Report of Meeting 24th October on the Unitary Constitution

A Congregational Meeting was held in Barony St. John’s church hall at 12.20 (immediately after Sunday service) on 24th October 2010.

Rev Dorothy Granger opened the meeting by reminding the congregation that two weeks prior notification of the meeting had been given and a copy of her report on the implications of moving to the Unitary Constitution had been published in the October edition of The Word. She advised the meeting that the Kirk Session and the Congregational Board had already voted (on 24th August 2010) to change the constitution, subject to approval from the congregation and ultimately the Presbytery of Ardrossan.

Rev Granger then asked the congregation for any questions. Mrs.G. Dodds asked what the main effect of the change would be. Rev Granger replied that the main change would be that there would only be one body to deal with all the Church’s business. Under the current Model Constitution, there is a Kirk Session to deal with Spiritual matters and a separate Congregational Board to deal with temporal matters. The objective is to spread the work load - via the proposed Committee structure -to more members and lessen the workload of those who are already over committed.

There being no more questions, Rev Granger moved that the congregation should change from the Model Constitution to the Unitary Constitution. A vote was taken and the motion was passed by 55 votes for and 2 abstentions.