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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Scottish Diaspora! Tapestry
A project to involve communities around the world in celebration of Scottish heritage and culture, the people and places which connect Scotland to its global Diaspora.
Scots have migrated all over the world and have often had a profound impact on the areas where they settled. This project brought together stories from more than such communities, documenting their Scottish connections in more than 300 embroidered panels. It is a remarkable and heart-felt homage to the determination, courage and achievement of Scottish migrants and their descendants across the centuries.
This Tapestry is being displayed at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 115 St. Andrew's Road, Scarborough on Saturday 24th September.
Learn more at http://www.scottishdiasporatapestry.org/
Our Community
Last week I mentioned that I was considering closing our community. I got quite a few emails in and it seems quite a few thought I was either going to close the Electric Scotland web site and/or this newsletter.
SO to try and correct this confusion I was talking about our site at www.electricscotland.org which is our social networking site where you can post messages on a range of subjects and is also where we post up this newsletter.
In October we plan to move our servers to Simon Fraser University where our domains will then be available from then to way into the future and when I am no longer here. I'm hoping to work with them so even when I pass on content will still be added from time to time. However at the very least the content on the site will still be available and that's why I am leaving my company and domains to them.
In the short term I will save around $250 a month but they'll also benefit by getting the advertising income.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Bumper year for wildflowers of Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has said 2016 has been a bumper year for wildflowers in rare and endangered Scottish lowland meadows.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-37373090
St Kilda lost songs album tops classical music chart
An album of lost songs from the evacuated Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda has gone straight to the top of the classical album chart.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-37389502
Jock Shock
Scotland's business birthrate has caught up with the rest of the UK, but the former economic development chief says we are miles and years from the kind of transformation on innovation and productivity that is needed.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37396240
Amateur archaeologist finds phenomenal trove of rock engravings
Scottish enthusiast George Currie’s prehistoric carvings to be included in exciting research project
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ogist-scotland
How the Sturgeon slowdown could mean more cuts for Scotland
by Murdo Fraser
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...nkscotland.org
Kintyre seafood restaurant has unique dining companion for guests
A deer that thinks she’s a collie
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/in10/chat...s-shes-collie/
Banks warned over post-Brexit EU access
UK-based banks would lose the automatic right to trade in EU states if the UK left the single market, the head of Germany's central bank has said.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37405430
Merkel links migrant crisis to CDU defeat
She voiced regret over mistakes that contributed to last summer's migrant crisis in Germany. More than a million migrants reached Germany - a record.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37409451
Tories call for Royal Yacht Britannia to be recommissioned
MEMBERS of parliament and former ministers have said the Royal Yacht Britannia should be used to secure trade deals post-Brexit.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/tories-...oned-1-4234278
Secret to long life is Scotch whisky
Reveals UK’s oldest woman
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/secret-...oman-1-4234917
The Courier celebrates its bicentenary
It is a special week for The Courier, as the morning regional daily celebrates its 200th birthday.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...years-courier/
Poor Reception
Edinburgh seems just as remote from Scotland’s periphery and certainly less interested than London or Brussels ever was.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/BrianWilson80a.html
Glasgow Women’s Library
A treasure trove that shows how far feminism has come
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...ti-suffragette
A very happy church
For any home owners, giving up a much loved house is a wrench.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/life...-happy-church/
Dundee product designers create age guessing mirror
Product designers from Dundee and Northumbria Universities have developed a mirror which tries to identify the year the person in the reflection was aged 14.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...essing-mirror/
Electric Canada
Fall Colloquium September 2016
Spent Saturday attending this event so some pictures and videos as a result which you can see at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada/fall2016.htm
Electric Scotland
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
The Immortal Memory: Befriending Robert Burns By Dr. Valentina Bold
Scottish poet Alan Bold would be very proud of his daughter Valentina who has studied and worked among the teachings of Robert Burns as he himself did. As stated in an earlier introduction of Valentina (Chapter 89, June 2010), she walks among the world’s Scottish giants in the research, productivity and teaching of Burns. I have read and studied her work and always come away feeling I have been listening to a close friend of the Bard’s.
A couple of years back Susan and I were privileged to hear her presentation at the annual Burns conference at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies. Needless to say she is one of the speakers I continue to remember years down the road, as I am doing now. It is good to have her return to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! Valentina, you are welcome to come back anytime. (FRS: 9.21.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives244.htm
Cockpen & Carrington Parish Church
Got some history of this church to go with the pictures we got in last week and you can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ol1page274.htm
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Got in copies of the 3 newsletters produced in 2016 and thanks to Barrie Leslie for reminding them to send s in copies.
You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...slie/index.htm
Early Memories of the Border Gipsies
By Margaret Fletcher taken from the Border Magazine and added to the foot of our Gipsies page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gipsies/
Burns and Roscoe and Burns' Border Tour
Fond these two articles which I've added to our Burns page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/index.html
Andrew Currie
A gifted Border Sculptor. I added this short bio to our page on Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland at:http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/monuments.htm
John Clay of Chicago
Added a small bio of this person to our book about his father at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/History/clay/index.htm
John B. Fairgrieve
A well known Edinburgh Souter and you can read about him at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rieve_john.htm
The Rev. W. S. Crockett
Preacher and Litterateur and have added a link to download his book The Scott country; illustrated which you can get to at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rockett_ws.htm
Border Memories
Or Sketches of Prominent Men and Women of the Borders by Walter Riddell Carre (1876) which you can read at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Border Sketches
Another collection of Border stories and the Border clans which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Burns and Highland Mary
By William Wye Smith (A Canadian Borderer)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/highlandmary.htm
Lindsy Hilson
Added this significant Borderer at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...son_lindsy.htm
James Jamieson
A Doctor and Chairman of Council, Border Counties Association who you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eson_james.htm
The Argyle Settlement
In History and Story by Daniel G. Harvey (1924) (pdf).
Great story of this transplanted settlement from Scotland to Illinois which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...settelment.pdf
Robert Renwick
Depute Town Clerk, Glasgow and a great historian.
You can read about him at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ick_robert.htm
Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland
Added volumes 1 and 2 of this publication to our Law page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/law/
The Story
Due to stories in the Scottish Press about the Scots women, Jane Haining, I thought I'd bring you this story.
Evolution of the Scottish Mission in Budapest
The RCH and the Church of Scotland have a longstanding relationship and unique history. The following article is an interview with Rev. Aaron Stevens, current minister of St. Columba's Church of Scotland, discussing the evolution of the Scottish Mission in Budapest and the ties that bind both churches together.
Rev. Aaron Stevens, the minister of St. Columba's Church of Scotland, and I sit in his office on the upper floor of his church building, which in reality is an offshoot of the Vörösmarty School built by the Scottish Mission in 1910. He is digging around in the recesses of his bookshelf to find an old book that will aid him in the telling of his church's history. Finally, he pulls out a large blue book with a worn, cracked binding and yellowed pages. It is a baptismal registry with what appears to be a handwritten entry for every baptism the church has performed since 1843.
He points out some of the later entries where there is a column that indicates the member's church. "Baross tér, Baross tér, Fasor, Kálvin tér" he says going down the list. I of course, see nothing interesting in this revelation, but he continues and explains how odd it is to see that baptisms were regularly conducted in this church even though ministers recorded that those being baptized would, according to their address, belong in another parish. The reason being that this place was where Jews would come to be baptized – that the Scottish Mission was a place with a history of tolerance and cooperation. After being baptized here, they would go on to active membership elsewhere, in a Reformed church within their own neighborhood. "I think it's the only church around that has information like this in its records," he stated.
And this is the way our interview progresses. For every question asked, Aaron answers directly and then adds in a historical quip or anecdote. He throws out dates and names with ease, so when I ask him about the relationship between the RCH and the Church of Scotland, I know the answer will be if nothing else, thorough.
"It's historic," he says, "Both churches date back to the Reformation, so there was a connection well before anyone from the Church of Scotland came to Budapest."
This relationship continued when Scottish missionaries came to Budapest in 1841 to establish a Mission with a main focus on evangelizing to Hungarian Jews. "One of their aims was to encourage Hungarian Protestants and work in cooperation with Hungarians," he explains. This Mission became know as the Scottish Mission, and later St. Columba's, in order to properly identify and separate itself as a church from the multitude of mission groups that flocked to Budapest after the fall of Communism.
Through the years, the mission of the Church of Scotland in Budapest has changed and evolved, but the relationship with the RCH has remained strong. "Ever since the Mission started, it has organically been a part of the Hungarian Reformed Church. It's their work and their project too."
There were two important times in the history of the Scottish Mission when Hungarians from the RCH led every facet of the Mission, after Scottish missionaries were temporarily expelled from Hungary and during the Communist era. There was even a time after the Scots were allowed back that they served beneath a Hungarian pastor. "Hungarian language mission was a part of the Scottish mission for the bulk of its history, and it was not too long ago that St. Columba's had both Hungarian and English language worship services every Sunday."
"St. Columba's is a congregation of the Reformed Church in Hungary. This is an intentional statement that we are not here to be different, but instead, to be a part of the Reformed church here." So, I ask him what this relationship means to his congregation, and he answers me honestly, "Most of the members don't realize this connection and I doubt that they know how integrated we actually are."
It is not shocking, especially because St. Columba's current interaction with the RCH is mostly on a church governmental level. On the other hand, the congregation feels the connection between themselves and the country in which they live and serve. Aaron says the relationship with the RCH makes it less complicated for Hungarian members of St. Columba's. "It is easier for Hungarians that come to our church, because they don't have to leave their Hungarian Reformed roots. Hungarians make up the bulk of our members and I think it is a load off their mind, that even though the service is in English, it is still true to the way they were raised."
St. Columba's is a diverse group of Christians, and when I ask him to describe his congregation, he kind of smiles to himself as if he hears this question quite often. His answer comes as if read off a cue card, "Today, we are an international congregation worshipping in English in the Reformed tradition."
However, he follows this by being refreshingly frank. "Many of our members come not because they are Presbyterian or Reformed but because they don't speak Hungarian and are looking for an English-speaking, Protestant option, and many of the people in our congregation are on temporary assignments, so our congregation is always changing." International students, people working for multinational companies, language teachers, other volunteers and refugees make up a large, but transient portion of St. Columba's congregation.
He goes on to say that the fluidity of the church's members makes the church unique, calling it an "interesting ecumenical mix." Despite the instability in membership and the issues that arise from it, the mixture of nationalities does succeed in highlighting the legacy of the Scottish Mission as well as following the example left behind by its most well known missionary, Jane Haining.
The Scottish Mission built the Vörösmarty School as a safe place for young Jewish and Christian girls to live and learn together. Jane Haining came to Budapest as the matron of the school, overseeing the girls' day-to-day lives. When tensions began to rise before World War II, many people in Scotland urged her to leave Budapest and return home for her own safety. Haining refused and instead remained in the school with her students. Aaron quotes her, saying, "If the girls need me in the days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in the days of darkness?" Haining was arrested by the Arrow Cross party, taken from the school and ultimately sent to Auschwitz, where she was killed.
"Jane Haining was the example of tolerance before tolerance was cliché," Aaron says, "She was an authentic Christian witness among people of other faiths without forcing them to convert, and she showed great courage, because she didn't return home when she could have."
As he concludes, he ties everything back to St. Columba's present mission, "I think our work with refugees is a way of continuing her legacy - reaching out to others and loving them the same regardless of our differences." He continues by saying that the Scottish Mission, no matter which name it is operating under, has always had a recurring theme of refugee outreach, it has simply meant different things in different times.
"I'm not really comfortable saying that we 'reach out' to refugees, because they are members and a part of us," Aaron says, "It's not what we do; it's who we are. It's not just part of our outreach; it's our identity."
So, while through the years the Scottish Mission has evolved in name and mission, it really has not changed in the areas that matter most – the areas that define its identity.
END
A short history of the Church of Scotland in Budapest
Beginnings: The Chain Bridge, a camel & a broken leg
In 1839 two Scottish missionaries set out for Palestine to reach out to the Jews. Riding on camels, one of them fell off the camel's back, broke his leg and they were forced to return home. However, when they were on a boat travelling from the Black Sea up the Danube, they both fell ill and had to stop in Budapest.
Archduchess Maria Dorothea, one of the few Protestant members of the Habsburg royal family, looked after them. She told the missionaries about her deep concern about the state of the Hungarian Reformed and Lutheran churches and sent them back to Scotland with a request for help.
From 1840 to 1849 Budapest's first bridge across the Danube, the Chain Bridge, was being built and Scottish chief engineer Adam Clark asked for English language church services to be held for his workers and their families. In 1841 the Church of Scotland sent its first three ministers to Budapest with a commission to establish an English-speaking church, to reach out to the city's Jewish population, to work with local protestant churches and to help the poor. A school was started in 1846, funded by Jewish Christians.
Jane Haining, the most famous person associated with the church, became matron of the school's girls' home in 1932 in times of rising anti-Semitism throughout Central Europe. She returned from holiday to Hungary after the start of war in 1939 and remained throughout, to look after the welfare of the mainly Jewish girls.
The church and school were brought under the protection of the Swedish embassy by Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat who sought to save Jewish lives. Many Jewish families survived by hiding in the church and school. Yet like Wallenberg - who died at the hands of the Soviets Miss Haining was to pay a high price for her bravery. She was arrested by the Gestapo in early April 1944, shortly after German troops occupied Hungary. She died of disease, according to the German authorities, on July 17 after two months in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. There are memorials to Miss Haining from both the Church of Scotland and Budapest's Jewish community in the church hall.
Jane Haining as a younger woman
Red Army soldiers stabled horses in the church during the 1944-45 siege of Budapest. Then the Communist authorities nationalised the school and church in 1950.
Hungarian and English language worship was kept going on a monthly basis, however, by Hungarian Reformed Church ministers, including Rev János Dobos, whose granddaughter is a member of the congregation.
Recent history: A home for 99 years
After the collapse of communism, weekly English language services started again and the congregation was given the name St. Columba's. Since 1990 the Church of Scotland has sent three ministers to Budapest: Alison MacDonald, Susan Cowell and Ken MacKenzie. The congregation are being served by a number of interim pastors through 2006.
In October 2002, on behalf of the Church of Scotland Trust, representatives of the congregation signed a 99-year lease with the district council of Budapest's district VI to use the church, in return for a nominal annual rent. The agreement has given the congregation greater security in its use of the building, the status of which had been uncertain ever since 1950.
This has enabled the congregation to press ahead with extensive renovations, believing that God will continue to use the church as well in the future as He has in the past.
And how did Shofar Congregation get to this historical building?
The first meetings of our fellowship started in 1999, in a small flat, in the city. Every Friday evening, sometimes more than ten people came together in a small room to celebrate the beginning of the Shabbat. When we had our first Passover celebration in the spring of 2000, a Christian organization invited a Messianic Jew from London to teach in Budapest. But they couldn't find a place for the conference and called us for help. That time we met Ken MacKenzie, we spoke about our fellowship, and mentioned him this problem. He willingly offered the building, and moreover, he invited us to have our regular Shabbat services in the main hall. Since that time we have been coming together twice, sometimes three times a week, in this beautiful building.
Because of the language differences we cannot do so many things together, still we have got a close, brotherly relationship with the leaders of St. Columba's Church.
We are thankful to God, that we can continue the work, that was stopped here in 1945. There are still people, who remember the sacrificial love they experienced here, and we always tell the new generation visiting our services all the things happened among these walls.
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Scottish Diaspora! Tapestry
A project to involve communities around the world in celebration of Scottish heritage and culture, the people and places which connect Scotland to its global Diaspora.
This Tapestry is being displayed at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 115 St. Andrew's Road, Scarborough on Saturday 24th September.
Learn more at http://www.scottishdiasporatapestry.org/
Our Community
Last week I mentioned that I was considering closing our community. I got quite a few emails in and it seems quite a few thought I was either going to close the Electric Scotland web site and/or this newsletter.
SO to try and correct this confusion I was talking about our site at www.electricscotland.org which is our social networking site where you can post messages on a range of subjects and is also where we post up this newsletter.
In October we plan to move our servers to Simon Fraser University where our domains will then be available from then to way into the future and when I am no longer here. I'm hoping to work with them so even when I pass on content will still be added from time to time. However at the very least the content on the site will still be available and that's why I am leaving my company and domains to them.
In the short term I will save around $250 a month but they'll also benefit by getting the advertising income.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Bumper year for wildflowers of Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has said 2016 has been a bumper year for wildflowers in rare and endangered Scottish lowland meadows.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-37373090
St Kilda lost songs album tops classical music chart
An album of lost songs from the evacuated Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda has gone straight to the top of the classical album chart.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...lands-37389502
Jock Shock
Scotland's business birthrate has caught up with the rest of the UK, but the former economic development chief says we are miles and years from the kind of transformation on innovation and productivity that is needed.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37396240
Amateur archaeologist finds phenomenal trove of rock engravings
Scottish enthusiast George Currie’s prehistoric carvings to be included in exciting research project
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ogist-scotland
How the Sturgeon slowdown could mean more cuts for Scotland
by Murdo Fraser
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...nkscotland.org
Kintyre seafood restaurant has unique dining companion for guests
A deer that thinks she’s a collie
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/in10/chat...s-shes-collie/
Banks warned over post-Brexit EU access
UK-based banks would lose the automatic right to trade in EU states if the UK left the single market, the head of Germany's central bank has said.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37405430
Merkel links migrant crisis to CDU defeat
She voiced regret over mistakes that contributed to last summer's migrant crisis in Germany. More than a million migrants reached Germany - a record.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37409451
Tories call for Royal Yacht Britannia to be recommissioned
MEMBERS of parliament and former ministers have said the Royal Yacht Britannia should be used to secure trade deals post-Brexit.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/tories-...oned-1-4234278
Secret to long life is Scotch whisky
Reveals UK’s oldest woman
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/secret-...oman-1-4234917
The Courier celebrates its bicentenary
It is a special week for The Courier, as the morning regional daily celebrates its 200th birthday.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...years-courier/
Poor Reception
Edinburgh seems just as remote from Scotland’s periphery and certainly less interested than London or Brussels ever was.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/BrianWilson80a.html
Glasgow Women’s Library
A treasure trove that shows how far feminism has come
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...ti-suffragette
A very happy church
For any home owners, giving up a much loved house is a wrench.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/life...-happy-church/
Dundee product designers create age guessing mirror
Product designers from Dundee and Northumbria Universities have developed a mirror which tries to identify the year the person in the reflection was aged 14.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...essing-mirror/
Electric Canada
Fall Colloquium September 2016
Spent Saturday attending this event so some pictures and videos as a result which you can see at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada/fall2016.htm
Electric Scotland
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
The Immortal Memory: Befriending Robert Burns By Dr. Valentina Bold
Scottish poet Alan Bold would be very proud of his daughter Valentina who has studied and worked among the teachings of Robert Burns as he himself did. As stated in an earlier introduction of Valentina (Chapter 89, June 2010), she walks among the world’s Scottish giants in the research, productivity and teaching of Burns. I have read and studied her work and always come away feeling I have been listening to a close friend of the Bard’s.
A couple of years back Susan and I were privileged to hear her presentation at the annual Burns conference at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies. Needless to say she is one of the speakers I continue to remember years down the road, as I am doing now. It is good to have her return to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! Valentina, you are welcome to come back anytime. (FRS: 9.21.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives244.htm
Cockpen & Carrington Parish Church
Got some history of this church to go with the pictures we got in last week and you can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ol1page274.htm
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Got in copies of the 3 newsletters produced in 2016 and thanks to Barrie Leslie for reminding them to send s in copies.
You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...slie/index.htm
Early Memories of the Border Gipsies
By Margaret Fletcher taken from the Border Magazine and added to the foot of our Gipsies page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gipsies/
Burns and Roscoe and Burns' Border Tour
Fond these two articles which I've added to our Burns page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/index.html
Andrew Currie
A gifted Border Sculptor. I added this short bio to our page on Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland at:http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/monuments.htm
John Clay of Chicago
Added a small bio of this person to our book about his father at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/History/clay/index.htm
John B. Fairgrieve
A well known Edinburgh Souter and you can read about him at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rieve_john.htm
The Rev. W. S. Crockett
Preacher and Litterateur and have added a link to download his book The Scott country; illustrated which you can get to at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rockett_ws.htm
Border Memories
Or Sketches of Prominent Men and Women of the Borders by Walter Riddell Carre (1876) which you can read at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Border Sketches
Another collection of Border stories and the Border clans which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Burns and Highland Mary
By William Wye Smith (A Canadian Borderer)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/highlandmary.htm
Lindsy Hilson
Added this significant Borderer at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...son_lindsy.htm
James Jamieson
A Doctor and Chairman of Council, Border Counties Association who you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eson_james.htm
The Argyle Settlement
In History and Story by Daniel G. Harvey (1924) (pdf).
Great story of this transplanted settlement from Scotland to Illinois which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...settelment.pdf
Robert Renwick
Depute Town Clerk, Glasgow and a great historian.
You can read about him at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ick_robert.htm
Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland
Added volumes 1 and 2 of this publication to our Law page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/law/
The Story
Due to stories in the Scottish Press about the Scots women, Jane Haining, I thought I'd bring you this story.
Evolution of the Scottish Mission in Budapest
The RCH and the Church of Scotland have a longstanding relationship and unique history. The following article is an interview with Rev. Aaron Stevens, current minister of St. Columba's Church of Scotland, discussing the evolution of the Scottish Mission in Budapest and the ties that bind both churches together.
Rev. Aaron Stevens, the minister of St. Columba's Church of Scotland, and I sit in his office on the upper floor of his church building, which in reality is an offshoot of the Vörösmarty School built by the Scottish Mission in 1910. He is digging around in the recesses of his bookshelf to find an old book that will aid him in the telling of his church's history. Finally, he pulls out a large blue book with a worn, cracked binding and yellowed pages. It is a baptismal registry with what appears to be a handwritten entry for every baptism the church has performed since 1843.
He points out some of the later entries where there is a column that indicates the member's church. "Baross tér, Baross tér, Fasor, Kálvin tér" he says going down the list. I of course, see nothing interesting in this revelation, but he continues and explains how odd it is to see that baptisms were regularly conducted in this church even though ministers recorded that those being baptized would, according to their address, belong in another parish. The reason being that this place was where Jews would come to be baptized – that the Scottish Mission was a place with a history of tolerance and cooperation. After being baptized here, they would go on to active membership elsewhere, in a Reformed church within their own neighborhood. "I think it's the only church around that has information like this in its records," he stated.
And this is the way our interview progresses. For every question asked, Aaron answers directly and then adds in a historical quip or anecdote. He throws out dates and names with ease, so when I ask him about the relationship between the RCH and the Church of Scotland, I know the answer will be if nothing else, thorough.
"It's historic," he says, "Both churches date back to the Reformation, so there was a connection well before anyone from the Church of Scotland came to Budapest."
This relationship continued when Scottish missionaries came to Budapest in 1841 to establish a Mission with a main focus on evangelizing to Hungarian Jews. "One of their aims was to encourage Hungarian Protestants and work in cooperation with Hungarians," he explains. This Mission became know as the Scottish Mission, and later St. Columba's, in order to properly identify and separate itself as a church from the multitude of mission groups that flocked to Budapest after the fall of Communism.
Through the years, the mission of the Church of Scotland in Budapest has changed and evolved, but the relationship with the RCH has remained strong. "Ever since the Mission started, it has organically been a part of the Hungarian Reformed Church. It's their work and their project too."
There were two important times in the history of the Scottish Mission when Hungarians from the RCH led every facet of the Mission, after Scottish missionaries were temporarily expelled from Hungary and during the Communist era. There was even a time after the Scots were allowed back that they served beneath a Hungarian pastor. "Hungarian language mission was a part of the Scottish mission for the bulk of its history, and it was not too long ago that St. Columba's had both Hungarian and English language worship services every Sunday."
"St. Columba's is a congregation of the Reformed Church in Hungary. This is an intentional statement that we are not here to be different, but instead, to be a part of the Reformed church here." So, I ask him what this relationship means to his congregation, and he answers me honestly, "Most of the members don't realize this connection and I doubt that they know how integrated we actually are."
It is not shocking, especially because St. Columba's current interaction with the RCH is mostly on a church governmental level. On the other hand, the congregation feels the connection between themselves and the country in which they live and serve. Aaron says the relationship with the RCH makes it less complicated for Hungarian members of St. Columba's. "It is easier for Hungarians that come to our church, because they don't have to leave their Hungarian Reformed roots. Hungarians make up the bulk of our members and I think it is a load off their mind, that even though the service is in English, it is still true to the way they were raised."
St. Columba's is a diverse group of Christians, and when I ask him to describe his congregation, he kind of smiles to himself as if he hears this question quite often. His answer comes as if read off a cue card, "Today, we are an international congregation worshipping in English in the Reformed tradition."
However, he follows this by being refreshingly frank. "Many of our members come not because they are Presbyterian or Reformed but because they don't speak Hungarian and are looking for an English-speaking, Protestant option, and many of the people in our congregation are on temporary assignments, so our congregation is always changing." International students, people working for multinational companies, language teachers, other volunteers and refugees make up a large, but transient portion of St. Columba's congregation.
He goes on to say that the fluidity of the church's members makes the church unique, calling it an "interesting ecumenical mix." Despite the instability in membership and the issues that arise from it, the mixture of nationalities does succeed in highlighting the legacy of the Scottish Mission as well as following the example left behind by its most well known missionary, Jane Haining.
The Scottish Mission built the Vörösmarty School as a safe place for young Jewish and Christian girls to live and learn together. Jane Haining came to Budapest as the matron of the school, overseeing the girls' day-to-day lives. When tensions began to rise before World War II, many people in Scotland urged her to leave Budapest and return home for her own safety. Haining refused and instead remained in the school with her students. Aaron quotes her, saying, "If the girls need me in the days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in the days of darkness?" Haining was arrested by the Arrow Cross party, taken from the school and ultimately sent to Auschwitz, where she was killed.
"Jane Haining was the example of tolerance before tolerance was cliché," Aaron says, "She was an authentic Christian witness among people of other faiths without forcing them to convert, and she showed great courage, because she didn't return home when she could have."
As he concludes, he ties everything back to St. Columba's present mission, "I think our work with refugees is a way of continuing her legacy - reaching out to others and loving them the same regardless of our differences." He continues by saying that the Scottish Mission, no matter which name it is operating under, has always had a recurring theme of refugee outreach, it has simply meant different things in different times.
"I'm not really comfortable saying that we 'reach out' to refugees, because they are members and a part of us," Aaron says, "It's not what we do; it's who we are. It's not just part of our outreach; it's our identity."
So, while through the years the Scottish Mission has evolved in name and mission, it really has not changed in the areas that matter most – the areas that define its identity.
END
A short history of the Church of Scotland in Budapest
Beginnings: The Chain Bridge, a camel & a broken leg
In 1839 two Scottish missionaries set out for Palestine to reach out to the Jews. Riding on camels, one of them fell off the camel's back, broke his leg and they were forced to return home. However, when they were on a boat travelling from the Black Sea up the Danube, they both fell ill and had to stop in Budapest.
Archduchess Maria Dorothea, one of the few Protestant members of the Habsburg royal family, looked after them. She told the missionaries about her deep concern about the state of the Hungarian Reformed and Lutheran churches and sent them back to Scotland with a request for help.
From 1840 to 1849 Budapest's first bridge across the Danube, the Chain Bridge, was being built and Scottish chief engineer Adam Clark asked for English language church services to be held for his workers and their families. In 1841 the Church of Scotland sent its first three ministers to Budapest with a commission to establish an English-speaking church, to reach out to the city's Jewish population, to work with local protestant churches and to help the poor. A school was started in 1846, funded by Jewish Christians.
Jane Haining, the most famous person associated with the church, became matron of the school's girls' home in 1932 in times of rising anti-Semitism throughout Central Europe. She returned from holiday to Hungary after the start of war in 1939 and remained throughout, to look after the welfare of the mainly Jewish girls.
The church and school were brought under the protection of the Swedish embassy by Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat who sought to save Jewish lives. Many Jewish families survived by hiding in the church and school. Yet like Wallenberg - who died at the hands of the Soviets Miss Haining was to pay a high price for her bravery. She was arrested by the Gestapo in early April 1944, shortly after German troops occupied Hungary. She died of disease, according to the German authorities, on July 17 after two months in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. There are memorials to Miss Haining from both the Church of Scotland and Budapest's Jewish community in the church hall.
Jane Haining as a younger woman
Red Army soldiers stabled horses in the church during the 1944-45 siege of Budapest. Then the Communist authorities nationalised the school and church in 1950.
Hungarian and English language worship was kept going on a monthly basis, however, by Hungarian Reformed Church ministers, including Rev János Dobos, whose granddaughter is a member of the congregation.
Recent history: A home for 99 years
After the collapse of communism, weekly English language services started again and the congregation was given the name St. Columba's. Since 1990 the Church of Scotland has sent three ministers to Budapest: Alison MacDonald, Susan Cowell and Ken MacKenzie. The congregation are being served by a number of interim pastors through 2006.
In October 2002, on behalf of the Church of Scotland Trust, representatives of the congregation signed a 99-year lease with the district council of Budapest's district VI to use the church, in return for a nominal annual rent. The agreement has given the congregation greater security in its use of the building, the status of which had been uncertain ever since 1950.
This has enabled the congregation to press ahead with extensive renovations, believing that God will continue to use the church as well in the future as He has in the past.
And how did Shofar Congregation get to this historical building?
The first meetings of our fellowship started in 1999, in a small flat, in the city. Every Friday evening, sometimes more than ten people came together in a small room to celebrate the beginning of the Shabbat. When we had our first Passover celebration in the spring of 2000, a Christian organization invited a Messianic Jew from London to teach in Budapest. But they couldn't find a place for the conference and called us for help. That time we met Ken MacKenzie, we spoke about our fellowship, and mentioned him this problem. He willingly offered the building, and moreover, he invited us to have our regular Shabbat services in the main hall. Since that time we have been coming together twice, sometimes three times a week, in this beautiful building.
Because of the language differences we cannot do so many things together, still we have got a close, brotherly relationship with the leaders of St. Columba's Church.
We are thankful to God, that we can continue the work, that was stopped here in 1945. There are still people, who remember the sacrificial love they experienced here, and we always tell the new generation visiting our services all the things happened among these walls.
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
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