Mearns Kirk

Dear friends,
If you were at the service on 16th March you’ll have heard me give an update on where we’re at in the Presbytery planning process. Since the turn of the year two of the five congregations in our cluster – Maxwell Mearns Castle and Broom – have left our cluster to form linkages with other congregations. This has now left us in a cluster of three with Newton Mearns Parish and Eaglesham. But we are, I think, beginning to make some progress towards resolving our situation.

On 11th March Presbytery confirmed that together Mearns Kirk and Newton Mearns Parish Church will get an allocation of one full-time minister. Eaglesham will continue with their own full-time minister until there is a vacancy in that congregation, when their allocation will become 0.5 and ours will increase to 1.5. This will then allow our cluster of three to employ another fulltime minister to serve Eaglesham and also to work alongside the minister serving MK and NMPC. However it has been mentioned that since a vacancy at Eaglesham may not occur for a while it may be possible for Presbytery to allocate NMPC and MK an additional 0.5 in the meantime. How this would work we’re not sure and this is not a firm promise, just a possibility.

Nevertheless, one minister serving both NMPC and MK is an improvement on the plan we were asked to consider at the end of last year when we were only being allocated one minister between three parishes (when Broom was still part of the mix). And now our cluster team is working with NMPC to figure out what we want our relationship to look like. Ideally we would like a linkage where we share a minister but each congregation would keep its separate identity, its own Kirk Session, control of its own finances and its own building and its own Sunday service.

What we have to do now is make a case for this linkage – based on our plan for mission in our area - and a case for retaining both sets of buildings. But we are confident that we can do this. We are two busy, viable congregations which make significant contributions to national funds and any attempt to close either of our buildings would seriously damage our mission locally and have a very negative impact on the work of the wider church.

So together with a group from NMPC we are working on all this. Currently, and after a very good meeting with NMPC on 23 March, we are discussing what to do about a manse for the new minister and we are consulting with the Law Department in Edinburgh about the legalities and financial arrangements involved in sharing a manse. This and all our other proposals will then need to be approved by Presbytery, and by Edinburgh and the General Trustees (which might require a bit of negotiation), and the final Basis of Linkage will go to each congregation for approval. But before we get to that point we will keep you fully informed and make sure that we hear your views.

And I hope it won’t take too long to get to this point. This whole process has drained the energy of so many people and has discouraged and demoralised so many congregations the length and breadth of Scotland. We need to get all this settled so that we can concentrate on being the Church, calling a new minister, focussing on our worship and building up our faith, encouraging each other, serving our parishes and sharing with people in our community the richness of the way of life we have found in the Gospel of Jesus.

And the light we see in Jesus is desperately needed in a world that’s in a very dark place just now. The grace, humility, peace and love of Jesus are in sharp contrast to the intolerance, arrogance, aggression and hatred that seems to be sweeping across the planet and causing so much hurt and damage to so many people.

Whether people yet realise this or not, our world, our country and our community need churches where the compassion and understanding of Jesus are embodied and shared by Easter people like ourselves, people who, despite everything, hold on to the faith that keeps us positive, upbeat and always – always – hopeful.

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu summed this faith up beautifully:

Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death;
victory is ours through Him who loved us.

I hope you find that the faith in your own heart is encouraged and strengthened and renewed once again this Easter.

And may the Risen Christ be very close to us all.