Our adventure started on 1st. September, 2016 — the day after the last minister retired. As a tiny congregation we had been given three years in Presbytery Guardianship. Our task was to attempt to build a congregation, to repair the church building which had for many years been gradually dying of damp, and to seek to move the church building out of Church of Scotland ownership because Presbytery had decided that it was no longer necessary for the mission of the Church in Berwickshire. It was agreed right from the start that our guardianship would be reviewed after two years, so right from the start we were up against a very tight timescale.

In terms of building a congregation we have been hugely blessed. From half a dozen folk meeting once a month in a cold and damp church almost three years ago, we have moved to becoming a congregation which meets every week in a beautifully dry, warm and attractive building of which we have all become enormously proud. We have around forty members whom we can count on to be in church if they are at home — that rarely happens but we are disappointed when we have less than thirty.

In terms of moving the church building out of Church of Scotland ownership, things have changed. We started our challenge by seeing whether our building could be transferred to the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust — they were not interested. I don’t think that it was because our building wasn’t interesting but rather that they had no money with which to care for it in the future. Our next step was to set up a local Community Trust which would take on ownership of the building on behalf of the community and which would allow the congregation to continue to have the use of the building for all of the usual purposes associated with being a congregation. This Trust was created and registered as a Scottish Charity, local trustees were appointed and presbytery agreed to support the transfer of ownership to this local community body. However, at this stage the General Trustees indicated that they no longer wished to dispose of the building. That was a huge compliment to us. The congregation now appeared to have a future and the building was now in an excellent state so the General Trustees saw no need to dispose of the building. In response to this the Presbytery declared that “Fogo Parish Church is no longer a redundant building, and is a necessary church, and that there is no need to transfer ownership to a Community Charitable Trust.”

There has been some discussion, emanating from the General Trustees and reported to us by Presbytery, as to whether our Community Trust might wish to lease the Church building for a peppercorn rent. Our inclination is that this is not an appropriate action for our community to take. Why? In part because we wonder why we would wish to pay for something which is already ours (even if it is only a nominal amount). And in part because we are delighted now to be on the same footing as all congregations within our presbytery. Our building is recognised as being necessary and its up to us to ensure that the growth of our congregation ensures that this remains the same.

After the two year review of our guardianship, those who conducted the review returned to Presbytery with the proposal that we had made sufficient progress that now we be taken out of guardianship at once and our interim moderator, a retired local minister, be appointed as non-stipendiary minister on a five-year reviewable tenure. This was a massive compliment to our happy band of pilgrims at Fogo who have created what is in effect a brand-new congregation at a time when congregations in our area are largely in decline.

On the Sunday after Easter an evening service was held in Fogo Parish Church led by elders from the presbytery. It was an exhilarating service at the end of which Dr. Dane Sherrard, our former interim moderator, was introduced and appointed as our non-stipendiary parish minister. As someone said after the service, “We are now a proper congregation!”

And that, of course, is true. We pay our way fully, making the required contributions to the Church of Scotland and to Presbytery and, even more importantly, we are responsible for the mission and care of our parish and for everyone who lives within it. We are committed to pulling our weight within our Presbytery and to playing our part in the world Church. We are determined to keep on learning together and sharing together and, in this regard we have some quite ambitious plans.

On the final Friday of this month, Friday 31st. May at 7.30 p.m., we have the next in our programme of musical events — Beautiful Music in an Idyllic Rural Setting. This concert will feature the Aquillos Ensemble, a wind quintet. They will be accompanied by Heather Cattanach and Harris Playfair on the piano. As always there is no need for a ticket and there is no charge to attend. Please come along and enjoy and fabulous evening.

On Saturday 27th. June we shall be having a family garden party with lots of music at Mount Pleasant Farm. There will be food and a bar-b-cue and lots of fun for everyone.

Moving forward considerably, we have arranged a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for January of next year. We will fly out to the Holy Land from Edinburgh on the 27th. January, returning on the 6th. February, eleven days based in Jerusalem and Galilee. During this time we will visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We will walk the Via Dolorosa, exploring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb. We will walk the Kidron Valley, visit Mount Zion and journey to Emmaus. Of course, we will spend a day at Masada and the Dead Sea, visiting Qumran on the way back to our hotel. We will go to Bethany and Jericho, including a cable car trip to the Mount of Temptation.

On our way to Galilee we will visit the Roman capital of Caesarea and the Crusader capital of Acre (where we will visit the underground city). The next day we will set off for the Mount of Transfiguration on the way to Nazareth and, having explored the town where Jesus grew up we will journey to Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine. We will visit Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was and, on the way home we will see the remains of the first century Jesus boat.

Our final day will be spent around the Sea of Galilee, visiting Capernaum, Mensa Christi where Jesus appeared to his disciples after the resurrection. We will celebrate communion where Jesus shared the five loaves and two fishes with five thousand people and we’ll visit the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, we will sail across the Sea of Galilee on a boat, seeing the views from the lake, the sky and the shapes of the hills, almost exactly as Jesus will have done from Peter’s boat so many years ago.

It is a huge programme packed into eleven days. We have more than twenty folk signed up to go, but there is still room for a few more should anyone wish to join us. It costs just under £2,000 but that includes absolutely everything except drinks and insurance. Travel, accommodation, food, gratuities, optional excursion, everything else is covered. There is also a special travel insurance available for £59. It is going to be the trip of a lifetime and we are currently meeting together once a month to learn about all of the places we shall be visiting.

At the end of this month a new course of training for elders will start. We have some new folk whom we hope will come to this course and afterwards will agree to go forward for Ordination.