A CHURCH in Dunfermline is celebrating the arrival of its new minister and will continue to operate after avoiding closure.
St Leonard’s Parish Church on Brucefield Avenue could have shut its doors for good, following a Church of Scotland review, but after an appeal and consultation, it was granted a five-year extension.
It was also decided that the church would gain a transition minister, Reverend Gayle Taylor, who officially took up the role at the start of August, to try and prove that it's worth keeping for the long haul.
Barry Meiklejohn, a church elder, explained: “A transition minister has had some special training to help congregations to help them through times of change.”
He thanked Rev Margaret Mateos, the ordained local minister, and Sheila Leel, the session clerk, for all of their work and support during the uncertainty.
Originally from Glasgow, Rev. Taylor explained to the Press that the role of transition minister has only been around for the last eight years.
They are a specialised resource given to a congregation for up to five years to be agents of change, to work to specific targets and aims. Both interim and transition ministers are employed by the national church and are deployed to parishes where changes need to occur.
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There will be a review in five years and Rev Taylor commented: “Part of my role is to make St Leonard’s viable in the next five years.”
She added that her role involves “thinking outside the box, not coming in and doing the old model of ministry, that doesn’t work anymore”.
Prior to joining St Leonard’s, she was a transition minister at the Newbattle Parish in the Presbytery of Lothian and Borders. She, along with a colleague who was in Shetland, are the first ever ministers to do a second transition ministry.
Rev Taylor described the changes that are taking place as “exciting” and an “opportunity” and said that the church wants to work with others.
“Let’s look to do things together rather than look inward.
“We are here and we want to work with other people, we are stronger together,” she concluded.
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