Dear Friends,Today in the course of my duties for the day, I met a young man who I have never met before. Nothing unusual about that, and we made polite conversation for a while as he worked away. Then he made a mistake in what he was doing, and...
Read More17th October 2021: Letter from Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,I trust you are all keeping well and are managing to avoid all the viruses that are going around as well as THE virus. At the moment there are times for all of us when simply to keep going is quite a challenge. This morning, when I...
Read More3rd October 2021: Letter from Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,It hardly seems possible that it is harvest time again. The year seems to have flown by so quickly even though there have been so many difficulties along the way. This Sunday we shall celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving in both churches...
Read More26th September 2021: Letter from Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,Today in Holy Trinity, we are so pleased to be welcoming back our choir. It has been such a long time since we have been able to benefit from their ministry during our worship, and it is so good to have them back. We are not yet...
Read More19th September 2021: Letter from Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,This Sunday marks the annual Golf Service in Holy Trinity, and we are delighted to welcome the Rev Alistair Bennett as our guest preacher there, together with those golfers who are able to worship with us. Of course, because of the...
Read More12th September 2021: Letter from Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,Yet, in another sense, we have all learned how important it is to be together. Since I have been home I have been asked to arrange a funeral, and it was so important that all the family should be together when arrangements were made...
Read More15th August 2021: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,As many of you will know, last week I travelled to the South of England to conduct the funeral of a very close friend. I had known Hazel for 44 years and her home was my second home when I lived in the south. She had been ill for...
Read More1st August 2021: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear FriendsAddressing a letter to friends is always a privilege, and every week as I write to you, it is very special to be able to call everyone who will receive this letter, whether here in St Andrews or halfway across the world, a friend. But...
Read More25th July 2021: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,‘Father, we thank thee for these thy gifts. Bless them to our use and ourselves to thy service for Christ’s sake. Amen’. So began every meal in my childhood home, and I can still hear my father saying grace when we sat down to eat...
Read More18th June 2021: letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,I have just finished writing this week’s service and, as usual, my last job was to insert the hymns into the script to go out by email. In order to save time, I use a website and copy the words of the hymns. But many of you will have...
Read More11th June 2021: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,Talking to a friend the other evening, I remarked on the fact that it was quite difficult to write a letter every week to go out with the emailed service, and that what I was going to say this week was still something of a mystery...
Read More4th June 2021: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton
Dear Friends,One evening, just before the great Music Hall star Mary Martin was about to go on stage in ‘South Pacific’, a note was handed to her. It was from Oscar Hammerstein who at that moment was on his deathbed. It read: ‘Dear Mary, a bell...
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