Looking Back: Kenya send helper to Pilton as thank-offering

From May 1985

An Edinburgh Church which has received a gift of nearly £4000 from fellow-Christians in Kenya has agreed how it would like to spend the money. The Kirk Session of West Pilton’s Old Kirk will invite a Kenyan minister or church worker to spend a year with them, assisting them in their parish work.

Now the invitation “to come over and help us” will go to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, the Church of Scotland’s partner-Church in Kenya.

The minister at the Old Kirk, the Rev Ian Moir, said that when his church received a letter from Bishop Bernard Muindi, secretary general of the PCEA telling him that the churches there had raised £3825 the session members received the news with “a feeling of deep gratitude and humility”.

The decision to collect money in Kenya on behalf of the people of West Pilton came about after a visit to Edinburgh by Bishop Muindi in 1983. In a letter the bishop says:

“This Church, as an expression of thanks for blessings received through the Church of Scotland

"And as an expression of its mission concern outside of its border, set aside Sunday September 16, 1984 as a day for special contributions to aid one of the mission areas in Scotland…. The givings of the Church of Macedonia served as a challenge and example to us.

“I would like to make it quite clear that what we are doing in this connection is not a pride or show by our Church, but we intend to educate our Church on the mission of the Church, Christians do not give because they have plenty but they do so out of love and concern. It is time that younger Churches shared with others their meagre resources,” (Corinthians 8; 1-5)

Bishop Muindi says that the effort in Kenya has not been without its critics.

“There has been some criticism from individuals and from the press of our actions but we have not heeded them,” he says. “Because Christians do not give out of plenty but out of love.”

“It is time,” he says, for “a walking rather than a talking Christianity.”

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