Despite the fact that there is a vacancy in our linked parishes at the moment, they continue to be very busy places.  I have been very impressed indeed with all the work that continues to go on in our churches and I am very grateful indeed to all the office-bearers for all they continue to do to ensure the smooth running of parish life and work.

On Sunday mornings we continue to have the services of our Worship Team for which we are very grateful.  If it weren’t for them I would have to find even more visiting preachers willing to travel quite a distance.  I am beginning to ask people to preach for us in the first half of 2018 and I very much hope that we will be able to call on the services of a large number of preachers.  All those who have been guest preachers so far, have all found their visits very fulfilling and they have commented on the warm welcome that they have received from the parishioners.

I continue to enjoy my visits to you as well.  I will be preaching in St. Colmon’s and Ballantrae on a few occasions in the next couple of months.  I am particularly looking forward to being with you on the morning of Christmas Eve. Christmas is for me – like it is for most of you – a very special time of the year.   I hope that these two services on Christmas Eve morning can be very much family services.

Hopefully a number of people of all ages will decide that Christmas is a season of the year where attending a religious service should be an important component of the Christmas experience.

Christmas is of course one of the two main festivals in our faith. And it is always good to spend time reflecting on God’s greatest gift of all to us.

The gift of his Son who entered our world at a particular point in our history.  God loved the world and its inhabitants so much that. He wanted to teach them how they might live their lives in the best way possible.