I nursed myself back to relative strength on Saturday and into Sunday. Which is good, because part of the whole reason I'm here is to lead worship for my friend and former NDPC intern, the Rev. Sarah Smith, who currently serves as the pastor of the Stonehaven Carronside Church in the Church of Scotland. Here's one of the church volunteers calling the community to worship by ringing the church bell--no sissified electronic bells in Scotland, bruh.
I preached on Matthew's story of the Canaanite woman confronting Jesus and used the story to explore how we human beings think about boundaries, difference, and morality. It's hands-down one of the best stories in the Gospels. Literally, no one told you growing up about that one story where Jesus calls a woman a "bitch" and tells her to get lost, and then she makes him look like a fool by explaining that God's salvation is actually for everyone. We like it that Jesus is human--but a xenophobic Jesus is maybe just a little too human.
The congregation is small--about 50 or so in worship. But they couldn't have been nicer to me. They made me feel welcome from the start, abided by the fact that I really didn't know the order of service well, and they seemed to be able to understand me despite my outrageous American accent. I even got a lovely lunch invitation after worship for quiche.
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A bit more on Stonehaven. It's a small town about 20 miles south of Aberdeen on Scotland's northeast coast. It's right on the ocean and has a marvelous little port--though obviously it's no longer a site of much commercial activity. Two rivers come down from the hills and feed into the bay in Stonehaven, so it seems like wherever you go, there's the sight and sound of flowing water nearby. The architecture of the town isn't distinctive or fancy. The oldest buildings are late 17th century, most appear to be 19th and 20th century. Here's a panorama from the hill above town, with the town in the middle of the image on your left.
The Carron, home of the (in)famous deep fried Mars bar. Episcopal Church in the background.
Heading out toward the old docks and harbor entrance.
The church in Stonehaven, as is true all over Scotland, has had to do some hard consolidating because of shrinking numbers. There's a large church building right in the middle of Stonehaven, but that one seems to be rented out an as event space. The congregation meets in another church building about two miles up the hill. There's a historic cemetery around the church which is quite lovely and brings some serious gravitas. This sanctuary probably has room for about 300 people. It's been nicely kept up, Sarah's got a large video screen on the chancel.
Even though the Stonehaven Carronside church is only 2 miles from town, it feels like a village church. At the bottom of the hill below the cemetery is a fork of one of the two rivers that flows down into town--if you're coming from town to church, you basically follow the river upstream, crossing over a bridge just before you reach the church. Across the road is a historic estate, Dunnotar (pronounced like the Spanish word for "you're welcome"). The estate is now a publicly-kept forest and recreation area and it's been delightful to wander through. There are fields, mature forest filled with birds (doves, crows, pheasants, and other smaller species I don't recognize), flowing streams with waterfalls, flowers of all kinds. It's quite a special place. Magical, even.
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