Dear friends,

I am writing five days before the world feasts its spectacle-hungry eyes on the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on Friday 27 May. It is not just their wedding day which will be scrutinised by the whole world but to a large extent their marriage as well It is hard to imagine what it must be like to be in the public eye in such a conspicuous way and realise that the whole world will know if our marriage ends or gets into serious trouble. Generally speaking to know we are being watched is to be inhibited in acting in unacceptable ways. Does the fact that the marriages of so many high profile couples end in divorce - evidence that being in the public eye in no way prevents marital failure, suggest then that marital breakdown is now taken for granted as almost normal? That would seem to be the conclusion to be drawn. Sadly marriages do end prematurely as a result of couples being unable or unwilling to live together any longer. It would be strange in a fallen world if such a thing never happened .It is however evidently much more common today than in previous generations. Happily there is more acceptance of and support for people whose marriages have failed than in previous generations. We cannot assume that every victim of a failed marriage is guilty in respect of the breakup and even where guilt exists Christians need to be ready to accept unconditionally rather than criticise and reject those whose marriages have failed. Christian love demands this as does the humility based on the fact that we are all failures in some respect.. A censorious attitude will never bring healing into the life of a soul wounded in the struggle of life. Far better of course it would be if marital breakdown did not occur in the first place bringing in its wake so much pain and devastation in the lives of families as well as the couples concerned. To this end as Chistians we ought to pray for the marriage not just of William and Kate but of every couple in the land. If that seems too impersonal then how about those we know as well as the couples married in Dalserf Church? The names of the latter will appear from time to time in the newsletter, you may wish to pray for them when they do.

I have been appointed Interim Moderator for East Kilbride South Church and will take up the appointment officially as from Sunday 1 May. This will involve me being away some Sundays from Dalserf but hopefully not too many.

We were sorry to hear of the death of David Paterson who had been a Dalserf elder and lived in Netherburn. A number of years ago after retiring David moved to Newton Stewart. David was the Fabric convener when I was inducted to Dalserf in 1982. Davids wife Jane died several years ago . More recently David suffered the amputation of a leg. Sharon and I were able to attend the commital service at Ayr crematorium on 14 April.

The Joint end of Session Parade for BB/GB will be in Rorison Church on Sunday 8 May. Please note that on this Sunday there will be no service in Dalserf Church. There are several reasons why the venue has been changed to Rorison. The flexibility of Rorison is better suited to all-age type services. Also the last phase of the work on Rorison is now complete and it seems appropriate that we celebrate that by having the service there, allowing members and adherents who would not normally be in Rorison to see what has been done. We could have had a separate afternoon service for BB/GB but our congregation is not particularly large and to divide the congregation between two services even allowing for a number of folk attending both is likely to result in two poorly attended services. This would not be inspiring in particular for the young folk who are not normally in church and possibly reinforce for them a negative image of "church". For this reason the more people who attend the better.

Yours faithfully,
Cameron McPherson