Saturday 9th. May, 2020

It has been a good week not least because I actually had all the different services prepared by Friday night, rather than Saturday night as it has been in recent weeks. So I spent today outside painting. I had intended to do this all day and the morning was wonderful but then this afternoon the rain arrived. It was really heavy and I expect that it will have gladdened the hearts of farmers and gardeners alike.

This week I have enjoyed watching ‘Innocent’ on ITV, a really good detective four-part thriller starring Lee Ingleby. It was really good and it kept all of us at Mount Pleasant on the edge of our seats.

We have also enjoyed accessing the performances of the National Theatre and the Globe which are now available free on television.

I also shared in a zoom meeting of ministers in the presbytery on Wednesday morning. The suggestion certainly seems to be that that folk believe that church will be different after the lockdown comes to an end. The follow-up to that is that we ought to start thinking about what we shall be offering when that time comes.

I got an email from Janice at Gordon today telling me that forty-seven folk shared in the Gordon Service on-line last week – that’s many more than normally attend church. I wonder what that says to us? Does it suggest that there may be more folk coming to church in the future? Or does it suggest that we have to continue to reach out to folk using digital media so that we can keep in touch with more people than we would otherwise do? There is a lot to think about!

We continue to be grateful that we have fields around us and that because the farmers have provided wide borders we can walk around them. Those who remember Ditto, Clare’s black Labrador, will be pleased to know how he has quietened down and is responding to Rachel’s training regime.

I hope that you are all keeping safe and staying well. It’s always good to see everyone’s faces on Sunday after our service. There is a lot on our web-site and John B has started to reorganise it. If our Sunday service isn’t to your liking, you could always try the service on-line for our partner congregations at Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood. These, too, are now on our website. Have a very good week.