God so loved the world that he gave … John 3.16
Dear Friend, Good morning and welcome to the Feast of the Holy Trinity which we celebrate today on this most beautiful day, the penultimate day of the Spring in the meteorological calendar. In the Liturgical calendar, we celebrate the blessing of what our Liturgy calls that ‘wonderful exchange’. The boundless out pouring of God’s love finds a new meaning and purpose in the new creation called the Church. The revelation of God, the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier in the Church makes this wonderful exchange a Feast, a time to celebrate. The icon by the Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev captures the meaning and purpose most powerfully. At the time of Rublev, in the 15th century Russia, the Holy Trinity was the embodiment of spiritual unity, peace, harmony, mutual love and humility. The scene is the hospitality of Abraham to the three angels under the oak of Mamre. Abraham, a pilgrim on a journey to inherit the promises of God extends the hospitality to strangers. It all sounds too familiar to us, the people of St Andrew’s. in 1715 when the exiled king came to Aberdeen, he received hospitality in the very location of the Upper Room, in the house of Jean Kinnaird and Alexander Scott, Episcopalians of the North East of Scotland. The extension of hospitality to Samuel Seabury in 1784 remains our hallmark of hospitality. The hospitality we extended to the New Scots from Syria marked us out as the presence of the Triune God in the city of Aberdeen. Therefore we have every reason to celebrate today. We shall gather for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist from the Upper Room at 3pm. A link to the livestream on our Facebook page will be sent out 10 minutes before the service. A draft version of the Order of Service is attached here and on our website. We continue in prayer for the day when we can gather as a people to offer up ourselves to God in the house of prayer God has blessed us with, graciously. May God bless us as we continue to witness to the Good News of God’s love and Christ Jesus. As ever, Your fellow Pilgrim on a journey to inherit the promises of God. Isaac
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