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Members
of the Kirk Session met for the regular three monthly meeting on
Thursday 11th. April - the meeting had originally been planned for
the day before but the rearrangement of the 'Discovering Faith'
programme had led in turn to the rearrangement of this meeting. The
only member of the Kirk Session who was missing from the meeting was
May who was away on holiday at Great Yarmouth. The Session began by
looking at the story of the walk to Emmaus - that great resurrection
tale in Luke's Gospel. This was followed by a period of prayer in
which we thanked God for his goodness to our congregation and brought
before him the needs of those in our community and world. In the
absence of the Kirk Session minutes (temporarily mislaid), the report
from this page was used to remind us all of what had gone before and
we used that report to pick up on items which would not otherwise
have a place on the agenda.
It
was universally agreed that the second edition of 'Boundless' - the
Church magazine jointly provided for the members of Arrochar and Luss
- was super and congratulations and thanks were offered to Tom and
his team. In discussion it emerged that the next edition will be at
the end of the school holidays about the weekend of the 18th. August.
Everything
planned at the last meeting had happened but the programme had had
to be rearranged slightly because of all of the Presbytery events
which were held on Wednesdays leading up to Easter (including three
inductions). This had led to the 'Discovering Faith' programme moving
from the Wednesdays leading up to Easter to the Wednesdays leading up
to Pentecost. Two of the meetings had now been held; attendances,
around twenty five on each evening, had been very encouraging and the
catering (in the hands of Retta and Gill with food from the Loch Long
Hotel, thanks to Lynn) had been superb. The course would be reviewed
at the next meeting. However the Sunday afternoon Communion which was
meant to be held in April as a follow-on to the course would also
have to be re-arranged and it was agreed to organise this for 3 p.m.
on the afternoon of Sunday 2nd. June which would tie in with the
Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Queen.
The
review of recent events also commented very favourably on the
February 'Songs of Praise' organised and led by members of the Kirk
Session. More will follow later in the year. The Holy Week programme
was also felt to have been very successful and worthwhile with,
again, very encouraging attendances.
Starting
its work for the evening. The Session removed the names of Norman
and Catherine Campbell from the roll of adherents as they had now
left the village. Their contribution to the congregation and to the
community was recorded and it was reported that they had appreciated
the gift of a painting and of flowers which had been made to them on
their final Sunday with us.
Things
are progressing with our plans for the Year of the Child. On Sunday
28th. April the morning service will be conducted by our younger
members and this service will have a Christian Aid theme which will
lead, we hope, into some programme of action for Christian Aid. The
learning programme of the Church will move onto the new Seasons of
the Spirit programme which takes over from The Whole People of God
later in the year. We plan to thoroughly embrace this programme and
to use it as both a congregational and a children's resource and to
take part in the midweek activities as well as the Sunday ideas. It
was reported that we had been represented at a recent conference in
Clydebank to introduce the material to Scottish congregations. An
outing for our children is planned for the next few weeks; the
arrangements are in the hands of Jimmy Kelly. Dane thanked all those
who worked so hard with our young folk over the session. This had
been a good year and we could look forward to even better in the
future! Plans were also in hand for a musical production. The primary
school music teacher had agreed to teach some of the music during
school time and this will make our task considerably easier. More
plans will be brought to the session following further discussions
with both the children and with Helen at the school.
After
a very busy and worthwhile autumn, winter and spring programme, Dane
explained that he planned to have a quiet summer in terms of Church
activities. His priority was to try to visit everyone in both Luss
and Arrochar congregations over the summer months and then to be
ready with a big programme for the autumn. It was agreed that this
was an appropriate way forward.
The
Kirk Session turned its attention to a review of worship over the
last year. Numbers have continued to increase but most impressive has
been the way that those who come to Church have become ever so much
more regular in their attendance. On several occasions our Church has
been quite full and although visitors have contributed to this
busy-ness most of those present have been local folk. Dane led
discussion on our Church music. Initially introduced due to the
organist's ill-health, the new electronic music synthesizer had now
become our best option in terms of leading our singing and it was not
envisaged that we would return to using the small pipe organ, at
least until extensive repairs can be carried out to enable more of
the stops to function. Several present spoke of the difficulty of
singing to the organ partly due to its lack of definition and partly
due to how high it is tuned (a semitone or so above concert pitch).
Grateful thanks were expressed to Davina who has soldiered on with
the organ for almost forty years. She will be leading the regular
mid-week 'Songs of Praise' this summer and, at the end of this
period, we shall have a special 'Songs of Praise' possibly on a
Sunday afternoon at which to mark our indebtedness to Davina.
It
was noted that more and more people are applying to be married at
Arrochar and it was agreed that the minister should contact
appropriate organists to play for these occasions.
Finally,
members of the Session discussed what might happen in the future. We
are aware that the Church of Scotland is facing a severe shortage of
ministers. In all probability there will not be a minister for
Arrochar and Luss on the terms which our present minister has been
appointed. Our first priority is to ensure that our building is in an
excellent condition. This will be completed this year. Our second
priority is to ensure that we become financially self-sufficient.
This is planned to happen in two years time and we are ahead of time
in reaching this milestone. Our third priority, of course, and one
which underpins the other two is to remain as a vibrant and
obedient-to-God's-Spirit congregation. But what then? Maybe the
Presbytery will plan to link Luss with Rhu and ourselves with
Garelochhead. That would save one unit of minister-power. Or perhaps
Arrochar and Luss should unite and then be linked with Rhu, again
there would be a saving in staffing. Or should we in Arrochar explore
the idea of a part-time ministry in the future? The idea of a new
maxi-parish encompassing the existing parishes of Gartocharn and
Kilmaronock, Balloch, Luss and Arrochar was discussed. This new
parish would cover part of the area of the new national park
authority (Arrochar although at the head of Loch Long has its parish
at Tarbet and right up to the head of Loch Lomond at Ardlui). Perhaps
there might be two ministers - one at Balloch and one at Luss - and
additional staff of a non-ministerial nature. The Session found
this approach to be an exciting one and would welcome the opportunity
of discussing it further and of investigating the idea of a five-year
pilot experiment before final plans had to be made to see if such a
proposal might really be the way forward. We look forward to our
visit from member of the Presbytery Reappraisal Committee with enthusiasm.
We
reminded ourselves that future meetings of the Kirk Session had been
planned for 14th. August and 13th. November and brought our meeting
to an end in prayer at 9 p.m.
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