Macduff, Banff, and the Moray Coast

5/16/12

The thread of connection is as spiritual as it is physical. From Macduff my Granny HMC went to study to be a teacher and then was called to serve in Nasirabad, Rajasthan, while her sister, my great aunt Mary became a teacher in Banff Academy. From Rajasthan my travels took me eventually to Mumbai and in Mumhai I met Bosco and Elvina whose good friends, Mike and Mary were the subject of our conversation and I agreed to make contact while in Scotland. This last weekend I went to visit them in Banff, or to be exact just outside Banff, in Inverboyndie, where their house and in particular their conservatory has a beautiful outlook over the beach and the shore in both directions. On Sunday my experience of worship in Mumbai dovetailed perfectly with the worship of the Riverside Network Churches together at the Harvest Center in Banff (formerly Aunt Mary's church hall). I was surrounded with charismatic worship and prophesy and prayer and was delighted to be in that place. On the day before, I drove with Mike through Gardenstown, Pennan, Rosehearty, Sandhaven and Pitsligo, all very familiar from my parents time of ministry in that area.  Here are a few pictures.

 The beach at Inverboyndie

 The harbor at Gardenstown

 Close up of a fishing vessel in Gardenstown

 Gardenstown Church of Scotland

The breakers at Pennan

 Looking down at Pennan harbor from the road

Approaching Rosehearty Manse and Church of Scotland

Rosehearty Manse

Sandhaven Church of Scotland

Pitsligo Parish Church

Ash and Merlot - Mike and Mary's delightful Jack Russell Terriers

 Looking back along the coast

Mike and Mary outside their home  on Sunday morning

13 Wood Street, Banff, where we enjoyed many a family holiday with Aunt Mary

A shop on the main street in Banff, familiar from my childhood
 

Fearn, Logie Easter, and Kilmuir Easter

5/14/12  It is now two days after my mother's birthday and one day after mother's day in the US. I am backtracking on my experiences over the past week or so. On Sunday, May 5 I set off north early in the morning to attend church in the linked congregation of Logie Easter and Kilmuir Easter. The services alternate month by month and in May they were being held at Logie. I received a warm welcome as a son of the manse and met my first Sunday School teacher, Pat, and Judith who remembered great birthday parties at the manse in our childhood. By prior arrangement the new minister came after service in my car and showed me round Kilmuir Church and then took my back to the manse for some lunch. It was very special to be in the church and home where I lived from age 2 to 12. I also drove over to look at Fearn Abbey and manse where family Friends Kenneth and Margaret were for so many years. Here are some of the pictures.

 Kilmuir Easter Church

Formerly Kilmuir Easter Primary School, opposite the church, where I and my brothers attended. The church also used the classrooms on Sundays for Sunday School. 

The brae between church and school where I once famously crashed my bike when cycling with my Dad and brother to an evening service in Milton. I had poor brakes and could not stop the bike so I rode right over the main road at the bottom and landed in a great big patch of nettles just to the left of the tree in this picture.
 

The path through the gravestones up to the church door (not visible but on the side just next to the yellow bush), so familiar and well trodden.

 Inside Kilmuir Easter Church

Still one of my favorite pulpits in all the churches I have seen.

  Stained Glass window in Kilmuir Easter church depicting Naomi and Ruth, much gazed at in my childhood.

Perth and Thornton

5/5/12

I may well have left many followers behind on account of the long delay in getting around to this post. My time has been full with a great variety of activity. I've had visits from friends, Jacinta and David last Saturday and Gordon and Karen today. I've had meals with friends, Ruth and Gordon, and Eileen. I traveled to Glasgow for a gathering of Meher Baba lovers and friends in the company of Dr. Gadekar from Poona in India who was traveling in the UK and had a final stop in Glasgow. Last Sunday I returned to Thornton Parish Church for 10:00 a.m. worship service and met several very familiar people from my days there, Margaret Colville, Jean Kane, and Harry Wyse to name a few. In phone conversation with Margaret yesterday I got the phone numbers for two of my contemporaries Steven and John whom I will be reaching out to greet in coming days. I've enjoyed a wonderful chamber music concert in the company of Eileen, of Mozart sonatas for piano and violin in Perth Concert Hall, performed by Susan Tomes and Erich Hobarth. I've been running most mornings down by the river Almond which has been exhilarating. My reading in the works of my great-grandfather has been enlightening. I've finished "Faith's Certainties," I'll be starting "Faith's Perplexities" very soon.  

 Jacinta and David in the back garden of my cottage.

... and with me in my kitchen.

  Above and below: Detail of the stained glass windows in Thornton Parish Church

The view from the pew where I sat as a teenager listening to my father conduct worship and preach.