All Saints Episcopal Church, Challoch, Newton
Stewart, DG8 6RB
email: allsaintschalloch@gmail.com
web: http://www.allsaintschalloch.co.uk
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In Memoriam – Berkeley Stewart
Full Steam Ahead for 2025?
Dear Church Family,
As we have stepped into the dawn (pardon the pun!) of a new year, we are filled with hope, gratitude, and anticipation for the possibilities that lie ahead. January is a month of new beginnings, a time to reflect on the past year and set our sights on the journey ahead, and February follows swiftly on its heels. There are some things that will remain the same, yet will, I pray, offer us new opportunities to worship and to serve. We continue to gather every Sunday at 10.30am for Holy Communion, and take those moments together to be refilled and refuelled, ready to go out and serve God in the world – whatever that might look like for each of us. Through the longer winter months, when life can feel lonely and dark, it’s important that we come as family to be renewed by his Spirit and inspired by his love, to reveal his glory to the world. Join us every Sunday throughout 2025 as we come together to worship, pray, and seek inspiration for the year ahead. The themes of our services will help us think about renewal, encouraging each other to continue the year with a fresh perspective and a renewed spirit. Let us come together as a community, drawing strength from our shared faith.
Spiritual Resolutions
As we embark on this new year, instead of trying to stick to the usual resolutions about the gym and chocolate, why not think about setting spiritual resolutions that will deepen your connection with God and enhance your spiritual growth? Whether it’s dedicating more time to prayer, engaging in Bible study, or being a part of community outreach, let’s commit to strengthening our faith together.
Building Community
This year we hope that our lovely church will grow to be a beacon of light, shining from the hills surrounding Newton Stewart. This brings great opportunities for connection. This year, we’re planning events and opportunities that will help us connect even more, and for people to feel that the church is a place they can come to and find a warm welcome. We hope that we will be able to open our doors more often as the weather warms, and this will help us reach the people around us, and also give us the chance to bring our faith into practice. Look out for more news about this in our weekly notices – and of course cake and coffee will be involved somewhere!
Working Together
This year, why not help make a difference, and think about serving in the church? There are many areas in church life that need people to get involved, and you might have the gifts that we need! There are up front roles such as reading or prayers, or more behind the scenes roles like odd jobs, refreshments or flowers. Please do get in touch with me for a chat.
May this new year bring you blessings and joy, and may we grow together in our faith and community.
Blessings, Revd Dawn
New Bishop
Gerry and I were thrilled to be at the meeting of the Electoral Synod in Paisley on 18th January when the Reverend Canon Dr Nicholas John Bundock was elected as the new Bishop-Elect of Glasgow and Galloway. He will be consecrated and take his new post later in the year.
Nick (as he likes to be known) becomes Bishop-elect, following the retirement of the Rt Rev Kevin Pearson who served the Diocese as Bishop for five years.
Nick is currently the Team Rector of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury, in the Diocese of Manchester in the Church of England. During his time there, he has developed and led an inclusive ministry known as ‘Church for Everyone,’ which has been transformative in creating vibrant, welcoming, and growing communities for people of all backgrounds, including those who have often felt excluded from traditional church settings. For more information about the appointment see: https://www.glasgow.anglican.org/new-bishop-elected-for-glasgow-and-galloway-2025/
Dawn Matthew
Shoebox Appeal
Canon Stuart Bain pictured blessing the 34 shoeboxes given by church members for their onward journey to Eastern Europe.
Blytheswood Care sent a total of 85,000 shoeboxes to help those in hardship.
New Vestry 2025-25
Front L-R: Rev Dawn Matthew; Rosemary Green, Lynne Wright
Back L-R: Philip, Colville, Gerry Ewan, Mike Clayton, Kirsty Anderson
Vestry meetings are usually held the last Wednesday of the month and you are welcome to attend if you’d like to learn more about what being part of the vestry entails. Please contact secretary Mike Clayton if you would like to come along.
Making The Posada Figures
For the first time at Challoch we held a Posada event (Spanish for ‘inn’ or ‘lodging’) in December which involved the nativity scene replicating the journey made by Mary and Joseph – but this time with various shops in Newton Stewart. Posada is a Christmas tradition that takes place in Mexico and some parts of the United States.
Laura’s, Home Hardware, Inspirations, Marie Curie, Sue Ryder, Avocet and Imagination took part in hosting the couple for a day, thanks to Anne Yate’s persuasive powers, ending up in All Saints on Christmas Eve, ready for the service. Paul Ewan who enjoys woodcarving as a hobby, undertook the task of making the figures from wood and here he explains how he got involved.
“Just before one of the services Dawn asked if I could make a couple of posada figures. She wanted ones that were about 12 to 15 inches (old money!) high to be be displayed in some of the shop fronts in Newton Stewart. I had no idea what posada figures were (Mary and Joseph) and had never carved in 3D. No pressure! Having looked online for ideas, I sketched out what I thought I could make and would look good from a few feet away in a shop window.
“I had a branch of ash from a nearby tree cut earlier in the year. I thought this would do well for both figures – I wanted the wood of the figures to match.
A steep learning curve
“I cut the branch more or less in half and worked each figure from the front surface, laying out the outline in red pencil crayon. I worked from the front surface in case I made an error, for I would then be able to re-carve the shapes into fresh wood. I tried to make the figures to be looking towards each other by shaping the head to turn slightly either left, for Joseph or right, for Mary. I was lucky and no significant problems arose; such as bad grain, internal cracks, missing a chisel stroke and carving too deeply ,or scoring an area that had already been finished.
“After the main shape was achieved it was time to move on to fine chisels and a knife for those tricky bits. Later, smoothing was done with files and then hours and hours with sandpaper. The final finish is several coats of a mixture of wax and oils.”
I think we all agree that Paul and Anne did a really good job in setting up this new Christmas tradition for All Saints, and thank them for all their time and effort.
Lesley Miller and Paul Ewan
Berkeley Stewart- Pillar of our Church.
Rosemary reminisces about Berkeley’s impact on All Saints Church.
“When I joined the church in the late 1980s, Berkeley was a regular visitor to Anna, his mother, and I remember them coming to the early service whenever Berkeley was up from London. Anna had been a member since 1935 and Berkeley and his sister Susan went to Sunday School at Challoch while the family was living at Bargaly from 1952. Here Berkeley developed his lifelong love of fishing, shooting and other country pursuits and also learned to play the bagpipes.
“After prep school near Midhurst and Rugby, the clever, sporty Berkeley went to St. Andrews to study pure maths and science, but left before graduating for the more demanding world of work, first with Coopers (later to become Coopers Lybrand), where he was sent to Africa as a temporary manager in Arusha, Tanzania. This started a lifelong love of travel and of Africa in particular. Learning that his forthrightly expressed opinions would have to be curbed if he was to progress with Coopers Lybrand, he left to become Finance Director of Tanganika Concessions.
A move to Barraer and good news for All Saints
“This job gave him the chance to travel widely in Africa, (sometimes in his own dedicated carriage!) on the Benguela Railway. When their headquarters were moved to the Bahamas, he also travelled the Atlantic regularly. Headhunted to review the proposed government commercialisation of Concorde, Berkeley came back to London and met his first wife, Sandra, who swept him off his feet. They were married in 1982, but sadly after flying through the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl in Concorde, both he and Sandra were diagnosed with cancer, of which she died in 1988. Berkeley restored the church bells in her memory. After Sandra’s death he spent more time with his mother, coming to live with her at Barraer in 1992, and to take a more active part in the running of All Saints.
`’He became treasurer of All Saints at a bad time for the church. Money was scarce and the church was deeply troubled. Berkeley was upset about the way the endowments left by the Stopford-Blairs, (which should have been sufficient to ensure a healthy balance for running the church and paying the priest’s stipend), had been mismanaged and were by then worth less than the original endowments in 1889 and 1906. Working with Canon David Main, Berkeley got our finances on a sustainable footing and worked with the incoming rector Nigel Newton to keep things running smoothly and push forward the much-needed renovations.
Tragedy and Romance
“The death of a shooting friend, Francis Walkinshaw saw Berkeley using his financial skill to help his widow, Penny. For them this was the beginning of a new and happy chapter in their lives. They were married at All Saints in 2000 and had nearly 25 years of life together. Penny came from Canada which also opened new aspects of life for Berkeley. His mother had family in Canada so Penny brought back memories and connections for her too. Berkeley discovered many relations, some of them known to Penny, and found a country he loved. While he was well enough to travel, they spent many months there. The cancer he contracted after Chernobyl left him weakened and he gradually became more unwell and was cared for in his later years most faithfully by Penny.
A man of many talents
Berkeley came across as quiet and reserved but he was actually very funny. A proposed work party to get the rectory garden into shape for the arrival of the Newtons turned out to be only he and I, but we laughed all afternoon as we worked. Gardens were another great love for him and he created a marvellous one at Barraer. He was also artistic, but created his art on a computer. He was very generous to the church, giving useful, practical, rather than showy, gifts. So generous, that when I was fact checking for the Gift Book and asked about a particular item, he couldn’t remember whether he was the donor. He was knowledgeable about the relationships between various local families and ownership of properties which was invaluable to me when updating the church history.
“Being Berkeley, he had ideas and opinions about how this should be done and we clashed over revealing that the establishment and endowment of the church was funded by money derived from slavery. We carried on a quirky, spiky email correspondence which usually started with me asking a question and him digressing into many strange directions. I shall miss his emails as they were always unexpected.
“I am grateful for the story of Berkeley’s early life and business achievements, taken from Andrew Pym’s eulogy at Berkeley’s funeral.
Rosemary Green
Future events
Sundays 10.30am Eucharist – live streamed on Youtube
Wednesdays 7.30pm – Evening prayers on Zoom
March
5th 10.30am – Ash Wednesday Eucharist & Imposition of Ashes
7th 10.00am – World Day of Prayer Service
19th & 26th 2.00pm – Lent Bible Studies at Sunnybrae, Newton Stewart
30th 10.30am – Mothering Sunday Eucharist
April
2nd & 9th 2.00pm – Lent Bible Studies at Sunnybrae, Newton Stewart
HOLY WEEK
13th 10.30am – Palm Sunday Eucharist
14th, 15th and 16th 10.30am – Holy Week Morning Prayer
Monday-Thursday 7.30pm – Zoom Evening Prayers
17th 12.30pm – Maundy Thursday Bring & Share Lunch followed by Holy Communion
18th 2.00pm – Good Friday Service of Reflection
19th 8.00pm – Easter Eve Vigil
20th 10.30am – Easter Day Eucharist
May
13th Newton Stewart Walking Festival – https://www.walkfestnewtonstewart.com/ We’re delighted that this year one of the walks will end at Challoch where we will host walkers with refreshments from 3.00pm onwards.
September
First weekend in September will see us hosting our Open Doors Event https://www.doorsopendays.org.uk/find-a-building. We are waiting to find out what the theme for this will be. However, we will be commemorating the fact that It is 150 years since Edward James Stopford Blair, the previous owner of All Saints, passed away (September 1885) and the Church and Rectory were bequeathed to the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway for community use.
Stories in the Stones
Two of our church family, Keith Best and Kathryn Ambler have been hard at work behind the scenes bringing the graveyard records up to date as well as making some of the more unintelligible gravestones legible once more. Keith explains where they are up to in the process, which will make the task of family history enthusiasts so much easier as well as improving our own records.
“Previously, all the graveyard records were paper-based. However shortly before I joined Challoch, the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society (DGFHS) took it upon themselves to record all graveyards throughout the County. This was initiated by making photo records of each individual graveyard and presumably documenting the transcriptions from each photograph. In our case there were at least fifty out of the 174 that could not be read from that source. Consequently, Kathryn and I have undertaken the task, with help from others, to clean those that were not legible as well as check the accuracy of all the others.
A major task
“The major challenge, besides the weather, at the outset was reconciling the DGFHS records with those on the graveyard map and our own references from the ‘blue file’ ‘Challoch Churchyard’ by Wilson Ross, a former sacristan of the church. DGFHS had created their own order rather than following Kathryn’s alphabetical/numbered order. As this project was progressing part of my role was continually updating the DGFHS officer/volunteer.
1. Thomas Harding. DGFHS indicated that the inscription of the base triangle of the memorial stone read a ‘T. Jardine’ but after cleaning it did in fact read: “In loving memory of Thomas Harding. Aged 59”
2. There was originally only one memorial stone visible to a ‘Mary Jane McLelland beloved wife of William Charles Locke, 1913. This stone was partially overgrown but when we started digging another memorial emerged dedicated to Mary Jane’s son, William Charles Locke.
3. When cleaning the cross dedicated to Maggie Simpson, Jane Simpson and their family, both photos illustrate inscriptions on the side as well as the front.
“Kathryn’s report in the AGM papers indicates that we now have reached the situation where we hold a printed working document and electronic list of each of the graveyard rows, (totalling 24 individual files). My next task is to cross reference each entry with the Challoch ‘Burial Book’ records and create an electronic map and spreadsheet of the three sections of the graveyard.
“Unfortunately, not all the previous photographs on record are easily copied and this is delaying our end point – this being a website version where each grave transcription will have an electronic link to the photograph of the plot to enable searches by families interested in their history. I have started to undertake the task of making a photographic record of each gravestone memorial.
Improving accessibility
“Alongside this, Kathryn and I are working on updating the alphabetical ‘register of graves’ which will become available electronically upon completion of this task.
In conclusion, it may be 12 months or more before we are fully functioning and open to the world. During this time, some thought will be given to creating and publicising an identification structure that clearly indicates an alphabetical and numerical system to help those interested in genealogy to locate each grave.
Keith Best
Spotlight on Philip Colville
If you ask me why I am here, why this church and my weaving are cornerstones of my life then I would point you to Shona Brown. As Rector of St Mary’s, Birnam (Perthshire), she drew me into the church. Her Thursday morning midweek services were brilliant. A quick communion service followed by a discussion. The group, led by Shona, usually included a retired SEC rector, a retired non stipendiary (Anglican) minister and a retired Church of Scotland minister. Brilliant people and brilliant discussions. I was so lucky.
She appointed me as treasurer. During the handover we discovered that there was very little in the bank account. She was with us for just over two happy years before she and her lurcher returned to Nova Scotia. There she started a crofting life that included a wee wool business (spinning and dyeing). To support her I bought wool – to knit a (very long) scarf for my oldest grandson but I quickly realised that I couldn’t knit! So, I tried weaving which has given me so much joy! Subsequently she started weaving with two very different types of loom.
As my marriage crumbled, she threw questions to me from across the Atlantic – which I had to work out! From this I gradually designed my new life – built around being open to the possibility that there are good opportunities and wonderful friendly people out there – and that happiness is there to be rediscovered. I was invited to visit Wigtownshire which brought me to All Saints and its famous welcome. And then Maisie (my dog) arrived. And then I became a Treasurer again.
So, I follow a golden thread – the gospel of love, friendship, openness to possibilities – and I just weave away and walk Maisie, grateful for all of it.
Philip is now the Treasurer on the Vestry, having swapped roles with Mike Clayton who is now Secretary.
Philip Colville
Volunteering
We are looking longer term for someone to take on the role Lesley has been doing as she may be moving out of the area. This would potentially involve putting together the quarterly newsletter, exploring funding opportunities and promoting the church via publicity, both on and offline. Lesley would be pleased to talk to anyone about what’s involved, and it could well be that more than one person could take on individual responsibility for any of these elements.
Remembering my neighbours
Until a couple of years ago, the only neighbours we had in our valley were two elderly brothers – Professor Roy Campbell and his brother Robert. Both have sadly died but they nearly reached their centenaries! Professor Campbell was a scholar of Scottish economic and social history and when he found out that I am a ‘Pisky’, he gave me this:
“Nineteenth century street rhyme in Aberdeen
‘Presbyterian urchins: Pisky, pisky, boo and bend; Doon on your knees and up again.
Episcopalian urchins: Presby, presby, dinna bend; Sit thee down on man’s chief end.’
Note: The reference to the Episcopalians is the answer to the first question in the Westminster Catechism: ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever’. It shows a degree of theological knowledge which is commendable.”
Both brothers were strongly Church of Scotland so this is a completely disinterested observation!
Gerry Ewan
Flower Rota
February
1-2 Joan
8-9 Rosie
15-16 Anne
22-23 Julie
March
1-2 Kathryn
No flowers through Lent
April
19-20 Easter – all ladies
26-27 Anne/Julie
May
3-4 Rosemary
10-11 Lesley
17-18 Joan
24-25 Rosie
June
31-1 Anne
7-8 Julie
14-15 Kathryn
21-22 Rosemary
28-29 Lesley
Out of the mouths….
A small boy went to church with his grandmother and joined her when she quietly slipped off the pew to kneel and pray. He even copied her example of burying her face in her hands. But after a few seconds his curiosity got the better of him. “Who are we hiding from, granny?”
The next edition next edition of the newsletter is due out in early May. If you have any articles/ideas/photos please forward to Dawn Matthew by the end of March.