Introduction (not part of the questionnaire). Every congregation within Presbytery has been asked to complete the following questionnaire. You will see from the words in orange below that Presbytery acknowledges that it is a ‘searching’ questionnaire and it will be used for the future planning both of our Presbytery and of the larger Presbytery of which, in due course, we will become part. We have taken considerable trouble to ensure that we present an accurate picture of our congregation and one which reflects our ambition and our determination to ensure that we can continue to serve our parish and conduct worship in our church for many years to come.
We would be grateful for any comments which you might wish to make to us before the questionnaire is returned to Presbytery on 1st. March. It was only launched at the Presbytery meeting on 6th. February, so you can see that we have been very busy!
As explained in the email sent out last week, the congregational consultation ended last night (Wednesday) and the completed questionnaire has now been forwarded to presbytery (Thursday morning). We are very grateful to everyone who responded, not just to those who made comments (which are all included within our response) but to the many who replied and said that in their view those who had completed the initial draft had got it exactly right. Thank you all!
Key to understanding this document:
The material in Orange has been written by Presbytery.
The material in green is from reports which we have agreed in the past.
The material in blue has been written specially for this questionnaire.
The material in purple contains the comments made by members of the congregation as part of the congregational consultation.
The financial material has been supplied by our Congregational Treasurer.
The statistical information has been supplied by our Session Clerk.
“The Presbytery of Duns Commission on Change”
A questionnaire for all Ministers, Session Clerks and Office-Bearers.
The General Assembly 2019 accepted three reports aimed at radically reforming the Church of Scotland, at every level from the local to the national to the General Assembly itself –
Council of Assembly report – Radical Action Plan.
General Trustees – Well-equipped spaces in the right places.
Special Commission on Structural Reform report.
The number of presbyteries is being reduced from 43 to 12. This is already happening, and is expected to be completed within the next two years. The number of full-time ministers of word and sacrament in this presbytery will be reduced by 20%. There are very few candidates coming forward for training to the ministry and a high number of ministers are reaching retirement age: this means the shortage of ministers of W&S will become worse.
This is a very searching questionnaire, and asks questions that for too long we have not addressed, but now as we are all going through a period of great change, it is time to take stock. The collection of this information is to give an up-to-date picture of the situation in which each congregation and parish finds itself, so that future planning can target areas of need and develop the best way to use resources to serve the people of this Presbytery.
May I suggest you divide it into sections — for example, the treasurer completes the finance section etc… — so it becomes a shared task.
PLEASE LOOK AT THIS AS A MEANS TO HELP AND SUPPORT OUR PARISHES, SO WE CAN PLAN THE BEST WAY FORWARD. We must work together to maximise worship and mission in our area.
NAME OF PARISH
Fogo Parish Church
Section One: BUILDINGS
1. How frequently is the sanctuary used for worship?
Services are held on every Sunday and whenever we can find another opportunity to worship! So, for example, there are services with children from the local nursery, services on Christmas Eve (at midnight), on Christmas Day, on the days and the evenings of Holy Week, during Lent, and for special groups such as for animal lovers.
2. Is the sanctuary used for other purposes?
Fogo Parish Church has excellent acoustics and is in regular demand for concerts: “Music at Fogo – beautiful music in an idyllic rural setting.” These concerts bring in musicians from all over Berwickshire as well as pupils from Berwickshire High School. Jazz musicians from St. Louis perform every January, their only Scottish venue on their annual tours of Great Britain and Europe.
The church is made freely available to local groups for their regular meetings and annual general meetings.
The church hosts a regular film evening – our watching of the series ‘Masada’ was halted by the corona virus with one episode still to be shown!
The church holds regular education programmes which are held in our church making use of the ability we now have to reset our chairs on our comfortable, carpeted south aisle and using the new facilities of large television and film and computer which we have installed.
The church is used for after- church lunches which are scheduled to be held on the final Sundays of months with five Sundays in them.
There are no publically available buildings in the parish of Fogo except for the Parish Church. Street lights have been installed within the Church grounds to enable the building to be easily accessible during dark winter nights.
3. What other properties do you have i.e. manses, halls, glebes?
At present we have no other buildings but it is our plan to purchase a cottage within the parish to which we will invite appropriate worship leaders to stay in return for leading worship while they are with us.
This will augment the worship which we lead ourselves and we would hope to attract really good preachers with something special to say to us, something which we can also share with others through technology and which can come to establish Fogo as a preaching station.
At present we have £137,540 lodged in Edinburgh and have identified an ideal cottage for sale at £150,000. We have local funds available to bridge that gap and would like to proceed with this part of our mission plan.
4. Are there any plans to make alterations to the buildings?
As we have no other buildings there are no plans to make alterations to them. The Parish Church is in an excellent state of repair.
We believe that our congregational building is important both as a place of worship and for the message which it gives to our community about what is ultimately important — the continuation of hundreds of years built around the Parish Church, as well as our commitment to the revival for which we all work and pray.
With this in mind we have ensured that our building is in perfect condition both inside and out. We have installed air to air heating which operates twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year and, in so doing, not only ensures that the building remains in a good state but that it is always available to be used at a moment’s notice. As it is always open, people often come in to pray.
Also with this in mind we have redesigned the interior of the Church, keeping the best of the old and creating a new comfortable seating area, as well as extending the chancel area to make it more suitable for worship, for funerals and for weddings as well as for conferences, learning events and for concerts and events. Appropriate equipment has been installed and a new meditation room constructed in one of the former laird’s lofts.
Aware that at some time in the future the Church of Scotland or Presbytery may decide that it no longer wishes to keep our building, a local Community Trust, separate from the Parish Church, has been set up and it is willing to take on the ownership and care of the building and to ensure that it remains available for the congregation and community in the future.
5. What is the estimated cost of these alterations?
All alterations have already been paid for in full and, in accordance with our philosophy, much of the work has been done by volunteer labour at no cost to the congregation.
6. Are these buildings necessary?
We believe that our building is necessary and Presbytery has concurred with this belief as recently as 2019.
7. Are the buildings fit for purpose?
The church is fit for purpose and is in excellent condition
We enclose at this point part of a report from 2019 which was prepared to persuade the General Trustees to allow us to redesign the South Aisle. We enclose this extract because it sets out the huge alterations which have been made to Fogo Parish Church, much, if not most, of the work having been carried out by congregational members themselves:
“By mid 2016 the Church at Fogo, if not dead, was certainly dying. That’s true whether one means the Church as congregation or the Church as building. The congregation had become the smallest handful of worshippers meeting once a month –- the congregational roll handed to the interim moderator had fifteen names on it, many of whom were untraceable and several of whom confessed that their involvement with the congregation had ended several years before.
The building, which although it had been gifted a new roof in the recent past, was no longer fit for purpose. Damp and cold frequently led the minister to indicate that just one verse of a hymn would be sung and a one-hour service would be concluded within twenty minutes.
It was little wonder that the Presbytery Plan drawn up in 2011 indicated that Fogo Parish Church was no longer one which was required. Because of its historic importance and its A listing, the building might be maintained for special occasions and weddings but it would no longer be required for a worshipping community.
The fact that an on-going ministry was in place, coupled perhaps with widespread concern in the local press about the scale of closures envisaged in the initial plan, led to a stay of execution being granted to Fogo Parish Church until the retirement of the incumbent after a forty-year ministry.
During 2015, however, Presbytery determined that there was no future for the Fogo Parish Church building and instructed its appropriate committee to draw up a road map to move the building out of the ownership of the Church of Scotland by the end of August, 2016.
This proved easier to agree than to facilitate and on the retiral of the incumbent at the end of August, 2016 Duns and District Parishes, who had initially been of a mind to take on the congregation of Fogo and continue to conduct a monthly service there so long as the new owners of the building permitted that use, declined to proceed with the plan on the basis that the building would become the responsibility of Duns and District Parishes, something which they felt would place a additional and unwelcome burden on them and their resources.
As promises had been made to the congregation of Fogo Parish Church in the lead up to what had been hoped would be a happy union with Duns and District Parishes, Presbytery agreed to take Fogo Parish Church into Presbytery Guardianship for a three-year period until the Church building could be transferred out of the ownership of the Church of Scotland (at which time, no doubt, it was hoped that it might then unite with Duns and District Parishes).
A retired minister was appointed as interim moderator and three elders were appointed as assessors and slowly the congregation and the building have come back to life.
The congregation now numbers around fifty members [in 2019] and there is disappointment if there are less than thirty worshippers present at the now weekly service of worship. Observers credit much of the turn-around in the life of the congregation to a monthly visit to every home in the parish by the interim moderator and session clerk (one of the initial assessors appointed by presbytery). A monthly newsletter has also been important. Others point to a form of worship which is inclusive, innovative and in which music is particularly important. Normally at least seven or eight members of the congregation are engaged each week in leading worship and the interim moderator welcomes, preaches and pronounces the benediction.
The building has also certainly played an important role in the resurrection of the congregation. It has to be acknowledged that the availability of funding from the sale of the Swinton and Fogo manse (on the retiral of the long-serving incumbent in August, 2016) has made a significant difference. Externally the church has been re-pointed and several windows have been replaced. Internally, an air-to-air heating system has been installed. This system ensures that the interior of the Church building is maintained at a steady eighteen degrees, day and night, throughout the week, with the temperature rising each Sunday by two or three degrees for the duration of the service. At once the building became warm and pleasant, but more importantly the damp of generations began to dry out. Stone work which had been green for as long as anyone could remember returned to its original colour.
After the space of a year the building was dry and able to be totally redecorated. But the new, young congregation (many of whom were new to faith) didn’t just want to do the minimum to make the building useable. An enormous pride had grown up, partly in what God was enabling them to do and partly in this ancient building which had now been, however temporarily, entrusted to their care.
At the heart of the mission of the congregation is a desire to speak to those who visit, and to those to whom it visits, of God’s love. In part that is seen in terms of the welcome offered to all – and particularly to those who live with disabilities of any kind.
It was for this reason that a toilet was installed – a dry toilet, originally intended for a yacht but happy to do service in God’s house as well. Why was the toilet important? Because several older folk expressed themselves unhappy about being away from home and out-of-range of a toilet on a Sunday morning. Also it was seen as being important to create an after-worship refreshment time (which lasts as long as the service) and several were unsure about participating without the presence of a toilet.
It was also for this reason that new lighting was fitted throughout the Church. The original lights went back to 1938 and were the only utility fittings available when electricity was brought to the Church in that year. Light readings taken by experts showed that the level of light in the Church was actually illegal for a public place and that it was no wonder that at least three members of our congregation regularly brought torches with them to read the words of the hymns.
And it was for this reason that a hearing loop system was installed in the Church building and that copies of the weekly order of service are printed in extra large print so that those who have difficulty hearing or seeing are catered for as best the Church leadership can.
There is a number of members who have mobility problems and again the congregation is attempting to meet their needs as best it can. The first thing we did was to have the steps on the way down to the Church removed so that there is now wheelchair access all the way to the Church. The pathways to the Church have been covered with a fine-grade gravel which is wheel-chair and zimmer friendly. External lighting has also been installed along the pathway.
Inside the Church building there is an area where on occasions wheelchairs can be used, although most mobility-disabled members prefer to get into one of the box-pews beside their friends.”
The Report to the General Trustees went on to discuss in detail the difficulties caused by the existing South Aisle pews and how their replacement with moveable seating would make the church so much more adaptable for our worship, mission and education. After a site visit, permission was granted to make the changes we had requested providing we installed seating similar to the seats in our converted vestry.
Section Two: FINANCE
- How have your finances been affected by Covid-19?
We have obviously seen a drop in our weekly offerings during the closure of churches due to Covid-19. However, a number of members of the congregation, recognising this, decided to establish standing orders in favour of the Church and this has limited our shortfall to approximately £3,000 over the last year. This also give us comfort that we now have sufficient committed monthly income to meet the unavoidable expenses we incur (our regular expenses including power and insurance).
Our expenses rose – the costs of providing facilities to enable online services to be broadcast are an example. These costs however were supported in part by the drawdown of some of Fogo’s allocation of Consolidated Fabric Fund monies held in Edinburgh. We do not regard this as being a negative. As we now partner with sister churches in the Presbytery, the pandemic has merely advanced plans to provide facilities for live streaming services and other events directly from the church – all part of our mission project.
Our main on-going expenses (power and insurance) continued as usual. Our excellent heating system having rid our building of the damp built up over many years has to be operated 24/7 or the building will suffer. Thanks to the commitment of our small but active congregation the pandemic has not irreparably harmed our financial stability.
2. What are your bank balances?
We currently have approximately £55,000 held locally. This includes a very special restricted legacy detailed below. We work with a normal balance between £4,000 and £7,000 depending on the time of year and the timing of our fuel bills.
3. Amount of restricted funds?
The special legacy of £50,000 mentioned above was received recently from the executors of the estate of Clare Fleming who was until her death a very active elder. The legacy is specifically restricted to be used for the purposes of enacting the mission plans adopted by the Church and to which Clare had directed a lot of her energy in the latter months of her life. We also have £142,540 invested on our behalf in the Church of Scotland Consolidated Fabric Fund. £5,000 of this is committed in support of the Eyemouth Renovation. These funds are obviously restricted to the purposes allowed by the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland.
4. Amount of unrestricted funds?
As well as our locally held funds mentioned above, we have a small investment in the Church of Scotland’s Investors Trust amounting to approximately £450.
5. Amount from other sources?
We have no other funds.
6. What are your M&M contributions for 2021?
Ministries and Mission Contribution £5,635
Less Endowment Income (£1,247)
Net Contribution £4,388
Less Vacancy Allowance (£3,599)
Net Payment required £789
7. How much additional cash did you raise through fundraising in 2019?
£616. This was raised through a combination of our Christmas table (where cards and calendars produced by our photographer Molly were sold as well as small Christmas gifts produced by our organist Rachel) and a concert held in the Church. The concert was not held as a fundraising event –- it was a community outreach event –- the fundraising was a pleasant side effect.
As a matter of policy, we do not hold fundraising events for the purposes of meeting the regular costs of the Church –- this is covered by the commitment and generosity of the members. We do hold fundraising events for identified third party needs and indeed had planned to hold events in 2020 to support our missionary partner and help the excellent Jeel al Amal school in Bethany whose work so impressed those of us who were privileged to visit them before the pandemic struck.
Section Three: MEMBERSHIP
1. What is your total roll?
Sixty-three.
The congregation has increased in size every year since 2016 and now has ten times as many members as were attending in 2016. We are not complacent about this and recognise that we still have a very long way to go, but we have a Mission plan to which we are committed and are confident that we can continue to grow.
2. How many are under 20 years old and are in active membership?
Nine plus forty-eight nursery children. We also have an extensive music programme which enables us to work with many young folk from across Berwickshire. In 2019 we organised our first Music Festival, hoping that we might attract fifty folk but five hundred arrived. It was a wonderful event and one which will be repeated once current restrictions are lifted.
3. How many are under 40 years old and are in active membership?
Eight.
4. How many are under 60 years old and are in active membership?
Twelve.
5. How many are under 80 years old and are in active membership?
Thirty-one.
6. How many are over 80 years old and are in active membership?
Three.
7. How many regularly attend worship in each of the above five age brackets?
In non-covid times we are disappointed if there are less than thirty in church; several of our members are frequently away from home but almost all members attend when they are at home with around thirty-five who are extremely regular in their attendance. For the avoidance of doubt we would expect that most members would be in church on a Sunday morning unless they were away from home.
In part this is has been made possible because we are in reality a new young congregation and new members adopt the norms of our office-bearers who can be counted always to be in Church on a Sunday morning. Members enjoy worship and look forward to attending!
Section Four: WORSHIP
1. What type of worship do you provide?
Worship is joyous, participatory and educational. There is a great deal of singing and music, and except for the sermon and the benediction, the rest of the service –- meditations, prayers, readings, etc. –- is conducted by the congregation.
On several Sundays every year the service is conducted entirely by members of the congregation.
An online service is provided each Sunday. This is shared by many more people than are normally in church and small unsolicited financial gifts and requests to become members of the congregation have been received from around the world.
2. Do you vary the types of service?
There is a great deal of variety in our worship. In general our services follow the Lectionary with an emphasis on sharing in every Christian festival we can find! We use the colours of the Christian Year and make use of worship banners. A printed Order of Service booklet is produced each week. This enables us to choose music and other worship material from a huge variety of sources. It also ensures that the words of the Bible readings being studied are in everyone’s hands.
Holy Communion is celebrated on the major Christian festivals: Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Easter Day, Pentecost, the Reign of Christ the King, and on the four fifth Sundays in the year. There is also a Communion Service on the third Sunday of October because this was the traditional Communion celebration in Fogo. Communion Services can be formal and traditional or informal and totally locally-prepared. They can be traditional or celebrations set to music. They can be based around our communion table set in its usual place, or now that we have redesigned the chancel and the south aisle, with everyone sitting in a circle around the table. Very often the Sacrament is led by a number of members of the congregation, assisting the Parish Minister.
On occasions drama and meditation is used in worship and this becomes a big part of our Holy Week services which take place at least once on every day of Holy Week. Special services are held at Christmas, including an Advent Calendar service (with a six-foot high Advent Calendar and stained-glass windows), a Christingle Service, Service of Nine Readings and Carols, and a Service in which we remember those we miss at Christmas time.
Services led by members of the congregation vary enormously as everyone brings their own skills and traditions to share with the rest of us.
Within our congregation we have members who are new to faith, traditional members of the Church of Scotland, members whose roots lie in the independent evangelical churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Ireland. These traditions enrich us all.
Music plays a very big part in our worship and we will regularly sing on nine or ten different occasions during a Sunday service. We have an excellent music system with musical arrangements prepared for us individually each week. We are given a strong lead and can thus learn new songs with ease and with pleasure and are genuinely a singing congregation. We are also beginning to learn about the importance of silence in our worship.
Most of our services are educational with a strong emphasis on teaching, not least because some of us are young in faith and have not had a great deal of Biblical or religious teaching in the past.
Children are also important in our worship and we are very fortunate to have a small number of very loyal children — there are extremely few children living within our parish.
3. Are members involved in services?
Members are integral to the delivery of worship in Fogo Parish Church. Most services will involve at least seven or eight members of the congregation in sharing in the leading of worship.
4. Are you involved in any ecumenical services or groups?
We share in services for the World Day of Prayer and participate with neighbouring congregations both within and without our denomination. We see sharing with other Christians as being of the highest importance and members of our congregation regularly visit other local congregations both within our denomination and beyond. We see supporting what other congregations do as being important.
Section Five: MISSION
1. How do you communicate with the community?
We put a great deal of effort into communicating with our community. A monthly A3 newsletter is produced and delivered to every house within the parish. A website and Facebook page is kept up-to-date and is well-supported. Information about Fogo Kirk is given to the local newspaper each week. An online service is put on our website, Facebook page and the link sent by email to everyone on our mailing list each week. An email is sent every Saturday to all members of the congregation by the minister.
Shortly before the pandemic hit our country we spent a great deal of time and effort as a congregation preparing a mission strategy which it was planned to initiate during 2020. We enclose that strategy here. We are aware that this is the second report from which we have quoted and we want to underline the reason for this. Our response to this questionnaire is not a list of things which we are inclined to do because we have been challenged by the questionnaire but is an account of what we have been doing over the last few years.
Our Mission Strategy (prepared shortly before the pandemic struck Scotland)
“Fogo Parish Church has grown enormously over the last three years. Now it is time for the congregation to develop its own Mission Strategy and, to enable this to be firmly based on everyone’s views, a congregational lunch followed by a conference session was held after Sunday Service on 12th. January.
A brief report of our meeting held on 15th. March to agree our Mission Strategy
In January we held a congregational conference to plan a missionary strategy for our church. The report of that conference, including a video ‘vision’ of where we might be at the end of this year if the proposals generated are implemented, can be found on our church website at www.fogokirk.org
A follow-up meeting was held on Sunday 15th. March after a congregational lunch. There is a video summary of what was agreed also available on our web-site.
The rest of this report contains two main items, both are lengthy because creating a mission strategy is a serious business and can’t be dealt with in a few words. The first item is a report of the meeting on 12th. January. It outlines what was discussed, the proposals which were brought forward and the consensus which emerged about the way forward. It is included so that everyone can see the way that we have developed our strategy and that we have attempted to involve everyone in the process.
The second item is a ten-minute video in the form of a Vision Statement about how our church might be by the end of this year if the proposals which emerged from the meeting are put into effect. This is available on our website. The main purpose of both the written document and the video vision was to equip members of the congregation to take part in the second conference session which was held on 15th. March of which the video at the top of the Mission web-page is a summary.
Report of our Mission Strategy meeting on 12th. January, 2020.
After our Church service on Sunday 12th January, and following a congregational lunch, members of the congregation, including the Kirk Session and Congregational Board, spent two hours discussing a mission strategy for our church, assisted by Julian, one of our new elders, who had prepared a number of questions and exercises to enable us to clarify our thinking.
In attempting to pull the wide variety of ideas which were generated into some kind of a paper to be discussed further and, eventually implemented, it is appropriate first of all to seek some form of description of what we are seeking to achieve – in other words, “What is Mission?”
As a step on the road to answering that question we have attempted to list a number of results of what a successful mission might look like.
As a result of a successful mission strategy:
· more people will be encouraged to join the congregation of Fogo Parish Church and become part of the family of the congregation.
· young people will be challenged by the claims of faith to consider whether the Church’s message might be of relevance to their lives.
· older people, perhaps living in care, will realise that they are not forgotten by the Church and that they remain important to the Church and to God.
· members of the existing congregation will develop a deepened faith which is both spiritual and informed.
· the community of Fogo Parish will realise that there is an active, dynamic, obedient and enthusiastic congregation in their midst and that it is there for them when they wish it.
· the life of the community and the lives of members of the community will be enriched and improved.
· individuals and organisations will be supported practically and in prayer, including groups and individuals beyond Fogo and Scotland.
· neighbouring congregations will be encouraged and will be assisted by our efforts.
· we will learn from, and be assisted by, the efforts of other individuals and groups working to further the Kingdom of God.
We suspect that it will be possible for others to add significantly to the list above, but the purpose of it for us is to have a measure against which to evaluate the many ideas floated at our initial meeting, as well as to see if each of the areas identified are covered by what has been proposed.
The second thing to identify is that what we are seeking to create is a Mission Strategy –- a programme which will lead us forward, rather than one or two isolated events, important though they may be in our life together as a congregation.
It may be that another way of saying this same thing is by reminding ourselves that Mission is not an activity in which congregations engage from time to time, but is the overall purpose of congregational life. Mission is our business, and if we are called to be obedient rather than to be successful, that obedience is to be a missionary congregation in an increasingly secular world.
Against these words of introduction we turn to the reports from each of the five working groups. Several of the groups came up with broadly similar ideas and many of the ideas were based on what is already being done.
So, for example, groups 1,3 & 5 all stressed the importance of communication. The words which appeared in their reports included Newsletter, Facebook, Website, social media, local newspaper, E-Newsletter, a ‘comic’ newsletter and local radio.
Clearly there is a recognised need and desire for a structured programme for sharing the work of the church with others through the different forms of media available to us. At present we produce a Newsletter, place weekly items in the ‘Berwickshire News’, have a church website and provide contact information through both Facebook and Twitter. Liz operates an email contact system with members of the congregation. We are learning to produce an E-Newsletter and expertise in this will be developed in the coming months.
Four of our five groups mentioned the success of our Music Festival last year and felt that this was something which could be built on in the future. In terms of mission it ticks several boxes for us as a) it builds on the links we have established with those who have already brought their music to Fogo Church, b) it provides an opportunity for our congregation to welcome an audience which is predominantly young and to provide for them something which they appreciate and c) it provides an event to which members of our parish who are our supporters, but who do not wish to attend church, can come. One group suggested that future festivals include a tent describing who we are and what we about –- a cross between letting folk know about us and a gentle evangelisation, perhaps.
Such an event builds on the strengths of who we are, and the contacts we have, and also has the advantage (challenge!) that we have already done it and it has been judged a success.
Possibly with this success in mind, different groups brought forward ideas for similar events: picnics with animals, messy church, a hill-top service; beach services with bar-b-cue (group 1); beer-tasting, children’s holiday clubs (possibly with other churches) (group 2); beach picnic/bar-b-cue, ceilidh, summer solstice bar-b-cue (group 4); summer party, arts and crafts, messy church, quilting (group 5).
Clearly we have several folk who enjoy a bar-b-cue! The suggestion about animals is an interesting one as it builds on the pet service which we held a couple of years ago. This was seen as being a success but has not been picked up since.
It would, we think, be an excellent idea to have an event or a number of events during the course of each year. The questions to be answered centre around whether we should seek to repeat successful events every year and who the target audience would be.
Some of these (such as children’s holiday clubs and messy church) are already being provided by neighbouring congregations with the assistance of the Berwickshire Christian Youth Trust, and we have to face the fact that although we want to welcome children into our congregation there is not a resident population of children within our parish.
One group (group 5) spoke about the importance of our building and of further adapting it to provide additional facilities both for mission and for private prayer and small discussion meetings. The idea which has evolved from this is that the former Harcarse Gallery be adapted to make an additional small hall to fulfill the purposes above. The gallery could quite easily be isolated with a soundproof curtain which would, of course, be opened when not in use. It already has a flat floor and it would be a straight forward task to add lighting to the area. The downside -– but one which our architect says can be overcome –- is the access to the gallery up a flight of stone steps. Issues relating to hand-rails and headroom are being resolved.
The reports from our groups all have in common the need for any mission strategy to reach out to young people, and most (1,2,3,5) to support older people. Several groups also suggest using our worship as a link to other people (1,3,5). Some groups also suggested that the link with young people can be built around their technological expertise (1,3,5).
The idea which evolves from this is that the church be fitted out to enable Sunday worship to be recorded and shared via our website. In addition, a series of short video services could be prepared, to be offered to care homes within Berwickshire. These services might be filmed in different locations with assistance from young people both in the service preparation and delivery, and in the production. Initially we could invite a small team of young people who were engaged in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and for whom this would fulfil the service part of that award. In our situation it will be far more profitable for us to seek to work closely with a small team of young people, which can grow, rather than seeking large numbers from the start. Completed services can be taken to care homes by two folk from the congregation: one to introduce the service, the other to hand around cake after the service so that it becomes an event.
Having the equipment and the team will enable a local thirty-minute programme of local news to be made each month. This will further our communication, add to the offering to care homes and engage the young folk with whom we will be working.
There were a number of suggestions for within our congregational life including a monthly lunch followed by a film or a speaker (group 4), a prayer group and Bible study (group 5), and a choir (group 5). Importantly, one group reminded us that there would soon be other congregations within our presbytery who would not have stipendiary ministers: perhaps in our thinking we have to look for ways of assisting them.
And, of course, we were reminded of the importance of supporting those in difficulties and in trouble which is, we hope, already a mark of our congregation.
Finally, mention was made of the plan for which presbytery approval has already been granted and for which approval from the General Trustees is awaited to purchase a cottage to act as a temporary home for a retired minister or worship leader who will come to lead our worship in the future. This too is an important part of our mission strategy for the future.
From the floor of the meeting it was raised that there was a desire that instead of putting in our offering as we arrive in church, the offering be uplifted before it is dedicated during the service. This was put to a vote and everyone present was in favour of this change which the Kirk Session undertook to implement once appropriate offering bags could be obtained.
So where do we go from here? It seems to me that the strands which emerge from the report as a whole are that we build our mission strategy on the pillars of what we are as a congregation: a group of people who worship together, in a beautiful building with the talent of welcoming others and working hard for what we believe is important. In other words our mission strategy will be built on our building, on our worship and on ourselves.
The following might be the basis of such a strategy:
· We convert the former Harcarse Loft into a room to be used for prayer and meditation, for other community functions and for learning programmes for our congregation.
· We design and support one major outreach event (such as a Music Festival) each summer and build into it ways of sharing who we are with those who attend.
· We set up a facility to record and eventually to stream our service a) to share it with the world and particularly the Borders community b) to engage young people in its production c) to provide support for the elderly and those in care homes d) to include plans for a news programme and a sound version for the blind.
· We take all steps necessary to ensure that communication remains at the heart of our activities.
· We make a commitment to continue to make the facilities of the church freely available to our community and to continue to encourage and develop our music programme.
· We make a commitment to share the services of ministers and worship leaders based in the cottage, to be known as Clare’s Cottage, with other congregations seeking to develop a future without the services of a stipendiary minister.
· We plan for a congregational lunch and congregational event on the four fifth Sundays of this year, a programme to then be reviewed for future years.
· We renew the commitment made to our Missionary Partner, and by our Holy Land pilgrims to the Bethany School, to have a fund-raising event for each during the course of this year.
A comparison of these proposals with the ‘results’ of a successful mission strategy in the introduction to this paper suggest that these proposals both meet the demands of those hoped-for results and arise from the discussions of our congregational discussion afternoon.
The target will be to have this programme fully up and running by the end of 2020 with a full review to be conducted at the end of 2021.
The next stage of this programme will be to have a further congregational lunch and meeting to consider the way forward, by which time the Finance Committee will have produced a costing of the programme and a full report on the financially viability of what is proposed.
This meeting was held on Sunday 15th. March and the proposals of the initial meeting were unanimously endorsed.”
It is interesting to note that although we spent almost every moment since this was agreed in lockdown of some form or another, progress has been made in many of these commitments. The Meditation room has been created and equipped, the streaming and recording facilities have been created and are regularly used although we have not been able to involve young people at present because of the pandemic. There is a lovely video on our website showing the children of the Jeel al Amal school in Bethany using the sports equipment we enabled them to buy with the £3,000 Christmas present we sent to them — a big enclosed trampoline, a treadmill, a football game and lots of bits and pieces.
It also appears important to us that describing our mission plans without making mention of our educational plans gives a very one-sided picture of our congregational life. As Church members we live to worship, to learn and to share — worship, education and mission.
As we have prepared a fully thought-out Mission Strategy, so we have prepared our own Education Strategy. Rather than describe this in detail (because the methodology parallels that of our Mission Strategy) we note the proposals on which we are working at present:
Our Education Strategy
Our Education Projects delayed by Covid
· Film Night. First film: “Paul, Apostle of Christ” (Distributed by Sony)
· Book discussion night. First book: “The Shadow of the Galilean” by Gerd Theissen. SCM Press 1987.
· Four-week study group. First theme: “Reappraisal for Mission” worksheets. Church of Scotland programme. This was originally introduced in 1978 at a time when Education was top of the priority list of the Church of Scotland.
· A monthly House Group. Programme: “Looking at one of the Books of the Bible” a chapter at a time with a time of prayer built in and sharing over tea or coffee. Could be peripatetic or based in one home for a three-month period and then reviewed.
· A monthly Bible teaching/study group. Different from a House Group in that the minister would be charged with leading a teaching session on a chapter of a book, or a faith issue with discussion and refreshments. Again this could be peripatetic or based in one home.
· A Day Away where we will meet from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and invite a speaker to inspire us, share in lunch and have lots of time for discussion. Possible first theme “What does a modern faith look like?”
· A regular teach-in with discussion through the University of the 3rd Age. First theme: “The Bible, what it is and how it came to us.” History not faith-based to comply with the rules of the U3A, based in a home and open to the whole area.
· A congregational “Question Time” either using four of our own members as the panel or inviting guests from elsewhere and largely with questions relating to faith and its application. Again could be held in a home or in church.
· A six-month programme where we do one of each of the above each month so that at the end of that period of time we could assess what was good for us and what was not. Possible programme:
September: Film Night.
October: Study Group looking at “What should it mean to live as Christians in the World today?”
November: Congregational Question Time.
December: Congregational Christmas Party with Christmas Quiz.
January: Book discussion night.
February: House Group.
March: Away day with invited speaker.
2. Do you engage with the community?
This is an important question. Just as mission is not an activity in which we engage on an occasion and then retire from it, so engaging in the community is something we do each and individually as members of the community, as well as contributing as a congregation.
All of our members are very much part of our community and there is little which happens within our community in which congregational members are not playing a leading role. As a result the parish church has developed a good reputation within the community and this has been increased by the new model of church in which everyone is a volunteer and by the hard work which is seen being done within the community by church members. The church invariably says ‘yes’ and is welcoming to requests from the community, its individuals and groups, and this is appreciated and acknowledged by the community.
We add to the rich tapestry of community life with our Flower Festivals, Music Festivals and regular musical events. We are a community resource to which people in need of many different kinds are directed. We celebrate with those who celebrate and we weep with those who weep. We also provide significant help for those in need and annually set aside funds for this purpose.
We visit every home every month. We support our local nursery. We make our facilities freely available. We know everyone and everyone knows us.
3. Do you hold any clubs?
Within the congregation we have groups to plan Mission activities, to take part in Educational activities, to watch films, to plan, organise and run Flower Shows, Music Festivals, and special one-off activities but all are done as a congregation rather than as any separate clubs. In addition the facilities of the church are made freely available to groups from within the congregation and parish.
Section Six: PRESBYTERY
1. Do you understand how Presbytery operates?
The Kirk Session, Congregational Board and Congregation are kept well-informed on the work of Presbytery both by our minister and by our Presbytery Elder, Tom Thorburn. The minister has conducted a training course on the work of the Kirk Session, Presbytery and General Assembly. Presbytery has held several functions at Fogo Parish Church and when, for example, presbytery came to discuss planning matters with congregations at this end of the presbytery there was an excellent turn-out of Fogo congregation members, as there was when the Presbytery Elders’ service was held in Fogo. Our congregation has also always taken every opportunity offered to respond to requests for information or for other plans which have been locally produced.
2. Do you feel there is sufficient engagement with Presbytery?
We are happy with our current engagement with Presbytery. Presbytery is part of many of the sentences spoken by our members not least because our minister is interim moderator of Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood Parish Churches and this naturally impacts significantly on the life of our congregation but which is understood by our members as being part of our presbytery responsibilities. Our minister is also Moderator of Presbytery and tends to share with us the work in which he is involved (when that is appropriate)!
Our congregation is aware that Presbytery responded generously to us when the plans for amalgamation with Duns and District Parishes came to nothing in 2016. We are aware that Presbytery acted generously to us when we were allowed to have a non-stipendiary minister and when Presbytery declared us to be a necessary congregation. We have tried to respond appropriately to that generosity and confidence placed in us and note for the purposes of this questionnaire that although Fogo Parish Church is a tiny rural congregation it does now contribute significantly to the life of the Presbytery and of the Church of Scotland. We receive no stipendiary minister (and we are happy about that). We receive no financial support from Edinburgh (and we are happy about that). We pay our Presbytery dues as requested (and are happy about that). We contribute to the finances of the Church of Scotland through the Ministries and Mission Fund (and are happy about that). We respond to requests for funds from other congregations (we donated £5,000 to Eyemouth) and we give regularly to our Missionary Partner. So the Church of Scotland is better with us than if we had been closed down!
Our minister contributes to Presbytery by serving as Moderator. He also serves by acting as Interim Moderator at Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood — a task in which he is helped greatly by members of our congregation. Our presbytery elder serves presbytery well, not only as a diligent presbyter but as convener of the Superintendence work of Presbytery, and by taking charge of the presbytery website and as a member of the Business Committee. We have played our part in events such as the annual elders’ service and enjoyed doing that. We trust that Presbytery is better with us than if we had closed down.
Our congregation has grown every year since we began to grow in 2016. Every home in the parish is visited every month and new people have been brought to faith, lapsed members of different denominations have had faith reawakened; folk have been married, the bereaved have been comforted and the church has come alive in its parish. We hope that our parish is better than if we had closed down.
As members of our congregation we enjoy joyful worship, we engage in education programmes and share in mission as part of our daily lives, and many of us have been on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We are enjoying this opportunity of living our faith and we believe that we are better than if we had closed down.
So we thank Presbytery and commit ourselves to continue to make a difference for the better and to support the work of Presbytery in the future.
3. What would you like Presbytery to do differently?
We would like Presbytery to be peripatetic, moving from congregation to congregation throughout the year with an opportunity for the local congregation to provide hospitality and ask questions of presbytery officials. In other words we would like every presbytery meeting to be a celebration of the mission and fellowship of some of our members. We would like even more emphasis on the educational parts of Presbytery and that by holding these special meetings at different churches would hope that local congregations might become more involved. We would like more emphasis on worshipping together as a presbytery, remembering that in the early days of the reformation members met together as a presbytery to worship together and to study scripture. Thus Presbytery would equip its members to be the Presbytery in action throughout the Presbytery area.
Section Seven: THE FUTURE
1. If, in the future, it was not possible to appoint a minister to your congregation, how would you see yourself operating?
We already have accepted that we will never again have a minister and are attempting to build a new shape of congregation.
Congregational Life
At present we have the services of a non-stipendiary minister but his ministry is centred on enabling our congregation to stand on its own feet. In pre-covid times our minister usually preached the sermon and pronounced the benediction with all other items — prayers, readings, meditations etc being led by congregational members. It was also a regular part of each year that for a period of six weeks every service would be conducted entirely by church members who would prepare every part of the service and would then present it. Naturally this development has been hampered by the present virus regulations but during the first lock-down members of the congregation prepared and delivered a daily ‘reading, thought and prayer’ which was placed on the Church web-site.
Church members are confident about a future in which they will be fully responsible for the life and work of the congregation. Presbytery has experienced our lay leadership in the Elders’ service conducted within our Church.
Christian Education is important at Fogo Parish Church. Different educational programmes are part of the regular programme of the church; new elders have been trained and ordained; a congregational pilgrimage to the Holy Land was organised in early 2020 and would have been followed by other associated activities had it not been for the pandemic.
A detailed Mission Plan has been constructed as a result of a programme of congregational meetings. This is now fully funded and will commence as soon as circumstances permit.
Congregational Finance
Our congregation is pioneering a new model of congregational life. Our aim has been to cut our regular expenditure to the absolute minimum by, first of all, creating a model in which no-one is paid for what they contribute to the church whether that be leading worship, providing music, providing accountancy skills, cleaning or doing other work of building care and development. Thus our main items of expenditure are insurance, heating and lighting, and contributions to the Church of Scotland and Presbytery. Cutting this routine expenditure to a minimum enables us to face the future with financial confidence. It also enables us to use a much higher percentage of our income for mission or to supporting people in need. In this regard a full budget is drawn up each year and the costs of this are paid in full by the regular standing order commitments of congregational members.
A significant Mission Plan was agreed shortly before the virus arrived and £50,000 set aside to fund this programme which has, of course, been delayed because of the current situation. In addition, payments to the Ministries and Mission Fund are paid in full as soon as we are notified of what they are for the year, as are Presbytery dues. Fogo congregation supports financially our Missionary Partner, has recently sent £3,000 to a school in Palestine, provides financial and other support for people within the parish in financially straightened circumstances and, when Eyemouth Church recently appealed for assistance, immediately responded with a gift of £5,000.
Most of our members have been members for less than four years. Stewardship is at the heart of everything we do and not only are we a net contributor to the finances of the Church of Scotland, but we contribute significantly to other local congregations (we are helping Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood with ministerial support; Eyemouth with financial support) and we continue to contribute to our Missionary partner and to the work of other charities and individuals both at home and overseas.
Our Church Building
As we have already explained, our building is now in a really good state of repair, is fully-equipped for our needs into the future and is economical to run. There is also a local Community Trust, separate from the Church, which is prepared to take on the ownership and maintenance of the building and to ensure that it remains available for the congregation and community in the future, should the Church of Scotland decide that it becomes surplus to requirements.
New Buildings
Currently in Edinburgh we have £137,540 in central funds. We would like to use this money to purchase a £150,000 cottage within the parish. (We have the funds locally to complete the purchase price.) This cottage will be used to bring people to stay with us in exchange for leading worship for our congregation for a period of say a month at a time, thus bringing new insights to us from the services which we shall be leading ourselves. We will hope to bring some distinguished preachers to Fogo and make our church into a rural centre of preaching and which, thanks to the new technological skills we are learning in lockdown, can be shared with other congregations both within the presbytery and beyond. We have identified the cottage we wish to purchase and have agreed with its owner that he will sell it to us. (He is a financial supporter, although not a member of our congregation).
2. How do you see this area operating in an enlarged presbytery, including Jedburgh, Melrose, Peebles and part of the Lothians?
We accept that this is likely to happen but we accept it with considerable regret. We understand that the carrots to encourage us to become part of larger presbyteries include giving us greater control over resources as well as having significant additional staffing. We note that this does not appear to be happening in other places which are further ahead in the process than we are.
We believe that Presbytery will become increasingly irrelevant to the small rural congregations which will continue to make their own way without a minister of their own, even although in our own case our small presbytery is pioneering presbytery support for congregations in this situation. Our case is made, perhaps, by the fact that we are pioneering this proposal when there are so many other presbyteries with similar needs and greater resources which have not gone down this road.
3. How do you see the Church of Scotland in five years’ time?
There will undoubtedly be fewer and fewer ministers and the congregations which will succeed will be those which adapt to taking responsibility for their own destiny, conducting their own worship, caring for their own people, creating their own mission strategies and placing an emphasis on education. This is not a new model but is actually a return to the basis of synagogue worship at the time of Jesus. The Session Clerk will be responsible for the organising of services which will be led by congregational members with particular excitement when there is a visiting preacher with something extra-special to say. The congregation will take on responsibility for educating our children and also our adult members in the faith, making use of technology and so much of the wonderful material which is now available world-wide.
This is, of course, a local picture and reflects our view that the Church of Scotland centrally will become ever less important as years go by.
4. How do you see the Church of Scotland in ten years’ time?
The model we identify above will have developed and become more generally accepted. Congregations will be small and locally based and there will be regret that so many buildings have been disposed of in times gone by at the instigation of centralising forces engaged in a desperate attempt to keep an outmoded institution in existence. There will be fewer full-time ministers of word and sacrament and congregations will have become ever more congregational, each looking after themselves but sharing, by choice, with other partner congregations at home and abroad.
The central office of the Church of Scotland will look after payroll and human resources matters. The Church of Scotland will have ceased to attempt to be a national Church but will work to co-operate with congregations of different denominations to provide the ordinances of religion throughout our country.
Where more than one denomination exists in an area they will increasingly share a building and congregations will be moving towards thinking of themselves as Christian rather than Church of Scotland or Roman Catholic. As lay leaders become licensed to conduct the sacraments, Holy Communion will re-take a central role in our regular worship services.
As our country becomes increasingly secular congregations will place higher and higher priority on the education of the young and the training of adults in the ways of our faith. More and more use will be made of technology both to provide worship and training for our members.
The lack of full-time ministers will have begun to set our membership free and the Holy Spirit will take her Church in new and ever more vibrant directions.
Final Section: CONGREGATIONAL CONSULTATION
1. Methodology
After the questionnaire had been completed, with the Treasurer completing the financial section and the Session Clerk completing the statistical section etc. as suggested by Presbytery, the completed questionnaire was sent to every member of the congregation for their comments. As the document is a Microsoft Publisher document and not every member could be assumed to have access to this programme the document was also placed on a page of the web-site devoted to this matter and members were invited to express their own views.
Most of the views expressed were expressions of approval of what had been compiled. In a small number of responses additional comments were made with the request that these be included within our response. These comments are included below.
2. Additional Comments
“I would like to have seen mention made of the alterations which have been made to the Vestry. The Vestry has been tastefully converted to allow tea and coffee to be served after the Service. This has had a huge success not only in allowing the congregation to have a refreshment but a good level of conversation round the needs of not just members but everyone in the Parish. Success breeds success and this refreshment period which usually lasts more than an hour has led to what members describe as ‘Our Church Family’.
Facilities are also available for heating prepared meals for lunches.”
“Under the section on ‘Is the Sanctuary being used for other purposes?’ I would like to see added that our sanctuary was used extensively for our twelve Educational talks/slide shows on Religious Sites to be visited during our Holy Land Pilgrimage. Such was the success of the 2020 Fogo Pilgrimage that pilgrims are eager to visit other Religious Sites, which would see the Sanctuary used again for such educational talks and slide shows.”
“Under Mission possibly, it may be an idea to mention that on our Watchnight Services we wish to build on having these outdoors round braziers weather permitting as this has the attraction of more people attending?”
“Our report mentions possible problems with access to the former Harcarse Loft. This requires an addendum to say that these have all been resolved.”
“Please mention that our old organ was beyond economical repair and had to be removed but, in its place we now have a modern electronic organ which Rachel programmes each week so that we have fabulous music each Sunday and have also built up a library of hymns which can be played without an organist being present in the future.”
“It would be nice to see the contributions of Rev. John Hunter (whose father was minister in Fogo for many years) being acknowledged as well as the contributions of the Rev. Veronica and the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Walker who add to our church family and have been generous with their time to our congregation as well as to the congregations of Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood. Even although we are preparing to be responsible for our own worship, retired ministers have a great deal to offer us, and we are grateful to them.”
“I particularly enjoyed the Zoom fellowship which followed our Sunday services. It would be good to continue this for the benefit of those who are stuck at home — something which won’t end once lockdown ends.”
“I think that the idea of a cottage is a good one which needs to be handled with care. Maybe we should consider leasing a cottage initially which might place less of a burden on us.”
“Let’s send out anniversary cards to those who are baptised or married within our Church.”
“I envisage a strawberry tea for our congregation once we can all get together again.”
Thank you for taking the time to complete this, it is to the benefit of all of us to work together to serve Christ and spread his word. COULD YOU PLEASE RETURN THE COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE TO THE CLERK BY MONDAY 1ST MARCH 2021.
Susan Patterson, Business Convener, January 2021
