MINISTER'S MESSAGE
Kilsyth Burns & Old Parish Church is presently "vacant".
Our Interim Moderator is Rev Thorsten Koenig. Our most recent minister, Rev Bob Johnston was ordained and inducted back in 2017 and he demitted in 2024.
We are now carefully and prayerfully navigating Glasgow Presbytery's Mission Plan and how that relates to the Church of Scotland Parishes in Kilsyth.
Dear Friends
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My name is Thorsten Koenig, and I am your new Interim Moderator.
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As my name already indicates, I am not Scottish but German. Before my wife Astrid and I arrived in Scotland five years ago, we lived in Amsterdam. There, for 15 years, I served as an elder and treasurer of the English Reformed Church, which is part of the International Presbetery.
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We came to Scotlad because Astrid was offered a position at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, and so I followed her.
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Well, that was also the moment when I quit my job in the food industry, where I held various senior positions. Now, five years later, I am the Assistant Minister at St George's Tron in the centre of Glasgow - and since October, I am your Interim Moderator (IM).
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The role of an IM is primarily to chair the Kirk Session meetings during a congregation's vacancy. In our particular situation, I will guide you and serve you on your journey towards a union. This includes liaising with the IM of Anderson Church, with the relevant people within Presbytery, and most importantly, the members of our Kirk Session.
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The union will be a significant change for all involved. You may have questions, and many of you may be uncertain about what the future of the new congregation will look like. All of those emotions are OK. When we are uncertain, when we lament, we are in good company. Already in ancient times, the Psalmist cries out to GOD (Psalm 13):
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1 How long LORD, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
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But with all his questions, and even so, he does not get an immediate answer, he praises:
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5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the LORD's praise, for he has been good to me.
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I hope and pray that we find comfort in God's promise that he cares for us and loves us. And I hope and pray that we will discover that God continues to build His Church in Kilsyth and each one of us is called into God's family.
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Be blessed,
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Thorsten
A letter from Rev Kenneth MacLeod at Anderson
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I have been invited to introduce myself; here goes. I was born and grew up on the island of Lewis; the eldest of four, and given the name Kenneth Donald.
Following schooling, I worked for the family grocery business. However, after ten years, and following a conversion experience and call to serve the Lord Jesus within His church, I returned to full time education eventually graduating in 1987.
It was during my time in Glasgow that Kathleen and I were married. She was a student studying in the Glasgow Bible College and we have been blessed with a family of three: David, Mairi and Ruth; Ruth who is married to Luc and we were doubly blessed when wee Samuel, our grandson, was born.
In 1989 I was inducted to 'Lochs-in-Bernera' a small parish on the west side of Lewis, and in 2000 moved to Easter Ross, having received a call from the vacant charge of Invergordon . . . Ross County FC territory!
With retirement in November 2019 came a move to the central belt, initially Torrance, then Cumbernauld in November 2020. My plan was to take a six month sabbatical before thinking about Sunday supply or doing locum work.
However, Covid soon put a stop to that idea. The old saying 'If you want to make God smile, tell Him your plans' is so true. We never know what's around the next corner, but we know that God is sovereign in all things, and eternally faithful.
God, speaking to His people through the prophet Jeremiah, said "For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart". Jeremiah 29: 11-13.
God's plans may be different to our plans, but we have to acknowledge that 'His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts'. Isaiah 55: 8-9.
Jeremiah has to remind the people that God's ways are always best, for He knows what He is doing. God's plans offer safety, security, a hope filled and blessed and prosperous future; Trust Him.
That's easy to 'Trust and Obey' when the road is smooth, the weather is favourable and our strength is assured, less so when the road seems rugged and endless, the weather threatening, the challenges many and when our physical and spiritual strength is almost depleted . . . . But that is precisely what we are asked to do; Trust Him.
Your brother in Christ
Kenneth
Kenneth D MacLeod