Mearns Kirk

At the Stated Annual Meeting in June – which was extremely well-attended – I  informed the congregation that a meeting was due to take place between  representatives from the five churches in our cluster on 26 June.

This meeting duly took place and was facilitated by Iain Johnstone and one of his  colleagues from Faith in Community Scotland and at the start he passed on to us the  question that Presbytery wishes us to answer: Is the cluster able to develop an  alternative mission plan for the sharing of ministries by the end of December 2024  and, if so, what support might be required?

Although, understandably, we were not able to come up with such a plan straight away it was still a useful meeting and allowed us, for the first time, to hear directly from  members of Maxwell Mearns Castle Church.

It was also clear from our discussion that it is not going to be easy to answer  Presbytery’s question in a way that suits us all. However, given that every congregation  has no choice but to engage with the Presbytery planning process, we  know that the status quo is not an option and we will need to come up with a viable  proposal by the end of the year.

So in order to get things moving, the two churches in the cluster who have ministers in post gave the three vacant churches permission to meet together and explore the  options available to us. Unfortunately, it has taken a while to arrange this but we  have now agreed that the three vacant congregations will meet on Tuesday 27  August and we are hopeful that this meeting will be constructive and fruitful. And  although the whole cluster has only been allocated three ministries, Presbytery has  informed us that we are not to worry that the three vacant churches will only be left  with one ministry between us. Presbytery will ensure that across the cluster the  ministries are allocated fairly.

I’m extremely sorry that this process has been so slow but I can assure you that the members of the Mearns Kirk cluster committee have been working hard to move  things along. And as soon as we know anything more concrete we will let you know  what is being proposed.

Meanwhile I thank you for your patience, for all the support you give each other as  part of a kindly, loving fellowship of God’s people and for all the work so many of you  do to keep the life of the congregation going. A vacancy is always a difficult  time for any congregation, more so in these days when our future depends on so many other people and so many other factors.

But if, as Paul says, Christ lives in our hearts through faith, and we remain rooted  and established in love, we will know just how wide and long and high and deep  Christ’s love for us is, and through his Spirit we will find the inner strength we all  need. So every blessing to you all and thank you again for your patience.