Message from Tiree Parish Church:
We recently wrote to members and adherents of the church to share news and update them on progress in different areas. As we seek to be a church for everyone who lives or spends time on Tiree, we wanted to share this with the readers of our website.
Vacancy
You will probably be aware that in September our minister, Rev Elspeth MacLean, was called to be minister of Forth St Paul’s, in the Presbytery of Lanark. Since then our worship has been led by visiting ministers and local volunteers. We hope you will join us in thanking Elspeth for her ministry on Tiree and praying for her in her new post.
In January an interim moderator, Rev Dr Iain Barclay, was appointed to support and guide the congregation during the vacancy. He has begun to put in place the things needed to begin the process of seeking a new minister. The first of these is the compiling of an electoral register of those who will be able to vote for the nominating committee and for the approval of a new minister. If you have had this letter sent to you because you are a member or an adherent of the church then your name will automatically added to this list. If you know anyone who has not received this letter but would like to have their name added to the list of members or adherents they should contact an elder for more information. The list will be attested at a meeting on the 21st April.
Right to Call ….. Good News!
As of 3rd April, the congregation has been given permission by presbytery to call a minister to Tiree. The nominating committee to oversee this process will be elected on Sunday 23rd April 2017 at close of worship.
Renovation of Heylipol Church
The work at Heylipol is not yet completed. Much work has been done to the exterior of the building and there has been considerably less water entering the building. Bids have been sought for the work on the interior of the building and the Congregational Board is continuing to work on this.
Upcoming Events
Easter this year will be on the 16th April, and we look forward to celebrating Christ’s resurrection with as many of you as possible. Details of services for Holy Week and Easter, and all other services, are published here on our website and in An Tirisdeach. Please note that there will be no service at Heylipol Church on Easter Sunday. Instead the Church of Scotland will join the Baptists for a service at An Talla at 11.00am.
Tiree Music Festival will take place 15-17th July this year, and we look forward to again being part of the Christian presence at the festival and taking our worship onto the festival site on Sunday morning.
How you can be involved
Prayer and Worship
We continue to meet each Sunday morning for worship in Heylipol Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”. When we meet together for worship, we invite an encounter with the Living God. If you’ve not been to church for a while, we’d love for you to come and share worship with us, whether it’s for the first time or something you’ve done many times before. If you have trouble with getting to church, please contact an elder and we’ll see what we can do to help.
God is not just found in our shared worship, but in our own prayers. We would encourage you to pray both for yourself and those you love, for our church and for the wider world. If you’ve not prayed much before, the Church of Scotland website has some advice:
www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/prayer
Practical Help
If you’ve got some spare time and you’d like to help, it’s a great way to serve one another and to serve God. Some examples:
– reading the Bible during worship
– cleaning the church
– cutting the grass
– providing flowers
– administration
– operating and maintaining the sound system
– leading part of a service
– playing a musical instrument or singing
Money
We can give in lots of ways, all of them valued, but some of the things the church does costs money. As well as paying for repairs and running costs for the church and manse, the congregation is responsible for paying part of the cost of having a minister on the island. The full cost of this is well in excess of £50 000 a year (that’s not what our minister gets paid!) but much of this cost is generously met by larger parishes on the mainland, and the Church of Scotland asks us for around £12 000 towards this. Over the last few years, Tiree Parish Church has spent more on day-to-day running costs than has been received as donations and we have reached the point where the reserves for this type of spending have been exhausted. While we would always seek to meet the cost of ministry from the members of the church, we’d welcome any help with making sure that we can continue to have a minister serving the island into the future. Consequently we are asking whether you would consider making a regular donation by standing order. Whether this is £2 a month or £200, it will help us to continue to serve God and the Isle of Tiree into the future. Forms are available at Heylipol Church, or alternatively can be downloaded here.
You can keep in touch with what is happening via the church website www.tireeparishchurch.com, through notices in An Tirisdeach and, of course, by joining us for worship on a Sunday morning. We look forward to seeing you soon
May God bless you, this day and always.
Kirk Session and Congregational Board
Tiree Parish Church