november 07a

Dear Friends

I find it amazing that I have now been with you for over a year! The time has passed incredibly quickly! I have no idea how much longer I will be here – that decision is up to others, not me - but it could be that I am into the last 6-8 months of my time with you.

Things in church life never move very fast! But as I look back on the last year I think we have made steady progress on the aims and objectives that we set ourselves at the beginning of Interim Ministry. We now have in place the beginnings of an Action Plan for the congregation's life. As you know, that plan comes under the title COSY: Caring, Outreach, Support and Youth. Here are some of the initiatives being discussed:

C The Caring group has a register in the vestibule of each church to ensure that those in care homes, the housebound, and those who are ill are visited regularly. We are setting up a Bereavement Care Team to visit those who have lost loved ones - maybe some weeks after a funeral and also at the 1st anniversary.

O The Outreach Group are preparing a leaflet which will go to every home in both parishes containing a Christmas message and an invitation to Christmas services.

S The Support Group is looking at many different issues - among them is: starting a meeting for prayer between both congregations, and looking at ways of tackling the issue of Stewardship and giving.

Y The Youth Group is working on plans to set up in Holytown what is known as COSY Coffee House for young people. (In this context COSY stands for 'Church of Scotland Youth' - but it suits our purposes very well!) This Group is also looking at ways of encouraging children in worship.

There are some big questions that face us now:

* Do we believe that we are at the point in our life together as linked congregations where we feel we are in a position to seek a new, long-term minister?

* Is our working partnership strong enough to encourage someone to come and work with us?

* Do we have a vision for the life of our congregations that will inspire a minister to perhaps thinking of working with us?

* Are we at the point where it might be right to ask Presbytery to consider allowing us to proceed with vacancy business?

These are big questions! On Thursday 29th November at 7.30 pm in Holytown Parish Church there is a critically important opportunity for you to give your answer to these questions among others. This is the next meeting of the Interim Ministry Monitoring Group. Those who serve on the Monitoring Group are representing both the Presbytery of Hamilton and the Ministries Council. The Group's task is to encourage us on our journey, discover how we feel the journey is progressing, and to decide when it is time for us to move on to the next stage. I urge you to come to this meeting if you possibly can. The last two meetings have been very poorly attended - and that does not leave a good impression. However, a good attendance at this next meeting would speak volumes about our commitment and our enthusiasm for the task.

Maybe now is the time for us to start discussing with each other how we think things are going, what we still want to do, and how our vision for the church is shaping up. If we talk about these things among ourselves then we will be ready to answer the questions asked on 29th November.

Every blessing,

lain