January 2021

Vacancy matters
Rev. Pamela Strachan
Interim Moderator
The snow continues to fall - and our Christmas
candle continues to burn brightly.
It is good to welcome back our Locum John Smith
after his two-month absence and we’re very
grateful to David Arnott for having led us in online
worship during this period. I’m pleased to report
that David will continue to serve on the ministerial
team and as an associate member of the Kirk
Session where his experience is greatly valued and
will help see us through the Vacancy Process.
Parish Linking and Presbytery Plan
We continue to implement the Presbytery Plan
which requires a realignment of our parishes.
Thanks to a tremendous effort of co-ordination by Session Clerks, Administrator
and Roll Keepers we completed our second mailing in December and the voting
papers were distributed to all three parishes of Eddleston, Peebles Old and Stobo
and Drumelzier. The results of the ballot will be notified by our Presbytery
representatives early in January and together we will draw up the Presbytery
Report for presentation at the February meeting.
There will follow further meetings of the Presbytery Planning Task Group and the
Implementation Group and opportunities for appeal (if required) at two further
Presbytery meetings.
During this time, we need to consider who should serve on our Nominating
Committee (numbers to represent the three parishes have been agreed as
Eddleston 3, Peebles Old 7 and Stobo and Drumelzier 3) and the finalising of our
joint Parish Profile.
Once permission to call a new minister has been granted by Presbytery, it will
appoint a 3-person Advisory Committee to oversee the next stage in our
deliberations and preparations.
Meanwhile, we have received Presbytery’s permission to re-open the Peebles Old
church on a limited basis of two days per week for a restricted continuation of our
‘Daily Worship’ on Tuesdays and Saturdays. However, the national move to Level
4 in response to the increasing numbers of Covid cases means that this situation
is still under review by the Kirk Session.