News

Parish News Round-up

Thursday July 13 2017

Our regular round-up of news received from churches.

Please send items of parish news to magazine@lifeandwork.org or Life and Work, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN. Digital photographs should not be reduced. Please check the quality of your pictures: images which are blurry or too dark cannot be used. If there are children in any picture please confirm that their parents or guardians have given permission for publication.

During May’s General Assembly the Lord High Commissioner, Princess Anne, visited Kirk of Calder, of Mid Calder in West Lothian, where she was presented with a cheque for £85,500 for the Vine Trust.

The congregation raised the money over two and half years, with the support of the local community, to build an orphanage in Tanzania.

The congregation of New Laigh Kirk in Kilmarnock said farewell to Barbara Urquhart DCS, ho retired as the church’s pastoral assistant on June 25.

Barbara, who has been registered blind since she was nine years old, was commissioned as a Deaconess in September 1986 in Dundee. She has worked in Christian Education and hospital chaplaincy as well as pastoral care, and been member of several committees at both local and national church level. She was President of the Diaconate Council from 2007-2010.

The minister of New Laigh, the Rev David Cameron, said in his address: “In your diaconate ministry you have borne both the name of Jesus and also his spirit.”

Barbara is pictured with her husband, the Rev John Urquhart, children Eileigh and John, and David Cameron.

At their united summer service on July 2 the linked Ayrshire congregations of Ochiltree and Stair celebrated Ian Jamieson’s 40 years as a Reader with the Church of Scotland.

Ian has served as Locum for the linked charge since February 2016. Within the Presbyteries of Ardrossan, Lanark and Ayr he has frequently covered similar duties, and has conducted services in more than 100 churches across Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. A native of Beith and now living in Prestwick, Ian’s professional life was spent in education, his final post before retirement being that of lecturer with the University of Strathclyde at Jordanhill in Glasgow.

Ian is pictured with the Session Clerks of Ochiltree and Stair, Isabell Montgomerie and Bob Drummond.