Peterhead Old Parish Church Guild

The Guild meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month during September to May, with a variety of informative speakers on subjects of social interest, usually in line with current national Guild themes.  Guild membership has been maintained in spite of fortnightly meetings of a Senior Ladies group and, on average, around 30 ladies enjoy a lively meeting and chat over a cup of tea. The January and May meetings take the from of a Scottish evening and Daffodil tea respectively, with the evenings also being attended by members of the other Churches in the town.  Funds raised at these and other fund raising events are distributed between other Church organisations and Guild projects.  Guild ladies are also actively involved in the Church sale of work and many other activities within the Church.

Magazine article (September 2007)

The 2007-2008 meetings of the Guild begin on Wednesday September 19^th at 7.30pm in the Session Room.  We continue the theme Lets Live; Body, Mind and Soul and this year we concentrate on the mind.  Our speakers for each month have been arranged and we look forward to having our minister Rev Pauline Thomson  lead us into the new session as our guest speaker. 

We meet on the third Wednesday of each month in fellowship, and as, is the tradition in oor ain Muckle Kirk we always have a cup of tea and a fine piece during the evening.  It will be lovely to see all our members at the Guild again, and we would love to welcome along new members.  We have no age limit (either way!)  And…. Men can come along too.  We are no longer only a women’s guild. 

This year sees the 120^th Anniversary of the Church of Scotland Guild, and our own Guild at the Muckle Kirk has been in existence since 1916 yes, 91 years. 

The Guild Project Partnership Scheme was established in 1997 and, encourages members to support projects from a range chosen by it Projects and Topic’s Committee.  One and three quarter million pounds has been raised over nine years, and, encourages members to expand their knowledge of different issues of concern in the world.

 The present projects being supported are

 1.  Borderline

    To support homeless Scots in London

 2. Christian Aid

    To support the Adivasi. The tribal people of Northern Bangladesh 

3. CrossReach Social Care Council - Bluebell Project

    Supporting those affected by post natal depression.

 4. The Leprosy Mission Scotland

    Walking in the Light Nigeria.  To improve quality of life for those affected by leprosy. 

5.  Lydia Project

    This aims to empower women in 16 Eastern European countries.

 6.  Scottish Love in Action

     which is dealing with touching the untouchables in India. 

As we move into our new session of the Guild.  I would like to thank Mrs Linda Reid who has been our Convener over the past three years.  Not only has Linda led our Guild over those years, but she went round the town in the Pacemaker before each meeting, ensuring the ladies who required transport could come along.  I’m afraid I don’t have that skill!  But, we are very grateful to Linda for continuing to do this service, so, if anyone requires transport to the Guild meetings, please let us know.  Saturday 25^th August sees the Guild Annual General Meeting at the Caird Hall in Dundee and Mrs Sean Allan and Mrs Hazel Ross are this year representing our Guild, so we shall look forward to hearing about that day.

Looking forward to Guild Evenings again.                                     Amelia Tunley

Magazine Article (June 2006) 

We have incredibly reached the end of yet another session of the Guild with only a visit to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital on 7^th June left on our calendar.  This is a follow-on to the November meeting when Carolyn Donaldson came to speak to us about the Archie Fund and invited us to visit the hospital to see some of the things that the money they had raised was spent on.  We decided to take her up on her offer and some 20 members will see round the hospital – and probably have a cup of tea and a “fine piece” before we head home again. 

Continuing our “Dare to Care” theme, in March we had June McCormack who spoke about the work done by the “Send a Cow to Africa” project, where all sorts of practical items from cows to bees to fruit trees are provided to people in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya, allowing them to become self reliant as they can then sell the produce of their particular gift. 

In April, Rev Tom Findlay came from Perth to speak about the work done by the “Mercy Ships”, first started in the early 1980’s and continuing today when the third ship is almost ready to join the “fleet”.  These ships are crewed almost totally by volunteers and the operations performed at quaysides in the most impoverished parts of the world are carried out also by volunteers, bringing dramatic change to the lives of thousands of people in areas where much of the population has no access to basic health care. 

Our April meeting was also the AGM which saw some changes to the committee with Ethel retiring as treasurer and Hazel being persuaded to take it on.  Thanks to Dorothy, Ethel and Mary for their hard work over the past three years.

 The Daffodil Tea in May was a special occasion as the entertainment was provided by the Church choir and friends all pulled together by Adam.  We enjoyed an excellent variety of talent from the young musicians on violins and bagpipes to an even younger lady called Mary who treated us to some poetry, to Betty and Jeannie who never complained about anything or spoke about anyone, to the lovely singing – choral and solo – of choir members past and present.   

The new session begins on the third Wednesday in September as always and if you would like to come along and join us you would be very welcome. 

Our History

(taken from Centenary year book of the Buchan East Presbyterial Council, 1987)

Our (Woman's) Guild was founded as far back in 1916, we are fortunate in that almost all of our Minute books have survived intact over a long period.

This first Meeting was held during the long ministry of Rev. Douglas Swan.  Mrs Swan remained President of the Guild until her husband retired, and thereafter she was appointed Honorary President as a mark of esteem for her devotion to her Woman's Guild.

During her long Presidency many changes are apparent from perusal of the minutes.  For instance, the cost of a return rail fare from Aberdeen for the very first guest speaker was twelve shillings, and the Capitation Fee was sixpence.

Speakers in the years before the war had their talks serious subjects in some way connected with the church, and were frequently missionaries home on leave with lantern slides to illustrate these talks.  Annual Guild donations were given almost exclusively to the Women's Foreign Mission, Home Mission and Jewish Mission.  Now, with television and foreign package tours so prevalent talks to missionaries are rare.  Gradually after the was speakers dealt with more social subjects such as gas cookery, home nursing and flower arranging, though still including serious topics.

There was more inter-visiting among the Guilds in the early years, and our Guild prospered greatly in Mrs Swan's time.  There was an Afternoon Work Party, an Evening Work Party, a Girl's Club and Junior Guild, with the Guild of Friendship run by the Church Sister.  These ladies and girls al worked tirelessly for the Annual Sale of Work, and later applied their diligence to providing knitted comforts for the troops and seamen during the war years.  Being a seaport, Peterhead was well aware of the hardships suffered by men in the navy and mine-sweepers.

Our own church hall being occupied by solders, we met in other Guilds' halls (in the afternoon to avoid the blackout!) and it must have been difficult to produce the ritual cup of tea and cake from such small rations of tea, sugar and fats!  And yet we also had weekly meetings for evacuee mothers so that they could chat over a cuppie.

Mrs Swan's presidency had seen so many changes but the Guild, a very large one, was full of enthusiastic, dedicated ladies who had readily adapted to these changes and were willing to undertake new activities, such as choir and drama group.

In 1956 there arrived another energetic and persuasive Guild President - Mrs Jean Morris, wife of Rev Dr William Morris.  In her time the Young Wivies' Group was formed, the number of monthly meetings was increased to eight, and in 1966 our Guild celebrated its Golden Jubilee, with guest speaker Mrs Whitely, wife of the Minister of St Giles, congratulating us on our large numbers and many activities..  To mark this occasion it was decided to present to our church a fine stain glass window, and it now its colours glow like jewels on a sunny day.

In recent years Guild members have dropped form the early days when attendances often numbered over one hundred, but we now have the Senior Ladies' afternoon group and of course the Young Womens' Group, all of whom used to belong to the early Guild

Nevertheless, we in the Woman's Guild aim to maintain our tradition of service to our church and of fellowship for one another.  And if we are searching for new ideas for fund-raising or evening topics, we need only look back through those old Minute Books - our predecessors had some pretty novel ideas!