Advent 12 – 12 December 2021
Greetings on this the third Sunday of Advent,
At 11 am this morning, our final Sunday chapel service of the Martinmas Semester will take place, live in St Salvator’s Chapel, and also livestreamed here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chaplaincy/worship/ All are welcome. The service will reflect this year’s Advent Calendar, with a number of readings of poems by St Andrews poets. St Salvator’s Chapel Choir will sing together for the last time in 2021.
One of the readings will be from William Lorimer’s translation of the New Testament into Scots. Lorimer (1885-1967) was born at Strathmartine on the outskirts of Dundee, and educated at the High School of Dundee, Fettes College, and Trinity College, Oxford. He was appointed as a Lecturer in Greek at the University of St Andrews in 1910, then as Reader in Humanities at University College, Dundee (still part of St Andrews University) from 1929, and then finally for two years (1953-5) serving as Professor of Greek at St Andrews.
Though best known as one of the most learned Greek scholars of his generation, he had first begun studying spoken Scots when he was only nine years old. In the final ten years of his life, he worked on his translation of the New Testament. Each Gospel has a different form of Scots to match the different forms of Greek used by different writers. The manuscript was uncompleted on his death, but his son Robin Lorimer brought it to press in 1983, to huge acclaim. It was subsequently recorded by Tom Fleming, on a series of CDs.
We will hear his translation of the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise and justice, Like 1:46-55:
Syne Mary said:
“Nou lauds my saul the Lord,
an my spírit stounds wi joy in God my saviour,
because he hes taen thocht til his servan,
his haundmaid o laich degree;
an behaud, frae this time furth for iver an ey
mankind will caa me blissit!
Gryte things he hes dune for me, him at is michtie:
halie is his name,
an frae age till age his mercie bides
on them at fears him.
He hes wrocht michtie deeds wi his wichtfu airm:
he hes sperpelt the heilie an heich,
at thocht proud thochts i their hairts;
he hes dung híe princes doun frae their thrones
an heized up the hummle an laich;
he hes gíen the hungersome their full o guid fairin
an driven the gearie an gethert
tuim-haundit awà;
he hes helpit Israel his servan,
sae mindfu he wis o his mercie,
een as he hecht out forefaithers,
Abraham an his seed, for iver an ey.”
To illustrate this Scots-speaking Mary, an early photograph from Hill and Adamson:
Miss Farnie with daughter Harriet, ca. 1845
David Octavius Hill, a painter, and the engineer Robert Adamson from St Andrews opened the first photography studio in Scotland in 1843. Adamson was born at Burnside, a farm near Boarhills, and was introduced to Hill by his friend Sir David Brewster, University Principal. This image from 1845 has no intention of conveying an impression of Madonna and Child. And yet, it is a beautiful record of a child in her mother’s (or sister’s?) arm. And instead of ox and ass, a sleeping dog did well to be still enough for the long exposure.
As we light the third advent candle this morning, many fear that a dark time is returning, of greater risk from the virus, and renewed constraints on much that makes for our flourishing, such as being together in human community. Let the light of today’s candle be a sign of hope, that God is mindfu o his mercie.
Yours,
Donald.