Act Well Thy Part – Second Reprise

A couple of weeks ago, we were at the Mission Home in Edinburgh for a conference for all of the senior missionaries in the Mission. As part of the conference, President Brown dedicated a new placement of the stone inscribed with “Act well thy part.” Since April Conference when Elaine Dalton talked about her experience seeing this stone (details in our previous post), numerous people have come to the Mission Home to see the (replica of the) stone, and President Brown thought that it needed a more suitable “monument”.

President and Sister Brown relaxing after the dedication.

The Stone

The plaque.

Those attending the Dedication. See if you can find us. 

As part of the dedication, Elder Browning told about his part in the story. He was the missionary in Sterling who 50 years ago noted that the building was coming down and called the Mission President. And as they say, the rest is history. Elder and Sister Browning are currently serving as the YSA Couple in Glasgow. Below is a video of him recounting his "part in history."

Burns Supper

Saturday night  (Jan 25), we were blessed to be able to attend the Burns Night Activity at Bingham Ward, and it was great. A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, the most famous Scottish poet, who was born on 25 January 1759. His birthday is widely celebrated in Scotland. We enjoyed a very traditional evening starting with the "Piping" of the haggis when everyone stands as the haggis was paraded around to bagpipe music.

This was followed by a recitation of the Address to a Haggis, a Burn’s poem, which starts:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie {jolly} face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon {above} them a' ye tak your place,

Painch {stomach}, tripe, or thairm {intestine}:

Weel are ye wordy {worthy} o' a grace

As lang's my arm.

Just before we ate, someone said the "The Selkirk Grace" (attributed to Robert Burns):

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat, and we can eat,

And sae let the Lord be thankit.

The dinner was haggis, neeps (mashed turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes) with cheese, crackers and shortbread for dessert. The one traditional drink that was missing was Scotch whisky.

A recent convert and her YSA daughter with their haggis, neeps and taddies. 

After dinner we had the Toast to the Lassies, a poem from a man about women, amusing but not offensive. This was followed by a Toast to the Laddies , a poem from a woman about men, also humorous but not offensive.

 This was followed by Ceilidh dancing. Several of the Elders participated as partners with each other.   

Three Elders along with the Bishop and his granddaughter during the Ceilidh.

 In a very nice gesture, the six young missionaries were brought up and asked to read Scottish sayings  such as “It’s a bra bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht” (It is a nice, bright moonlit night tonight).

They were then  given certificates signed by the Bishop declaring them to be honorary Scots. It was a wonderful evening.

Several of the Ward members came dressed in their kitls.

As our Stake President would say, "Good stuff!"

50th Anniversary of the Kirkcaldy Ward Chapel

The Ceilidh Band

 The Kirkcaldy Ward is one of the Wards in our Stake, and the first meeting their Chapel was 50 years ago on Sunday 12 January 1964. To celebrate, the ward held a series of events during the three days ending with Sunday 12 January 2014. We drove down Friday evening for the Ceilidh with a live three piece band courtesy of one of the members of another Ward.  A Ceilidh (a Gaelic word) is Scottish folk dancing; our American square dancing has its roots in the Ceilidh. It was also the YSA activity for that Friday night, so we also got to hang out with them.

The Pipers

The Ceilidh opened with two pipers marching in and piping for about 10 minutes, which was wonderful. They repeated it after the break for the band, but this time with three pipers. We danced a couple of times, and had fun. Towards the end, we danced the Virginia reel (which it is generally considered to be an English country dance, even though it has Scottish origins).

The main refreshment for the night was "stovies", and was part of a competition with our Stake President as the judge. There were plenty of stovies with oatcakes for everyone during the break. From what we saw, stovies can be most anything, basically what we would call a stew: potatoes, onions and meat of some kind in gravy with whatever else you want thrown in. We quite liked them.

Stovies - each was labeled with a unique name

We went back down Saturday afternoon for an open house. They had fantastic displays of ward history including a timeline along one wall of the cultural hall, a video of the youth interviewing some of the longtime members about their conversion and testimony and two service projects that you could join in and help out. It was really well done and concluded with the burial of a time capsule made by the Primary

children.

Timeline - this pictures shows 20 of 50 years.

Part of the displays for the open house and one of the two service projects

Burying the Time Capsule

 On Sunday we attended the Special Sacrament meeting. The Bishop and Stake President Watson were the speakers. Our Mission President and his wife were also there, as he is a former Bishop of the Ward. Interestingly, the final three hymns, “Gently Raise the Sacred Strain”, “Redeemer of Israel” and “Praise to the Man” were all written by William W. Phelps, an early member of the Church with Scottish heritage (1792-1872). The tune for “Praise to the Man” is the traditional Scottish folk tune "Scotland the Brave".  Following Sacrament meeting, there was the always popular "munch and mingle", with lots of tasty food. It was a wonderful and meaningful weekend. 

Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Sunday is observed each year on the Sunday nearest to Armistice Day on 11 November to commemorate all those who have died for their country. In order to allow Church members to participate with their local communities in these services, Church was held from 2 to 5 pm on 10 November, rather than the usual 10:30 to 1:30. In Dundee a Parade, led by a bagpipe band, came down Reform Street and past the City Square.  There were lots of military personnel as well as others marching.

They marched over to the Steeple Church near the Overgate shopping center, and had wee ceremony with a prayer, bugle call and a short speech. At 11am we observed 2 minutes of silence, the moment when the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, to show respect and remember the dead. Then there were lots of poppy wreaths presented, including one from the Church by Bishops Anderson and Keogh. 

        The poppy, which grew in the battlefields of France during World War I, has become a symbol of remembrance and today people wear paper poppies around Remembrance Sunday as a sign of respect. As part of the Church’s community outreach, the Wards participate in the annual poppy appeal. Earlier in the week, we spent 1.5 hours at one of the supermarkets “selling” paper poppies in support of veterans of all ages.  Lots of people donated, and it was a great experience. 

Two In, Two Out

 As a kid, growing up in central Pennsylvania, I (David) listened to Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball a lot on my Radio Shack transistor radio. The voice of the Pirates then was Bob Prince, who called Pirates games from 1948 to 1975. He was known for clever nicknames and phrases, such as deuces wild, meaning two on (base), two out, two balls, two strikes.

This past week we welcomed two new young single adults (YSA)  into our group as they were baptized, and we said farewell to two who were married in the Preston England Temple for time and all eternity, thus graduating to the category of young married adults -(YMA?) .  

Danny was baptized in Dunfermline and Temeeka was baptized in Dundee. They are both wonderful additions to our group. 

Danny's Baptism with the Sisters and Brother Lynch

The YSA that were at Danny's baptism.

Teemeka's Baptism with the Sisters and Brother Sloan

The YSA that were at Temeeka's baptism.

Claire and Dallin were married by our Stake President in the Dunfermline Chapel on Friday afternoon and then sealed in the Temple on Saturday. In the UK, the Temple sealing is not recognized as a marriage, and thus the necessity of the chapel wedding first. This does allow more friends to participate in the festivities! The reception Friday evening included a ceilidh (traditional Scottish folk dancing), and was lots of fun.

Claire and Dallin

Cutting the Cake

A walk, but not in the Park.

Most mornings as part of his daily exercise routine, Elder Bylund walks from our flat up along the river Tay, or the Firth of Tay as it is called. This is the estuary where Tay empties into the North Sea. It is salt water, ever changing with the tides. At spring tide, the difference in the water level between high and low tides is about 5 meters, or 15 feet.

Looking east, toward the North Sea, is a dock, which generally has one or two ships in port. In addition, oil drilling rigs from the North Sea come in to dock for weeks at at time.

The docks, with a ship and two oil drilling rigs east of our flat.

There are two bridges that cross the Tay as shown in the photo, the closer one (1.5 miles long) for pedestrian (I have walked it once), bike and vehicle traffic is, and the further one for rail traffic.

The Firth of Tay, looking west from our flat

Along the way, there is a “work of art” composed of 11 slabs of concrete spaced about 18 inches apart. The centers are cut out in the shape of a ship. 

There is ship inside there.

Looking form left to right

Looking from right to left

Further on down, is Chandler Lane, a street and buildings (now with flats) that are restored to how they  were in the 1800s.  

Chandler Lane

 Next is the observation tower, overlooking the Firth of Tay, which I climb several times, mostly for exercise.

Firth of Tay Observation Point

The waterfront area of Dundee is undergoing a major redevelopment, which won't be finished until 2016. Since we have arrived, there has been mostly demolition. I watched each day as this building was slowly demolished, such that there is not much left. 

Start of Demolition

Almost done

 This is a Hilton Hotel which is being demolished to make room for redevelopment. The large orange piece of equipment with jaws is one of several around the area. We affectionately call it a dinosaur, and when it is working, it is feeding. The smaller one in the lower left is a scavenger.

What used to be a hotel is now feeding grounds for dinosaurs. 

The ship Discovery, which was built in Dundee and sailed to the Antarctica about 1900, is in dry dock as a museum.  There is a second “dry dock” next to the Discovery. It was full of water when we came, but they are now filling in with, at least in part the rubble from the building above (above the hotel).

Former dry dock on the left. Discovery on the right. 

 In front of the museum four penguins (only two of which are shown) who greet visitors to the museum.

 As part of the redevelopment, they are redoing the approach to the Tay Bridge. We drive through here often, but haven't quite figured out what they are doing.

Redoing the on-ramp to the Tay River Bridge

Beyond the Discovery, is more of the path along the Firth of Tay, and it goes on for 4 miles.

Path and railroad bridge 

We live on kind of a peninsula, so on the way back I sometimes walk on the other side of the peninsula where there are two ships, a lightship and the Unicorn, a 46-gun frigate launched in 1824.

Northcarr Lightship. 

 Not exactly a hike through the woods, but not bad for a morning stroll. 

The Stone of Scone

Elder Bylund noticed in the news in July that a Kay Matheson had passed away. Her claim to fame is  that she was the only woman among four Glasgow University students who “retrieved” Scotland’s historic Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone) from London’s Westminster Abbey in a dramatic raid on Christmas Day, 1950. Historically, the Stone, over which Scottish Kings were traditionally crowned, was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone. Because we had recently visited Scone Palace (only 20 miles from Dundee),  I pursue the story further, both watching the movie, “Stone of Destiny” and reading the book, The Taking of the Stone of Destiny”, written by Ian Hamilton, the ringleader of the group.

Some Scotts have quite the dislike of the English and dislike even more being governed from London. The retrieval of the Stone of Scone awakened the Scots sense of nationalism, which is alive and well today. One year from now, the Scots will vote on independence from the United Kingdom. The question to be voted on is simply "Should Scotland be an independent country?" It will be interesting to watch. 

The retrieval of the Stone is quite the story. The four students from Glasgow drove to London, a journey which took them eighteen hours. Later that day Ian Hamilton hid under a trolley in the Abbey, but was caught by a nightwatchman after the Abbey doors had been closed, briefly questioned, and then let go.

In the middle of the following night, the three men entered a works yard and gained entrance to the Abbey. On removing the Stone from under the Chair, it crashed to the floor and broke into two pieces.  The three men, using Hamilton's coat, dragged the larger piece down the high altar steps, then Hamilton took the smaller piece to one of the cars waiting outside dirven by Kay Matheson.

Ian Hamilton placed the small piece of Stone in the boot of the car and got into the passenger seat. As he did this, a policeman approached, and Hamilton and Matheson immediately fell into a lovers' clinch. The policeman stopped and the three proceeded to have a conversation even though it was 5 am.. Matheson drove off to Victoria and Hamilton went back to the Abbey. Unable to find the other 2, he proceeded to drag the large piece of stone to the car himself. Hamilton drove to Kent, hid the large piece of stone in a field and made his way back to Scotland. Matheson left her car, containing the small piece of the Stone, with a friend in the Midlands. On discovering that the Stone was missing, the authorities closed the border between Scotland and England for the first time in four hundred years.

A fortnight later Hamilton and some friends recovered the two pieces of stone and brought them to Glasgow. They hired a stonemason to mend the Stone.

In April 1951 the police received a tip-off and the Stone was found on the site of the High Altar at Arbroath Abbey (10 miles from Dundee) where in 1320 the assertion of Scottish nationhood was made in the Declaration of Arbroath.. The Stone was returned to Westminster Abbey in February 1952.. The perpetrators were not prosecuted.  The Stone was officially returned to Scotland in 1996 and resides in the Edinburgh Castle, as we have independently confirmed.