A St Margaret's tide miscellany

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It has to be said that I have a very soft spot for St Margaret of Scotland. She was born in 1046, a member of the (Anglo-Saxon) English Royal Family. She was educated in Hungary, where her family lived in exile during Danish rule in England. After the Norman invasion in 1066, when she was seen as a threat to the new monarchy, she was welcomed in the court of Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland and married him in 1069. Theirs was a happy marriage and Margaret proved to be both a civilising and a godly presence. She instituted many church reforms and founded many monasteries, churches and pilgrim hostels. She was a woman of prayer as well as good works who seemed to influence for good all with whom she came into contact. She died on this day in the year 1093.  I worshipped as a student at St Margaret's in the Gallowgate in Aberdeen and at the Convent then on the Spital dedicated to her.  I was also born in Dunfermline where she lived, so she is a favourite.  The top photo is a reconstruction of her shrine in the Abbot's House Museum in Dunfermline, the middle the site of her shrine at Dunfermline Abbey and the lower, the chapel she worshipped in at Edinburgh Castle.

God, the ruler of all,
who called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne
and gave her zeal for your Church and love for your people
that she might advance your heavenly kingdom:
mercifully grant that we who commemorate her example
may be fruitful in good works
and attain to the glorious crown of your saints;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Christmas is coming!!

You know it's getting near Christmas in Dougaltown when you hear the Falkirk Children's Theatre doing selected numbers from their annual Crimbo production in front of the Steeple. This year it's "Oliver" (well, it was on the telly with Andrew Lloyd Wotsit earlier in the year, so it's hardly a surprise). Sadly, as I passed, Nancy was hitting "I'll do anything" in a pitch that would suggest Bill Sykes had mitigating circumstances for his evil deeds! Nerves, no doubt and the fact it was bleeding Baltic out there today!

This morning we observed St Margaret of Scotland, not out of any deep principle or devotion, but because the organist picked the hymns and went for St Maggie. Coincidentally, the organists name is Margaret. Funny that! We had 6 Margaret's in the pews this morning, which I think may be some sort of record. Maybe. Had the Rector's Warden been there, it would have been 7!