Saint Mary's and Saint James's are linked congregations of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney and part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Churches of England, Ireland, Wales, the Episcopal Church of the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, as well as churches in most countries of the world.

If you can, come and see us!

Father, pour out your Spirit upon us and grant us a new vision of your glory,
a new experience of your power,
a new faithfulness to your word and a new consecration to your service,
that your love may grow among us and your kingdom come:
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

On Thursday 20th November we welcome the Reverend Canon Peter Mander to be our new Rector.
Peter has come to us from Lincolnshire and we are looking forward to his ministry with his wife Mari in the North East of Scotland.

The service on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. will be at Saint Mary-on-the-Rock and all are welcome. 

Peter writes:

“Perhaps you might like to know a little about me.  Well, I am married to Mari – a Geordie,and a school teacher.  We have two children – Caroline who is married to Viktor and lives and works in Budapest; and Stephen who teaches English in Bratislava.  (We sometimes wonder what we did that our children have left the country!)  Both are very happy and are looking forward to coming to visit us and see where we now live.

I was born in Mansfield, England and grew up in Suffolk – so am used to the East Coast – it can be pretty cold there too!  I went to Teacher Training College in Liverpool, after which I taught in a secondary school in Huyton (on the outskirts of Liverpool) for ten years before experiencing a call to full time ministry in the Anglican Church.  I did my theological training in Salisbury – a very happy time for our young family – then served my Curacy in Hale, a suburb of South Manchester.  We then moved to Grantham in Lincolnshire and subsequently to Sleaford.  Earlier this year, though a process which I guess was guided from ‘above’ I applied for and was offered my present post.  Saying goodbye to the congregation in Sleaford was a sad time and we still miss them, but the welcome we have received here of course bodes well for the future.

I do my ‘job’ not only because I feel called by God to do so but also because I believe that Jesus Christ can offer a model and a way to a healing of the soul of our society and indeed can meet us each at our particular point of need.  I also sense that God’s grace can be found in all sorts of places in our society and part of our job as Christians is to identify and celebrate that.  I believe very much that the love of God extends to all people and as Christ’s followers we should do what we can to share that love and make it real in our world for all people.”