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Welcome to the
website for Kiltarlity and
Kirkhill Churches!
The purpose of this website is threefold. Firstly, to keep you informed
about the life and work of our churches. Secondly, to be a useful tool
in sharing news and letting you know how our search for a new minister
is going, and thirdly to be a source of further facts relating to the
mission of the Church of Scotland and its related organisations.
Locum
Minister - The View from God's Little Acre
To those who can still trip the light fantastic,
In the Old Testament, there is a tiny and largely ignored prophecy
called Zephania. In the third chapter of the book at verse 13, these
intriguing words are inscribed: "God will dance for joy with you." I
have to admit that I had not thought of our relationship to God in
terms of dancing. The Charleston, the Mamba, the Bunny Hop, the waltz,
the Scottish country dances all raced through my mind, but linking this
to our life with God was fascinatingly new. For those of us who have
two left feet or for those who could be nominees for Strictly Come
Dancing, the images are tantalising.
There is the resurrection dance: The one that that is so joyful and so
free, the dance with that sense of abandonment as we dance with our
risen Lord. On the beautiful days watching sunsets, storm clouds,
rainbows, feeling the wind on the top of the mountain, my "free child"
dancing with the sun, wind and rain splashing on the face, arms and
legs.
There is the crucifixion dance: The slow, sad dancing with my Creator
as we grieve over the death and the abuse of children all over the
world. Child soldiers, child prostitutes, loss of innocence and
potential. We dance the sadness of the world and for the ways we
maltreat one another, the lonely, the outcast, the rejected.
There is the dance of the furies: A wild dance, and angry dance in the
battle against, racism, sexism, hunger and violence, against all forms
of human exploitation and our refusal to treat human beings with
dignity and respect. The dance of the furies rages when the church
seeks to stifle growth, honest questioning, or the exploiting of the
faith in an attempt to hold on to control, or when it teaches that God
is ultimately harshness and judgemental, or that God is static and can
be imprisoned or defined.
Left Brain Dancing like Scottish Country dancing, making and enjoying
patterns and sequences, math and science. It is the love of the
precision of numbers, structure of flowers, spirals in sea shells and
leaves, shapes, orbits and solar systems. They all bid us come to the
dance.
Right Brain Dancing. We dance as much and as often as our imagination
allows. We dance in a way that flows freely in words, music, pictures
and symbols.
And one day when I am tired and the lights grow dim, I hope to do the
last waltz with Jesus himself, to know him and to be known by him, and
at the last hear him whisper in my ear, "Shall we go home now?"
So as they say on Strictly Come Dancing as they sign off, "Whatever you
do, keep on dancing."
.
Love,
Willis
Pat's
Corner
Every Wednesday evening there is a great opportunity for me and my
friends in the Special K's to go to a prayer, worship and fellowship
gathering at either the Kirkhill Church or at the home of the Dobson
family. We meet from 7pm to 7:30pm. All are welcome.
I must confess that I went the first time in fear and trembling. The
getting there was easy, as it was only next door, and people would get
suspicious if I were caught watching EastEnders instead. The reluctance
to go had to do with the fact that the words just never seemed to come
out right, or even sound sincere when I prayed aloud. Two questions
from former prayer meetings haunted me: Would God listen to and accept
my prayer? And what would other people think of my prayer? I do pray
frequently and silently, but it certainly is not "in the tongues of men
and angels". I wondered if other people had the same hesitancies. Why
couldn't I just relax, stop thinking about myself, pray from the heart
and know that Our Lord would understand?
At the first meeting I got that "fear not" feeling. None of the prayers
were solemn declamations or melodious sonnets. People talked to God
about body part replacements, and loneliness, anger management,
marriage problems, sleep disturbances, and gratitude for a new job. One
widow was praying for a new man in her life. The prayers were natural
and sincere and no one attempted to play "Can you top this?" with their
prayer styles. I came away feeling that I didn't have to exalt myself
to pray, but the incarnate God who came in Jesus to live out what God
was really like would stop and stoop to give a listening ear and carry
it in his heart. The next time I scurried next door without even
thinking about the soaps.
In the play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder, we hear this wonderful
question, "Do any human beings ever realise life while they live it -
every, every minute. We don't take time to even look at each other."
Emily's observation challenges me to realise that I have trouble with
my prayer life because I take my ordinary life for granted. If I truly
appreciated all that was going on all around me, I wouldn't moan and
groan, I would have an attitude of gratitude, and would stay more in
touch with God, and God's people and the world that God made. Then I
could say, "Let it flow, let it flow."
This morning I woke up, it was a beautiful day - but I couldn't express
in words what I was feeling. Today is certainly not a "take it for
granted" kind of day. Fortunately I found a poem by e.e. cummings which
expresses my sentiments exactly:
THANK YOU GOD
i thank you for this most amazing
day; for leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
( i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love, and wings; and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
It's not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in
the need of prayer. If you would like to join me in the "Amen Corner,"
I would be so happy!
Love,
Pat
Rev. Reg
Campbell’s response to inaccurate press
reports that have appeared in the local newspapers in recent weeks
Many people will have read the inaccurate articles in the Inverness
Courier recently. I have spoken to them about this and suggested that
before they write things about any particular church they should first
check with the Minister of the church the accuracy of what they are
going to say!!
We are also arranging a meeting with Rev. Alistair Murray, the convenor
of the Parish Reappraisal Committee, to express our views on these
things, and to find out what is the situation for the future concerning
re-appraisal in the Inverness Presbytery.
Let me reassure you that Kiltarlity and Kirkhill have at present the
right to call a Minister on an unrestricted status. No suggestion of
any reappraisal of this situation has been either discussed, or
mentioned, at Inverness Presbytery. Nor is it within the Inverness
Presbytery Plan that currently exists.
The Nominations Committee continues in its efforts to find a full time
Minister for Kiltarlity and Kirkhill. Recently they heard an interested
Minister, and will be interviewing him with a view of asking him, if
they deem him suitable, to be a sole nominee. This decision will be
taken before the end of this month.
Work is proceeding also on dealing with fabric matters at the manse in
readiness for a new minister when the right person is found. What
counts is God's timing and the right choice being made irrespective of
any speculation that is currently circulating about cut backs in the
numbers of ministers, or more accurately posts (for this includes
assistant ministers, deacons, deaconesses, parish assistants etc. not
just Ministers) which to me seems a false economy especially here in
our presbytery where there are many signs of growth.
Another article I have read from the National Stewardship committee,
spoke of increases in giving of up to 44% in some congregations where a
stewardship campaign has been undertaken. The £5.7 million
deficit mentioned, which excluding the pension deficit, is barely 5% of
the Church of Scotland's income, and could easily be wiped out thus by
other means than ministerial cut-backs.
We need, as a church, to plan rather for growth, to put mission back at
the heart of what we are about as Presbyteries and Churches. As one
Minister said to his congregation I have good news and bad. The good
news is that we have got the money we need, the bad news is that it is
still in your wallets!
Reg
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