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St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Aberdeen
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St. Mary's Episcopal Church is a member of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney within the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion of Churches.
St. Mary's is situated in the west end of Aberdeen between Carden Place and Albert Terrace. The congregation is a mix of local families and "incomers", living in both the city and surrounding districts. There is a good mix of ages in the congregation, including an active Sunday school and Guild. There are also strong links with the Universities.
The main service is held at 10:15 am on Sundays (with Sunday school and creche for the children). Coffee is served in the choir vestry after the service and is a chance for the congregation to meet together in less formal surroundings to continue our fellowship and exchange news.
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Alleluia! He is Risen!
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Congratulations to our Rector, Graham Taylor, who was elected as a Canon of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney at the recent Diocesan Synod.
We had a wonderful Easter Day blessed by a Baptism at the main family service. The new Easter banner, made by the Sunday school children, was hung up.
We are holding our monthly lunches again this year - every first Wednesday (April 2nd next month) from 12 noon until 1:30pm. All welcome for food and fellowship - suggested donation £5 (very good value!).
Our new Bishop, Bob Gillies, preached during our special evening service (7:30 pm) on Ash Wednesday.
The Very Rev Dr Robert (Bob) Gillies has been consecrated as the new Bishop for the Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney. The service of consecration and installation of the new Bishop took place in September in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Aberdeen. The processions of priests held up the traffic on King Street. The cathedral was full as the service was attended by members of the diocese and province as well as representatives of other denominations.Further details are available on the Scottish Episcopal Church web site.
Our monthly twenty minute service (Open4Prayer) for office workers as part of our aim for outreach in the local community has now been fixed for the last Tuesday of every month.
In February 2007 we welcomed Jane and Graeme Ross to our church together with their children. Jane is training for the ministry and is working with our rector for the next few weeks. Jane is a member of St. Ninian's church in Seaton.
In August 2006 we welcomed to our congregation Stephen Westall and his wife Sandra. He is training for Local Ordained Ministry in Turriff and our Rector, Graham Taylor, is acting as his mentor. He has now returned to continue his work in Turiff where they are continuing forward with developing their local collaborative ministry.
The Institution of our new Rector, Rev. Graham Taylor, was held on November 9th at 7:30 p.m.followed by refreshments. We were pleased to see many who have links with our church there together with family, friends and members of his previous congregation in Peterhead. We would like to thank again all who helped our church during the vacancy. A special thank you is due to all the Vestry members who coordinated all the tasks that needed to be done over the period of the vacancy.
We have added a page all about our new organist. He really is a talented musician and we are grateful that he wishes to use his musical skills to enhance our services.
Our Lay Reader, Professor Gordon Graham was ordained into the Diaconate on September 18th 2005 and was our Bishop's Curate. He has now accepted a post at Princeton Theological Seminary in the U.S.A. We hope he and his family will be happy in their new location.
We have added a new page to help visitors find us. For those of you familiar with Aberdeen, we are the church in the angle formed by Carden Place and Albert Terrace. Please bear with us as we find the best way of presenting the information!
Our web site aims to provide useful information for visitors to Aberdeen, browsers and members of our church. Please sign the guestbook or contact one of the Wardens if you have any comments about our site. All input is welcome.
As our church is close to the local headquarters of Barnardo's, we have created a link with them. As part of this we are starting a donation box of non-perishable food items (located in our entrance porch) and the contents are donated once a month to help homeless young people in Aberdeen.
As a landmark building in the West End of the city we would like to conserve our building, both externally for aesthetics and internally for worship. Work has finished both on the roof and the stonework. Repairs have also been made to the stained glass windows - a long and painstaking task. More recently we raised funds to repair damage from dry rot - we hope no more will be found!
A mystery was revealed during the process of restoring the beautiful Rood Beam to its original glory. It has shed new light on the source of a bitter dispute between the Episcopalian congregation and its Bishop long ago. Please see the Conservation page for the full story.
There are two photos of our restored church on the "Photos of Conservation Work On St. Mary's" page. There is also a photo of the restored Rood Beam. They do not do justice to the beautiful appearance of our building - come along to see it!
April 17th 2008
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