Welcome to Church this morning! If you are visiting us today please know how happy we are to have you with us. At Luss, as part of our fifteen-hundredth anniversary celebrations, we welcome the Reverend Doctor Laurence Whitley and his wife Catherine. Laurence is the minister of Glasgow Cathedral and, in long past pilgrimage times, there was a relationship between the Cathedral and our little parish Church. It is a pleasure to welcome Laurence and Catherine and, following the service at Luss, there will be a lunch at the Manse to which everyone at Church is invited – it doesn’t matter how many of you are here – we will cope!

 

Looking back on this last week there are some things to tell you about. The Bible Study group finally got restarted on Monday evening when we watched the fifth and final film in our series about the story of the Reformation. We started on this programme last year to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin and we ended it this year on the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland. Those who have attended the course are now experts in the history of the early days of Bible translation, of the pre-reformation movements such as the Valdensian Church and the Hussite movement, and of the great characters of the Reformation such as Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, John Knox, the Hugenots and all of the different people who played a part in the story of the English reformation as well. It has been quite an adventure for us all. We meet again tomorrow evening at 7.30 p.m. in the Manse when we shall consider what we wish to do next.

 

On Tuesday the Heritage Group met in the Manse and I had been invited to lead the evening. I chose to talk about four pictures in the story of Luss – the Luss of 510 when Kessog came here; the Luss of 1318 just a few years after Bannockburn when pilgrimage had restarted; the Luss of 1801 when Dr. John Stuart, the minister of Luss, saw the fruits of his labours in translating the bulk of the Old Testament into Scots Gaelic result in the publication of the Old Testament by the Scottish Society for the Propagation of the Christian Faith; and today. Although today isn’t really an appropriate picture, I suppose, for a Heritage Group, it is important that we see what we do today as being part of the ongoing story of our community and Church. The next meeting of the Heritage Group will be on the last Tuesday of March when John Sinclair will tell the complete story of our village community and manage to compress fifteen hundred years of history into a single evening!

 

This Tuesday Jessie, Robbie, Neil, Jamie and I shall be at the Presbytery in Dumbarton and the following Tuesday it will be Luss Guild meeting, probably in the Manse, when the speaker will be our own Reverend Bill Hannah. I’m looking forward to that. I should say that our next special guest preacher at Luss is on Sunday 21st. February when we shall be joined by the Reverend James Simpson who was Chairman of the General trustees of the Church of Scotland. It was the generosity and vision of the General Trustees which allowed us to take over our glebe, build the bridge, create the pathways and establish our international youth project here, so we have much for which to thank James when he is with us next month.

 

In Arrochar the Guild will meet next Thursday at 2 p.m. when the speaker will be Catriona Connelly who will be talking about the Erskine Hospital. The meeting the following month, on the 4th. of March, will be a Bring and Buy Sale to Boost Funds for the Guild’s Six Projects. I should also tell you that the TASK group (our youth group at Tarbet, Arrochar and Succoth) is continuing to meet every Sunday evening and is planning to come to Luss for an overnight stay on Friday 7th. May, and having moved forward all of the way to May, let me tell you that I have heard that several of our friends, twenty-eight in all, from the First Presbyterian Church in Fargo North Dakota are coming to join us on the final Sunday of May as part of our celebrations. You’ll remember, I’m sure, that when the bell choir came all those years ago (well six at least!) they promised to return to help us celebrate 2010 and that’s what they are planning to do.

 

Next Wednesday the Congregational Board of Arrochar Church will meet in the Church Hall at 7.30 p.m. and this will be followed by a meeting of the Kirk Session. This is the time of year when thoughts turn to last year’s accounts. I do know that we succeeded in paying all of our bills last year and that is, as always, a great achievement. If only our bills would stand still – but as we know from our own home finances, this is not often the case and we shall be looking at how much we will need to find this year to pay our way.

 

Even although it is still only January, we are being contacted by many groups who want to come and spend time with us – some of these are local groups, some are from the Princes Trust and some are from overseas. It is quite clear that if we are going to be able to respond to even half of the groups which want to come, we shall need help and I would be very keen to hear from anyone who might be able to help us with our catering activities. It is obviously not something for everyone but another two or three volunteers would make all the difference. We also have a number of maintenance jobs (not all requiring very much skill!) which need to be done as a matter of some urgency and, again, I would be very grateful for any offers of assistance.

 

Meanwhile, the wedding programme continues and the work both on the glebe and in the Pilgrimage Centre is moving forward quite quickly. We will have something really special for our visitors when the season starts at Easter! Have a very good week.