the little bee. It made my afternoon special along with watering the tomato plants in the polytunnel and the hanging baskets that we had made.

When I received the AUC August News Sheet from Fiona, only a few days later, I realised that God is always with us. Fiona had included a postcard of eight British bees. There was also a little bee on the back of the postcard and a blessing:

May the Spirit bless you …
not with easy roads
but strong steps;
not with certainties and proofs
but with leaps of faith;
not with happiness for an hour,
but peace and joy forever.

By Pat Tweedie (From Seeds September – October 2022)

Private chef, cookery campaigner and AUC member Pat Tweedie is passionate about eating well even when money is tight. Pat is going to share some of her best ideas for budget-friendly meals here in Seeds, including tips for making the most of your food. This month, it’s all about courgettes.

Courgette Fritters

INGREDIENTS
(makes 6)

• 1 tin of tuna in sunflower oil
• 1 courgette grated
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 measures of bread crumbs (see tips below)
• salt and pepper to taste

TO MAKE

1. Drain the oil from the tuna and reserve.
2. Put the tuna a medium sized bowl; add courgette, egg and breadcrumbs.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Mix.
5. With your hands, separate the mixture into 6 equal parts. Shape into rounds then flatten.
6. Heat the reserved oil from the tuna and cook gently for 4 mins each side.
7. Serve with a simple salad in a bun.

COST

Approximate £1.40

TOP TIPS

If the mix is too wet add some more breadcrumbs; if too dry, add some more egg.

Breadcrumbs. I freeze individual slices of leftover bread. This makes it easier to defrost for toast etc., Frozen bread is easy to grate or to blitz in a food processor. Measures for this recipe are done by using the clean tuna can as a measuring device.

If you are not a fan of courgettes, replace with a grated carrot or some sweetcorn.

This recipe works very well for bulk preparation. Make up batches and then freeze with greaseproof paper separating the layers. These can be cooked in the oven but only if you are using the oven for something else. The most energy efficient method is on the hob.

Batch cooking is a great way to save time and money especially as tins of tuna are regularly on special offer.

By Hannah Albrecht (From Seeds September – October 2022)

On Sundays I walk to Augustine United Church from my little flat by Easter Road.

My route takes me past countless historic buildings and stately monuments, breath-taking views of the Old Town from Regent Road, and along the beauty and grandeur of the Royal Mile.

I’ve walked this way hundreds of times, but it’s not become old yet, after five years of living in Edinburgh, this city, these views. But my thoughts on it have become more complicated, more reflective, more critical.

It was along those streets that Lisa Williams led a dozen of us after a Sunday service in early June. We spent two hours on the Edinburgh Caribbean Association’s ‘Black History Walking Tour’ – two hours that weren’t nearly enough time to cover Edinburgh’s complicated, ugly history with the transatlantic slave trade and abolitionism, and at the same time, the powerful lives that People of Colour have been living here, to this day.

We learnt about the bitter history of Sugarhouse Close, a sugar emporium that was built on the work of slaves. We passed monuments to influential people whose riches and power came from the oppression of people of colour, such as tobacco merchant James Gillespie, or who further cemented racial injustice by endorsing slavery, such as David Hume. We heard hopeful stories of activist and reformer Frederick Douglass and his connections to abolitionist groups in Edinburgh.

Some people like to declare, dangerously, that the transatlantic slave trade is in the past and its effects are no longer felt. Lisa’s expertly woven stories and incredible knowledge of Edinburgh’s rich and painful history, however, showed us how wrong such a declaration would be. Hundreds of years of systematic oppression are not undone in a few decades. Slavery is indivisibly connected to the landscape of our city, the power it has given some people over others still felt today.

Lisa, whose own existence is inextricably connected to this history and its present consequences, offers these walks as part of a larger mission of ‘healing’. Her focus is on educating, on closing the gaping wounds that the long-term oppression of people of colour has created. And she is graciously inviting and powerfully urging us to join her.

As we in the URC explore the legacies of slavery, the ‘Black History Walk’ opens the conversation up even wider. What can we do to contribute to this healing process? How can we support the work of people like Lisa? What can we do to name and acknowledge the racial injustice in our society at large (and our city specifically) and, at the same time, work to actively abolish it? There is a long road ahead of us.

The path to healing is a difficult, complicated, stony one. But it is a walk we have to undertake if we want to create a city, a world in which there is equity for all.

Making apology – calling for reparations

Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson has became the first woman from an ethnic minority background to be made Moderator-Elect of the United Reformed Church.

In the same week, the URC’s General Assembly made a confession and apology for the role of its antecedents in transatlantic slavery and its continuing complicity in the legacies of the trade today.

The Church also made a commitment to undertake practical actions to address ‘the continuing negative impacts of the legacies of transatlantic slavery on black communities in the UK, the Caribbean and Africa’.

As her first act as the Moderator for 2022-23, the Revd Fiona Bennett, with the Revd Adrian Bulley, Deputy General Secretary (Discipleship), declared that the confession and apology ‘is firmly rooted in the gospel call to repentance and gives life to the commitment in our Basis of Union to be “formed in obedience to the call to repent of what has been amiss in the past and to be reconciled.”’

They said: ‘We have heard the pain of sisters and brothers who have been hurt, and are still being hurt, by these legacies, including the continuing scourge of racism … In a spirit of humility and vulnerability, we are urged on by a movement of God’s Spirit, calling us for a journey of words and actions towards a future built on equity, justice, and love.’

Do we know?

The resolutions calling for both apology and practical actions in relation to the legacies of slavery have been introduced.

Karen Campbell, Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries (pictured) said: ‘The hurt of slavery is still real for millions of people. You may not see the wounds bleeding, but they are still not healed. I was born in Britain, but I stand before you as someone who belongs nowhere. I’m cut off from my history, with no way of knowing something as basic as my true family name, and this is a legacy of transatlantic slavery.’

She said the Legacies of Slavery Task Group has heard many testimonies and been asked many questions.

Karen has captured some of these in this poem.

Do they know, Karen,
Does the URC know
All that we face, day out and day in
What we see, what we hear
What we take in our stride
What it means
How it feels
To walk in our skin?

Can they imagine the sting,
Standing fresh in the church,
Offering gifts of talents and time,
And much more,
To be told, ‘You’re not needed
For this, nor for that –
We’ve called a white colleague
We knew from before’?

Do they know how it burns
When the message is shared
‘She says she’s not coming on any such day
That you lead, that you preach,
Because she insists
She can’t understand a word that you say’?

Do they have any idea
Just how much it smarts
When a colleague, in collar,
Seeks to keep me in check –
Says I welcome ‘your folks’ in the pews, but cannot
Accept a white collar
Around a Black neck?

Do they know, Karen,
Does the URC know
Just what we encounter
While they say we ‘belong’;
What it means to be Black in this Church –
Our Church?
Please, hear what we see –
See that something is wrong.

Karen Campbell, June 2022

By Rev Fiona Bennett (From Seeds September – October 2022)

The season of Creationtide draws to a close on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St Francis, on Tuesday 4 October.

St Francis was an Italian Catholic Friar who lived in the 12th century. He proposed that creation was God’s first incarnation and Christ the second. In this, he was not trying to undermine Jesus’ significance but to make the point that the whole of creation is an expression of who God is; all life’s source, creator and parent.

This led Francis to value all aspects of this earth as precious and imbued with divine artistry and love; and to understand the interaction, interdependence and balance of all the life which makes up the earth as an expression of the mind of God.

This year, as we approach Creationtide, in the midst of record summer temperatures, droughts and floods, I am amazed at myself and the whole of our world at how apathetic we seem to be to take significant action to protect ourselves and the many life forms we are dependent upon.

As one of the richest nations in the world, why are so many houses still poorly insulated and carbon clean sustainable energy sources not our sole sources of power? I feel this frustration as someone whose loft is not as well insulated as it could be, but who finds the thought and cost of clearing it and relaying the floor very overwhelming.

I am part of the problem, but there are also much bigger forces at play which are making sustainable choices inaccessible to people who are unable to cover the basic costs of life.

“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”

St. Francis of Assisi

The words of St Francis above challenge me that talk about environmental justice without action is meaningless, hollow. In fact, in our current situation, it is worse than hollow; it is corrupt, as it is destroying God’s world.

As I face this season of Creationtide, I am challenged to take more action in my own life and to campaign for much more action by the human powers which influence our world.

However, another quote from St Francis leads my mind to hope. St Francis also said: ‘A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.’

One sunbeam which I have encountered during my travels as Moderator has been to meet with some people in the URC who are 25 years and under.

In them I have met people who are willing and ready to back up their words with actions – and not just one-off actions, but the willingness to accept that less obvious and sometimes less comfortable and convenient ways of living are what they choose, so that other life can live.

In January, eco church organisation A Rocha commended the URC’s Youth Executive for the leadership that URC Youth Assembly and its Executive have shown in encouraging the whole Church to act swiftly to develop how it cares for the environment

They are challenging themselves to make choices which are less driven by how much they earn or how much power they gain over others, but by what they can give and create and what balance they can find.

Sunbeams which refresh me with the potential in our humanity for goodness.

If Francis is correct and creation is God’s first incarnation, then it shouts at us about the importance of interdependence and the inbuilt realities of resurrection and evolution. The brief lull in travel during the pandemic showed how extraordinarily quickly the earth seeks to restore its health when it is permitted; another sunbeam which drove away many shadows, born from the tragedy of Covid.

God has built perpetual hope into this world and in Jesus has shown us how to live that Way of hope. The Good News is all around us. Our challenge is to live in it, to act and not just talk about it, and in our action to be amazed at the transformation and joy God can grow.

By David Townsend (From Seeds June 2022)

Do you ever read a book that resonates with your own experience? Freeing Jesus by Diana Butler Bass is, for me, just such a book.

“the book is a rediscovery of Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Saviour, Lord, Way, and Presence”

Freeing Jesus is strongly autobiographical whilst, at the same time, presenting a clear articulation of a renewed faith and theology that has moved away from fundamentalist evangelical notions of ‘salvation’.

Like me, Diana Butler Bass discovered fundamentalist evangelicalism in Providence Doucet on Unsplash her teens but, after giving it her all, found herself in mid-life questioning the journey she’d undertaken thus far. As the subtitle suggests, the book is a rediscovery of Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Saviour, Lord, Way, and Presence.

I know that I am not alone in having moved beyond the fundamentalism of my earlier years and, if that is your journey too, I think you will also find that this book resonates. On the other hand, if you never experienced aspects of evangelical fundamentalism, this book will help you to understand the faith journey of those of us who have.

And I suspect that it may help all of us to better articulate aspects of our own faith journey and understanding. As writer Anne Lamott says in her commendation: ‘Diana Butler Bass is one of only a few modern Christian writers who can absolutely blow me away with both spiritual insight and beautiful writing.’

By Rev Fiona Bennett (From Seeds June 2022)

The 2’s seem quite significant in AUC’s history.

2022 marks 220 years since the congregation of what was then called the North College Street Chapel was founded in 1802.

2022 marks 30 years since this congregation became part of the URC, through its union with Dalkeith Road URC. The name Augustine United Church was born in 1992 through this union – so we have been ‘AUC’ for 30 years.

2022 also marks 50 years of the wider United Reformed Church, which was formed in 1972 when the Congregational Churches in Wales and England united with the Presbyterian Church in England.

Both the URC and AUC are patchwork quilts composed of the legacies of several denominations and local churches.

For AUC, apart from Dalkeith Rd URC, there were joinings with Bristo Place church in 1941; Hope Park and Buccleuch Congregational church in 1979; Dalry Congregational in 2005; and the Metropolitan Community Church of Edinburgh in 2009. Of course, each of these local churches also has their own patchwork legacy of congregations who have been birthed from, or who have joined with, them.

It is sometimes cleaner to think about our patchwork heritage through the structure of organisation, but that’s like looking at a photo of a quilt rather than feeling it around you or hearing what other people felt when they had that quilt around them.

People: the Church is about a community of people supporting and challenging each other to live Jesus’ good news and to share it with the world. AUC itself is full of people who are wrestling with how to build bridges and community throughout our society and world. I wonder, as you think back over your time in AUC, or as part of other churches, who are the people and the stories that have stuck with you and shaped you? Who has supported and challenged you to live out and share the message of acceptance, abundance and hope which Jesus came to bring?

“AUC is still full of people wrestling with how to build bridges and community”

These people are the many threads that make up the patches in the quilt of our history.

As we celebrate many 2’s in 2022, I would encourage us to remember and share these thread stories of people and the legacy they have left us.