Our Christmas Angels

Jim Buchan, Elizabeth Macdonald, Christine

Oliver and Hilary Brown. Helen Brown was

another angel but is not in the photo.

Please keep in your prayers. Rhianna Urquhart, Dorothy

Anderson, Marjory Bain, Pat Souter, Rona Cameron, Sibby

Peebles, Sylvia Peebles, David Sellars, Donald Macdonald,

Johnny Campbell, Derek and Jean Murray

CHURCH MEETING: WEDNESDAY 25TH MARCH 2020

We are having tea/coffee in church hall on Tuesday

3rd March at 2.00 pm. Come along and have a catch

up with Anna & Gordon who will be in Thurso for a

couple of days.

CONTACT MARCH 2020

UNITED REFORMED CHURCH

CASTLE STREET THURSO

Secretary: Mrs Elizabeth Macdonald

Telephone: 01847 895922

Website: www.urcthurso.org.uk

Well we are getting through the winter without too much snow and ice which helps make life easier! The nights are getting brighter and we are looking forward to spring. As a Church, we are in good heart despite many of our congregation having health issues. We had a telephone conference meeting with the other four North Link URC Churches. Only one Church in the North Link currently has a minister, and that is Orkney. We may not have a minister, but I think we have been extremely blessed by the lay preachers and retired ministers who faithfully provide pulpit supply for us. We had an unexpected visitor turn up during the service a few weeks ago. A young man who was down on his luck took refuge in our wheelie bin shelter and joined us during the service. By time I had asked for permission for him to sleep in the hall overnight he had left. My son went to track him down that night and found him back in the shelter with nothing but the clothes he had on. He took him to the farm and allowed him to use the Porta cabin in his lambing shed. It would have seemed like a palace after a couple of nights in the wheelie bin shelter! After a fortnight of living like this, he finally got help from C.A.B. and Highland Council, who found him accommodation. I hope he comes back to the Church once he is settled. Psalms 27v4 I have asked the Lord one thing, one thing only do I want. To live in the Lord’s house all my life, to marvel at his goodness and to ask for his guidance.

God Bless You All Elizabeth

Kristin Ofstad (2005 – 2009) After six very good years working with two congregations in Richmond-upon-Thames,

I took early retirement from 1st September 2015 and moved to Spain with my husband Andreas Andreas and I went to boarding school together in South Wales in early seventies and met at a school reunion in Istanbul 2010When we got married in March 2013 we went to the south of Spain for our honeymoon and returned to Richmond having bought a rambling finca in the Alpujarra region, near a town called Orgiva. The 27-acre finca (small farm) is mostly shrubby hillside but we

have a lovely big orchard with olives, oranges, lemons, tangerines, grapefruit, pomegranates, persimmons, quince, loquats, avocados, walnuts and almonds. This last December (2019) we harvested 563 kg of olives and came home from the olive mill with 127 litres of olive oil. Both of us settled well and love living in such a wonderful place. We have a big international group of friends and sing in several local choirs. Andreas has done a lot of research into the history, language and music of Spanish Jews. He runs a small choir and together we have worked to enable a community of the Jews who live in the area, mostly through hosting events at key dates in the Jewish calendar: eg Passover, Chanukah, Purim and Rosh Hashanah. On Sundays, I attend a local Quaker Meeting.

Unfortunately, our marriage has not worked out and we have been separated for about a year. Finca Belluga has several self-contained apartments, so we were able to sort provisional accommodation quite easily. Our friendship has survived, but we live quite separate lives, and I am in the process of buying my own house in our local village and hope to move in March. As a result of the breakdown of my marriage in December 2018, I asked Southern Synod whether there were any part-time pastorates near Gatwick Airport, and now commute back and forth from Spain to Horsham on a weekly basis. Horsham URC had been vacant for several years and invited me to be their minister on a 50% basis from May last year. I share the manse with my step-daughter Franziska and her husband Jake. Renting in the south of London was a real struggle for them so they save money living in the manse, and the elders and I feel that the manse is more secure because they live there all the time. Being back in ministry is wonderful; I was grateful to discover that I haven’t lost the knack.

I am writing this update for you on February 1st the first day of the UK’s new existence.

As a result of Brexit, I will lose my right to live and work in the UK from June 2021,

when I will retire back to Spain for good. Do please let me know how you are! My email address is kristin@bitjazz.com

Previous Ministers Gordon Smith and Anna Briggs (2013 – 2018) The December election is over, bringing to an end one of the ugliest years in British politics most people can remember, with no assured prospect of the ugliness being resolved soon — yet again, a reminder of the eternal urgency of angelic hymns of peace on earth, of the Virgin’s let it be to me according to your word. The race that has welcomed the Word made flesh is never devoid of hope.

We are moderately well, notwithstanding age’s aches and pains. We continue our church life, while revelling in retired lack of responsibility. We take in occasional concerts, recitals and lectures. York enables more frequent family contact than did Thurso — and Rowan and Simon have been particularly helpful to a couple of oldies setting up a home. Grandson Euan graduated with a very good history degree from the University of Glasgow, with an intriguing dissertation on French political cartoons.

Gordon: I managed an introductory Russian course, and enjoy the time available for reading and organ playing.

Anna: I have taken on York co-ordination of Project Linus which entails collecting handmade quilts and blankets and getting them to children in hospital, in care etc. It ties in well with Shawl Ministry which is still my main commitment. I’m also a trustee of York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust, which was one of our main reasons for moving here and taking part in “A Nativity for York”, the nativity plays from the York cycle this advent, .(P.S. which was a wonderful experience for players and audience alike) An Iona Community gathering gave the opportunity for a trip to Northern Ireland, returning to Corrymeela where we have both been before. We also enjoy regular Iona Family Group meetings and we don’t have to cross the Pentland Firth for them! We moved to York because it’s lovely, there’s lots to do, and never far to go to do it. We’ve already seen some of our friends here and look forward to seeing more of you all. We haven’t got much spare room in our bungalow but we look forward to entertaining you and feeding you during the day, or going around York with you, or having a coffee or lunch even if you’re just breaking your journey here. We very much value our “ring” of friends and relatives all around Britain and Canada, and love to stay in touch and hear from you.

.

Thank you everyone for the lovely church flowers, cards,

condolences and your support. Especially thank you again

to Rev. Wendy Knott for all your support and for taking

Mum’s service.

Mary Logie

Thank you so much to your church for your donation. I’m

blown away by the generosity and kindness. This will go

towards the funding of another snuggle blanket. I’m

hoping this year to raise enough for two more to be put in

hospitals and funeral homes, giving families extra time to

say goodbye.

Angel Wings – Baby James Legacy

MEMORIES OF ORKNEY

Dorothy’s article in a recent Contact about the visit to Orkney, sparked off a

flood of memories going back almost thirty years. Every year for a number of

years, my late wife, Nessie, and I would spend holidays in Orkney. We stayed

at Myre Farm at Houton and below the farm was the terminal for the car ferry

to Lyness on Hoy. We would often take the ferry in the morning and spend a

whole day on Hoy.

In Lyness itself there is quite an interesting museum housed

in the old oil fuel pumping station. Lyness has large oil fuel

storage tanks built into the hillside.

Apart from the steam driven oil fuel pumps, the museum has

a large number of wartime artifacts.

At Lyness one is faced with two choices, go left and south to

Longhope or go right and north to Rackwick.

If we turn right and go north, just clear of Lyness on the left is the

Naval Cemetery. It contains the graves of men killed at the Battle

of Jutland, including that of a sixteen year old mid shipman. Away

to one side there are several graves of German sailors. When in

June 1919 Admiral Reuter gave the order to scuttle the anchored German

ships, the crews entered the lifeboats and rowed away from the sinking ships

with their hands in the air. British sailors and marines ordered the Germans to

return to their ships, when they refused the British panicked and opened fire

on the lifeboats killing nine of the German sailors. Their bodies were buried in

the Lyness Naval Cemetery and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

(CWGC) erected headstones with the men’s details however in several cases

they were unable to find the men’s names. In recent years German visitors

have pointed out that there were some notable discrepancies, in some cases

names had been misspelled. This prompted the CWGC to contact their German

counterparts the VDK.

When missing names had been found and other details had been verified, the

CWGC made the necessary corrections to the headstones, or

erected new stones. It is interesting to note that the Germans refer

to their sailors as ‘Soldats’, soldier.

Leaving the Naval Cemetery and driving northwards, after several miles we

arrive at the Water of Hoy where we find a solitary grave close to the roadside.

This is the last resting place of Betty Corrigall aged 27. She became pregnant

to a man who deserted her and reportedly ran away to sea. The shame was too

much for her to bear alone, so in sheer desperation she committed suicide. This

of course meant that she could not be buried on consecrated ground, her body

was therefore taken across the parish boundary and buried in un-consecrated

ground. Her remains were discovered in 1933 by men cutting peats and it was

re-interred.

The grave remained unmarked until about 1949 when a simple

headstone was erected, however this proved to be far too heavy for

the soft ground and it kept falling over. Finally that redoubtable

‘Old Man of Hoy’, Harry Berry, fashioned a much lighter

‘headstone’ of fibre glass, which still stands to this day. If on our visits to Hoy,

we were accompanied by our grandchildren, they would gather a posy of wild

flowers and place it on the grave. A young woman ostracised by the people of

her time, is today remembered in Christian love and charity by the many who

stop at the loneliest grave on Hoy.

D H SELLARS