Summer update from the Chaplain
Good afternoon,
I am writing with some news of the Chaplaincy team, and reflections on the summer so far.
I am delighted to announce that we have appointed our new Assistant Chaplain for Interfaith, Environmental and Digital Engagement – Bill Shackman. Bill has been part of the Chaplaincy team already as an honorary lay Jewish chaplain alongside his wife Emily Michelson. He will begin his new 0.5 full-time equivalent role on 1 September, overseeing our interfaith work, supporting the Interfaith Steering Group and other student groups and people involved in interfaith discussion, dialogue and more. He will expand and enhance the Chaplaincy’s commitment to environmental engagement – this summer’s extreme heat across Europe is just the latest sign of how deeply we need to engage with questions of climate, pollution, air quality etc as people of faith and different cultures, traditions and philosophies of life. And he will be exploring new and deeper ways that the Chaplaincy will engage digitally, with students, staff and others. I am really excited to be welcoming Bill into this new role in our team.
Meanwhile there have been some changes to the honorary team. Bill will no longer be an honorary Jewish chaplain, but I am glad to say that Emily remains in that role. We say farewell to Aharon and Hodaya Lemberger as honorary Jewish chaplains – they will be focussing on other Scottish universities from now on. In their place we will have Rabbi Eliran and Ayalah Shabo, just appointed, who will be working in Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities. We wish both couples every blessing in their work with students and others in universities.
And we welcome back to the team after some years away Imam Vali Hussein as our honorary Islamic chaplain. Vali has been involved with Stamsa in recent months, often leading Friday prayers, and is now formally taking over from Imam Abdulraof who has many other responsibilities in Dundee.
We are grateful to Bill, Aharon and Hodaya, and Abdulraof for all they have done as honorary chaplains in St Andrews.
In the Chaplaincy we are putting things together for the new academic year – finalising the Freshers Week programme, proof-reading publicity, filming new videos, recording podcasts, alongside meeting students some of whom are drawing towards the end of their Masters degree. And there are weddings to conduct, large and small, but all full of joy and promise.
Meanwhile, since I last wrote, the Open Championship has been and gone, the University awarded honorary degrees to celebrated golfers, and I conducted the memorial service for Peter Alliss, a former professional and commentator known as the Voice of Golf. The service can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL2xvEYhOv8
As an image of all we face in life – joy and sadness, hope and disappointment, here is Rory McIlroy pitching at the 18th hole on the Sunday of the Open, needing this shot to go in the hole to force a play-off with the eventual winner Cameron Smith. He’s the tiny figure I could glimpse between the fans. His ball did not drop in the hole, meaning joy for the winner, and rueful disappointment for Rory.
This is how I put it in the memorial service for Peter Alliss:
For me, what I loved about Peter’s commentary was his humanity. He knew that every golfer on the course was a human being with the tenacity and the frailty which we all share. And he also knew that, at the end, golf is a game – that the good fight even for the Open Championship is not life and death, that after a crushing loss, we wake up the next morning to the love of friends and family, and the prospect of a bright breezy morning to try again.
Yours,
Donald.
Revd Dr Donald MacEwan
Chaplain