Update on St Leonard’s Church
Article written by: Rev. Gayle Taylor - Transition Minister
Back in August last year, I arrived as new minister at St Leonard’s church, not the parish minister but the transition minister – for five years to lead the congregation through a time of transition.
Although the shape of this transition was not immediately clear, it soon began to emerge as we had to take the difficult decision as a church to close our McLaren Hall on safety grounds.
All of our groups, particularly our youth organisations, have been very patient and accommodating while we have looked into a possible solution.
Part of the remit of the transition ministry I am here to carry out over 5 years, is to look at our whole church site. This is not just in relation to a list of repairs and refurbishment work in St Leonard’s that needs carried out in both our halls, the sanctuary and the link corridor but it is also in relation to the wider picture in the Church of Scotland estate. As you may be aware, the Church of Scotland, like many of our national institutions (the NHS, the Police, our schools) is undergoing a period of financially necessary radical change and reform.
Nationally the Church’s buildings estate is being reduced by around one third as are the number of paid ministries. Each area (Presbytery) has had to put together an action plan to implement this where a reduced number of buildings and ministries are allocated across an area.
Our region is Fife Presbytery and our area within that is Dunfermline.
To facilitate the plan, the Presbytery Mission Plan Implementation Group have assessed congregations based on their “missional activities” (how well they serve the community and how healthy their Sunday attendance and group attendance is etc) and have classed each building as either an A or a B.
An “A” means that the building is vital for the next five years and a “B” means that the building needs to be disposed of in the next five years. The North Church in Dunfermline was categorised a “B” and will close and that congregation need to work towards either a union with another congregation or a dissolution, where they dissolve their status as a church and the congregation chose to go where they will. In the plan there is an allocation of seven ministries where formerly, there were 11 congregations.
The new United Church of St Columba is therefore an example of three congregations coming together (Townhill, Kingseat and St Andrew Erskine) to now have one building and one minister. These new ways of working collaboratively, so that huge amounts of money do not need to be spent on the upkeep of large and often very old buildings and resources can be used towards working with people, will continue and increase.
The above is by way of contextualising our situation at St Leonard’s. It is not simply a case of “when” we fix the McLaren Hall but “do” we fix the McLaren Hall. Unfortunately, we have multiple fabric projects that need urgent attention on our site, not least repairs to the sanctuary which of course has great historic and religious significance.
Although this is unsettling and even sad to those who have known St Leonard’s in its current shape and form for most of their lives, no congregation in the Church of Scotland is untouched by the national plan and all churches having to reduce their dependency on costly buildings to instead divert funds into ministry and mission in new creative ways.
Facing these issues and thinking about what needs to change can feel quite overwhelming. However, we partner with the National Church and Presbytery who have supported us with the appointment of a Transition Minister and who continue to support us with appropriate resources when we need them.
We partner with other churches in Dunfermline as we engage with and play our part in the new Dunfermline Cluster in the Church of Scotland. We also partner with the wider community – with the many groups of all ages and walks of life who use the space in our building each week, with local schools in the parish and with organisations like the Community Council.
As we seek to future proof the St Leonard’s church site, protecting and preserving the listed building that has so much historical and religious significance in Dunfermline, I am grateful for the opportunity to write for this newsletter and I’m open to new conversations, ideas and offers from our community partners who may like to help or get involved with our transition.
