WELCOME TO
NAIRN OLD PARISH CHURCH
WELCOME TO
NAIRN OLD PARISH CHURCH
The Congregation are invited to use this page to display their thoughts, prayers, comments or pictures. If you have something you wish to include on this page please send to John Urquhart or Evelyn Pottie.
Services of Worship
For details of Services and other meetings please see the Calendar page
SMARTIE TUBES - We hope that each family enjoyed the sweets. Refilled tubes can now be returned at any time.
Church Coffee morning raised an amazing £1052.60p
Volunteers who have not attended one of these Church of Scotland training sessions are very strongly encouraged to attend.New Safeguarding Training Dates for volunteers working with children or vulnerable adults in the Congregation will be coming soon.
Pictures from recent events
EASTER EARLY MORNING COMMUNION and BREAKFAST
SPRING AFTERNOON TEA raised £676.00 for Church Funds.
MEN'S FELLOWSHIP VISIT TO GREEN'S NURSERIES
Pictures from the very successful concert of the Speyfest Young Entertainers, held recently in our church. This was the first of a Tour of Concerts being undertaken by musicians and dancers who had taken part in SPEYFEST YOUNG ENTERTAINERS COMPETITION. We were treated to delightful evening of music and dance by this group of very talented young people.
£386 was raised for Church Funds
Historic Communion
We
recently celebrated the Sacrament of Communion, the first time it
has been conducted by a female minister. In 1900 Lady Frances
Balfour, a leading Scottish Suffragette, gifted our Communion table
to us. She was a daughter of the Duke of Argyll and a leading
aristocrat. She was married to Estace Balfour brother of Tory
Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. Lady Balfour came from a Whig
background and was a regular visitor to Nairn visiting Lord Finlay
of the Newton. The leader of the Suffragette movement in Nairn was
our first minister Rev. W. R. Pirie. Lady Frances was a staunch
supporter of the Church of Scotland and always attended the
Assembly. She was a great believer of women's position in the
church and after 116 years, a woman has celebrated communion at the
very table she gifted. Our thoughts and prayers were with the Rev.
Alison on this historic day.
World Mission
If you were fortunate enough to read the latest edition of the World Mission magazine, you will know that it was all about Fair Trade.
21 years have passed since Fair Trade was introduced to our retail system. It has been a slow process but is now well established.
The idea behind Fair Trade was to help farmers and producers in very poor parts of the world who struggled to produce their goods and were then forced to sell to large co-operatives who paid them very little.
Nowadays, Fair Trade offers fair prices for goods produced. This has resulted in lifting farmers out of poverty and has seen their lives improve beyond their dreams.
Can we help? Surely!
Recently Rev Alison spoke about ‘Choices we face’ and trying to make the right choice. When we are in the supermarket, we can make a choice, choosing an item with the Fair Trade logo, even if it is a few pence dearer (not always the case) By doing this we are helping to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters across the world.
Although many now receive help, there are thousands still living in poverty beyond anything we can imagine.
Please pray for them in their struggle to live.
Inter - Church Quiz Winners - Nairn Old Parish Church
The story behind the hymn tune.
A few Sundays ago we sang Hymn 342 to the tune "Une Jeune Purcelle". This is the tune used for The Huron Carol which has an interesting story to tell.
The song is regarded of one of the early carols from Canada. It was written in 1643 by father Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit Priest who left the shores of France to the Newlands of Canada to the land of the Huron Indian. He did not speak Wendat, the language of the Huron and he had no idea of their beliefs or they his. Wendat was not a written language so Father Jean sat down and created a dictionary, which is still in use today. When he had learned enough words he decided to write poems and songs in their native tongue. Wendat does not have the letter M or its sound which makes telling the story of Mary & Joseph a wee bit difficult, but the nearest sound was that of the French oui, so Mary became wairie. It became the Huron Carol and the original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). Usually when sang it starts in Wendat then it is translated into French as it was written and then English. The Huron Carol - checkit out in Youtube.