St James Holburn Junction 2015 archive

Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney

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St James, Holburn Junction Branch News Archive 2012 - 2015

Golden Jubilee

We celebrated the 50th Anniversary of our branch on Sunday 29th June 2014. Our morning service of Holy Communion was led by Rt Rev Robert A Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney and during the service members were invited by the Bishop to re-affirm their commitment to the Mothers’ Union.

The photograph shows our members gathered with Mrs Olga Robertson, one of the branch’s founding members as she cuts the 50th Anniversary cake.

2014 Branch Programme

Our branch programme is now available on line. Please click here to download it in PDF format.

October 2013 Meeting

We enjoyed a very interesting talk from June MacCormach on the "Send-a-Cow" in our October meeting.

We will be out and about for our next two meetings:

In November (Tuesday 12th) we will be celebrating House communion with our Chaplain, Rev Paul Watson at a member's home. This is an afternoon meeting starting at 2pm.

And in December (Tuesday 10th) we will be enjoying our Christmas Lunch at the Palm Court Hotel between 12noon and 2pm."

Tuesday 12th March at 2pm

This meeting will be held at St James' in the vestry where we will be holding our Opening Meeting and will have Communion led by Revd. Julia Candy, our new Priest-in-Charge.

All welcome

Into 2013 - A Time of Change

There have been a few changes at St James this year.

Christine Horrocks is no longer Branch Leader, MUe Rep, or a Trustee.

The Branch is now run by committee with every member taking a role and a turn at organising a meeting.

The contact for the Branch is now Rachel Officer.

August 2012 Events

Over the weekend 11 and 12 August, we hosted a morning coffee for WWP Rosemary Kempsell for her to meet our members and several members from other branches in the diocese.

Our banner was carried in the festival service held at St Andrew's Cathedral on Saturday afternoon.

It was a particular pleasure to see Mary Byars, one of our indoor members at the morning coffee and the service. She was helped by her granddaughter Rachel Officer.

Our monthly meeting on 14th August, began when a few of us were at Aberdeen bus station to meet the MU members travelling the length of the UK (see the Mothers’ Union on the Move in Scotland page). Olga, a member of our branch joined with others from the diocese to travel with the party to Elgin. Six branch members and one diocesan member went to The Captain's Table down on the beach prom for lunch as our summer outing. The weather was not fine as the haar had rolled in but we all enjoyed our meal and the conviviality.

Our next meeting on Tuesday, 11th September is a talk entitled 'Journey round the Horn' by Christine Horrocks.

July 2012 Meeting

At our monthly meeting on 10th July, Rachel Officer gave a talk entitled ‘Visiting Holland’. This was a very emotive meeting about being a carer. She gave us facts and figures on carers in Aberdeen but mostly spoke about her experience in Worcestershire where she lived until a year ago.

She then read an article entitled ‘Visiting Holland’ which spoke about hoping to go on holiday to Italy but ending up in Holland. This was an analogy of being pregnant and expecting a ‘normal’ baby but finding that the new baby was not as expected. In her case at around three he was diagnosed as autistic. She spoke of how things hadn't turned out as planned (as in the holiday to Italy) but there were still compensations (as in Holland being a beautiful and interesting place too).

The thing that I shall long remember is when a member said about autistic children ‘coping’, Rachel said she didn't want her son to cope she wanted him to thrive.

I have to admit, I'm a bit prejudiced as I am Rachel's mother!

We are looking forward to Rosemary Kempsell's visit to Aberdeen in August. We are hosting the coffee morning at St James for her to meet members of the diocese.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 14th August 2012 and some of us will be at Aberdeen bus station to see the MU members travelling the length of the UK. Olga, a member is to travel with the party to Elgin. The rest of us are meeting at The Captain's table for lunch as our summer outing. If the weather is fine we may manage a walk along the beach.

Please note there is a change of order in our printed programme and the talk entitled ‘Round the Horn’ will now take place in September.

June 2012 News

For our June meeting, Ann Penhale gave a very interesting and fascinating account of her cruise on the anniversary voyage of the Titanic earlier this year.

Three of our members travelled to Llandudno for the MU annual over the long weekend of 14th to 17th June. In spite of the dismal weather, we had a wonderful time. The service in St Paul's was so inspiring, we didn't mind missing either of the cathedral services. I met up with members from Birmingham who I'd first got to know when we went on a Home and Family holiday to South Africa many years ago. That's what I love about the annual meeting - renewing friendship with people you don't see very often. It was just a pity the trip was so short. Still looking forward to Bath already.

Provincial President at St James

Our visit from Hilary Moran, our Scottish Provincial President on Tuesday, 8th May went very well. Three members from St James and four from Ellon met her at the railway station for lunch before the meeting.

I was very pleased that 18 people came, including members from the Cathedral branch and diocesan members too. It all went very well and Hilary gave us an overview on the Mothers' Union and gave a presentation on MU projects. She also encouraged people to go to the Scottish MU gathering to be held later this year.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, June 12th at 2.30pm and one of our members, Mrs Ann Penhale will give us a talk entitled ‘Titanic remembered’. This is an alteration to the written programme.

Branch AGM 2012

We had our AGM on Saturday 14th January 2012. Eight members attended and two sent their apologies. It took place in one of our member's homes which was considerably warmer than it would have been in the church vestry. She also treated us to a lovely lunch afterwards.

The new programme was distributed. Our next meeting is our opening service in the vestry on Tuesday 13th March and will be a communion service led by Revd Max Paterson.

Christine Horrocks

Branch Leader

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