Our presbyteries

Thomas Baldwin learns more about a presbytery covering the north east of Scotland and its most northerly islands.

PRESBYTERY OF THE NORTH EAST AND THE NORTHERN ISLES

FACTS

FORMED: January 1 2023

FORMER PRESBYTERIES: Aberdeen and Shetland, Orkney, Buchan, Moray, Gordon, Kincardine and Deeside.

CONGREGATIONS: 107

VACANCIES: 11

(Correct at time of going to press)

WHILE bringing together a number of very disparate presbyteries could never be easy, the new Presbytery of the North East and the Northern Isles (NENI, pronounced ‘Nenny’, for short) had a bit of a head start. NENI came together by an inadvertent two-step process. The former presbyteries of Aberdeen and Shetland announced union plans in 2018, before the General Assembly instructed the formation of the new ‘super presbyteries’. That initial merger was completed in 2020, and the experience proved helpful when Aberdeen and Shetland was joined by the rest of the north east and Orkney last year.

“It was quite helpful,” says the convener of NENI’s Business Committee, the Rev Peter Johnston. “Quite a lot of the folks who were involved in the Aberdeen and Shetland process were in the strategy group, and the experience they had proved helpful. And Aberdeen and Shetland had already been forced to think about their shape and how they were going to operate, doing hybrid meetings and things like that.”

The completed presbytery covers most of the mainland to the east of Inverness (some congregations in the former Presbytery of Buchan chose to join Inverness, now part of the new presbytery covering the Highlands and Hebrides) and north of Montrose along with the two northern island groups.

The dominant conurbation is obviously the city of Aberdeen, centre of Scotland’s oil and gas industry. But NENI also encompasses the fishing communities of the east and Moray coasts, the farming, castles, distilleries and royal connections of historic Aberdeenshire, and part of Cairngorm National Park. Then there are the island communities, including the 65 residents of the UK’s most remote inhabited island, Fair Isle.

For the new presbytery, the first challenges were for everybody to get to know each other, and to make sure that no part of the organisation felt excluded.

“I think in general folks are working well,” says Peter. “The committees are taking some time to bed in and get to grips with the scope of the work involved. Each of the individual presbyteries worked slightly differently, so harmonising everything into a new uniform way of working inevitably takes a bit of time. But generally there’s a very good spirit of co-operation across the presbytery.

“One of the complications with such a geographically spread presbytery is just to build relationships, and to understand who’s who and who’s got the skills you need for all the committees. We’re also being very proactive about trying to make sure there is a good spread geographically.

“We have to be wary of Aberdeen being seen as the place where everything happens. It’s the hub for the area and the natural congregating space, as well as where the ferries come in, but we have to try to get the balance between what’s pragmatic and what includes folks from across the whole area.

“In the first meetings, we were very aware that coastal, island, rural, suburban and city communities have different expectations and needs, and being aware of that is very important. For some of the new presbytery staff it’s quite a challenge, because it’s a big area covered and very diverse, so they need to be aware of that.”

That extends to questions of funding the work of the presbytery: “Each of the legacy presbyteries had quite different policies with regard to how they funded their work. Of course we had to harmonise that. A lot of the money needs to be raised from congregational giving through presbytery dues, and then the posts need to be giving back across the whole presbytery so everyone feels it’s worthwhile.”

A further complication has been that the first presbytery clerk has had to step down due to ill health; at the time of writing the appointment of a new clerk was imminent. Peter praises the ‘sterling work’ of two elders, Eunice McConnach and Ruth Mackenzie,’ who have acted as depute clerks.

Despite the absence of a clerk, the presbytery has been able to push ahead with assembling a team: an administration officer, mission development officer and treasurer are already in place, and a youth development officer will shortly be appointed, and two other roles are being created: a communications officer and a congregational support officer, who will be a ‘trouble shooter’ available to help congregations with whatever they need.

As with all the new presbyteries, establishing the new organisation has been combined with the sometimes fraught business of presbytery mission planning. Again, the earlier experience with Shetland has been useful, as the islands underwent radical change before the current process was begun. “They went down from 30 congregations to one, with about 10 places of worship,” says Peter. “What’s happening in Orkney is not quite the same as that, but certainly the experience has been helpful for others.

“But we also recognise that each individual place is different. There are things you can learn, but you also have to tailor for each setting.”

Peter has first-hand experience of the new way of working, being part of a team ministry at the new congregation of Aberdeen: Devana. “We’re just about a year into it,” he says. “Three congregations coming into one, retaining two buildings and two ministers.

“It’s been working well. We get on well in the team, and the new congregation have, on the whole, been really supportive.

“We’re in this experimental period of trying new things and seeing what will work. And we can see that happening across different areas of the presbytery.

“It’s really encouraging to see how team ministries are developing and how they are able to release people into doing new things, although it’s a bit early to see the fruits.”

Another encouragement has been two ‘fantastic’ conference sessions held by the presbytery last year.

Peter says: “Having that larger number of people, both on site and online, really enabled good and healthy discussions, guided by a guest speaker. It was a really good and positive experience, everything you would hope for from a larger presbytery gathering and provides a basis from which we can build and develop as a presbytery, mutually supporting and learning from each other in that process.”