LETTERS FROM ADAM ⬇ UPDATED 15/4/22
Our Minister…
• Rev Adam Dillon was inducted into the charge of minister here at Sherbrooke Mosspark Parish Church in November 2021.
• Adam was ordained into the ministry in 2003. He is currently convenor of the Church of Scotlands Safeguarding Service, a member of the General Assembly’s Legal Questions Committee & Vice convenor of the Presbytery of Glasgow Superintendence.
• Adam is married to Sheila and they have four children. He enjoys walking, travelling and heading out on a Saturday to watch Partick Thistle Football Club play.
Adam is looking forward to getting to know everyone & is excited for what lies ahead!
• Rev Adam Dillon was inducted into the charge of minister here at Sherbrooke Mosspark Parish Church in November 2021.
• Adam was ordained into the ministry in 2003. He is currently convenor of the Church of Scotlands Safeguarding Service, a member of the General Assembly’s Legal Questions Committee & Vice convenor of the Presbytery of Glasgow Superintendence.
• Adam is married to Sheila and they have four children. He enjoys walking, travelling and heading out on a Saturday to watch Partick Thistle Football Club play.
Adam is looking forward to getting to know everyone & is excited for what lies ahead!
Good Friday 15/4/22
⬇From Adam - Mary at the tomb.
They say that grief can do terrible things to people. They say that it can make you imagine things that are not there. They say it can cause you to weep uncontrollably for no apparent reason. They say it can make you do things you have never done before, and even change your behaviour for a while.
I am a woman who has been acquainted with grief. My parents died tragically when I was quite young. My brother died unexpectedly after a short illness, and my husband was killed by the Roman Soldiers.
I have experienced every kind of grief there is to know, apart from losing my own children. I have experienced grief in ways that people cannot even begin to imagine, but I do not think of myself as weak: simply battle scarred by life’s experiences.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about death and mourning, but now I am not so sure. Today has changed my experience of death for ever, and has brought me hope instead of the despair I expected this Sabbath morning.
I had gone to the tomb where they had laid down the body of Jesus. I was taking spices to anoint his body and to honour him in the ways I had done with my own nearest and dearest. I felt a deep sadness in my heart, as I had experienced before on the road to the cemetery for my parents, brother and husband.
When I arrived at the tomb I noticed immediately that someone had rolled the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. I thought at first I might have been mistaken, but as I drew alongside I knew that this was
the tomb where they had laid the body of Jesus to rest.
I dropped my spices, and ran back to tell Peter and the other disciples that the tomb was empty. They did not believe me, or want to believe me, and thought I was just overcome with grief, but I stood my ground and invited them to come and see for themselves. They ran faster than me, and were inside the tomb when I arrived holding the linen cloth that had covered Jesus’ body.
Now they believed me, and went immediately back to the upper room to tell the others.I did not really understand what the empty tomb stood for at this time. I stood there weeping and wondering what they had
done with the body of Jesus. I thought that maybe the religious authorities or the Roman soldiers had removed it as some kind of sick joke, or to stop people coming to this site to mourn for the man we had all
loved and believed in.
Then through my tears I saw two figures in the tomb. It wasn’t any of the disciples because I knew all of them. They were angels sitting where Jesus had been and they spoke to me, and asked my why I was crying? “They have taken my Lord away,” I replied, “and I don’t know where they have
put him”. I turned around and was confronted by another figure that I thought at first was the gardener and he asked me again why I was crying and what I was looking for. I asked if he had been responsible for moving the body.
When he spoke my name in reply my eyes were opened wide, because I recognised the voice immediately Jesus. He was not dead but alive. I went to hold him, and hug him, but heresisted, and told me that I had to go and tell the others that he is not dead but returning to His father in heaven. I went immediately and told the disciples the news, and they were overwhelmed with the news. Everything began to fall into place for them, and they now knew that the story of Jesus did not end with death on a cross, but with life from a tomb.
As for me, I no longer mourned what I had lost but rejoiced in the knowledge that life goes on even after death. That is good news worth sharing with everyone who mourns even today.
⬇From Adam - Mary at the tomb.
They say that grief can do terrible things to people. They say that it can make you imagine things that are not there. They say it can cause you to weep uncontrollably for no apparent reason. They say it can make you do things you have never done before, and even change your behaviour for a while.
I am a woman who has been acquainted with grief. My parents died tragically when I was quite young. My brother died unexpectedly after a short illness, and my husband was killed by the Roman Soldiers.
I have experienced every kind of grief there is to know, apart from losing my own children. I have experienced grief in ways that people cannot even begin to imagine, but I do not think of myself as weak: simply battle scarred by life’s experiences.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about death and mourning, but now I am not so sure. Today has changed my experience of death for ever, and has brought me hope instead of the despair I expected this Sabbath morning.
I had gone to the tomb where they had laid down the body of Jesus. I was taking spices to anoint his body and to honour him in the ways I had done with my own nearest and dearest. I felt a deep sadness in my heart, as I had experienced before on the road to the cemetery for my parents, brother and husband.
When I arrived at the tomb I noticed immediately that someone had rolled the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. I thought at first I might have been mistaken, but as I drew alongside I knew that this was
the tomb where they had laid the body of Jesus to rest.
I dropped my spices, and ran back to tell Peter and the other disciples that the tomb was empty. They did not believe me, or want to believe me, and thought I was just overcome with grief, but I stood my ground and invited them to come and see for themselves. They ran faster than me, and were inside the tomb when I arrived holding the linen cloth that had covered Jesus’ body.
Now they believed me, and went immediately back to the upper room to tell the others.I did not really understand what the empty tomb stood for at this time. I stood there weeping and wondering what they had
done with the body of Jesus. I thought that maybe the religious authorities or the Roman soldiers had removed it as some kind of sick joke, or to stop people coming to this site to mourn for the man we had all
loved and believed in.
Then through my tears I saw two figures in the tomb. It wasn’t any of the disciples because I knew all of them. They were angels sitting where Jesus had been and they spoke to me, and asked my why I was crying? “They have taken my Lord away,” I replied, “and I don’t know where they have
put him”. I turned around and was confronted by another figure that I thought at first was the gardener and he asked me again why I was crying and what I was looking for. I asked if he had been responsible for moving the body.
When he spoke my name in reply my eyes were opened wide, because I recognised the voice immediately Jesus. He was not dead but alive. I went to hold him, and hug him, but heresisted, and told me that I had to go and tell the others that he is not dead but returning to His father in heaven. I went immediately and told the disciples the news, and they were overwhelmed with the news. Everything began to fall into place for them, and they now knew that the story of Jesus did not end with death on a cross, but with life from a tomb.
As for me, I no longer mourned what I had lost but rejoiced in the knowledge that life goes on even after death. That is good news worth sharing with everyone who mourns even today.
LETTERS FROM ADAM ⬇
3rd March 2022
Dear Friends
Let me share a wee quote with you from a journal:
“The world is too big for us. Too much going on, too many crimes, too much violence and excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race, in spite of yourself. It’s an incessant strain to keep pace…. And still you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen so rapidly you are out of breath trying to keep up pace with who’s in and who’s out. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can’t endure much more.” (Atlantic Journal)
It’s a familiar description of life and the fast paced change that is constantly driving our societies. What is suprising, is that this was actually published on the 16th June 1833, yet it also seems to describe so well what is happening today too. It seems that change is the only constant in our lives.
Since the last magazine, some of you will have had to cope with too much change, and yet some of you will have not seen enough change. Some of you have endured changes that have been shattering, and some of you have struggled with still waiting for a result, or a feeling that things just haven’t progressed any further than you would have wanted them to.
For some of you, those changes will have seen great loss and regret, and for some of you those changes will have been life giving in their vitality. Sometimes we embrace change, and sometimes we fear it more than anything.
Lent is a journey, and Easter is the occasion we look forward to, but Jesus constantly brings us back to the fact that he walks with us in this journey, and he takes us through the deepest darkest valleys or betrayal, anger, denial and loss as he is hung on a cross, to the joy and excitement and sheer wonder of the Easter Resurrection, where we sing that Christ is alive, and all is well. Even after the excitement of that Easter Day, Jesus again meets us in the moments where we doubt his existence and his resurrection, when we walks into a room full of his friends saying “Peace be with you.”
Wherever you are in your journey, above all things, know that God loves you, and you are not alone…
May God bless you and yours
Adam
Dear Friends
Let me share a wee quote with you from a journal:
“The world is too big for us. Too much going on, too many crimes, too much violence and excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race, in spite of yourself. It’s an incessant strain to keep pace…. And still you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen so rapidly you are out of breath trying to keep up pace with who’s in and who’s out. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can’t endure much more.” (Atlantic Journal)
It’s a familiar description of life and the fast paced change that is constantly driving our societies. What is suprising, is that this was actually published on the 16th June 1833, yet it also seems to describe so well what is happening today too. It seems that change is the only constant in our lives.
Since the last magazine, some of you will have had to cope with too much change, and yet some of you will have not seen enough change. Some of you have endured changes that have been shattering, and some of you have struggled with still waiting for a result, or a feeling that things just haven’t progressed any further than you would have wanted them to.
For some of you, those changes will have seen great loss and regret, and for some of you those changes will have been life giving in their vitality. Sometimes we embrace change, and sometimes we fear it more than anything.
Lent is a journey, and Easter is the occasion we look forward to, but Jesus constantly brings us back to the fact that he walks with us in this journey, and he takes us through the deepest darkest valleys or betrayal, anger, denial and loss as he is hung on a cross, to the joy and excitement and sheer wonder of the Easter Resurrection, where we sing that Christ is alive, and all is well. Even after the excitement of that Easter Day, Jesus again meets us in the moments where we doubt his existence and his resurrection, when we walks into a room full of his friends saying “Peace be with you.”
Wherever you are in your journey, above all things, know that God loves you, and you are not alone…
May God bless you and yours
Adam
22nd February 2022
Dear Friends
It is with great sadness that we bring news that Sheriff Principal Brian Lockhart passed away peacefully in the early hours of Monday morning. Brian has been a tremendous servant of the church over many years, and served as Session Clerk until he retired in 2004. Not one to be leading a quiet life, Brian was instrumental in the creation and the life of up A.M. Chorus, bringing church and community together, and Brian was especially pleased to see Alice Guse take this on in recent months.
When Brian decided to take leave and demit office as session clerk, he wrote, “ It was my intention to demit office in the spring of 2002 when things were going merrily under Donald Macleod. However he beat me to it!... Things are going well at present and I think the future is sound. I feel that this is the right time for me to withdraw.” His retiral from an exceptionally distinguished legal career came a little later, when he heard his last Appeal in the Sheriff Appeal Court on the 20th June 2017. At that time, Brian remarked that he was looking forward to his new found hobby of rail travel, which Brian has entertained us with through his blog on the church website.
We remember in our prayers at this time, Christine, Abbey and Heather, Douglas and Richard and all family and friends.
With every blessing,
Adam
Dear Friends
It is with great sadness that we bring news that Sheriff Principal Brian Lockhart passed away peacefully in the early hours of Monday morning. Brian has been a tremendous servant of the church over many years, and served as Session Clerk until he retired in 2004. Not one to be leading a quiet life, Brian was instrumental in the creation and the life of up A.M. Chorus, bringing church and community together, and Brian was especially pleased to see Alice Guse take this on in recent months.
When Brian decided to take leave and demit office as session clerk, he wrote, “ It was my intention to demit office in the spring of 2002 when things were going merrily under Donald Macleod. However he beat me to it!... Things are going well at present and I think the future is sound. I feel that this is the right time for me to withdraw.” His retiral from an exceptionally distinguished legal career came a little later, when he heard his last Appeal in the Sheriff Appeal Court on the 20th June 2017. At that time, Brian remarked that he was looking forward to his new found hobby of rail travel, which Brian has entertained us with through his blog on the church website.
We remember in our prayers at this time, Christine, Abbey and Heather, Douglas and Richard and all family and friends.
With every blessing,
Adam
January 2022
Dear Friends
I spent some time away from the church. And yet I still felt connected, I was just about to start my degree in Divinity. I went to visit an old friend, an elder from a congregation I had last attended who worked in the university library. He asked me which church I attended. I told him I hadn’t got round to going. John remarked to me, “It’s just about getting back into the habit.” Nothing more. The following weekend I showed up in a congregation and three years later I was training for the ministry of the Church of Scotland!
It’s just about getting back into the habit. We have a new found freedom that has been bestowed upon us, as we return to a more normal life with the lifting of the Omicron variant restrictions, and talk of whether words like “endemic” might be on the horizon. That’s a huge step. For some, it’s a welcome step, long overdue, and for some, it’s the most petrifying thought. And for many, it’s somewhere in the middle. And in amongst that is attending church, and getting back into the habit.
It's important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much.
You can't serve from your sofa. You can't have community of faith on your sofa. You can't experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa. Christians aren't consumers either. We are contributors. We don't watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We do life together.
The church needs you. And you need the church. It’s about you and your family being a part of a faith community and using your talents to advance the kingdom and reach others. To come alongside one another physically, not just through a screen. While I'm grateful for technology to keep people connected that can't physically come to church or need to be away, it's absolutely not like being in the building. Never will be.
Yes, church on the sofa is nice. But it'll never be the same as church in the sanctuary.
For those of you who are not quite ready, we will wait for you, and when you are, we will welcome you with open arms. For those of you who are ready and have fallen out of the habit, it’s time to get back into the habit. And for those of you who have been holding back to allow others to go, its your turn now. Rules are relaxing, distancing has been dropped and there’s plenty of space for you.
And while there’s plenty of space for you, we also need to make sure that there is plenty of space for you in another way. The Distance Aware Scheme has been set up by the Scottish Government and badges with yellow shields are available from libraries and Asda supermarkets. It’s a gentle reminder to folks if you still wish to maintain a level of social distancing. If you still wish people to keep their distance, pick up one of these badges and we will happily help that observance. Furthermore, as we continue to find a happy medium in providing enough space for everyone to attend and enough space for people to have space, the memorial side aisle in the church will continue to offer designated, socially distanced seats for those of you who will find that helpful.
As we seek to establish a return to more familiar patterns of life and worship, we do so with humility, modesty and thoughtfulness, seeking to balance our responsibility to those who are anxious with our obligation to establish a new way forward for future generations.
As we enter this new year, and this new chapter of ministry for Sherbrooke Mosspark, I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you. I would be delighted to welcome you to worship when you are ready to return, and if you are not in a position to return to worship so readily, but would like to meet, please do let me know, either by calling or emailing the manse or the church office.
Every blessing
Adam
Your minister and friend.
Dear Friends
I spent some time away from the church. And yet I still felt connected, I was just about to start my degree in Divinity. I went to visit an old friend, an elder from a congregation I had last attended who worked in the university library. He asked me which church I attended. I told him I hadn’t got round to going. John remarked to me, “It’s just about getting back into the habit.” Nothing more. The following weekend I showed up in a congregation and three years later I was training for the ministry of the Church of Scotland!
It’s just about getting back into the habit. We have a new found freedom that has been bestowed upon us, as we return to a more normal life with the lifting of the Omicron variant restrictions, and talk of whether words like “endemic” might be on the horizon. That’s a huge step. For some, it’s a welcome step, long overdue, and for some, it’s the most petrifying thought. And for many, it’s somewhere in the middle. And in amongst that is attending church, and getting back into the habit.
It's important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much.
You can't serve from your sofa. You can't have community of faith on your sofa. You can't experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa. Christians aren't consumers either. We are contributors. We don't watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We do life together.
The church needs you. And you need the church. It’s about you and your family being a part of a faith community and using your talents to advance the kingdom and reach others. To come alongside one another physically, not just through a screen. While I'm grateful for technology to keep people connected that can't physically come to church or need to be away, it's absolutely not like being in the building. Never will be.
Yes, church on the sofa is nice. But it'll never be the same as church in the sanctuary.
For those of you who are not quite ready, we will wait for you, and when you are, we will welcome you with open arms. For those of you who are ready and have fallen out of the habit, it’s time to get back into the habit. And for those of you who have been holding back to allow others to go, its your turn now. Rules are relaxing, distancing has been dropped and there’s plenty of space for you.
And while there’s plenty of space for you, we also need to make sure that there is plenty of space for you in another way. The Distance Aware Scheme has been set up by the Scottish Government and badges with yellow shields are available from libraries and Asda supermarkets. It’s a gentle reminder to folks if you still wish to maintain a level of social distancing. If you still wish people to keep their distance, pick up one of these badges and we will happily help that observance. Furthermore, as we continue to find a happy medium in providing enough space for everyone to attend and enough space for people to have space, the memorial side aisle in the church will continue to offer designated, socially distanced seats for those of you who will find that helpful.
As we seek to establish a return to more familiar patterns of life and worship, we do so with humility, modesty and thoughtfulness, seeking to balance our responsibility to those who are anxious with our obligation to establish a new way forward for future generations.
As we enter this new year, and this new chapter of ministry for Sherbrooke Mosspark, I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you. I would be delighted to welcome you to worship when you are ready to return, and if you are not in a position to return to worship so readily, but would like to meet, please do let me know, either by calling or emailing the manse or the church office.
Every blessing
Adam
Your minister and friend.