Wednesday 22 April 2009

Holy Week in Shetland 1


Nobody wants the President (or VP for that matter) during Holy Week and Easter so Jeremy Dare said 'come and join with us in Shetland' and we had a wonderful time.


There are 19 churches in this one circuit District with 2 full-time itinerant ministers - the Chair (Jeremy who is also super, circuit minister of 7 churches etc) and Nigel Barton (who I suppose is Synod sec, Deputy Chair, circuit minister of 11 churches etc) and John Best looks after the congregation on Fair Isle. He hasn't been well recently and needs our prayers at this time.

I arrived on the afternoon of Palm Sunday and was met by George and Mae Anderson, a wonderful caring couple so committed to Christianity and Methodism in Shetland. They fed me and then took me to share in the worship at Scalloway.


there was a young Nigerian student visiting Malcolm and Janet McCall (supernumerary minister) for the weekend and she gave a very moving trestimony. The church was full with a good number of children and young families and we had a great time of worship and then fellowship afterwards.

The following morning Jeremy took me up to the top end of the island visiting North Roe and I met with Paul seeing the work there on building their first indoor toilet...it didn't have a door on at the time so there was lots of whistling going on!!

This, like most congregations in Shetland, is small but Paul and his wife have brought a new sense of life to the chapel since moving to the village.
We spent time visiting folk in their homes in North Roe, Loch End and Queyfirth. It was fascinating listening to the stories and learning so much about the way of life and history of these communities.

In the evening I was back at Scalloway at the Kirk for a Holy Week ecumenical service - I was told by the Kirk elder I could come back!!

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