Justice for Marielle’s Family

By Eilidh Carmichael (From Seeds February – March 2025)

Eilidh Carmichael shares some positive news about an Amnesty International case that AUC members have campaigned on in the past.

Church members and friends have written Write for Rights letters on behalf of Marielle Franco’s family, and Eilidh Macpherson, Campaigns Manager (Individuals and Communities at Risk) for Amnesty International UK, has written to say:

In 2018 we campaigned, as part of Write for Rights, for Marielle Franco’s family. Marielle was a Brazilian activist who was fatally shot in a hit and run in 2018. For six years, the police investigation into Marielle’s death was shrouded in secrecy. It was reported that the bullets that killed Marielle were from a batch bought by the federal police and, what’s more, President Bolsonaro himself had been pictured with one of the murder suspects. You and thousands of others took action, and finally there has been a breakthrough in her case. In October 2024, six years after her death, Marielle’s killers were sentenced to 59 and 78 years in prison.

Thank you for taking action, and showing that when we come together, we can get justice.

Gift Aid – A win for everyone?

From Seeds February – March 2025

On behalf of the Finance & Property Team, Fiona Somerville highlights the plus-points of Gift Aid.

In these economically difficult times, we understand that people may find it challenging to increase their charitable giving as much as they would like, but could you help Augustine boost its income using Gift Aid?

When you Gift Aid a charity donation, the government adds another 25p for every pound you give. We calculate that, for 2024, Augustine will be able to reclaim over £11,500 from the government in Gift Aid.

This is very welcome, although to meet the financial challenges we also face, we would love to increase this figure. Anyone can Gift Aid donations provided you pay enough income tax during the year to cover the amount the charity (or charities) you donate to reclaim from the government in Gift Aid. This means that for every £100 pounds you pay annually in income tax you can make Gift Aided donations of up to £400 to charity, and the charity (or charities) will receive an additional £100 from the government.

If you haven’t already done so, feel you meet the above criterion, and would like to help Augustine boost its income in this simple way, please consider completing a Gift Aid declaration form, which can be downloaded from the website. Or you can talk to our treasurer (Ewen Harley) or Gift Aid coordinator (Fiona Somerville).

Link to Gift Aid declaration form: https://www.augustine.org.uk/gift-aid-declaration.

Patience & Dedication

From Seeds February – March 2025

Pictured is the beautiful communion tablecloth dedicated in worship on 5 January. The cloth is the result of the skill, patience and dedication of Fiona Somerville, who says she ‘crazy quilted’ the cotton scraps donated by others in the congregation.

The cloth celebrates so many stories in the donated fabric that makes up the patchwork surrounding the central dandelion images.

As Fiona Bennett reflected at the dedication, AUC’s dandelion logo says much about our discipleship: its roots can be used to make medicine, and keep us strong and healthy; we support one another as the stalk supports the yellow flowerhead, in glorious radiance as we bring our worship; the leaves can bring nourishment; and the dandelion clock is a mass of seeds that carry on the wind just as we are seeds of hope and love in our discipleship of transformation.

We are rooted in God’s love; we support each other; we offer nourishment; we worship God; and we seek to be a part of God’s transformation in the world.

Our thanks to Fiona Somerville and all who have contributed to this special gift.

Hope for the world

By Nick Dearden (From Seeds February – March 2025)

Together with Christian Aid, Global Justice Now is a key partner of the URC’s global justice programme, Commitment for Life. Here, Director of Global Justice Now Nick Dearden looks back on some significant moments in 2024. We can make a change, he says.

Last year, 2024, the fragility of our world was laid bare. The genocide in Gaza, spreading conflict in the Middle East, and the war in Ukraine devastated tens of thousands of lives.

At the same time, the fast-accelerating climate crisis – driven by the power of the fossil fuel industry – continues to wreak havoc. Extreme weather events are destroying food systems, depleting water supplies, and devastating the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities.

The concentration of wealth and power has been decades in the making; a direct result of the rules which govern our global economy. The inequality and injustice that have flowed is now so great that it is tearing at the social fabric in dozens of countries. International law, applied unfairly at the best of times, now has been rendered completely meaningless. So, the inequality, the conflicts and the climate breakdown we are witnessing aren’t inevitable. They aren’t accidental.

And that means that we can reverse the tide.

For example…

THE UK’S EXIT FROM THE CLIMATE-WRECKING ENERGY CHARTER TREATY

This time last year, the UK announced its exit from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), joining a wave of European nations abandoning this harmful agreement. This victory against corporate power puts the ECT – often used by fossil fuel companies to block climate action – on the brink of collapse.

This victory capped off three years of dedicated campaigning. Since 2021, we’ve been raising awareness about the ECT’s dangerous Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which allows corporations to sue governments over climate policies. While the fight against ISDS continues, the defeat of the ECT marks a crucial step in dismantling corporate control and protecting both people and the planet.

“a crucial step in dismantling corporate control and protecting both people and the planet”

MOBILISING SUPPORT FOR A FOSSIL FUEL TREATY

The climate crisis is driven by fossil fuels, yet they remain the elephant in the room at international climate summits – a sign of how powerful fossil fuel interests are.

Last year, 17 local councils across the UK, including Manchester, Glasgow, Reading, and Stroud, passed motions backing the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. Stirling University’s student union became the first in the UK to endorse the treaty, and we’ve secured growing cross-party support in Westminster, Holyrood, and the Welsh Senedd.

“a global movement to phase out coal, oil, and gas production … we’ve built real momentum”

We’ve also got growing support from the trade union movement, with Unison passing a resolution in support at the union’s annual conference.

These victories are part of a global movement to phase out coal, oil, and gas production and ensure a just transition to renewable energy. www.augustine.org.uk Through grassroots activism, local campaigning, and strategic alliances, we’ve built real momentum.

In 2025, we’ll build this campaign, pushing for more councils and more political support, including working with the union movement to ensure a just transition – the only way to undermine the power of fossil fuel corporations.

CHALLENGING THE UK’S ROLE IN THE GAZA GENOCIDE

Historically, Global Justice Now has not campaigned on Palestine. No organisation can take on every injustice, and we have trusted others to dedicate the attention this issue requires.

But last year, we could not remain silent. The horrifying violence unleashed on civilians in Gaza demands action. So, in 2024, we took action to confront the UK government’s complicity in the crisis in Gaza. Israel’s actions in Gaza, and its decades-long occupation, is made possible through political, military and economic support from countries like the UK. We’ve increased the heat on arms sales, making some progress with a partial ban. But this isn’t enough.

During 2025, we will work for a total arms embargo as well as challenging the UK’s trade ties with Israel, mobilising to block a new trade agreement and pushing for the suspension of the existing deal. We also plan to shine a spotlight on corporate complicity, particularly in the tech industry, exposing how major companies profit from violence, and building momentum for divestment campaigns.

It’s hard to look at the state of the world today without feeling a mix of fear, anger, and, at times, despair. But through it all, we must find hope in the incredible work being done by activists worldwide – and remind ourselves that change is possible.

Seeing the Stars

By Rev Fiona Bennett (From Seeds February – March 2025)

Earlier in January, I was up very early one morning, out in my garden. Everything around was encrusted in white frost.

I was cold, very tired and resigned to a tired day, when I happened to look up. A deep indigo sky was studded with sparkling stars. It was stunningly beautiful. Lines came to my mind from a re-working of Psalm 23: ‘You lift my head; my vision clears. The blessing cup overflows.’

I would not have seen that glorious sight but for the clear cold sky and my early start.

It was a reminder to me that in the midst of ‘all that troubles, threatens and diminishes’ it is important to allow God to lift our heads, clear our vision, and to be reminded that God is always with us, abundance is always around us and that God’s bigger story of love and hope is always going on in the world.

God’s story is far broader and richer than that which is consuming my thinking or feelings on a cold, grumpy morning!

It was due to the cold and the early hour I felt put out by that I could see the stars.

It is often in the tougher situations in life that we remember what is truly important and learn to savour the beauty and wonder always around us in any given moment.

The blessing cup overflows (even when we are tired!).

‘In the midst of all that troubles,
That threatens and diminishes,
You set abundance before me.
You lift my head; my vision clears.
The blessing cup overflows’

Part of Psalm 23 (Psalms Redux: Poems and prayers by Carla Grosch-Miller

Doors Open Day 2024

🌟 Discover Edinburgh’s Hidden Gems at Doors Open Days 2024! 🌟

Join us at AUC on September 28th and 29th for a fun weekend of exploration and history.  This year’s theme, “Heritage of Routes, Networks and Connections”  gives us the opportunity to reflect on our connections with the needs and concerns of the networks and communities with which we have worked since our congregation was founded in 1802. The presence of charity partners and building hirers over the weekend will bring those relationships right up to date.

We will also have information about our engagement with the legacies of slavery; and will present our justice-themed Urban Pilgrimages project, which is exploring our connection to women, the environment, the LGBTQ+ communities, and wellbeing in the city around us.

📅 Event Details:

  • Saturday, September 28th: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
  • Sunday, September 29th: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Highlights:

  • Stalls from various charity partners and building hirers (Saturday Only)
  • Guided tours of the church for which you will be able to see parts of the church that are not normally accessible to the general public (Saturday Only)
  • Fascinating heritage pop-up displays
  • Light refreshments

Over the course of the next few weekends in the run-up to Doors Open,  we will be providing a spotlight on the various charity partners and building hirers taking part in the event on our Facebook page. You can find a list of them below:

  • Comunn Tir nam Beann/Argyll Association
  • Global Justice Now
  • Christian Aid
  • Costume Society
  • Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  • The Royal Scottish Society of Arts
  • Mad Jam
  • Health in Mind
  • NHS Retirement Fellowship
  • The Friendship Centre
  • Old Edinburgh Club
  • Scottish Genealogy Society
  • The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland – Forth & Borders Group

For more information, keep an eye our website and Facebook page for updates or contact us directly either by sending us a Facebook message with the words DOORS OPEN at the beginning of it or sending an email to heritage.visitors@augustine.org.uk.

See you there! 📸🏛️

PS: If you would like to see what else is happening during Doors Open Days in Edinburgh,  go to https://www.doorsopendays.org.uk/find-a-building?activeTab=0&keywords=&area=1346&openWeekends=

Fringe Fun

Looking for Fringe ideas? Don’t know where to start? How about with some members and friends of AUC?

Jo Clifford: Searching for the Sacred
Tuesdays/Thursdays, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22 Aug, 2.15pm, St Mary’s Cathedral, Palmerston Place. (£10) (reflective walk, story-telling)

https://www.cathedral.net/event-details-registration/searching-for-the-sacred-2024-08-06-14-15

Jean Franzblau: My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky
2-10, 12-14 Aug, 10:15pm, theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9 – Lower Theatre) (comedy, true-life, 18+)

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/my-mother-doesn-t-know-i-m-kinky

Carol Joyner: Binocchio, the Bisexual Liar
2-10 Aug, 7pm, Paradise Green at Augustine (Venue 152) (stand-up, 16+)

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/binocchio-the-bisexual-liar

Laurence Wareing: Around the World in 80 Days
12-17 Aug, 6.15pm, The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241) (family-friendly theatre)

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/around-the-world-in-80-days

Anne Robinson: Vox Stars Presents Star Inspirations
12-17 Aug, 8:05pm, the Space @ Niddry Street (Venue 9) (Music – Vocal, Pop)

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/vox-stars-presents-star-inspirations

Tomás Barry: Getting to Iona
 2-11 Aug, 2.30pm, St. Columba’s-by-the-Castle church, 14 Johnson Terrace

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/edinburgh/st-columbas-by-the-castle-church/getting-to-iona/e-plqlej

Paradise Green

In addition to these, we are delighted to have Paradise Green back with us, transforming our city centre church into 5 (yes, 5!) venues. Click the names of the various spaces below to see what the look like during the Fringe, courtesy of Paradise Green.

You can explore the shows on offer using these links:

Paradise In Augustine’s – George IV Bridge
Spaces: The Sanctuary, The Studio, The Snug
https://tickets.edfringe.com/venues/paradise-in-augustines

Paradise In The Vault – Merchant Street*
Spaces: The Vault, The Annexe
https://tickets.edfringe.com/venues/paradise-in-the-vault

*To access Paradise in the Vault from the main entrance of AUC: cross over George IV Bridge, walk past Greyfriars Bobby and down Candlemaker Row and go under George IV Bridge (Merchant Street). This will take you to the Pend where you can access Paradise in the Vault spaces.

A Safe Space?

By Carol Joyner (From Seeds August – September 2024)

It was by pure chance that, for the second year running, my annual holiday with my younger son coincided with a Pride event in a major city. Last year we found ourselves immersed in the colourful (if somewhat commercial) Berlin Pride; this year saw me visit him in Australia during Sydney’s Mardi Gras.

We arrived at a time of significant tension between the New South Wales police and the organisers of the Mardi Gras due to the murder of a gay national TV star, Jessie Baird, and his partner, Luke Davis, by a serving police officer. This tragedy led to the Mardi Gras committee banning LGBT police from being part of the parade this year.

Despite the signs in Sydney’s Pride Square declaring this site ‘a safe space’, this has not always been the case. Earlier in the week, I had met the gay Christian activist, Anthony Venn-Brown OAM (pictured), founder and CEO of Ambassadors and Bridge Builders International, an Australian organisation that seeks to advocate for LGBT Christians.

Anthony said there were not only tensions between the police and the queer community; there are also tensions between the conservative Sydney churches and the LGBT community, leading Anthony to be labelled in one article as a ‘poster boy for sin’ with ‘demons in his eyes’.

The previous Sunday, I had attended a church service in a Sydney suburb. Despite the friendly welcome, it was clear from the outset that this was a church where women were not allowed in positions of leadership.

Furthermore, the songs were laden with references to hell, sin and addiction. Before we had even entered the building, we were asked our name in the church garden and given name badges, freshly printed from a labelling machine. This felt fraught with potential problems for transitioning or introverted visitors. The social time afterwards was even segregated along gender lines, with the women congregated at tables outside while the men spoke to one another. This was not a church in step with 21st century sensibilities – was this deliberate?

When the associate pastor asked me my views of the service, I communicated my misgivings around the message conveyed by the song lyrics and the patriarchal structure. It did not feel like a ‘safe space’ to me. I later learnt from Anthony that Sydney Diocese is renowned for its conservative views on women in leadership and LGBT issues, and is part of GAFCON, the Global Anglican Future Conference of Conservative Bishops. This puts it in communion with Churches in countries such as Uganda, which still inflicts the death penalty on ‘aggravated acts of homosexuality’.

The concept of Safe Space was to become a motif for the week. Later that week, we witnessed a heavy police presence at a large and noisy Pro-Palestine demonstration. We also visited Sydney’s Jewish Museum, which houses a large display on LGBT Jewish rights.

It was a powerful fortnight where we found ourselves inadvertently witnessing the battle for safe spaces, amid the tension of opposing world views – from the vocal street protests against police brutality, and the actions of the IDF in Gaza, to the more silent advocacy of minority religious, sexual and indigenous rights in the exhibitions we visited in the galleries and museums of Sydney.

I wonder where Matt and I will find ourselves next year…

Joyous Pride

From Seeds August – September 2024

AUC and Our Tribe were joined by friends and supporters from Northern Lights MCC (Newcastle), Glasgow and North London MCCs, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Edinburgh Methodist Church, and several Episcopal churches. We also welcomed a university Chaplain and the Moderator of the URC Synod of Scotland. There was breakfast, cake, huge appreciation from the marchers, and the great joy of celebrating Inclusive Church.

Memories of Eric Liddell

From Seeds August – September 2024

The Olympics, which come centre stage in August, were last held in Paris in 1924. On that occasion, the Scottish athlete and committed Christian Eric Liddell withdrew from the 100m competition, his favoured discipline, because the heats were to take place on a Sunday. That story, and what happened next, was re-told in the Oscar-winning film, Chariots of Fire, and is the inspiration for this year’s Eric Liddell 100 celebrations.

Liddell later became a minister in the Congregational Church and, like his parents before him, a missionary in China. When back in Scotland, he worshipped at Morningside Congregational Church, now Morningside United.

Carcant – tennis, running, and rabbit

Eric Liddell’s sister, Jenny, married into the Somerville family in 1932, becoming the wife of Dr Charles Somerville, the greatuncle of Robert Somerville and Elspeth Somerville Harley.

Elspeth writes:

Eric Liddell is best remembered through the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, but his name was familiar to me long before that.

Eric was both an outstanding athlete and a Christian missionary. He studied, lived and taught in Edinburgh and represented Scotland in Rugby and Athletics.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favoured 100 metres because they were held on a Sunday. Instead, he competed in the 400 metres, held on a weekday, and won gold.

He returned to China (his birthplace) in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher. He only came back to Scotland for two furloughs, one of which he spent at Carcant, [an area of land in the Moorfoot Hills in Midlothian, in part owned by the Somerville family]. His sister Jenny was married to Charles Somerville, my great uncle, and I sometimes met her at Carcant when my family visited my grandmother and aunt who lived there.

While Eric was there, I am told he ran on the hills – training? or for the joy of it? or both? He also played tennis with various family members on a rough grass court they tried to maintain in the cow park – where two milking cows grazed.

Robert adds:

There were two relevant Charles Somervilles: the elder was a doctor in Bonnyrigg. It was he who became brother-in-law to Eric. His nephew, ‘Charlie’ Somerville (Elspeth’s and my father), was a member of AUC until his death in 2017. At Carcant in 1940 he remembered Eric as an excellent tennis player too. He also ran down rabbits!

Elspeth concludes:

Eric remained a missionary in rural China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945 [of a brain tumour and haemorrhage].

There he inspired both internees and guards by his cheerfulness and his deep spirituality.

He led physical exercises, taught classes to keep minds sharp, and shared his faith. Even in the camp he lived as he lived his whole life – with passion, compassion and integrity.

Eric said, ‘We are all missionaries. Wherever we go we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ.’

A tartan specially commissioned for the Eric Liddell 100 includes a recurring green stripe, ‘to represent his family holidays at Carcant and his love of field sports’. (The Scottish Register of Tartans)

Life in Tianjin

Kathleen Ziffo recalls getting to know Lorna Cammock, who handed her a photocopied handwritten letter from Eric Liddell to her late father, the Revd Charles Cammock.

Mr Cammock ministered in several churches in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, and had known Eric a little while they were training for the ministry. The letter includes what Eric calls some ‘cameo sketches’ of his life in China at the end of 1934.

My dear Cammock,

It was good to get your letter & hear of your work in Oban. Why, of course I remember you; wasn’t it you who took for his test in the sermon class ‘… that I may know Him & the power of His resurrection…’. Well those days are past now, I often wish I had made more use of them. You want a note from China – it will have to be brief but may help to bring a little interest to some. I’ll write it in two or three little sketches…

1. The fellowship of prayer

I am working in a College [the AngloChinese Christian College in Tianjin, run by the London Missionary Society] as a teacher of Science. This last term I gave a special invitation to several of the teachers to join with me each morning before classes start. At first only one or two did but slowly we have had others adding on. We turn to prayer; we challenge ourselves so as to help us intentionally to keep close to the Holy Ghost [?]. It has brought a fine spirit between us which I hope will spread.

2. The place we work in

Tiantsin [Tianjin] hardly seems like a Chinese city as it is so foreign in many ways. We are situated in the French Concession with all the modern conveniences – electric trams outside our doors etc. There are all the difficulties of a city for education work, especially fields for games. This year we have been fortunate in securing an adjoining piece of ground. It was covered with bricks – stones – boulders etc & with the boys all helping & outside workmen we have been able to clear it so that there is a football field right next to us.

3. The Church

On the opposite side of the road there is the church with all its activities. Two or three days ago they gave a bag of meal each to people who had been selected as desperately in need. My, they were too. We don’t understand such poverty and filth.

….

All the best of wishes for 1935. May it be the best year you’ve had with a rich blessing on your congregation.

Eric finds fandom

A service celebrating the life of Eric Liddell was held at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Saturday 22 June.

The preacher was the Revd Lindsey Sanderson, Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland. She shared stories of how the teenagers at Morningside Congregational Church – where Liddell led Bible study sessions – formed a fan club…

On 17 December 1925, Eric Liddell wrote a letter to Elsa McKechnie, acknowledging the founding of 14-year-old Elsa’s Eric Liddell Club. ‘I do not know what I might be let in for’, he wrote. ‘However, there are times when we have to risk a little’ – and to receive the adulation of some teenage girls was clearly something Eric considered a risk.

Many years later Elsa would recall having heard Eric speak at Morningside Congregational Church, and reflect that it was his sincerity and humility which drew her and her friends to their expression of fandom.

Elsa found in Eric a role model. Fast forward almost 60 years, and the release of Chariots of Fire introduced me to Eric Liddell. A little younger than Elsa, here for me was someone with whom I could identify – someone who was nurtured in the Congregational Union of Scotland that was nurturing me, and significantly someone whose own commitment to not running on a Sunday chimed with my experience growing up – that Sunday was a day for church and family, and not friends’ birthday parties or, the one I did particularly struggle with, school skiing lessons in Glen Shee.

Role models are important for all of us, especially when we see ourselves in others and take inspiration from that.

Celebrating the Revd Eric H. Liddell

Morningside United Church (MUC), Liddell’s ‘home’ church, is proud of its association with the famous runner.

His name, together with those of his brother and sister-in-law, is included on the Morningside Congregational Church Missionary Roll of Honour. ,

The congregation remains involved in supporting The Eric Liddell Community, located across the road in the former North Morningside Parish Church. The Community supports people living with dementia, including through its flagship day care service; runs a wellbeing programme for unpaid carers; and operates a community hub, including a café and office space for social enterprises and charities.

Events over the summer celebrating the Eric Liddell 100 include:

22 July – 4 August:
Around 30 shops and businesses from Bruntsfield to Comiston celebrating the Liddell centenary with
window displays.

25 July – 12 September:
Eric Liddell exhibition at the Scottish Parliament.

6 August (Tuesday), 6.15-7.30pm:
BBC Radio 4 recording a service of hymns and choral music at MUC. To be broadcast at
8:15am on Sunday 11 August to mark the close of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. All singers welcome.

10 August (Saturday), 2-4pm:
Dedication of Eric Liddell Peace Garden & Garden Party, MUC

16 August (Friday), 1.30-2.45pm:
Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire – a theatre performance by Searchlight Theatre, MUC.
Tickets £12:50. See EdFringe 2024 (searchlighttheatre.org)

Lots of information about Eric Liddell and the centenary events at ericliddell.org/the-eric-liddell-100/