ROSEMARY Johnston is the Guild’s National Convener for 2016/2017.

Living in Perthshire, her local church is part of a parish grouping known as ‘Lower Earn Churches Together’ (LECT), comprising eight different places of worship (Aberdalgie and Forteviot linked with Aberuthven and Dunning; Dunbarney and Forgandenny and Abernethy and Dron and Arngask).

Describing the background to change, she explains: “At one time, I think most of these places of worship had a Guild.. Over time, due to aging and dwindling membership and lack of leadership, each of these Guilds closed. When my Guild closed (Arngask), I became an individual member and remained on Perth Presbyterial Council.

“As a parish grouping, we would come together for maybe a couple of services a year, and occasionally we have had elder training together, but apart from that there was little contact between the congregations.

“A few years after the last Guild closed, I had the idea that whilst each individual congregation might not be able to support their own Guild, I wondered whether we could pool our resources and form a parish grouping Guild.

“Firstly, I sought permission from all the ministers at the time. I then considered that as we all come from a fairly wide rural area, with some distances on narrow country roads, we should meet in the summer months in the evening so that noone would need to worry about travelling in the dark in the winter. By meeting in the evening, people who work would be able to come as well as retired people.

“Summer time can be a lonely time for many people, as most clubs and associations close down,

“Family may be on holiday so there is less opportunity for human contact. Rather than forming a committee – the very concept of which scares people off joining – a steering group was formed. This consisted of myself as co-ordinator, and one representative from each of the other churches.”

The new Guild grouping met for the first time in June 2014 when General Secretary of the Guild, Iain Whyte was the guest speaker, to talk in-depth about the work of the organisation.

Some 60 people of all ages, both men and women, came along, encouraging the steering group to continue.

“We have met monthly from the end of April until the end of September ever since. The steering group meets and decides what our programme will be then decides where each meeting will be held – we try to rotate round the churches. At that point, the representative from each church will take responsibility for that meeting – organising worship, catering etc. The result of this is that no one person carries responsibility for everything – there is usually only one meeting in each church each session.

“Another advantage is that more members of the host congregation become involved.

“We try to make the programme as varied as possible, bearing in mind that we have men as well as women. We have raised a fair sum of money for the Guild Projects, through a coffee morning and a quiz. Like every organisation, we know that if we don’t have a good programme, people just will not come. Turnout at each meeting varies – anything from 30+ to 60+. Our core membership is about 24.”

Rosemary says the model is still in the early stages of development, but believes others can learn from the exercise.

“This model could work in other areas where Guilds might be struggling, and it could also work in a parish where there are multiple places of worship due to new unions and linkages. This model also addresses the lack of people willing to take on the traditional roles of convener, secretary, etc. The Guild Constitution states that the only office-bearer required is a Treasurer. Team leadership and delegation seems to work well for us and I would hope that we will grow from strength to strength both in the LECT Guild and the Guild nationally.”