Basically there wouldn’t be a religious belief called ‘Christianity’ if someone called Jesus hadn’t lived. To put it in easy terms, Jesus was a person whose life, both in what he did and what he said, showed and told us what God was like and how God wanted the world to live.

Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God which offered a way of peace, justice and compassion. Jesus healed people who struggled in all sorts of ways and, above all, forgave the sins of those, like all of us, who had done the wrong thing. He continually encouraged people to stand up and begin again. He challenged evil in any way it came to him in very forthright terms. He showed us, and this is really important, that beyond our present lives there is a new life close to God.

The sum total of this is that God loves us and in Jesus showed us what this love means.

However Jesus’ own personal story didn’t seem as if it was going to change very much. He was killed after arrest, a summary trial and swiftly enacted crucifixion.

However this was not the end because God overcame death by raising Jesus to new life. This is the transforming message of the Gospel. Jesus appeared in human bodily form to many of his disciples before leaving this world to be for ever with God. After Jesus left our earthly life, he sent us the Holy Spirit which lives in our hearts and enables us to continue what he was doing. This is why we can say that Jesus lives in us. Jesus promised us that because of this we’d be able to do far more than even he had done. This ‘will of God’ is what we call the Holy Spirit of God.

Christianity holds to the fundamental belief that God has always existed in some way beyond time, but that God has come into human life in history through Jesus.

God continues to come into us as we seek to respond to God’s leading in our lives through the gifts and skills given us by the Holy Spirit.

God loves us and wants us to respond to the love God in a way which transforms our world. We do this by our care for one another and paying attention to the needs of our world, as well as by the prayers we pray and the worship we share.

St Ninian’s Aberdeen is part of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney . The Diocese comprises the City of Aberdeen, most of Aberdeenshire, a small part of Moray, and the ancient Diocese of Orkney, which includes the Shetland Isles, founded in 1035. The Diocese has 42 churches and one religious community, the Society of our Lady of the Isles on Shetland.  There are currently 38 priests and 1 deaconess in the diocese. It also has St Margaret-of-Scotland House in Aberdeen, a venue for quiet days for individuals. Aberdeen and Orkney is also linked with the Dioceses of Connecticut USA and Mthatha, in South Africa.

We are part of the Scottish Episcopal Church which is diverse in its tradition, outlook and culture.  Such diversity enriches the Church and is expressed in warm relationships of mutual respect for one another. The Scottish Episcopal Church is known as a Province of the Anglican Communion.  Within the Province there are seven dioceses, which cover mainland Scotland, and the Islands, with each overseen by a Bishop.  There are over 350 Scottish Episcopal Churches across Scotland, which offer a range of liturgical worship and music.

The Scottish Episcopal Church is governed by a General Synod, which meets once a year for three days.