1 Constitution
At Linlithgow and within the Kirk Hall of St Michael's Parish Church on Tuesday 15th February 2011, which date and place Kirk Session of St Michael's Parish Church Linlithgow met and was constituted with prayer and a reading from Scripture - Leviticus 19 verses 9 & 10.
The Moderator paid tribute to Nina Archibald, one of our Elders, who died on 26 January 2011. A minute's silence was observed and Session then sang the first verse of Jesus Loves Me, a hymn sung at Nina's funeral due to her having been a Sunday school teacher.
The Moderator asked Session if he could add an agenda item to 6.9, Twinning. Kirk Session agreed.
2 Sederunt and Apologies
As detailed on the attached sheets.
3 Minutes of previous meeting (18th January 2011)
The minutes were agreed.
4 Matters arising
Rev John Paton referred to the previous minute on page 590 under Stewardship. He would prefer to know only publicly well known facts about a household he might be visiting during the Stewardship campaign, e.g. birth or death. He would rather not know about particular issues, e.g. redundancy; also the household might not want the visitor to know anything about them. If there has been a redundancy, for example, the visitor can deal with this during the visit.
Stephen Blake explained that the household might want the visitor to know. The information would not be open to everyone and would be dealt with confidentially and sensitively. Feedback from previous campaigns suggested that visitors who were not Elders could be more prepared if they had this type of information. This will be discussed at the Steering Group's meeting tomorrow night.
Roy Dilkes spoke on his and John Aitken's behalf to thank Session for their thoughts and prayers that had been minuted last month. It was very much appreciated by each of them.
Many Elders phoned and called into Roy's to offer practical help and again this was greatly appreciated.
Anne Law advised the Bells Appeal now stands at £8809.
5 Agreeing of any other business to form item 9
Suzi Farrant - Notice Board
Suzi Farrant - Cracking Easter
6 Team Reports
6.1 Fellowship Team - Alison Millar spoke to her report. She wanted to remind everyone that if a parent has a child with them which is unsettled they can take them to the Crèche during the service. A notice regarding the Crèche will be put into the weekly intimations. She also spoke of the Men's Association and how the numbers have dropped. Elders could encourage membership when district visiting and also any Elders that are not members might consider joining.
Peter Russell asked how Kirk Session can acquire a dynamic view of the life of the congregation and organisations within the Church. Peter suggested that Kirk Session could only take an active role in setting priorities for the spiritual life of the congregation if it has appropriate information about trends.
6.2 Worship Team - No written report. Elma Birrell advised Session the team had met recently and updated on the following points:
Marshall Green has compiled a questionnaire about the operation of the screen and will present the results at the next Worship team meeting on 8th March.
Jon Blundell has agreed to distribute the Easter cards to other churches within the Forum.
Suzi Farrant will ask members of Fusion to submit designs for the Easter cards with the other local churches being given the opportunity to design the card in subsequent years. The deadline for the designs is the end of February.
Suzi will also check on access to projection equipment for Springfield.
The Christmas offerings totalled £3200 with half being donated to the Church's HIV programme.
Elma registered her thanks to Amy Donaldson for all the work she had done on the Readers' Rota, the Worship team and Christingle services.
The visit to St Andrew's Bo'ness took place and was enjoyed. Particular note was made of the use of technology with the service available on the Internet.
The Fun Day will continue in its traditional location but the opportunity for fresh ideas will be discussed at the next Junior Church Leaders' meeting.
The Communion invitation cards stock needs to be replenished and Elma will contact the printer to organise, making sure the 3pm Communion services in the Kirk Hall are included.
The first additional afternoon service is on Sunday 27th February.
The YF will lead the 9.30am service on 3rd April, Mothering Sunday. It was agreed that the testimony of an individual mother was appreciated and should be retained.
6.3 Business Team - No written report. There are no accounts to review and the accounts for 2010 are currently with our external Auditor. Tom Chadwick advised Session that at the recent Plenary meeting Anne Law gave an excellent talk on the work of the Ministries Council.
The charges for Cross House lettings and also for Weddings have been revised. The Finance team put forward recommendations to Business for increases in line with the increase in energy costs and water charges. The proposed changes are:
Cross House
Rooms increase from £5.25 to £6 per hour
Adam Room increases from £9.50 to £11 per hour
Kirk Hall increases from £18.00 to £20 (minimum 2 hours)
Kirk Hall and Servery increases from £23.00 to £26.00 (minimum 2 hours)
Servery increases from £7.50 to £10 per hour
Kirkgate group rental will increase from £30 to £40 per booking.
Church rental will increase from £45 to £55 per hour.
All the regular groups that have already made bookings will only pay the increased rentals costs after their current booking ends.
Weddings
The only increase for 2011 will be the Bellringer from £20 to £25.
Kirk Session agreed to the increases.
6.4 Education Team - Donald Burgess spoke to Gordon Young's report. The team have made visits to various groups and will be reporting next month. He wanted to highlight the critical staffing matter in the Girls Brigade. There will be a broader picture from the Education team at the March Kirk Session.
6.5 Evangelism Team - No written report. Stephen Marshall (Local) is meeting with Bob Ross (Communications) and will have a written report at March Kirk Session. William Ross suggested that the Church should be represented again at the Marches. Stephen will consider.
Crosswind magazine - April's collation will take place in the Kirk Hall on Wednesday 16th March at 9.30am. Volunteers are needed. Three advertisers have recently withdrawn their support and if anyone has any ideas about local businesses to contact please get in touch with Myra Lawson.
6.6 Pastoral Care - No written report. Sheila Rae has been advised by Anne Bennie that under the new PVG scheme a job description for a Church visitor will require to be drawn up. This will be discussed at the team's next meeting.
Sheila will undertake Safeguarding training in March.
The team would like to input ideas for the Commitment cards for the stewardship campaign, e.g. it would be good to see more people at Wednesday prayers in the Church or we might want to increase the numbers on the Communion elements team.
The Group had also looked at volunteer and training opportunities offered by Quiet Waters Counselling service. It was thought the training opportunities should be offered to Church visitors to assist them in their work. The core training focuses on creative listening and there is also a module on bereavement issues.
6.7 Safeguarding - No report.
6.8 Stewardship - The Steering Group has not met since the time of the January Kirk Session. Individual groups have met and there has been a lot of activity.
Admin - The Church roll has been updated. All rooms in Cross House and the Church have been booked for meetings and events. Timetable has been issued and they are looking at obtaining the DVD from the Mission & Discipleship Council.
Catering - The group are looking at the finer details e.g. layout of the Kirk Hall, shopping lists, suppliers and stewarding.
Presentation - They have identified 11 groups that will have three panel display boards and 10 groups that will have a one-panel display board. They will buy the display boards with the anonymous donation that has been received for that purpose.
Publicity - The first Newsletter will be issued in mid February, the final draft will be approved at the Steering Group's meeting on Wednesday 16th February.
Visitors - An appeal was made for Elders to consider how to split their Districts if they were larger or where they are made up of several streets. It is hoped that visitors will visit 8 household and no more than 10. Members' telephone numbers are important in order to recruit visitors. Can Elders also let Margaret know if there are houses that are not appropriate to be visited.
A discussion took place again on the timing of the campaign given the economic climate. It had been agreed to go ahead with the campaign after a lot of careful consideration in order to give St Michael's the financial stability to carry out its role locally, nationally and internationally.
6.9 Twinning - The Moderator advised Session that the official delegate for Israel and Palestine at the General Assembly 2011 will be The Venerable Archdeacon Samuel Barhoum. He will be at St Michael's on Sunday 22 May and it is anticipated that the Twinning agreement will be signed then.
7 Report from Presbytery
There was no report from Presbytery. The Moderator announced that the induction has taken place of the new minister at Bathgate High.
8 Session Clerk's Report
New Members - Approval of Kirk Session was sought for the admission of the following full membership by Certificate of Transfer:
and by Resolution;
Kirk Session agreed.
The Session Clerk has received an email from Amy Donaldson to confirm she will transfer to St Columba's in Blackhall, Edinburgh. Amy wanted to thank Kirk Session for the support given to her in the early days of her move to Edinburgh. She also wished to thank the Moderator and Rev John Paton. The Clerk will reply to Amy and Ian to wish them well.
Statistics have been provided for Presbytery:
The roll at 31st December 2009 was 1447 and the roll at 31st December 2010 is 1428.
The numbers of people that attend different organisations are:
Junior Church - 105 young people, 18 teachers and 14 youth helpers.
Bible Class and Youth Fellowship - 41 young people and 10 leaders.
Allsorts - 53 young people, 10 leaders and 2 youth helpers.
Girls Brigade - 81 girls and young women, 7 officers and 8 helpers.
Boys Brigade - 86 boys and young men and16 Officers.
2010 saw a number of Elders celebrating over 30 years service. On Sunday 6th March at the 9.30am service David Morrison will have reached 60 years service having been ordained on 4th March 1951. David will receive a certificate during the service signed by The Moderator of the General Assembly.
The Session Clerk has received notification from the Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of an event taking place on Sunday 22nd March in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, "Roll Away the Stone". More information will be passed out when received.
There are lists on the top table of members for whom we have no addresses. Elders were asked to have a look at the lists at the end of the meeting to establish if they recognise the names and mark whether the members have moved away or moved address.
Kirk Session photos that have been ordered are ready for collection at the end of the meeting.
The following people have been asked to join the working party that was to be formed as part of the Finance team's budget presentation at January's Kirk Session, to look for ways to save money and increase income: The Moderator, Ian Lambie, Andrew Peters, Alison Murray and Rory Cameron.
9 Any other items as agreed at item 5
Notice Board - Suzi Farrant has prepared the display board in the Servery to show all the Teams and Groups within Kirk Session. The board will display photos of all Group and Team leaders, the Ministry Team and the Office Staff. If you are a Team or Group Leader Suzi will take photographs at the end of the meeting to get your photograph taken for the board.
Cracking Easter - Suzi Farrant reminded members of Session about Bubblegum and Fluff - the event in December for P5s from Springfield and Lowport Primary Schools to discuss the real meaning of Christmas. She is running a similar event called Cracking Easter to explain the Easter story. This event is for P6s from Springfield and Lowport Primary Schools and will be in the Kirk Hall and Church again. The event is taking place on Thursday 31st March between 10am and 12 noon. Volunteers are needed and names should be passed to Suzi.
10 Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 15th March 2011
There being no further business Kirk Session closed with the saying together of the Grace.
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