Our Vision for the Congregation

Our vision for the congregation is to build on the strong foundations put in place in the past 5 to 10 years, and let the gospel of Jesus Christ be known through worship, witness and service.

A vision held for so long by so many ‘arrived’ with the purchase and renovation of a cottage beside St Ninian’s. At last, and after a few false starts, we have a dedicated space for our children meaning they meet at the same time as the adults on a Sunday morning, can come in and be part of services every week, have their own space where they can display their work.

This has already been a great boost to our Sunday worship, and a great encouragement to our congregation. Opened in 2009 we look now to build up our young family involvement.

Monthly family services, with all families whose children have been baptised being invited to come, with a personal invitation every month; a growing awareness amongst young families of acceptance and inclusion; we will work to find and develop all age worship that truly works for all ages. We seek to be a true family, where there is a place for all.

In turn this will go hand in hand with looking at different forms of worship and some different times of worship. Creating space for those who want quiet services, for those who want different styles of music; for those for whom Sunday morning is not an easy time due to work, family commitments.

Providing more times when the church is open for people to drop in for their own times of reflection; building on the open church we have during Lent and Advent.

We have in St Ninian’s a very adaptable space with moveable pews; we have tried new layouts and will continue to use different formats for different styles of worship.

With the addition of an amplification system to our existing loop and recording installation, we can involve children more often, we can have the less-able take part from their pew; we can make worship much more inclusive.

We have a Discipleship Group led by Elders to help members become more involved in progressing their own faith. We will use this group to bring in more Bible Studies, discussion groups on church matters, and to look at ways of bringing lapsed members back to worship.

We have a Mission Group, led by Elders to take forward our ideas and plans to let the community know about God’s love for them. We have already many good and strong threads within the community, we are generally speaking in good standing and respected by the community and are always looking for ways we can let them ‘see’ the power of faith; mission as regards serving the community is also very strong- in recent years the Toy Library set up by the church has provided young families with a space to meet, and socialise. Hand bell ringing has brought together a group of believers and non believers, all of whom are happy to take part in worship a few times a year.

And we provide space for other groups to meet. Cairn Chorus practice in the church and again are happy to come and join in worship. Book Groups and Quilting Group are also made up of folk from the Church and community.

Mission also works through being part of community events such as Folk Festival and Bluegrass Festival weekends. Special services with involvement from the musicians include community and tourist alike, and are proving to be a growing success.

We will build on our visiting group who maintain a church link with those of our number unable to now attend worship, or in any special need at any time.

Worship – a team regularly (bimonthly) lead worship in care homes in Thornhill; Elders on occasion lead morning worship; there is now a growing number of people willing to read scriptures on a Sunday morning, and we have a small team prepared to lead prayers.

We will build on our visiting group who maintain a church link with those of our number unable to now attend worship, or in any special need at any time.

Worship – a team regularly (bimonthly) lead worship in care homes in Thornhill; Elders on occasion lead morning worship; there is now a growing number of people willing to read scriptures on a Sunday morning, and we have a small team prepared to lead prayers

The church is still seen in Moniaive as a place where anyone can come for help. We seek to maintain and develop these links in times of sadness and celebration. We are ‘open’ and seek to better communicate our openness and acceptance. Closed doors may still convey a closed shop; and although many of the community know well the inside of the church through community events, we still need to make our Sunday Opening better known.

Youth programmes, enquirers’ discussion groups; forums to debate faith and life; opportunities for ‘the community’ to question the Christian Faith are all options we are looking at now and will develop in the next 10 years.

This Vision Statement was prepared in 2010 by the Kirk Session in response to ‘Mapping the Future’ plans for the reorganisation of the parishes in the Dumfries and Kirkcudbright Presbytery.