STORIES FROM THE HEART was the theme of the 4th LEP Gathering, on 10 March, hosted by the Murrayfield Churches Together MTC) in Murrayfield Parish Church. Mary Kidd, Alan Taylor and Sandra Young represented Rosyth LEP and share their experiences of the day.
The event started with a moving act of worship, adapted from a ‘A Service of Welcome’ – Iona Abbey Worship Group, and including bible readings to reflect the themes of the day. This was followed by a short video on what the partnership (Murrayfield Parish, The Church of the Good Shepherd ,and Saughtonhall URC) does together and included scenes from a nativity play, their varied community work, study groups and involvement in an overseas project in Nairobi (see below).
The key note speaker, Lt Col Alan Burns, Divisional Leader of the East of Scotland Salvation Army (originally from Kirkcaldy) gave an inspiring talk on Mission –and what God is doing in the world. He took as his theme a quote from Tim Dearborn, Partnership Leader of World Vision International, which concerned the Mission-shaped church:
“It’s not so much the case that God has a mission for the church in the world, but that God has a church for His mission in the world’”
“Start with the church and the mission will get lost. Start with the mission and it is likely that the church will be found!’”
Alan views the Missionary church as being part of God’s sending out and he spoke about how we should think about and deal with the challenges outside the church, in particular remembering whose ground and language it is and how we re-act to different situations.
After a later than scheduled lunch – it was delivered to Morningside Parish Church by mistake - we settled into groups of our choice to hear two ‘heart to heart’ conversations. This was a welcome change from previous Gatherings, where we discussed topics and presented our findings in plenary. Two of the conversations covered:
Partners in Ministry gave each of us a chance to talk about our LEPs and the opportunities we had to follow mission and outreach. As examples, in Rosyth we have an active ecumenical group which creates labyrinths, takes part in the Palm Sunday Procession and the Walk with Christ on Good Friday, while the ministers from the 5 churches in Rosyth are active in planning events together. It was quite gratifying when the Rev Lindsey Sanderson, (Assistant General Secretary of ACTS) said that our LEP was a good example of an active LEP.
Partners in the World told us about a project currently involving the MTC and ECUDARE -an Ecumenical Day Care and Support Women Project to provide quality of life and holistic care for women living with HIV and their families in one of the poorest areas in Kenya. This project is financially supported by the MTC annually and we heard an enthusiastic report from Shirley Brown about their involvement in the project together with first hand knowledge of Shirley and others having witnessed some of the benefits their contributions have made. Esther, the Director, and her husband Daniel who were guests for the day, spoke equally passionately about her project and how some of the women have started their own small ‘businesses –vegetable selling, soap making, chicken and rabbit rearing.
The last session involved Lindsey, updating us with news from the Sponsoring Body – what they can do for LEPs and future initiatives in hand. We concluded a thoughtfully prepared day with Lindsey leading us in final worship which included Mary reading from Luke’s Gospel Chapter 24 (the story of the road to Emmaus). Each of us was given a lapel badge, with the motto Stories From The Heart as a memento.
We enjoyed the event and found it a very worthwhile day, and our thanks go to all involved, especially Lindsey. We were particularly taken with the stage adaptation with the lovely lounge and basement storage area, and the sliding door for access. Now that would work for us!
For most of the others the day started with the stress of finding a parking-place in a residential area on a Saturday. We three arrived travel-stress free armed with Railcards and Bus passes!
