Building the Future

A project of Selkirk Parish Church, starting in 2019, to consider how our buildings might be redeveloped to facilitate our outreach to the community and our congregational life.

Background

At the Kirk Session in May 2019, it was noted that “the sale of the former manse provides a “once in a generation” opportunity to make significant, rather than piecemeal, changes to the current building, to make it more fit for a mission-oriented 21st century church.” The Kirk Session agreed to consider a list of “issues to be addressed in any future review of the church buildings” which had been collated over the previous 18 months. At the August meeting, it was agreed that a small group, organised by David Bethune, would be formed to explore options, and the buildings review should be considered alongside the “21st Century Church” Presbytery Plan discussions. The COVID pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021 intensified the need to consider the role and purpose of church buildings.

Identifying the needs

A small group was formed to take ideas forward. The group reviewed the original discussion document Building for the future May 2021, updated it and a version of this was published in the June 2021 edition of The Hird (see p.11) Members were invited to feed back any comments or questions to the group (see below).

Meanwhile the group viewed online examples of churches which had significantly altered their buildings to make them more suitable for their 21st century worship, congregational live and outreach. For example:

West Kirkby Church
Inverurie West Church and Acorn Centre
West Kilbride Church
(others to follow)

Comments from individual members

To date 8 individuals (and a group of our young people) have shared their thoughts in writing with the group, and these can be downloaded and read by clicking on each of the links below:

response 1
response 2
response 3
response 4
response 5
response 6
response 7
response 8
response 9 (YP)

Options Appraisal

In January 2022, following the steering group meeting with 2 different recommended architects, the Kirk Session (and then, the Congregational Board) agreed to accept the proposal from Raymond Angus of Angus Design Associates to carry out a full options appraisal (based on the needs and comments gathered from members of the congregation) for the sum of £5875 + VAT. This would include a full survey of the building, discussing options for development to meet our stated needs, drawing up plans and 3D images to support proposed designs, and the production of a report with budget costs and recommendations.

In the following 6 months, Raymond has visited Selkirk twice, carried out a detailed survey of the building, and produced some initial draft plans for possible ways to address the issues. These have been discussed by the steering group, and referred back to the architect for further refinement. It is hoped that, some time in the autumn, there will be a presentation to the congregation of the proposals, with an opportunity to ask questions, makes comments and suggestions.

No further progress is possible at the moment, due to the CofS moratorium on all capital outlay on buildings, pending the adoption of the Presbytery plan.