St Peter’s Scottish Episcopal Church With St Mary & St Leonard, Kinghorn Charity Nos: SCO10443

Townsend Place, Kirkcaldy, Fife KY1 1HB Tel: 01592 204208 Email: cnfraser@btinternet.com

News & Events 2022

Craft Update 2022/1 The first session of the Craft Group for 2022 started on Monday 7th February and ran until Monday 28th March. At present we have 8 crafty ladies attending regularly plus Dawn, our daughter, helping out on new projects eg crochet. The cost of the 2 hour session is £2 which includes all materials and refreshments with a biscuit. We began this session with crocheting, hooks supplied from craft funds and wool from Dawn’s extensive hoard. Most ladies mastered the art but the knitters amongst us and those who are left-handed struggled as the terminology is completely different and those knitters wanted to crochet as if they were knitting. But in saying that 90% were able to complete a chain and by the second week they were successful in creating ‘granny-squares’. At this time Rev Christine started her dressmaking project which she has now successfully completed. (see photo). There have been requests from other craft ladies for more dressmaking projects, This could happen in the near future as we have gifted 3 sewing machines, 2 of which are currently being serviced and a third one was donated to St Margaret’s, Leven Ladies Group after we heard they were having difficulty in obtaining one. On week 3 the ladies were working with air-dried clay to make tiles (see photos). The process of kneading and rolling out was a challenge. Thanks to Norman for making the thickness gauge rails and rolling pins. Next was the cutting, piercing and shaping. The tiles then had to be left to dry until week 4 when the ladies decorated then with different media paint/ felt pens etc. The tiles have now been sealed with ’Mod podge’ ready for the ladies to take home and display indoors. In week 5, the crafty ladies made the gifts for Mother’s Day (27th March) which took the form of coated paper cups adorned with a selection of bright fabrics (many thanks again to Norman for making the templates). (What would I do without my right-hand man). These beautiful cups were then filled with colourful tissue paper which encompassed a ‘BeeBomb’. (see photo) For those of you not aware of what a ‘BeeBomb’ is, this is a clay impregnated with native wild flower seeds. There are 18 different varieties of seed including corn marigold, white and red campion, cornflower and many more. The variety of native flowers are perfect pollinators for our bees. No gardening, tilling or digging is required, ‘BeeBomb’s don’t need to be planted or tended, just through onto cleared ground, water well, keep the seeds damp and awaite the wild flowers. If you are interested to read about each species go to the ‘BeeBomb’ website (www.beebombs.com/our-seeds) Over the next few weeks the ladies have been making Easter gifts for the sales table held on 3rd April. There was lots of choice of gifts for all ages including Easter egg crafts (yum yum), books, bags, etc. All proceeds go to projects within the church. This past year £500 was given to help complete the wet-walling of the kitchen and £72 to pay for the website hosting fee. The Craft Group would like to wish everyone a Blessed Easter and thank all who have supported us. The next session will commence on Monday 25th April until Monday 20th June.

Departure of Rev Stuart Gray On Sunday 8 May, we said goodbye to the Rev Stuart Gray who will be licensed as Interim Priest at St John’s Episcopal Church in Alloa later this week. After a truly joyous service our Rector, the Rev Canon Christine Fraser, made a presentation to Stuart and we all enjoyed a delicious slice of cake and non-alcoholic wine. Stuart we wish you every success at Alloa and look forward to following your progress in the future.

Garden Party 2nd July To celebrate St Peter’s Patronal Festival, The Queens Platinum Jubilee and the end of lockdown it was decided to hold a Garden Party for our congregation, neighbours, friends and supporters of St Peter’s. To disguise/cover the notice board to make the hall more aesthetically pleasing, it was decided at Vestry that a series of murals could be painted. After preparatory work at home Marjorie, the Craft Group and some of the congregation completely decorated the panels by stencilling, collage and painting and photos show the completed mural of 12 panels. We were so lucky with the weather in the afternoon as there was a total of 80 acceptances for the event. The tables were laden with a delicious selection of sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and scones supplied by members of Vestry and the congregation. Lots of friendships were renewed and new friendships were made. The Garden Party was a great success and much enjoyed by all who attended. Many thanks to all who helped to make this happen.

Prayers for Queen Elizabeth II On Wednesday 14th September, the church was open from 9.30am until 12.30pm to offer a place of reflection and prayer on the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Prayers were said at 9.45am, 11am and 12 noon with the usual midweek Communion service at 10am. A warm invitation was extended to all who wished to drop in at any time between 9.30am and 12.30pm. The Revd Christine produced a booklet of the prayers which can be viewed here.

Harvest Festival We celebrated our Harvest Festival on Sunday 25th September in a church decorated with beautiful arrangementscreated by Jane Legge and her helpers. As in previous years all contributions of dried and tinned goods were donated to Kirkcaldy Food Bank. Photos courtesy of Shirley.

Craft Group The ladies started the Autumn session by ‘painting with fabric’, creating pictures by adhering pieces of scrap fabric onto a pre-painted background. Some ladies created houses, mock stained glass and as shown in the photo below a landscape. The next project was painting with fingers to create poppies. The week after we made what are called God’s Eyes. These originated in what is now Western Mexico by the indigenous Huichol people and were spiritual symbols. The four points are meant to represent the four elements of earth, water, air and fire, the centre of the ornament represents God and is believed to have the power to see and understand things which the human eye cannot. In some cultures, when a baby is born the father of the household weaves the centre eye and every year adds another colour until the child is 5 years old. When the Spaniards arrived in the late 1500’s they gave then the name ‘ojos de dios’ or the eye of God. The ladies really enjoyed making them and the 2 hours flew by. In the following weeks, Sashiko was the order of the day, this is the Japanese art of darning using straight stitches. Thereafter the ladies were introduced to needle-felting and managed to create a landscape as shown below. These projects will take us up to the October Holidays, a break of 2 weeks. When we return we shall be creating gifts to put on the Christmas Craft table (Dates to be arranged).

Licensing of Rev Bob Barrett On Wednesday 9th November, we welcomed Bishop Ian to St Peter’s to license Rev Bob Barrett for Permission to Officiate. The service was a most joyous occasion and afterwards we retired for cake and tea or coffee in the Hall.

Mary Robertson On Sunday 4th December, after the AGM, the Chairman Bill Page presented retiring Vestry member Mary Robertson with a basket of plants for her garden and a certificate marking her many years of faithful service to the church of St Mary’s and St Leonard, Kinghorn and latterly to St Peter’s in Kirkcaldy. Our photo shows Mrs Robertson with Rector Canon Christine Fraser, Vestry Chairman Bill Page and Vestry Secretary Maria Page.