Dear friends,

The tail end of last year and beginning of this New Year began with a high concentration of bereavements. Within one fifteen day period I had five funerals which for Dalserf Parish is unusually high. If that concentration were to be perpetuated throughout the year there would be one hundred and twenty one funerals by the end of 2007! What is particularly noteworthy is that we lost three of our elderly church members in this period - Mary Mooney, Annie Letham and our oldest member at one hundred and seven and three quarters - Janet Murray whose son is John Murray elder and convener of the Rorison Renovation Committee.

I have been asked by Dr. Sandy Rodger Principal of the Faith Mission College in Edinburgh if a team of international students could spend just over a week in our parish to give them a flavour of a typical church week in a Church of Scotland congregation. I agreed to this. A team of six students from several countries will be with us from Saturday 24th February to Sunday 4th March. Accommodation is being provided in members homes including the manse and several folk who have been approached already have agreed to provide at least one meal for the team. This is not quite a mission since it is largely a learning opportunity for the students, nevertheless they will be happy to participate in our services, meetings and events and possibly even do some parish visitation also. There will be an International Night - probably the Friday, when the team will provide us with entertainment and I expect there might be food also. The two Sundays involved will not be “typical” in that the 25th is the Reunion Guest service and the 4th March is Communion. It is not entirely inappropriate however that there should be representatives from the Faith Mission at the Reunion Guest service since the Faith Mission if not the actual students who will be with us has featured regularly in our congregations life over the past fifteen years or so.

Finally, things seem to be on the move again at Rorison. Before a gas meter can be fitted it has to be paid for and before it can be paid for an account has to be sent. The account which we have been told was sent several months ago has never been found although I am not entirely surprised since it was sent to “Rorison Church” which of course has no letter box! A new account has been issued and paid and we have been led to expect that the meter will be installed five days after payment. The meter will allow the heating system to function. The under floor heating will have to be on for two weeks to dry out the screed covering the heating elements. Thereafter the new beech wood floor can be laid. Hopefully by the time I am writing the next pastoral letter the first phase will be finished or almost so.

Yours sincerely,
D. Cameron McPherson