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New Minister

Many of you will know that when David Kellas retired we entered into an extended link with Kilmodan and Colintraive. The new Charge is called West Cowal and has four fully active churches, two of which are in union and linked with the other two.

A new minister has been chosen. He is the Reverend David Mitchell BD, Dip.P Theo., MSc., PG Cert T&L HE. David is leaving a post as Lecturer in Palliative Care at the Marie Curie Hospice, Glasgow to be our full time minister. He has experience as a parish minister gained through conducting pulpit supply as a locum and an interim moderator. He has also been an active member of the Presbytery of Glasgow.

David’s induction to the Charge of West Cowal will take place at Kyles Church on Saturday 16^th September at 2.30pm. He will be conducting Sunday worship at Kilmodan and Colintraive on the 17^{th September} and Kyles and Kilfinan on the 24th September and fortnightly thereafter.

We look forward to a long and fruitful ministry in West Cowal.

Restoration Complete

Reverend David Kellas opening the Service before leading the congregation into the Church

The restoration of the interior of the Church is now complete. It has taken much longer than anticipated, having been started in 1996 and finished just in time for Christmas 2004, and has cost some £275000, much more than we originally budgeted for. We are, however, very pleased with the result.

A re-dedication service took place on Sunday 22^nd May 2005. Over 100 friends from all over Cowal, and some from overseas attended the service, conducted by our retired minister Rev David Kellas, followed by a Champagne buffet. A computer generated presentation of the works on both the exterior and the interior was projected during the gathering and aroused much interest. If any of you would like copies of any of the pictures of the work or a copy of the Powerpoint presentation on CD please follow the email link below.

Where Now?

Since the last update we have come up with a proposal for the restoration of the Lamont vault. It involves the construction of a viewing gallery accessed from the top of the outside steps.

As most of you know we have, in Kilfinan, one of the best collections of ancient burial stones in the West of Scotland. We plan to have these restored and properly mounted on the lower and lighting installed so that they can be viewed from the gallery. Display boards explaining the history of each stone and the church will be mounted on the walls of the gallery.

We are about to seek costings for this work. You will appreciate that the work completed to date has fully stretched the resources of such a small community so we will have to look for funding from outside. If any of you know of any organisations we might approach please contact us at one of the addresses below?

We could not have got this far without the help of visitors to this website and for that we are extremely grateful.

Membership News

As most of you are aware the Friends of Kilfinan have been running a website for several years now and I thought it would be nice to inform you of its progress.

We are receiving on average two hits a day, some of which bring in money while others are from people trying to research their ancestry.

As forecast in the last update we were visited by the Clan Ewen in June and the Clan Lamont in September. Both gatherings were well attended and it was great to meet up with old friends.

Database

The database of the stones in the Churchyard is now complete. It records the location, inscription and a description of each stone.

All of the information is now on this site. Recording of the lower part of the churchyard and the stones in the Rankin plot is now complete and has been added to this site. We hope that this will be of help to those of you who want to trace ancestors.

Friends of Kilfinan Parish Church

Secretary, Margaret Sutherland, Drum Cottage, Kilfinan, Argyll, PA21 2ER

Webmaster, Sinclair Sutherland.

Telephone: 01700 821207 E-mail: drmcttg@aol.com.

Church of Scotland, Kilfinan Parish Church

Services are held every Sunday at 12.00 noon.

A family service is held on the first Sunday of each month.

Holy Communion is celebrated on the last Sunday each month

Minister: Rev David Mitchell, West Cowal Manse, Kames, Tighnabruaich, Argyll, PA21 2AD

Telephone: 01700 811045 E-mail: revdmitchell@yahoo.co.uk