People
Our People The fact that our buildings are of undoubted architectural significance has never diverted us from the view that it is Our People who form Our Church and it is in them that our strengths lie.
Familiar Faces
Kirk Session Operating under the Church of Scotland’s Model Deed of Constitution the Session is responsible for the spiritual direction and guidance of the congregation and the parish. Currently comprising thirty-four ordained elders, the Session meets about eight times a year.
Congregational Board Our Congregational Board is responsible for the management and control of the financial and temporal affairs of the congregation. Along with the elders it currently includes ten members elected from the congregation and has three subgroups responsible for finance, fund raising and property, each with its own convenor. The Board also meets about eight times a year, usually in conjunction with the Session.
Sunday’s Cool Our Sunday school is for youngsters between the ages of 3 and 11 and currently has about a dozen members. ‘Sunday’s Cool’, as its called, meets each Sunday during the school term, starting out in the church for the first part of the service before retiring to the hall for further study. The youngsters are under the guidance of a couple of young ‘mums’ and supported by a retired primary school teacher. To date they have used a variety of teaching material from various sources but will start to use the Canadian ‘Seasons of the Spirit’ material recommended bu the Church of Scotland.
The Guild We have a small active Guild, which takes an active interest in the national Guild projects both at home and overseas, all of which endeavour to raise the quality of life of those marginalized in society. We offer friendship and fellowship to our members and try to live up to our Motto by showing Christ’s love in action.
The Choir Our choir of 14, several are also members of the Brechin Choral Union and the Angus Choral Society, contribute to our worship each Sunday with both hymns and anthems. Our organist accompanies them on a recently acquired Makin Johannus Rembrandt electronic organ, which can also be used as an amplifier for CDs and other pre-recorded musical items.
The Link Our church magazine, entitled the ‘Link’, is delivered to the home of each member in the town 10 times a year and contains details of current and forthcoming events and attractions, church news and office bearers contact details and duties. From time to time it includes articles from other sources such as Christian Aid and the BBC's religious programmes.
Activities As part of our efforts to keep in touch with the local community we run a variety of groups from ‘Coffee & Chat’ to ‘Which Craft’ and ‘Soup Lunches’. These regular weekly events are supplemented from time to time by coffee mornings, bake sales, bar-b-ques and quiz nights.
Contact the Elderly is a national organisation of ‘hosts’ and volunteer ‘drivers’ who ensure that elderly people living alone, or with few visitors, don’t get forgotten. The Angus group co-ordinator is one of our elders and several members of the congregation act as either drivers or hosts.
The group arrange afternoon tea parties in host’s houses providing an opportunity for their elderly guests to have a good blether with old friends whilst enabling the groups drivers and hosts to pick up on any problems, The congregation support the group, which has recently won the Marsh Christian Trust Award for Scotland in recognition of its efforts, in a variety of ways including the hosting of an annual coffee morning.