OBSERVING HOLY WEEK
You are invited to follow this 7-day Journey of Awareness.
Each day has a theme, an action for awareness, a colour as a reminder and a Bible passage as reading. You are invited to do something on the day’s theme and to do something with the colour: wear something, place an object of this colour in an obvious place in your house or room or perhaps draw something in your journal using the following colours.
A wonderful & Warm Harmony every Sunday
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Love & UnityAnd you get to be part of a loving Scots Kirk Family. |
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Address: 17 Rue Bayard. 75008. Paris
Nearest Métro:
Franklin D. Roosevelt -Line 1 or 9 (4 minutes walk)
Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau -Line 1 or 13 (7 minutes walk)
Nearest Métro:
Franklin D. Roosevelt -Line 1 or 9 (4 minutes walk)
Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau -Line 1 or 13 (7 minutes walk)
Cross Restoration Ceremony at the Scots Kirk
The Reverend Donald Caskie & the restored wooden cross.
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A WOODEN cross given to a war hero Kirk minister known as the Tartan Pimpernel has been rehung in his former church after languishing in a cellar for years. During the Second World War, Rev Dr Donald Caskie helped more than 2,000 Allied servicemen and women escape from occupied France over the Pyrenees to Spain.
Donald Caskie was minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris in 1938 until the Nazis invaded Paris during the 2nd World War. He refused to be evacuated back to the UK, but instead chose to be an activist denouncing the Nazis from the pulpit at the peril to his own life. He relocated to Marseilles where he ran a Seaman’s Mission as well as a chain of safe houses across France. He later moved to Grenoble and continued to help soldiers, sailors and airmen as a university chaplain before he was finally arrested and sentenced to death by the Gestapo. An intervention by a German pastor, spared him from death, after which he spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. After the war, he wrote the famous book the ‘Tartan Pimpernel’ the proceeds of which he used to help rebuild the Scots Kirk. |
Throughout the 1950s Donald Caskie played a significant role in an annual academic exchange programme between George Watson’s College and Lycée Henri IV in Paris. In gratitude, the boys at the George Watson’s College donated three pence each to buy a gift as a token of their appreciation and he chose a simple cross out of the many choices he had.
It was branded the “Watson’s Cross”, and was hung behind the chancel in the Scots Kirk from 1959 until 2002 when the church was demolished and reconstructed. The 8ft by 5ft cross was put in a cellar and overlooked until a former alumnus of George Watson’s College, Andrew Brown, started enquiring about its whereabouts. The cross now stands impressively above the staircase that leads to the sanctuary after a re-dedication service was held on Sunday, April 7. Rev Jan Steyn, the resident minister at the Scots Kirk said he was “delighted” that the handsome cross is now back on public display. |
"Thrupence" for the Caskie Cross
A tribute to Donald Caskie by Andrew Brown, alumnus of George Watson’s College.
“There is nothing in the world except Paris. It is an electric city which in turn attracts and repels, but to which, in the end, you must always return once you have lived there”. Thus wrote Berlioz to his father in 1846.
Donald Caskie certainly returned as such after the liberation of Paris in 1944, collected the key to the Kirk from Gaston’s café next door and re-opened his beloved place of worship.
The building had been damaged during the war years and required to be replaced.
In the meantime, starting in 1947, George Watson’s College in Edinburgh embarked on an exchange programme with the Lycée Henri IV here in Paris as part of an initiative to encourage contacts between young people across a very damaged Europe.
Every year Donald Caskie spent time with the Scottish youngsters to tell his story and the story of the Paris Kirk.
The plans for the new Kirk building were drawn up in the mid-1950’s.
In 1959 the Reverend Donald Caskie was well occupied in Paris overseeing the building of the new Scots Kirk in the Rue Bayard. Queen Elizabeth II had laid the foundation stone two years previously. That year, as every year, witnessed the annual exchange between George Watson’s, and the Lycée Henri IV.
Back in Edinburgh John S C Brown, the French teacher who managed the exchange, had proposed that the school offer Donald Caskie a gift for his new Kirk. He chose a “Cross”. Each pupil, of which I was one, was asked to donate “thrupence”, three pennies, towards the cost.
The “Watsonian” magazine dated November 1959 carried this short paragraph:
“A collection was made earlier this year on behalf of the new Scots Kirk in the Rue Bayard in Paris whose minister Dr Donald Caskie, the "Tartan Pimpernel", has been for long a good friend to Watson's boys in Paris. Dr Caskie chose as the School's gift the beautiful cross which hangs behind the chancel.”
The present Kirk was rebuilt and opened in 2002 when it was decided not to use the “Watson’s Cross”. It has lain unseen in the Kirk cellar for some 20 years. This year the decision was taken to once again show the “Cross” in the Kirk where it has been re-hung on the staircase down to the sanctuary. It is again in much evidence and, importantly, can be seen from the street.
This beautiful wooden cross, which measures 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres, will, from here onward, serve as the “memory” for several interesting moments in this fascinating Kirk’s history, namely:
Andrew Brown, Scots Kirk Paris, 7th April 2019
Donald Caskie certainly returned as such after the liberation of Paris in 1944, collected the key to the Kirk from Gaston’s café next door and re-opened his beloved place of worship.
The building had been damaged during the war years and required to be replaced.
In the meantime, starting in 1947, George Watson’s College in Edinburgh embarked on an exchange programme with the Lycée Henri IV here in Paris as part of an initiative to encourage contacts between young people across a very damaged Europe.
Every year Donald Caskie spent time with the Scottish youngsters to tell his story and the story of the Paris Kirk.
The plans for the new Kirk building were drawn up in the mid-1950’s.
In 1959 the Reverend Donald Caskie was well occupied in Paris overseeing the building of the new Scots Kirk in the Rue Bayard. Queen Elizabeth II had laid the foundation stone two years previously. That year, as every year, witnessed the annual exchange between George Watson’s, and the Lycée Henri IV.
Back in Edinburgh John S C Brown, the French teacher who managed the exchange, had proposed that the school offer Donald Caskie a gift for his new Kirk. He chose a “Cross”. Each pupil, of which I was one, was asked to donate “thrupence”, three pennies, towards the cost.
The “Watsonian” magazine dated November 1959 carried this short paragraph:
“A collection was made earlier this year on behalf of the new Scots Kirk in the Rue Bayard in Paris whose minister Dr Donald Caskie, the "Tartan Pimpernel", has been for long a good friend to Watson's boys in Paris. Dr Caskie chose as the School's gift the beautiful cross which hangs behind the chancel.”
The present Kirk was rebuilt and opened in 2002 when it was decided not to use the “Watson’s Cross”. It has lain unseen in the Kirk cellar for some 20 years. This year the decision was taken to once again show the “Cross” in the Kirk where it has been re-hung on the staircase down to the sanctuary. It is again in much evidence and, importantly, can be seen from the street.
This beautiful wooden cross, which measures 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres, will, from here onward, serve as the “memory” for several interesting moments in this fascinating Kirk’s history, namely:
- Donald Caskie and his extraordinary wartime activities.
- The Kirk building which stood in the Rue Bayard from 1959 to 2000.
- The role played by George Watson’s College in gifting the “Cross”, and
- The role played by the Lycée Henri IV in welcoming young Scots to Paris.
Andrew Brown, Scots Kirk Paris, 7th April 2019
A Spiritual Journey to Taizé
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A young group of Scots Kirk church members from Paris, in the company of the resident pastor Jan Steyn, made a one week expedition to one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage in France. Taizé is a small village community in the Saône et Loire region of France where each year tens of thousands of young pilgrims flock to share in its way of life, which is predominantly prayer. This pilgrimage is a yearly experience the values of which the Scots Kirk in Paris espouses with the aim of nurturing its youth to constantly live in communion with God through prayer, reflection and peace
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The trip also gave them an opportunity to meet hundreds of young people from across Europe and beyond, consequently enriching their understanding of the Gospel, through this shared experience.
Most of the pilgrims testified to a rediscovery of inner peace, a meaning to life, and a new enthusiasm for simplicity. This Taizé experience has helped to discern that a simple life is the place where Jesus can be found and celebrated. Here is a peek of what a week’s involvement in a shared life of happiness represents. |