Achievements and Performance
The regular average attendance at worship on Sundays was 200 people. Our Boys Brigade Company has over 80 boys and the Sunday Activities Group (formerly Sunday School and Bible Class) has 27 children. We learned 20 new hymns from CH4 and heard readings from several different translations of the bible. In the course of the year we showed three short films produced by our Film Makers groups during our worship. We also acquired some staging so that our use of drama during worship would be more effective. We have early services during July and August led by our Music Group Kailyard and by members of the congregation who work in teams. There is a similar pattern for the days of Holy Week, with our choir and organist also taking part. We offered training courses for both sets of services run by our vestry staff. We helped to train a Probationer minister and a final year theology student from New College. We have a cassette tape ministry for those who cannot attend worship. Our overall membership declined by 25 and is now at 490 members.
We engaged with the community in a variety of ways by offering a free breakfast on Sunday morning to people who are hungry, a Christmas meal is offered to those who would otherwise be alone. We also reviewed and improved our provision of second hand goods at our Saturday stalls. We ran five varied special events during Leith Festival 2007, all organised by our members. We ran a stall on Leith Links as part of the Leith Gala Day. Our members provide the majority of volunteers at a community café (run by Vision for Leith) which rents space in our church halls, enabling it to start opening for five days in the week. Our minister and a member have served on the committee working for the establishment of a Leith Museum.
We have worked together with the thirteen other congregations in Leith as part of Leith Churches Together. One of our members is on the staff team of the Ocean Terminal Project which is an outreach project to staff and shoppers at the major shopping complex in North Edinburgh. In a new development, we built upon our close relationship with the other Church of Scotland congregations in Leith to have joint Kirk Session meetings. These meetings as well as our annual conference in 2007 helped forge an agreement to work as a team from the 1st of January 2008.
Our links with our missionary partners in Thailand were broadened as Mike Fucella came to share some of the stories of his work in Thailand and the surrounding countries. We deepened our good relationship with Chipembi School by helping to have funding sent to Zambia to have a borehole sunk in the school grounds to deal with an ongoing problem with lack of clean water. We helped through finance and advocacy to bring Albert Chituka, the deputy head teacher to study for a master’s degree at the Scottish Agricultural College near Ayr.
We ran a year of busy social activities - Congregational Christmas Party, a Burns Supper, a weekend at Callendar for over 30 people, an outing to Kelvingrove Museum with a visit to Renfield St Stephen’s Church for worship. We developed our awareness as an ECO congregation by providing bird feeders in our graveyard, increasing the amount of waste we recycle, and introducing the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products. We had a coffee morning every Saturday plus a Christmas Fair which both raised record totals.
Another way in which we connect with the local community (specifically the people who live in our parish) is by the delivery each year of our Christmas cards and our Easter cards. The design and messages contained in the Christmas card from 2007 together with the current Easter card are perfect examples of so many attributes of the ministry team and the congregation – energy, ideas, liveliness, purpose, love and Christian commitment.
SLPC has achieved a great deal in the past year.
Arthur Mathieson
Session Clerk
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