We have shared a letter to the congregation below from our Interim Moderator Arthur Christie. The letter was first shared in our church magazine in March 2023. IIt provides an update on some recent and planned changes for Townhill and Kingseat Church.

Change of course brings possibilities but we also have to acknowledge it can also be difficult and sometimes painful. We are really mindful of the sense of loss that those who worship in Townhill and Kingseat will feel as they will eventually lose their buildings, letting go is never easy, but letting go “is not letting down”. Those cherished memories and legacies will remain and strengthen us into the future. Our aim is to let go of buildings but not our people. So, we will strive to have local church activities in each location of the new parish in some form into the future.

We a have already felt the benefits of larger numbers worshipping and sharing together and look forward to more as we develop our permanent move to St Andrew’s Erskine sanctuary. Of course, we shall need a new name!

Let’s recall and affirm the words of a well-known hymn:

The Church is not a building, the Church is not a steeple. The Church is not a resting place, the Church is a people! And when the people gather there’s singing and there’s praying, there’s laughing and there’s crying sometimes, all of it saying.

I am the Church, you are the Church, We are the church together.

So together we shall move on! Foundations are being laid prayerfully by your church leadership and our main aim is to involve and inform everyone of our direction. There will be many opportunities for asking questions and participation by you will be essential in forging our new congregation and parish. Our hope and prayer is that we shall be SHAPED BY GOD and I encourage everyone to be open and gracious.

Our Carpenter Saviour knew the workshop where there are three kinds of tools:

Tools on a junk pile, outdated, broken, dull and rusty.

They sit in a cobwebbed corner, oblivious to their value and lost in their calling.

Tools on the workbench, well used, sharpened by their master, and accepting their calling, different, defined, primed and active.

Tools on the shelves and in storage boxes, power tools, batteries re charging waiting to be put together for whatever new task the master intends, experts in change and transformation.

We are all tools somewhere in the workshop and every tool is needed. I’m sure we will recognise where we are in this analogy. For those of us who dare to make ourselves available, we shall discover His will and our purpose. Take courage, for we are all God’s chosen. Let’s go to God with a willingness to do whatever He says. If we surrender our will, then He will equip us with every good thing for doing His will.

So dear friends I close using Hebrews Chapter 13: ²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Together in Him