EDITOR'S FOREWORD

Deep in the woodlands enclosing Castle Fraser, there stands a large, reetangu1ar stone pillar, now mottled with moss and hazleraw, a memorial to a friendship that lasted forty years. The subject was the companion of one of the Fraser ladies who lived in the castle during the 19th century. The Tribute, expressed in a formal, even pompous style, no doubt to conceal the great depth feeling, lists the many virtues of the lady concerned, among which are her equanimity and the fact that she was impervious to great passion.

Not every society would claim emotional restraint as a quality to be celebrated, but certain1y, here, in the North East of Scotland, the ability to 'keep a calm sooch' whatever the circumstances, was regarded as a social necessity. As a child, I was taught to keep a tight rein on my feelings; any demonstration of emotion was discouraged. Tears were a sign of weakness; tantrums unacceptable self-indulgence; over enthusiasm was attention seeking and so on. Pain had to be tholed as quietly as possible; after all, everyone had anxieties and troubles, and the suffering of one was no more significant than that of anyone else. This enforced stoicism did not issue from any lack of compassion or indifference, but from a reluctance to bother other people with our problems. 'What canna be helped maun e'en be borne.'

This attitude, unfortunately, gives the impression that we are, here-aboots, a cold-hearted, stolid race, where-as in fact we feel deeply and are as easily moved to laughter or pity or tears as anyone else. We don't give rein to our feelings; we usually keep them to ourselves. This tendency hampers social relationships. It denies love its due importance. It kills spontaneity. It creates a stilted formality that inhibits friendship. It may even appear to indicate suspicion and distrust of anyone we chance to meet. Showing pleasure in another's company, expressing appreciation, admitting to feelings of joy, or wonder or awe, admitting to fears, anxieties and tribulations are all natural and are not signs of extreme egoism, but, on the contrary, just an acknowledgement of our own humanity.

I trust Lady Fraser showed her affection and regard for her companion while she yet lived and did not reserve her tenderness and love exclusively for her chiselled memorial.

Wm. S. Stephen (Editor)        

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SUMMER SOCIALISING

During the Summer months, many of our regular - activities take a short break. However, opportunities to socialize are still available.

In addition to our usual Terrace Cafe on Wednesday and Saturday on the Terrace cafes and our Felix Club outings there are the I following:

WOMEN'S LEAGUE LUNCH CLUB

27^th JUNE

25^th JULY

8^th AUGUST

at 1.00pm.

Two course traditional lunch with tea or coffee to follow for £2.50p.

ARTS GROUP TRADITIONAL AFTERNOON TEAS

21^st JUNE

19^th JULY

16^th AUGUST

At 2.00pm

Finest teas and coffees,

Cakes and buns are served on delicate china in a relaxed atmosphere.

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AUTUMN FUN & FUND RAISING

Several fun and fundraising events are planned for our new session.

INDOOR MARKET

On Saturday 1st. September, 2.00pm - 4.00pm.

Stall hire costs £5.00 per table and the stall holder may sell what he/she wishes and retain the proceeds.

BEETLE DRIVE

The annual Beetle-fest occurs on

September 7^th at 8.00pm.

Competition to identify the Muckle Gollach and the Wee Beestie
is usually fierce and a spectator sport of nail-biting excitement.

Tickets £2.00  & £1.00 (pupae)

ANNIVERSARY FAIR

To coincide with our 174th Birthday, we shall have our Autumn Fair on

Saturday October 13th.

10.00am -12.00pm.

We hope to provide the usual range of stalls. Anita Stephen will act as coordinator.

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COMMUNITY CARING

To avoid transgressing the Data Protection legislation, we no longer report our member's ailments. However, we are as interested as ever in the well-being of our members and friends and committed to supporting them in whatever way we can. The house-bound, the infirm the ailing, at home, in nursing-homes and in hospital remain in our thoughts. Your presence at Church events is always missed and you are all part of a spiritual community that loves, values and cares about you. We try to keep in contact as well as we can. Our Minister, Revd. Cal. Courtney goes out visiting during his weekend with us. If you would like Cal to visit you or a relative, please let us know.

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WEDDING

We express our warmest congratulations to Jean McLeod and Fraser Scobbie on the occasion of their wedding. The ceremony was conducted in Church by the Revd. Cal Courtney on Saturday, 5th May.

 We wish Jean and Fraser every happiness in their new life together.

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THESE WE HAVE LOVED

Our Service on Sunday 1st July will feature our favourite hymns.

Seven of our members will have the opportunity of choosing and then introducing their favourite hymn which we then all shall sing.

The Secretary would like to hear from everyone who wishes to participate.

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WOMEN'S LEAGUE EXPEDITION

What does the Aberdeen Women's League have in common with Scott, Amundsen, Livingstone and Captain Cook? They are all prepared to leave the comforts of home to seek new horizons and explore strange lands. Ten ladies with a combined age of 755 years and armed only with handbags, bus-passes and walking-sticks boarded the Inverness bus, and removed their rain-mates: it was monsoon weather, North East style.

They were headed for Baxter's of Fochabers, a Shangri-La where we could taste jams and jellies, nibble shortbread and check out cock-a-leekie  and minestrone, Ena Baxter style. The finest delicacy was a pancake the size of a dinner plate, smothered in maple syrup  and ice-cream, which only the most intrepid of our party tackled. One lady  claimed to have gained 3lbs in the  process of consuming it!

All too soon it was time to leave the pleasure dome' and return to the city.

Our trip was not without incident. Ruby got left behind but, undaunted, caught the next bus out and was able to join us for lunch. Divina took a tumble getting off  the bus, but picked herself up, dusted  herself down and carried on regardless.

Now, the atlases are out and thoughts are turning to next year's expedition......... the upper reaches of the Amazon, perhaps? 

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ABERDEEN VISION DAY 2007

by Revd. Cal Courtney

Aberdeen's Vision Day was held on Sunday 13th May 2007, from 11.00am until 4.30pm. The aim of the gathering was to evaluate congregational life and plan for the future. Prior to the event questionnaires were distributed to the congregation. These questionnaires focused on the values promoted by the congregation and sought to make people think about how their values were and could be lived in a changed and changing social context. Eleven people returned their questionnaires.

Vision Day started with a service of worship during which the minister spoke about 'postmodernity' and surveyed the ways in which European cultures were changing. He noted that while large swaths of people rejected the over-arching stories that once explained and shaped human society, people were nevertheless still searching for truth and meaning in their lives. He suggested that our liberal and inclusive communities were places where these searches could be undertaken.

The congregation then broke into small groups where they articulated the values at the centre of their Unitarian community. After twenty minutes the minister intervened and gave them the profile of a twenty two year old single mum, a thirty five year old recently married couple and a fifty five year old businessman. The small groups were asked to think about the values which would be important to each of these people. The small groups then came back into a plenary session for feedback. All the values that had emerged in the small groups were written down and placed on the walls of the kirk. During lunch participants were invited to vote for their top three favourites. The eight values which scored highest were then written on the flip chart and from the discussion that followed two further values were added. Together, these ten values say something about the kind of community we are:

We are a tolerant, non-dogmatic and caring community of searchers. We welcome the diversity of ideas found amongst us and cultivate friendships in their midst. We respect the role of reason on the religious journey and see it as an ingredient of the spirituality that encourages us to love.

Participants formed small groups to think about how these values were lived in relation to:

     *    The Building
     *    Worship
     *    Church Programme
     *    Publications
     *    The wider World

Returning to a plenary session, participants set clear, achievable goals in each of these areas for the year ahead.

The Building

In the next year we will construct a new sign on the exterior wall of the church stating: Aberdeen Unitarian Community - A home for liberal and inclusive religion.

We will also make provision for a wayside pulpit to be displayed and this will be changed regularly.

Worship

From September we will launch a Friday evening service of contemplation, borrowing from the style of the Taize community. This service will be advertised widely, including at the Freshers Week at Aberdeen University. The service will be aimed at informing a younger section of the population about our community.

The Wider World

In the next year will we build and then distribute a bursary for a young person from Aberdeen who wishes to use a gap year to work in the Third World. The size of the bursary will be determined by the success of our 'church programme' goal (see below). It will be advertised in all of Aberdeen's schools which prepare students for third level education.

Church Programme

In the next year we will organise two events to raise money for the gap year bursary. One of these events will be cinematic in nature, perhaps using old jazz movies.

Publications

In the next year we will introduce a regular children's page into our newsletter.

These goals and the means of achieving them will be discussed during a committee meeting on Sunday 10th June.

Outside the set goals, there were other ideas of how to raise our profile in the city. A regular radio slot for the minister was one idea and this will also be discussed at the committee meeting.

At 4.30pm, after a hard day's work, participants went home with a clear plan for the year ahead.

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REMEMBER TO LIVE

Reflections on "One Unknown" by Gill Hicks.

A young woman dashed into Kings Cross Underground Station and tried to worm her way through the palisade of bodies blocking her route to the platform. Of slight build and no more than five feet tall, forcing her way through the ruck of rush hour commuters was difficult. She arrived on the platform in time to see her train depart. A frown creased her forehead. Her lips were pursed She was vexed and worried. She tapped her elegantly shod toe impatiently as the seconds dragged by. At last the next train rattled up to the platform. As soon as the doors slid apart she darted on board. The compartment was crowded. There would be no chance of a seat. She was thrown against a tall man standing behind her as the train jerked into motion again. She would be late, certainly fifteen minutes, perhaps even twenty. She started to reschedule her day as the train slipped into the tunnel. She'd have to cancel one meeting to leave time to prepare for the council meeting the afternoon. Which should she cancel?

Suddenly, everything disappeared. The compartment, the passengers, even the light all disappeared. She was falling through a black nothingness. She couldn't feel, see or hear anything. She couldn't breathe. She was certain she was dying. She was having a heart attack. She kept falling, falling endlessly through, hot, choking, clinging darkness.Then all motion stopped. She was numb all over. She had lost contact with her arms and legs, as if they were now detached from her body. Was this death? Suddenly, awareness returned. She was at the bottom of a black pit surrounded by shrieking and screaming voices. Above her and around her raged a vortex of movement and din. People were lying on her, walking on her, stumbling against her in the darkness. She tried to stand but had no control of her legs. There was someone beside her. She called out for help as loudly as she could. She fainted. When she came to she was lying on a bench. The din had subsided. The air was acrid, heavy with the smell of burning plastic and gritty on her lips and tongue. A grey light now filtered through the dust and smoke from the tunnel wall. She could see bodies lying every where, still and silent. Then she caught sight of her legs. They had been shattered, stripped of skin and flesh, the bones smashed and blood flowing from the arteries. Every fibre in her body screamed in panic. She was staring death in the face. She told herself she had to remain calm, to control her racing heart and restrict the flow of blood. She had to become entirely objective, to see herself as someone else and to cope with the situation rationally and unemotionally. With incredible determination she slowly undid the scarf from around her neck, ripped it in two using her teeth and used each piece as a tourniquet for her injured legs. She was very weak and desperately wanted to fall asleep but she forced herself to remain awake. She concentrated on her breathing, slowing each breath, counting each one out and each one in. She looked at her watch, willing the rescuers to arrive, now or in a minute from now or quite soon. Two voices in her head were battling for control, one lulling her to sleep, slip away quietly, peacefully, the other stridently ordering her to stay awake and fight for life. Then another voice, a stranger's saying, 'Priority one.' The rescuers had arrived. 'My name is Gill,' she said, before falling into unconsciousness as they lifted her out of the wrecked compartment and into the tunnel.

The journey to the surface was slow and hazardous as she drifted in and out of consciousness. By the time she arrived at St. Thomas's hospital she had lost 80% of her blood and her heart had stopped beating three times. She was operated upon immediately. Her legs were so severely injured they had to be amputated, and for the next five days she hovered between life and death, one of the many casualties of the London suicide bombers on 7th. July, 2005. When first admitted to hospital, she had no identification and so she was labelled 'One unknown'. Her fiance with whom she shared a house in North London, her work colleagues and friends were frantic with worry, as hour after hour, they tried to discover what had happened to her. About midnight, her identity was at last established. She was Gill Hicks an executive of the British Design Council.

Gill is an Australian who had come to London some fifteen years earlier to make her fortune. She is bright, energetic, self-confident, forceful, sociable and quickly made her mark in journalism and publishing. Before July 2005, she lived a hectic, high pressure life. She was deeply committed to her job, worked long hours, had a wide social circle among architects, artists and designers, entertained, visited and dined out with friends went to exhibitions and shows. She was also planning her wedding with her fiance, a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. She imbibed gallons of coffee, smoked ten cigars a day and enjoyed a bottle of wine. Germaine Lindsay, the nineteen-year-old islamisist, who detonated his bomb not three yards from Gill in that crowded underground train, ended that life for ever.

On July 7th Gill embarked on life Number Two, as she calls it, based upon a totally different set of priorities.

In a book entitled 'One Unknown', published a few weeks ago, Gill recounts in detail her experience of the bombing and how it has completely changed her life. 'One Unknown', however, is more than an autobiography, it is clearly a book with a mission. It is intended to transform lives. Having survived against all the odds, Gill has uncovered what she considers to be the foundation of a happy and meaningful life and is committed to sharing her discovery with anyone who cares to read her work. Her testimony, her evidence, is provided by her hospital experiences which are carefully edited to emphasise the positive facets and sustain her argument.

Gill Hicks describes herself as a survivor. She loves life and from the moment she realised she had a fighting chance of recovering from her injuries she committed herself to becoming an independent person again, in charge of her own destiny and capable of living a useful and meaningful life. She wanted to live in such a way that she would make a difference, to add to the sum of buman happiness.

From tjIe start of her treatment she was positive, eager to cooperate, cheerful, grateful, making friends with all the medical and anciliary hospital staff, including the assistants in the hospital shop and cafe. She had a sunny temperament, laughed a lot, made jolies, occasionally played the fool and was rewarding to work with.

She regarded all the people who were treating her as her 'hospital family' and they bc,:ame close friends of her fiance and her brother who arrived with his wife and children from South Australia to spend as much time as they could eith her every day.

As soon as she was fit enough she made contact with everyone who had helped in her rescue and recovery, the policemen, the firemen, the ambulance drivers, the paramedics, doctors, nurses and physiotherapists to thank them for their selfless dedication. . She marvelled at how they persisted in their efforts to save her life when all hope of saving her seemed utterly forlorn. They became her friends. She invited them to parties, receptions, commemorative services and occasions and to her wedding.

She suffered greatly: her wounds were painful and healed very slowly; inevitably there were reverses, disappointments, periods of depression and tears as she contemplated a life without her legs. She admits to these feelings but refuses to dwell upon them preferring to emphasise positive experiences, the love, the care, the friendship, the compassion arid the humanity of everyone she encountered. Perhaps this omission is ailing in her account. Despair is an inevitable and valid response to such a traumatic experience; to describe it is not to display self pity nor is to acknowledge it a sign of weakness. Pain, despondency, frustration are signs of neither defeatism nor ingratitude nor a betrayal of all the care that has been exercised but the significant accompaniments of personal catastrophe. As such, they may be described without fear of diluting the positive message and indeed may emphasise it by showing just how much misery and heart-break had to be absorbed in order to appear cheerful and optimistic.

The international reaction to Gill's survival was typica~ of our mediadominate era. As soon as she was out of danger she became a celebrity. The BBC made several documentary programmes charting her recovery. Her photograph appeared on the front pages of newspapers. She was interviewed on radio, television and by magazines. Her wedding achieved world-wide exposure. The Prime Ministers of Australia and South Australia, and The Australian High Commissioner visited her in hospital and when she went home to visit relatives in Adelaide she was the guest of the South Australian Governor. During a stop-over in Singapore she was celebrated in the newspapers and received VIP treatment. She was invited to High Grove by the Prince of Wales and attended a private function at Buckingham Palace at the Queen's personal invitation. She had become a symbol of survival in the face of adversity but also of defiance in the face of terrorism. She was an innocent victim of mindless violence, one of many millions in our war-torn world, a hostage of other people's hatred and despair, but courage determination and sheer love of life were bringing her through it all.

Her smiling, relaxed resilience not only denied the terror strategy of the bomber but also seemed to foreshadow its ultimate defeat.

She has very little to say, less than a page of her book, about that young man who destroyed her first life, Gervaise Lindsey, the suicide bomber. She had never met him, yet he chose her as a target. Why did he select her as his enemy? Why did he hate her so much? What were his motivations? Desperate to understand him, to enter into his mind, to see the world as he saw it, she read all she could about him and studied his photograph in the press, seeking an answer to these questions and finding none. She could not forgive his action and since she could not meet him face to face to look into his eyes and see his reaction to her, had not the means of forgiving him. His action seemed meaningless. How can you crave another's understanding if you kill, that person without ever speaking to him or her? In the end, she says, she feels very little for him. She certainly does not hate him. To do so would poison her own life and hand him a kind of victory.

She would cheerfully turn the clock back to that July morning in 2005, arrive at the station two minutes earlier and catch her train. Being without legs creates many practical difficulties, restrictions, embarrassments and inconveniences which she is still learning to overcome. The noise of the explosion has left her deaf in one ear and impaired her hearing in the other. There are many, many regrets. There is still pain and acute discomfort. However, disabled she may be, but she is still alive and able to use her terrible experience for the benefit of others.

Eight months after the explosion, she returned to her desk at the British Design Council. There, still on her desk, were the files that had been occupying her every waking moment, that first week of July. They had seemed so vitally urgent then. In the past eight months, however, no-one had bothered to open them and no disaster had overtaken the world of British design. This was the activity which had consumed her whole life, and apparently it was so pointless -no-one had seemed to notice that it had been in abeyance for eight months! She reappraised her life; she changed her priorities. Life was to be enjoyed. Life was to be lived to the full. Life was a gift to be shared by others. This Life number Two really had to amount to something, to make a difference! She told herself, 'Remember to live'. She resigned her position immediately and set out upon a new adventure.

She quickly found a cause in conflict resolution and peace-building initiatives. She wanted to make the world a better place by unlocking the potential in all of us to seek peaceful solutions to inter-personal and global problems. She became active in various peace movements, was invited to address conferences and lead discussions and was appointed Ambassador for Peace Direct, an active body that deals with grass-roots conflict resolution. In addition, she joined the Forgiveness Project which helps people who have been wronged, to overcome their hatred or need for vengeance and to seek peace of mind and serenity through forgiveness of the wrong-doer. She has also been recruited by the Leonard Cheshire Foundation to support them in their mission to aid disabled people.

Her views, as expressed in her book, "One Unknown" are reminiscent of 'New Age Spirituality'. Feeling, instinct, love of life, optimism that love, friendship, international brotherhood/sisterhood, generosity of spirit will eventually overcome hatred, fear, bitterness, resentment and envy are the themes that run through her work. Her writing is also free of any criticism of others or complaints of her treatment; in all her dealings with state agencies she is meticulous in expressing her gratitude and appreciation of their efforts on her behalf.

This is clearly intended to be an inspirational book, to encourage us to accept what cannot be changed, to do our utmost to change what may and ought to be changed and to leave ourselves open to the wonderful experience of being alive.

Her enthusiasm for life carries us along and if there are occasions when we may feel a little sceptical, feel we are being manipulated, that the down-side may have been understated, that we would like to remove the rose-coloured spectacles and escape from politically correct attitudes, shame-faced, we try to ignore them. Confronted by so much courage and conviction, it would appear mean-spirited and curmudgeonly to cast doubt upon or find fault with a single sentence.

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