Iona Pilgrimage
In July, over twenty of the congregation enjoyed the return of our bi-annual week at Bishop’s House. Jenny Paton-Williams led reflections on the ancient Celtic prayers and poems of Carmina Gadelica. The food, weather, walking and blether were all excellent. Roll on 2024.
Quiet Time – calm, poetry and silence for Lent
Join us at 4pm every Monday in Lent for twenty minutes of reflective silence, with poetry and readings. Whatever your religious background or lack thereof, you are most welcome. 7, 14, 21, 28 March and 4 and 11 April.
St. Columba’s by the Castle Church, 14 Johnston Terrace, EH1 2PW
GLENALMOND WEEK 7-13 August
This year’s Provincial Youth week is called Out of the Ordinary. It’s a time for young Piskies at High School or college to be themselves, make friends and explore faith. Please contact ClaireBE@scotland.anglican.org for details.
Wild Garden by Firelight
Join us as we celebrate creation and light in the cold dark days of winter
5.30 pm, Sunday 6th January 2022 (please note new date and time)
Johnston Terrace Wild Garden
Open to all
Please come dressed appropriately for being outside, and please share with anyone who
you think might be interested
Quiet Advent – reflections for the season
Every Monday in Advent at 3pm, we are offering an opportunity to enjoy calm, candlelight, silence, poetry and readings for 20 minutes. Everyone, whatever their spiritual journey, religious affiliation or lack thereof, is most welcome. You can light a candle at any time and stay for as long as you wish. We hope that this quiet time can offer you a way to de-stress from the busyness of the pre-festive period and help you discover a deeper connection with the season of Advent.
On finding a weary garden
It’s only the 7th August and our Quiet Garden is weary. I look around and it stirs up the same feelings as an end-of-season clothes sale, except here there are no crowds .
June , turning to July was glorious – we welcomed back visitors who enjoyed seeing irises and pink geraniums, smelt the burgeoning sage and rosemary, thyme and mint and heard sparrows and blue-tits fluttering around the feeders and leafy branches. We planted up our new boat feature , with fennel billowing like sails. We supported baby tomatoes, allowed the self seeded foxgloves to flower wherever they wanted and everything flourished as in the “bee loud glade.” Congregational fellowship after church was re-established and Nathan played with the pebbles in the water-feature. Lydia, researching Roof-top Ecology, was very pleased with her findings.
But there was a worm in Paradise as the large Rowan-tree was dangerously worn-out. We couldn’t risk large dead branches falling so we had to get the tree-surgeon in to fell it. Georg came and took the logs away and we are feeling the loss.
Following water-damage, we then had to organise scaffolding for roof and wall-repair. While the work is happening we can’t welcome visitors as there are poles and planks all over the place. And the foxgloves have gone over and the geraniums are wearing thin and the yellow alchemilla is turning brown. Most dramatically the Solomon’s Seal is completely stripped of its leaves, the victim of sawfly I believe.
Well a garden is where we can learn about what John Keats called Mutability – that life is always changing, sometimes on the wax and sometimes on the wane.
Trying to come to terms with this universal truth, I look around for signs of energy…. Reassuringly I find :
- a few poppies and rudbeckia very late and still to flower
- some potatoes to dig
- bees still busy around the catmint and lavender
- the new hyssop planted in the boat about to bloom
- the tree-stump area asking for a big, new idea!
Fortunately we now have the church itself open every afternoon of August so we can still offer a place of beauty to take some time out in. Seemingly, we live in an economy of God’s Provision, only requiring our willingness to go along with it.
Jenny P-W
Volunteer gardener and Lay-reader
Immrama – new Columba exhibition in Edinburgh
A new exhibition opens in Edinburgh on 6th August for the duration of the Fringe, telling a little of the story of Columba, and inviting you to reflect on your own journey – your voyage tale.
More information and opening times
Artwork by Paul Anders MacPhail, www.paulmacphail.photo
(previous event) Talk and discussion on Impact (ethical) Investing
The way we spend, save and invest money impacts on the world around us. Come and explore the connections between faith, money, values and how we can use our church and personal finances to shape a more sustainable world.
Rosie Venner from the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility will be exploring these connections with us on Tuesday Evening, 18th of May, on Zoom 7.30 – 8.30 pm.
All welcome.
For more information, please contact us.
New Science and Faith Webinar series launched
Catch the first of our new series of Science and Faith webinars on 1st December, 7.30 p.m.
Dr Murdo Macdonald, Policy Officer of the Church of Scotland Society, Religion and Technology (SRT) Project will be speaking on the topic of Restraining Climate Change: What is the Role of Faith Communities?
How to register and further information about the Change in a time of Chaos series
Garden Church
The first service at St Columba’s since lockdown began was held recently in the church garden. The theme was “my rock” and people shared rocks that were meaningful to them as well as reflecting on what (or who) had been their “rock” during the Covid pandemic. These personal “rocks” ranged from family members and friends to nature and the Edinburgh landscape. The fact that our church is built on a rock – a (hopefully extinct) volcano – also seemed significant.
