St John’s, Alloa, is a church with spirit. They had their stonework repointed and then found that it hadn’t been done properly so there was water ingress … So they set to and raised over £300000 to have it done again – and we gathered for the rededication on Friday evening,
They are a small congregation. They have no stipendiary priest. But they keep going – and more than that. Of our congregations, they are probably the one most obviously committed to working in the community. They were a leading partner in the founding of the Community House. And they are determined ecumenists. In fact they are pretty determined everything.
I enjoy being with them. They remind me of other places and other times and I feel at home!
I ask a simple question. Do you think that raising £300,000 to have a building repointed is a good use of resources?
But it isn’t a simple question. The alternative is to allow a building of significant quality – which is home to a remarkable congregation – which is situated in the kind of place where you might not expect to find a Pisky congregation – to decay into disuse. As it is, the money was raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources – and would not have been available for other purposes. And, to make it worse, the work was being done for the second time because of the failure of those involved in the first contract to do a proper job.