Langholm Old Church Parish Magazine
No.140 Price 1/8p - with LIFE AND WORK - 8d LOCAL MAGAZINE ONLY April 1973.
Minister: Rev. Tom Calvert, The Old Manse, Langholm. Tel. 256.
Session Clerk: Mr. Archibald Findlay, Langholm Lodge. Tel. 453.
Clerk to Board: Mr. E. C. Armstrong, Town Hall, Langholm. Tel. 255.
Treasurer: Mr. Robert C. Craig, 5 Rosevale Place, Langholm
Organist and Choirmaster: A. Douglas McBay, Dip. Mus. Ed., R.S.A.M., A.R.C.O.
Church Officer: Mr. W. Elliot, 3 Buccleuch Terrace.
Hall Caretaker: Mr. M Tweddle, 17 John Street, Langholm
Text for April: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother". St. John 19. 25.
Sunday, 1st April, the 4th Sunday in Lent, is called Mothering Sunday, the Sunday of the Christian Year when we are encouraged to remember with gratitude all we owe to our mothers. It is believed the origin of observing the 4th Sunday in Lent as Mothering Sunday comes from the Church of England, because the Lesson set in the English Prayer Book for that day is Galatians chapter 4, where in verse 26 we read, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all". But the custom of holding a special Sunday when we remember our mothers is much wider, for various Churches in the United States of America including Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist hold a special Sunday, 2nd May as Mothers Day. And the idea is highly commendable whatever Sunday is chosen.
And I think a lot can be said for remembering Mary, the mother of Jesus on a special Sunday, just as we have special Sundays when we remember St. Andrew, St. Paul and others. For after all, was not it Mary who rocked our Lord's cradle, who cared for him when he was tiny and helpless, who loved him as no other son was ever loved, and who followed him with tears and breaking heart as they led him to Calvary, and as our text reminds us, who stood by the cross and witnessed his agony.
A few words about the heroism of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and a like heroism of other women.
"There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother" What heroism when you remember what St. Matthew tells us about the disciples, how they all forsook him and fled. But Mary didn't in that hour of our Lord's agony, when there was darkness over all the land, when it seemed that even God had forgotten His only beloved Son, when the disciples as Jesus foretold, after one had betrayed him, the others forsook him and fled. What it must have meant to Jesus that his own mother was standing by him, and what heroism on her part.
Towering over the city of Liverpool is its wonderful Cathedral with its beautiful stained-glass windows in Lady Chapel, presented in 1910 by the Diocesan Friendly Societies, Societies of women and girls. These windows commemorate heroic women of modern days, [such as] Grace Darling who saved the lives of men and women by rowing out in a dreadful storm to a wrecked ship off the Northumberland coast. Mary Anne Rogers, a Stewardess on a Channel Steamer, who gave her life-belt to a frightened woman as the steamer was sinking. Kitty Wilkinson, a washer-woman who refused to leave the Merseyside when people all around were dying with plague but stayed on to nurse and help. Yes and the figures of many other heroic women who might have escaped danger but went into it to save and help others. And Mary, the mother of Jesus was one of that vast army of heroic women, fearlessly followed her son as they led him away to Calvary, and when all his other former friends had deserted him, and when it seemed God too had forsaken him, Mary stood by.
A few words about the filial regard of son for mother.
Jesus was a devoted son of Mary. He remembered how she had nursed him as a child, and how when he ran to her with childish needs she was all ears, all concerned for his good. It is believed that Joseph died while Jesus was yet a boy, and that this accounts for him becoming the village carpenter, and carrying on to the age of 30 before leaving home to begin his public ministry, because he wanted to ensure that Mary his mother, and the younger members of the family were cared for. And after beginning his public ministry we read how he would return home to see his mother, visits that were not always a success as the members of the family didn't agree with his preaching. Nor did the villagers of Nazareth, which led Jesus to say, "A prophet is not without honour save in his country, his own town and in his own house".
And as Jesus agonised upon the Cross and looked down and saw his mother standing by, he became anxious what would happen to her when he was gone. And seeing the beloved disciple John standing nearby he said to his mother, "Woman, behold thy son", and to John "Behold thy mother", and we read that from then onwards John took Mary to his own home and cared for her.
And so I would draw this conclusion, that people who remember their aging parents with gratitude for all they did for them when they were tiny, are not only following the example of our Lord Jesus, but also that they are doing something for which they will never have any regrets.
A few words about what the world owes to good mothers.
Writing to Timothy, St. Paul says "I am reminded of the sincerity of your faith, a faith that was alive in Lois your grandmother and Eunice your mother, and was passed on to the son".
St. Augustine was blessed with a Christian mother, and later writes "God forbid that my mother should ever cease to be, she who loved me so well. I am Thy child O God because Thou didst give me such a mother".
Thomas Carlyle pays a like tribute to his mother, "There is nothing I ever had to be so much thankful for as the mother I had". And in his last letter to her he says, "My dear good mother, let it be a comfort to you that you did your part well to me, and to us all".
Abraham Lincoln, whose mother died in his youth, declared, "All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my mother". And Philip Inman, who was for many years chairman of Charing Cross Hospital, writes, "My mother was always passionately fond of flowers. Reverently would I lay my posy at her feet. Mother-o-mine I thank God upon every remembrance of you"
And finally, Mothering Sunday, or Mothers Day, leaves us with the thought that the heart of Very and Eternal God is surely as tender and feeling as that of the best mother who ever lived.
The heart of Mary was pierced through and through by all that happened to her son, as she followed him from the Judgement Hall to Calvary, saw him die a cruel death, and stood by until the last gasp, for she was his mother and he was her son. We often talk about the Fatherhood of God, but it might be more appropriate to think of the Motherhood of God, for as Percy Dreamer says, "Our Father and Mother and Maker art Thou". We have often wondered why when Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son he didn't mention his mother for her heart must have been rent and torn when the lad went off to the far country. Perhaps she had died in his infancy.
What a lot has been written about the length a mother's heart will go, never giving up caring for her child whatever happens. Dr. Gossip, at one time a minister in Glasgow, tells in one of his books how one day a Glasgow mother came to see him, her hair was white and she looked starved and frightened. She told him a pathetic story about her son. He had been living a useless vicious kind of life, and for thirty years had brought nothing but sorrow to the heart of his mother, and now he had been arrested for an assault from which his victim had died. He was in jail awaiting his trial. But the bruised heart of his old mother yearned for her child. "Why don't you leave him alone and forget all about him, he cares nothing for you", said Dr. Gossip to her. In tears the mother replied, "I know he doesn't care anything for me, but I care for him, and he cannot have a mother long now".
If a human mother who has been wronged and despised by her own son goes on caring like that, how much must our Father care for us, who often don't deserve it? I have read of a mother in Cambridge whose son ran away from home and joined the Merchant Navy. He never troubled to write home or visit home, and as the years went by she didn't know whether he was alive. But she never gave up hope that one day he would come home again, and for over 30 years she never locked the door at night, lest he should return and find a locked door.
That is an example of what the heart of God is like, except that it must be infinitely more tender and caring and loving. As William Cowper puts it in his well-known hymn Can a mother's tender care - Cease towards the child she bare? Yes, she may forgetful be, Yet will I remember thee"
Or as Kipling expresses the same mother's caring in his Mother-O-Mine.
"If I were hanged on the highest hill, Mother-O-Mine Mother-O-Mine I know whose love would follow me still, Mother O-Mine, Mother-O-Mine. If I were drowned in the deepest sea, Mother-O-Mine, Mother-O-Mine, I know whose tears would come down to me, Mother-O-Mine, Mother-O-Mine. If I were damned of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, Mother-O-Mine, Mother-O-Mine."
LETTER FROM THE MINISTER
Dear Fellow-Member,
The Annual Meeting of The Congregation of our Langholm Old Parish Church took place after the Morning Service on Sunday, 18th March, and was well attended. In my letter this month I am giving the reports of our Office-Bearers and leaders of organisations at this Meeting.
Mr. Robert C. Craig, our Church Treasurer, presented a duly audited Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31st December, 1972, copies of which are available at the church door. In presenting the Statement of Accounts Mr. Craig made the following comments: -
"From an examination of the printed Annual Accounts for 1972 it will be seen that the total Income was up by 456, accounted for by an increase of Offerings, proceeds from Collecting Boxes, and a donation of 300 last November from the funds of the former Congregational Church. Increase in the Offerings may be explained by (1) 53 Sundays in 1972 and (2) influx of over 100 members at the beginning of the year, some 50 per cent. of whom joined the Freewill Offering Scheme. However, from a Roll of membership of 1000, the total Collections ( 2291) shows a poor average per head for a year.
For the other side of the picture, Expenditure. This was up 236, accounted for entirely by a much too large increase in the cost of heating the Hall. However, prompt action in the late Spring (which included the substitution of a new gas meter for a faulty one) has resulted in a substantial decrease in cost since the beginning of the Winter activities up to the present time (March 1973).
Certain normal increases such as Stipend, Salaries, etc., and remittances to Church Headquarters and the Presbytery, were off-set by savings in other respects. But we must anticipate an increase in "routine" expenses of at least 250 in 1973. It should be remembered that, had it not been for the 300 gifted in November, we would have closed with a balance on the wrong side."
In his report submitted at the Annual Meeting of the Congregation the Treasurer expressed his appreciation of the willing and helpful support accorded him by the Elders, especially after Church Services.
Mr. Craig was warmly thanked for his skillful and devoted services to our Church as Treasurer, and thanks were expressed to Mr. J. Wood for his services as auditor.
The Report from the Session Clerk, in the unavoidable absence of Mr. Findlay, was presented by Mr. J. MacIntosh. Mr. MacIntosh reported "that two additional elders had been ordained in the year, making 26 in number, but two elders had left the district, leaving two districts at present without elders. During the year the duties of Roll Keeper had been taken over by Mr. George Hendry. The annual returns show the membership to be 1001 communicants and 40 members on the Supplementary Roll, and in the year 23 infants and one adult were baptised. The year had also seen the merging of Hawick Presbytery into the Jedburgh Presbytery. At a recent meeting of the Kirk Session it had been decided, because of the time taken to get to meetings at Jedburgh, to petition Jedburgh and Annandale Presbyteries to translate Langholm Old Parish Church to the Presbytery of Annandale.
The Kirk Session also appointed a committee to set up a Memorial Corner; work which has been approved and commended by the Church of Scotland Advisory Committee on Artistic Questions. Finance has been provided by the former Congregational Church to meet the expenses of this work.
We have been fortunate in securing the services of Mr. A. Douglas McBay, Music Master of Langholm Academy, as our Organist and Choirmaster. Mr. McBay has already been successful in forming a choir and we commend his efforts to the congregation for their support.
At the last meeting of the Kirk Session our Minister, the Rev. T. Calvert, indicated his intention to demit office on 1st June of this year. While outwith the year under review the importance of the event demanded comment at this time, Mr. MacIntosh reminded the meeting that Mr. Calvert had been Minister oi Langholm Old Parish Church for 13 years, and he had no doubt that more would be said of this at another time.
The report from the Clerk to the Congregational Board, Mr. E. C. Armstrong, owing to his present indisposition, was read as follows: During the year just ended, the Congregational Board met on eight occasions, and in addition to the perennial subject of finance, a number of important topics were discussed and decided. Just before our last Annual Meeting, a Hall Administrative Committee was set up to consider the many problems concerning the use and care of the Church Hail. The Report of this Committee was presented last May when the Board welcomed and approved their recommendations for Rules to be observed by all Organisations using the Church Hall, as well as their definition of the Office and Duties of the Hall Caretaker.
In June, the ad hoc Committee appointed to investigate and report on the renovation of the Church Organ recommended that the work, estimated at some 2,500, should be entrusted to Soloway Organs.
In reaching this decision, the Committee had the benefit of the advice of one of the foremost organ builders in the country, and it is confidently expected that the overhaul just starting will give us an organ even better fitted for its next hundred years service. The Committee would also like to thank Dr. Lang of Canonbie who is acting as Consultant and Adviser, and whose lively interest and support are so much appreciated.
As a result of the organ improvements, the Board decided to appoint a Ways and Means Committee, to consider financing the major projects, and plans for raising funds are now being actively prepared.
The proposals for a Memorial Corner in the church were warmly welcomed by the Church of Scotland Advisory Committee on Artistic Questions, and it is hoped the Corner will now soon be completed.
At this point, the minister, Rev. T. Calvert, expressed the wish of all present, that Mr. Eddie Armstrong would soon be fully recovered.
In connection with the reference in his report to Ways and Means Committee to raise funds to finance the organ overhaul, Mr. Calvert reported that in his visiting in the previous week, he had received a contribution of 50 from a member who wished that her name should not be revealed. This was the commencement of the Fund, and we hope that every member will make as generous a contribution to this fund as they can afford.
The. Woman's Guild Report:
This was given by the Secretary, Mrs. Anne MacLachlan, as follows:
"The Woman's Guild with Mrs. Ewart as President has had a very successful year. Our syllabus covered a variety of topics including talks on subjects of local interest, and all the meetings were well attended. We had the pleasure of being invited to meetings of Castleton Guild, Canonbie Guild and Erskine Guild, and in return we had members of Castleton and Erskine Guild, as our guests. As you will see from the Financial Statement we donated 300 to the Scheme of the Church, and 40 towards the upkeep of the Church Hall. The Guild also provided canvas to recover hall chairs and wish to thank Mr. David Calvert for carrying out the work of fitting the canvas.
The Guild members were saddened by the loss of two of their Committee members, Miss Mina Irving and Miss Jean Hyslop, the Treasurer.
The Committee were very grateful to Mrs. Laurence who has kindly agreed to be Treasurer for the remainder of the Guild year.
Our last meeting will be 27th March, and in the same week, the Guild holds their annual Sale of Work and appeals to all members of the congregation to give their full support and help the Guild make the Sale a really great success.
Sunday School Report:
Miss Jean McVittie reported that owing to home commitments Mrs. Catherine Douglas, the Sunday School Leader, had been prevented from attending during the past two months, and we hoped she would soon be able to be back giving us the benefit of her gifts of leadership. At the present time the Sunday School was suffering from want of regular teachers, and she considered that a Church with over 1000 members was failing badly that this should be so. It was moved that the problem of giving adequate support to the staffing of the Sunday School be referred to the Kirk Session.
Boys' Brigade:
Mr. Gavin Graham, an Officer and Secretary of the 1st Langholm Company of the Boys' Brigade reported that the company strength was over 70 lads. They were fortunate in having seven officers who were regular in attendance. Pians were afoot for a summer camp at Dunbar. The Annual Inspection and Display will take place on Friday, 13th April in the Buccleuch Hall at 7.30 p.m. when the Inspecting Officer will be Mr. John Mills, President of the 13th Border Battalion of the Boys' Brigade.
SPECIAL SERVICES IN APRIL AND MAY
Commencing Sunday, 1st May the Half-Hour 9.30 a.m. Services begin for the summer months. The evening Services will be discontinued except for special occasions. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper will be celebrated on Sunday, 29th April at 11 a.m. and a Second Table at 3 p.m. with Communion Thanksgiving at 6 p.m.
A united Good Friday Service will be held in All Saints Scottish Episcopal Church on Friday, 20th April when I hope the Old Parish people will be well represented.
Looking forward to May, the Service at 6 p.m. on Sunday, 6th May will be attended by Worthy Matron Mrs. Little and members of the Order of the Eastern Star. On Sunday, 13th May the Langholm Town Band will lead a special Service of Music and Song at the 6 p.m. Evening Service.
CHURCH CHOIR
The choir will meet weekly on Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. preparing for a special Service when they plan to render "The Crucifixion" by John Stainer. I appeal to members and friends of the Old Parish to come forward and swell the ranks of choir members and give our organist, Mr. McBay, every encouragement.
SYMPATHY WITH THE BEREAVED
Mrs. Jeannie Malcolm Scott, formerly Waldie, passed away in the past month at Blackpool at the age of 77. The internment of her ashes in Langholm Cemetery was on 21st March. Our sympathy in bereavement with her husband Thomas Scott and all relatives.
With warm greetings to all our people.
Yours sincerely,
TOM CALVERT, Minister.
TREASURER'S REPORT
Quarter Ended 31st March
F.W.O. 1973 £204.16 1972 £225.41
Ordinary 1973 £79.74 1972 £98.89
Annual 1973 £30.10 1972 £18.00
Donations 1973 £- 1972 £1.00
Covenants 1973 £82.00 1972 £92.00
Total 1973 £396.00 1972 £435.30
Overall decrease £39.30 Decrease in Offerings £28.30
An anonymous contribution of £50 has been received from a member for the Organ Repair Fund. Further contributions to this Fund will be most welcome, and will be acknowledged by letter, unless they also are '"anon.".
CHURCH CALENDAR
April 8 - 9.30 a.m. Half-Hour Service. 11 a.m. Morning Service. Rev. Tom Calvert. Flowers, Mr. James Maxwell, Treetops.
April 15 - 9.30 a.m. Half-Hour Service. 11 a.m. Morning Service. Rev. Tom Calvert. Flowers, Mrs. A. Douglas, The Parsonage.
April 22 - 9.30 a.m. Half-Hour Service. 11 a.m. Morning Service. Rev. Tom Calvert. Flowers, Mrs. R. Robertson, Springfield.
April 29 - Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. with Communion Thanksgiving at 6 p.m.
May 6 - 9.30 a.m. Half-Hour Service. 11 a.m. Morning Service. Rev. Tom Calvert. 6 p.m. Service attended by Worthy Matron and members of the Eastern Star. Flowers, Mrs. T. M'Kail, Merrick, Walter Street.
BAPTISM
March 18 - William Currie, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Graham, Chapel of Logan.
IN MEMORIAM
March 21 - Internment of ashes of Mrs. Jeannie Malcolm Scott. Age 77.
''For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8. 38/9.
INTIMATION
Thursday, 12th April - Kirk Session called to meet at 7.30 p.m. followed by meeting of the Congregational Board at 8 p.m.