Mearns Kirk

Dear friends,

I am writing to introduce both myself and the role I will have with the church over the next six months or so, a role I am excited about it as you embark on a new journey together.

I recently took on the role of Peripatetic Missions Worker for the presbytery and have been working with Orchardhill and Merrylea since the beginning of September. I will also now be working with you, and from a personal point of view this is great as I live in East Kilbride! My wife is Christine, and we have three grown up children and two grandchildren who are 8 and 5. I am an ordained deacon and have worked in parishes for almost 30 years, beginning in Cumbernauld, moving to East Kilbride and then to Govan. From there I worked with Castlemilk Parish Church, and a few years ago I had a slight change of role to work with Ruchill Parish Church as they went through the process of uniting with Maryhill. I then spent some time working with Carntyne and Cranhill on their union before spending three years supporting
vacant charges.

I hope all of this experience can be used to good effect in my new role, for example, many of these years in the parish have been spent working in the community and I have especially enjoyed the schoolwork I have been involved in. I hope that I can bring to bear some of the experience I have as we explore what it means for you to engage with young people in the parishes. This is very exciting and rewarding work and I will explain how I think we can help local schools.

School chaplaincy has changed since many of us were pupils and it is no longer about the minister coming in once a month to deliver an assembly. This may be part of what we do with schools, but I would like to focus on an initiative called ‘Serve your local school’ which is, as the name suggests, asking how we can use the gifts of the people of the church community to benefit local schools. We all bring talents and can all offer something to our schools. Teaching children how to knit or crochet, reading stories to the children on World Book Day, helping to supervise children during the lunch break, offering the benefit of our working life on careers day, these are just some of the ways we can use what we have to serve the local school. To that end I would like to poll the congregations by asking the question – what can you bring?

I will make contact with the schools soon and let them know we are keen to be involved in the wider community so it would be great to hear from you what you feel you could offer them.

Another part of my role will be around worship, particularly midweek and care home services. Again, both of these offer great joy and it may be that you feel you could get involved here. I am happy to offer training in leading in both of these settings to anyone who feels they have something to offer.

Presbytery can offer worship leader training to anyone who feels called to lead on Sunday morning. I also have material I have used to train people in leading funeral services. When we trained funeral leaders recently, we discovered that everyone who came on the course was more than capable, what they lacked was the confidence needed to do it. The course gave them that confidence and I feel the same is true of the worship leading.

Do you feel you could help lead worship in care home and midweek settings? It is not as daunting as it may appear and when a range of people are involved in leadership the worship benefits from the different styles we all bring.

My role with you for next few months will be to come alongside the congregations and see where I can help you plan the next phase of church life. The new relationship you have is filled with potential, and as you consider what kind of minister you want to call, I hope my work can help you prepare the way for that ministry to be fruitful. I feel sure God is already speaking to someone and calling him / her to come and lead you into the future.

I look forward to getting to know you better and to working with you.

Every blessing,