Arrochar Parish Church Kirk Session Report
		The Kirk Session met in the Church hall on Wednesday 7th. May, at 7.30 p.m. Everyone was present except for Jimmy and Retta. After reading and prayer we discussed the service which had recently been led by members of the congregation. This was felt to have been a great success and many members had commented on the service. We also talked about the way that our worship was developing was very much in line with the presentation made by the Worship Committee to the Presbytery the night before. We are Lectionary based, we provide opportunities for members to participate in prayers, we use symbols, a variety of musical styles, experiment with involvement in action, and we try to engage all the senses not just that of listening passively. It was good to have had the encouragement of the Presbytery worship group. In passing we noted that the Holy Week and Easter services had been well received with more people coming year on year. Then we discussed arrangements for Neil Black's Ordination to the Eldership next Sunday. These arrangements having been agreed we turned our discussion to the Presbytery Plan. We noted that although the Presbytery Visitation programme had been in place for three years during which time each congregation was meant to have been visited six times we had received no visits at all. Given that Arrochar was a small Church which had battled through particularly hard times this was thought to have been especially insensitive. The immediate worry was that the Presbytery Five Year and Ten Year Plan was about to be drawn up and that this was to be based in part on in-put from local congregations. Without the opportunity of discussion with our Presbytery Visiting Team we would be unprepared for this planning process. Against this background the Kirk Session reaffirmed that it saw its future with closer links leading for a formal union with the Luss congregation and could envisage this within the first five years of the Presbytery Plan. It was agreed that the Session Clerk write to Presbytery expressing our disappointment that we had not been visited during the three years of the Visitation Committee's life. Discussion then turned towards proposals for a Flower Festival in Arrochar Church. Initial hostility to the idea gradually gave way to mild enthusiasm when it became clear that what was envisaged was not an over-elaborate floral extravaganza but more a case of decorating the church to look beautiful so that people from the village and beyond could be encouraged to visit the Church and welcomed into it. The idea emerged of a Friday, Saturday and Sunday Festival on Friday 8th. to Sunday 10th. August of this year. The theme agreed was 'The Parables of Jesus' and individuals will be asked to take on the presentation of one of the parables in flowers (and other items) around the church. We will concentrate on the eight windows and perhaps invite some folk with more floral art skills than we possess to design a number of items for the central areas of the Church. We also envisaged a musical evening on the Saturday evening and a special Hymns and Flowers evening on the Sunday. Doesn't it sound exciting? The Session returned to what we can best offer to young folk and after a lot of discussion we thought that we would arrange a couple of special day outings for youngsters over the summer months. These would be similar to the successful outing to Inveraray last year. Finally we discussed the forthcoming visit from Gary and his bell choir from Fargo Church. We are looking forward to his trip and we shall have a special evening of music on Sunday 8th. June in the Church. Dane expressed thanks to everyone who is hosting the visitors from America and to Lyn from the Long Long Hotel for all of her help - 'enormous help, far and above any call of duty!' And this brought the meeting to an end at 8.40 p.m.