Saturday 10th. August saw the meeting of young fiddlers from Canada with contemporaries from Berwickshire. Members of the Coast String Fiddlers, led by Holly Beckmyer, from the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia in Canada shared in a concert with Berwickshire’s Highhline, led by Carly Blane. It was an energetic performance entitled ‘Canada Meets Scotland’.
The concert was started by the youngest fiddlers, members of Junior Highline who played ceildh music, supported by Carly Blane.
Junior HIghline was replaced by Highline who performed a programme of Scottish fiddle music which delighted the large audience present.
Taking us to the interval, Carly and Holly performed — and that’s Heather and Harris providing an accompaniment on their electric piano.
The second half of the concert was provided by the Coast String Fiddlers who played twelve numbers and presented us with some music from Scotland but mostly from their native Canada. It was a splendid programme and hugely enjoyed by everyone present.
After the concert everyone posed happily for Molly our photographer.
And Molly found the perfect spot to take a picture which made a splendid memento for all our visitors (and for us as well).
It had been a splendid concert and very well supported by an extremely enthusiastic audience. An excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon … but the weekend was not yet over.
On Sunday evening Holly presented a programme of songs, all of which were composed by female composers including Lili Boulanger, Leslie Uyeda, Dika Newlin and Heather Cattanach. One of the songs had been written for her by her mother, Heather, who accompanied Holly on the piano. It was another great evening and as Heather told us, it was very exciting for her to have her daughter across in Fogo, visiting from her home in Canada. We look forward to welcoming Holly and all of her fiddlers back to Scotland in the future.
Fogo Parish Church has never had a font. In the early years perhaps there was a bowl attached to the pulpit; that was very common in Scottish churches of Fogo’s vintage. Later it might have been the custom that one of the communion cups was used as the font. If you think about it, that too was a very suitable alternative to a font. Latterly our church was presented with a silver quaich which is inscribed and used as a font bowl.
Now we have been loaned the font from Burnmouth Parish Church and we will use this with the silver quaich sitting on its top.
So why has this beautiful font been lent to us by Burnmouth? Sadly, it is because the church there is closing down; the building will be sold and in all probability the site will be cleared and a house built there. But while this font sits in our church something physical of the Burnmouth church will remain in the area and so it is an extra privilege to have the use of something which has been so special to so many people over such a long time.
We will hope to discover something of the story of the font over the coming days. It has been suggested that at some time in the past it belonged to a congregation in Coldstream. We also noticed that inside the base of the font is inscribed ‘KOSB’, presumably the ‘King’s Own Scottish Borderers’. Perhaps the font has had a military association in the past and may have been associated with a congregation in Berwick.
It is important to say that this font has not been brought to Fogo to be a decoration. It will be used on the first Sunday of September when Alison will be welcomed into the church by baptism. We hope that this will be the first of many such occasions in our beautiful church. It will, we understand, be the first adult baptism in our presbytery for quite a few years.
It was three years ago at the end of August that Rev. Alan Cartwright retired with the expectation that the parish of Fogo would be absorbed into the mega parish of Duns and District (incorporating Duns, Gavinton, Cranshaws, Bonkyl and Edrom).
Presbytery had hoped that at least for the following three years there would continue to be a service once a month at Fogo after which a decision would be made about the future of the building.
In the event Duns and District declined to accept Fogo into its family of congregations because they were concerned about the state of the building and the potential drain it might become on their finances.
Rather than see Fogo closed three years ago Presbytery took the congregation of Fogo into Guardianship and appointed an Interim Moderator and a small team of assessor elders to fulfil the three-year promise which had been made to the congregation.
The interim moderator appointed remembers visiting every home in the parish with a letter explaining that the church would remain open and that there would continue to be a service a month. Two things struck him: first of all, the welcome he and Tom Stewart (who became the new Session Clerk) received and secondly, the surprise that was expressed that the church was to remain open. It was well known that attendances had dropped to single figures and there was a recognition that the church had not been supported as it should have been.
Over the three years since that initial delivery of the letter about the future of the church things have developed considerably. The introductory note has morphed into our Newsletter which is delivered into one hundred and twenty-five homes. What a lot that Newsletter has had to record.
Most significantly, services increased first to twice a month and then to there being a service every Sunday. Now, on a ‘normal’ Sunday, we would hope to have a congregation in the mid thirties, although quite a number of our members do travel away from home and this can affect numbers particularly at holiday times. So sometimes our numbers are smaller — and sometimes they are larger as well.
One of the reasons that our numbers have increased is that the church has become a much more attractive building in which to worship. The damp and cold of previous times is now but a distant memory — and there are many in the congregation now for whom the church has always been a warm, dry and attractive place. (This, readers will remember, is because an innovative air-to-air heating system was installed and this over the course of the first year drew the damp of generations from the walls and now keeps the building at a steady 18 degrees (rising to 23 degrees on a Sunday morning for the service).
Once the building was thoroughly dried out, it was, of course, redecorated both inside and out. Outside the walls were pointed, a number of windows replaced and all woodwork and metalwork repainted. Inside the building was repainted, new lighting installed and the tiny chancel area at the foot of the pulpit extended to make the worship area more appropriate for a pattern of service in which several people participate in leading worship each Sunday. It is also more suitable for baptisms, weddings and funerals as well as for smaller services such as those we enjoy each evening during Holy Week.
So much for the building! Buildings are important and the beautiful setting of this hugely attractive church is a great bonus to our worshipping community. It also reminds us that we are following in the steps of those who have worshipped here for a thousand years or so. One of the most exciting things about our building is that it isn’t just an old building existing now as it was originally constructed. Everywhere you look you can see where previous generations have made their own alterations to make the building more appropriate for the worshipping congregation of their time. The south aisle is an addition and, of course, it was altered itself when pews were installed for the first time some two hundred and two years ago. What a change that must have been!
Then in 1939 electric lighting arrived and was installed in the church — there was a lot of argument about its installation at the time but now we take it for granted.
Our contributions to making the building more appropriate for our needs have included the restoration and refurbishment of the Vestry. It is now a great meeting room and is ideal for the refreshments which follow Sunday services. We have also installed a toilet. It is a long time since it was acceptable for a public building not to have toilet facilities, especially when, like ours, it hosts events which are patronised by older people or by people who have travelled a considerable distance as they do, for example, for a wedding or for a funeral.
So how have we been using our wonderful building? There is a service every Sunday and there is always a good worshipping attendance. Most Sundays all of our box pews have people sitting in them and sometimes the south aisle pews are well-filled as well, even although they are quite uncomfortable.
Our services are marked by a considerable amount of singing and by really good musical accompaniment which makes singing new songs quite easy. Each Sunday an Order of Service booklet is produced. This contains the words of all of the songs and also Bible readings so that everyone has something to take home after the service. The other real advantage of the printed Order of Service is that it enables us to have hymns and songs from everywhere — we are not tied to any one hymn book and we can sing songs as soon as they are produced, as well as old songs which have been left out of contemporary collections.
Over the last three years we have had some wonderful services. Recently we hosted the Presbytery Elders’ Service. This service was prepared in Fogo, had seventeen participating worship leaders (thirteen of whom came from our congregation) and was presented to a full church with people in absolutely every pew.
Another very special service was the one during which new elders were ordained. We started three years ago with two elders; now our Kirk Session has nine members and we have a Congregational Board elected by the congregation as well. New elders will be trained and ordained during the coming autumn and winter season.
No review of our services would be complete without mention of how fortunate we are to have children worshipping in our midst. It is not only a privilege to share in their Christian upbringing but they add so much to our adult worship as well. Visitors often remark on the pictures which adorn our walls, the work of our children and a reminder of the Bible stories we have shared during worship.
Others will want to mention the special services we have at Christmas, at Communion (when we share in using silver communion-ware which has been in use for several centuries), or an evening when initially we had to walk to and from church with the pathway illuminated by candles but where now we have our own street lighting system.
The church remains the place where special events are celebrated. Recently we marked Gill and Pete’s fortieth wedding anniversary during our regular Sunday morning service. It was special for us all.
Of course, Church isn’t only about what happens on a Sunday. We have developed our own education programme. This includes a small library in the church and a number of special events during the course of each year. Sometimes we meet to share in a learning programme which can involve watching a film or discussing an issue either of faith or of the day.
We have arranged to take a party of folk from the congregation on an eleven-day pilgrimage of the Holy Land at the end of January next year. This trip will enable around a couple of dozen of our folk to visit all of the Christian sites about which we read each Sunday. We’ll visit Nazareth and Bethlehem, we’ll explore the area around the Sea of Galilee. We’ll be taken to Jerusalem and we will walk the Via Dolorosa along which Jesus carried his cross. We’ll spend time in the Holy Sepulchre, the site both of the crucifixion and of the resurrection three days later. It will be a life-changing trip and that experience will then be fed back into the life of our congregation.
We have already held a couple of meetings to learn about all that we are going to see and there will be several more of these meetings during the autumn and winter.
We have built up quite a team of worship leaders. Several, particularly Chris Scott and Kirsten and John Arthur, are happy to conduct Sunday worship for us. But there are others including Clare Fleming, Liz Casey, Olive Gardiner and Gill Gibbens who have led services and there are at least another eight or so who regularly read scripture or lead prayers on a Sunday morning. We are facing a future without stipendiary ministers but we are extremely fortunate to have such a fine and capable team of worship leaders.
We are also extremely fortunate to continue to be a congregation which is growing — we have more than fifty names on our congregational roll — and to be a congregation where everyone comes regularly to church. In part this is because all of our new elders have a commitment to be in church every Sunday and that kind of commitment is catching. When our folk are not away from home we know that they will be with us in church.
Our church has become quite a setting for musical events. Most of these are arranged for us by Heather and Harris who live next door to the church. Recently we had a very successful music festival garden party and bar-b-cue. It was held at Mount Pleasant on the premise that there we would cause least disturbance to neighbours (although we learned later that music could be heard far further away than we had thought). Live music was played continuously from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. and was provided by the cream of musical talent from Berwickshire. There was music of every description but a high spot for many was the concert performance of some of the songs from ‘Queen—the Musical’ by pupils from the High School who had completed their final performance of this musical earlier that afternoon. With three bar-b-cues and mountains of strawberries we had initially catered for around a hundred but in the event more than five hundred folk arrived, mostly under thirty years old. It was a wonderful opportunity for those of us in the church to get to know others in our community as well as to say ‘thank you’ to some of those who had performed for us in church during the previous years.
We hope that a picture of a lively congregation is emerging from this three-year review. There are lots of things which are missing because we take them for granted. We share in funerals and baptisms, we have folk preparing for adult baptism and confirmation. We have friendships which began in church now deepened by sharing on other occasions. Friendship is probably at the heart of the Fogo congregation. Everyone really gets on with everyone else, and everyone supports each other. We like to think that’s why when folk come along for the first time they then decide to stay.
With our three-year period of presbytery guardianship over, what does the future hold for our congregation? We have been given a five-year non-stipendiary ministry under reviewable tenure. What that means is that our former interim moderator, Dane Sherrard, has been appointed as voluntary Parish Minister for a period of five years, although during that time, or after that time, the presbytery can review the situation should it feel that to be necessary. All of the congregation were given the opportunity of voting in a secret ballot to confirm Dane’s appointment.
There will be a major review of all congregations within the Church of Scotland very soon because there is a dramatic shortage of ministers (our whole presbytery is projected to have just three or four stipendiary ministers by 2023) and most churches are unable to pay their way.
We are fortunate. Partly because of the real generosity of our members and partly because we have developed a model in which we have only limited expenses we have no financial problems on the horizon. We contribute to the Church of Scotland and to Presbytery and we draw no funds from them other than those which belong to us. In other words we are a net contributor to the Church of Scotland and we are entirely self-supporting; we add to the national church and to presbytery rather than taking from them. Against that background we hope that we will be allowed to continue as we are and to continue to develop our future along the lines we have been exploring over these last three years.
So what of our dreams for this next five years? It would be wonderful were more folk from our parish to come and join us in the church. That would be great. However, it is also important to us that even those who don’t want to come to church on a Sunday realise that this is their church and that we want to share it with them. Then if there are occasions when the church or a minister could be helpful to them they will not feel like strangers but will know that they can call on us should they wish.
It has been very good to meet people as we have delivered newsletters or as folk have visited our flower festivals or musical events. Fogo Parish Church is a church for everyone and everyone will always be welcome.
The one big building issue which remains for us is the pews in the south aisle. Some were desperately keen to have them removed because they are so uncomfortable, a number which was greatly augmented by those from the presbytery who attended our elders’ service and had to sit on these pews! Others, to do with the building’s maintenance, had concerns about the state of the pews themselves and particularly about the fact that so many of them have been damaged by woodworm. The Kirk Session and the Congregational Board have discussed these pews at two consecutive meetings and reached the conclusion that in their view these pews would be better replaced with appropriate seats, as in the case of Coldingham Priory. This view was then taken to the Stated Annual Meeting of the Congregation which unanimously endorsed this recommendation.
Of course, because our church is such an important historical church — a grade A building — we are not free to make such changes without permission. The recommendation went as a request to CARTA which is the Church of Scotland committee which deals with such matters under powers devolved from Historic Environment Scotland under the Ecclesiastical Exemption regulations. (The secretary of this committee was recruited from the staff of Historic Environment Scotland.)
CARTA sent two members, including the secretary, to meet with representatives of the congregation and presbytery and then prepared a report which was submitted to a full meeting of all of their members. That meeting agreed to give permission for the south aisle pews to be carefully removed and replaced with seats similar to the seats in Coldingham Priory but with the instruction that each seat should have arms so that they are appropriate for older people.
The approval from the authorities was brought to the congregation on each of the two Sundays following its being approved and on each occasion the congregation was of the unanimous view that this work should be undertaken as soon as possible.
Of course, there is no question ever of anyone seeking to alter our box-pews. They are our real treasure — although careful examination will show that a previous generation has found even these to be unsatisfactory and has added strips to the front of each pew seat to make it much more comfortable, an option which was not open to us in the south aisle because of the wood-worm damage and because of their basic design.
Each generation makes its own mark on this remarkable building because it lives and grows along with the congregation who call it their home. Our hope and expectation is that those who visit will enjoy our beautiful church and see the changes made in our generation as a sign of the lively congregation we have become, treasuring our past and looking to our future.
From the Minister’s Desk: Dane Sherrard
It has been an enormous privilege for me to have been given the opportunity to share with the emerging congregation of Fogo Parish Church. I love being in the congregation every Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. I love it so much that, although I haven’t conducted every service, I have been present on every occasion when there has been a service over the three years entrusted to my care.
Now we have another five years, I won’t be present every Sunday as I’ve promised Rachel that we shall go on holiday, but it has been one of the experiences of my life to have shared in the development of your parish church.
It’s a journey which has much to say to other churches too, by way of encouragement. Maybe the way we have done things wouldn’t be right for other congregations but our experience of almost disappearing and then growing into something special out of virtually nothing is a wonderful story. It’s a resurrection story (which is appropriate for a church) and it is a people story.
The list of everyone who has made this church into what it has become is far too long to mention here, and in any event is not the most important thing. What is important is that we too, like those in the earliest days of the Church have felt that we are being guided and encouraged by something far bigger than ourselves. The first Christians called this the Holy Spirit and we have felt this presence with us during worship and as we have met together and planned together and worked together.
It is important that our small community retains its church. It has been part of our community’s story for a thousand years. It is the place where our children have been baptised and later married. It the building from which our loved ones have been buried and given into God’s care. Its very presence reminds us that there is more to life than we see around us every day. It speaks to us of God’s love for all his people not as something from the past which was important to those who came before us, but as something which really matters today.
Colour Supplement
Our colour supplement comes as an addition to the August, 2019 Newsletter. First of all we bring you pictures of our recent Fogo Fest (our name for our music festival, garden party and bar-b-cue held at Mount Pleasant at the end of June).
At the top musicians perform on our ‘stage’, watched in the middle by folk under cover of canvas while youngsters prefer to sit on the grass. Below, our three bar-b-cues compete with each other for the title of ‘Bar-B-Cue of the Day.’
Above: Performers of all ages, starting in the sunshine and ending in the dark. Below: we visit behind the scenes before moving on — the picture of Gill and Pete outside the Church was taken on the day of their special service. We celebrated Hunter’s baptism with his family and friends, and, the recent visit of the jazz group ‘Frog and Henry’ from St. Louis. Erica and Chris relax at ‘Fogo Fest’ — Chris often leads worship — while below him Tom is usually seen welcoming folk at the church door.
Church is about people. We thought of showing you pictures of our beautiful building and all the alterations and decorations within; but instead our two pictures here show some of our congregation egg-rolling and some of the youngsters from our nursery retelling the Christmas story. We’d love you to come and join us.
We had an excellent turnout of members and friends at Church this morning and enjoyed a happy service with lots of singing (led by Rachel on the organ). During the service we continued our journey through Luke’s Gospel. We have reached the chapters in which Luke provides us with teaching about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and were confronted with the story of the farmer who had a bumper crop, ordered his barns to be torn down and bigger barns rebuilt so that he could live in luxury and without worry for the rest of his life. However, that night he died with all his treasure in his barns rather than having laid up any treasure in heaven by, for example, sharing with others. Undoubtedly a challenge to all of us here!
Coupled with this reading was one from Ecclesiastes so we were introduced to the Philosopher and his thoughts about ‘chasing the wind’ and the recurring theme ‘Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.’ I realised that apart from the third chapter about there being a time for all things, it’s a book we don’t read today. Pity, I found it quite challenging.
As it is still the middle of the summer we don’t have a lot going on during the week. However, I do have an evening meeting with two of our folk about adult baptism and confirmation, a funeral later in the week and preparations for two concerts being held in the church next weekend. (Full details of these are in the previous post).
During the first part of August there are two musical events at Fogo Parish Church. On Saturday 10th. August at 2 p.m. the Coast String Fiddlers, led by Holly Beckmyer, from the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia in Canada will join Highline, led by Carly Blain from the Borders, for an energetic concert of fiddle tunes under the banner ‘Canada Meets Scotland’.
Highline
The following day, Sunday 11th. August, under the title ‘The First Woman’, Holly Beckmyer, soprano, accompanied by Heather Cattanach, pianist, will perform works by female composers including Lili Boulanger, Leslie Uyeda, Dika Newlin and Heather Cattanach. The concert will also feature Harris Playfair and will start at 7.30 p.m. As with all musical events at Fogo Parish Church there is no need for a ticket, please come and along and enjoy beautiful music in an idyllic, rural setting. There is no charge for admission.
Holly Beckmyer
Of course, our Morning Service will be, as usual, at 10.30 a.m. when everyone will be made extremely welcome.
The next concert in our ‘Beautiful Music in an Idyllic Rural Setting’ series has been arranged for Friday 31st. May at 7.30 p.m. The Aquillos Ensemble is a wind quintet who have a great following not only in Scotland but in the north of England as well.
The Ensemble will be supported by Heather Cattanach and Harris Playfair on piano and it will be another splendid evening to enjoy. It is not necessary to have a ticket, please just come along and join us. Although there will be an opportunity to make a donation, there is no admission charge and we hope to have the opportunity of welcoming you for what will be a very special evening of music.
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.
