Changes to Sunday worship in November as Methodist kirk looks at future of building
The Sunday Methodist worship will join St. Columba’s during November
SOME “significant maintenance work” is needed at the Methodist kirk in Lerwick.
As its members look at the future of the building, the Sunday worshipping congregation of Lerwick Methodist Church will be joining the congregation of St. Columba’s in Lerwick for the month of November.
Sunday services will be led at St. Columba’s by a mix of Church of Scotland and Methodist preachers and ministers.
The Methodist Church, located on Hillhead in Lerwick, was opened in May 1872 and has been the home of a Methodist worshipping community ever since.
The local Methodist community have cared for the building on Hillhead and made various improvements over the decades, but they are now looking at what the next stage might be for the building.
Some significant maintenance work is needed to alleviate damp penetration in a number of places, and improvements are said to be needed to make the building suitable to continue serving the community in the future.
“The building requires a lot of energy to be heated – and so it is expensive to run – and we recognise our need to minimise the amount of energy we use as part of our commitment to the environment, to reduce our impact on climate change,” said Rev Steve Charman, minister of Lerwick Methodist Church.
“At this point, no decisions have been made about the future of the building, we are in a time of exploration and investigation – what could be done to make the building more suitable for the current mission and ministry of the church? What improvements could be made to improve the energy efficiency of the building? How much would the essential maintenance cost?”
The Methodist congregation said they are looking forward to joining the congregation at St. Columba’s for worship and exploring how they could work more closely together, “learning from one another and being blessed by one another’s enriching faith”.
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During November, only the Sunday worship will be with St. Columba’s – all other activities will continue, as usual, in the building on Hillhead.
It is also well known in the community as the heart of the Food for the Way project, providing meals for anyone who would appreciate food and company on a Wednesday lunchtime.
In addition to the Sunday services and ‘messy church’, the building is well used by Open Door drama and a number of different community groups.
Over the summer the church also hosted a retrospective art exhibition of the work of the late Jim Tait.
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