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Good morning.听 I want to introduce you to my friend Mary.听 She belongs to a church in the centre of Edinburgh, a very historic church, but I suspect that when the story of the Church of Scotland today comes to be written it is what is happening there now that will be the story.

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For the last ten years, Mary鈥檚 Church has raised over a million pounds for a Christian charity through a book sale every May.听 It鈥檚 been held every year since 1974 and now is one of the biggest charity booksales in the world.

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Last year a very prominent Scottish journalist was moving house, 鈥渄ownsizing鈥� he said, and he donated a large part of his very valuable library to the booksale.听 Now Mary has inspired a picture sale, and last week paintings donated either by generous collectors or by some of Scotland鈥檚 most celebrated artists raised thousands of pounds.

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Mary would say that she wasn鈥檛 doing anything special: just what she could do to help an important cause she believed in.

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Anyone who is tempted to think that small in scale means insignificant hasn鈥檛 been stung by a mosquito, 听as I was in Spain not so long ago.听 The pain in my arm was still there long after I had returned home.听 If a wee mosquito could have that effect on me, there鈥檚 a place still for stinging determination in a somewhat complacent world.

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So loving God, help us to see the transforming change to the world which only we can make.听 Amen.