FACES OF FAITH
 

Community Profiles at St. Andrew's Church

The Rev. Dr. Iain Nicol

1) What is your favourite hymn? 

I have many favourites among the Psalms and Hymns in the current Book of Praise: For example: 18, For all the changing scenes of life (Wiltshire). 26, As pants the hart (Martyrdom),  813, Morning has broken (Bunessan) - a favourite since my Sunday School days.  I also appreciate very much the work of John Bell of the Iona Community. 

2) Do you have a favourite passage from the Bible?  

Yes, but again there are many.  However, I think chief among them would be St. Luke's acount (24.13-35) of the journey of the two disciples to Emmaus.  It's a story that has the rare quality of immediately drawing the reader into the action, inviting us to join the disciples on the way and to participate with them in the mystery of Christ's disclosure in the breaking of bread.

3) What is the best book (biblical or non-biblical) that you have read in the last six months?  

There are two:  Alan Bennett's "The Uncommon Reader."   The reader in question is the Queen, who develops such a love for reading that she neglects her formal royal duties.  And Maggie Fergusson's truly excellent biography of the Orkney poet and novelist George Mackay Brown.

4) What is your favourite style of music, and what is likely on your stereo / ipod / car radio right now? 

I enjoy selected items from virtually all styles: classical, jazz, (Parker, Coltrane), Latin, flamenco guitar, Beatles, The Who, and so on, and so on.  The music presently on our stereo is a selection of Scottish items in honour of Robert Burns 250th Anniversary whose songs I also enjoy. 

5) What is your earliest memory of church?  

I would like to be able to say that my earliest memory of church is my baptism at the age of 6 weeks!!!  Let me affirm this anyway because in spite of the fact that we often have to be reminded all else follows from our initial having been rooted in the church through this sacrament.  Our baptism is like a garment that's too large for us.  By the power of God's grace we continue to grow into it. 

6) What attracted you to become a part of the St. Andrew's community, and what keeps you here?  

Since my arrival in Canada "in the deep mid-winter" of 1975, St. Andrew's became a spiritual landmark for me.  At the kind invitation of its then minister, Douglas Stewart, it's the first congregation in Canada in which I was privileged to conduct a Sunday service (February, 1976.)  I still have many happy memories of that occasion and of the warm welcome we received.  It came as a most pleasant surprise when about three years ago I was asked to become minister-in-association at St. Andrew's.  Somehow we (I include my wife Eleanor) feel at home here.  We are thankful that we have been made to feel that we belong to a welcoming, inclusive community. 

7) What is your greatest hope for St. Andrew's?  

My greatest hope for St. Andrew's is that as a community led by God's grace and guidance we shall continue to grow and mature in our inclusiveness-in-diversity and in our commitment to the various ministries which characterize our congregational life and outreach, remembering that "there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."  (1 Cor.12:4-7.)