· Saddell & Carradale Parish Profile ·

Saddell & Carradale Church is our sole place of worship. In this time of vacancy and pandemic, our numbers have held up well. We have 134 on the Communion Roll, many of whom are keen to get involved. Our congregation varies week to week but we regularly welcome between 30 and 50 each Sunday. Most of our congregation are aged between 50 and 80 but remain young at heart! During the vacancy, we continue to enjoy lively fellowship and praise led by different members of an enthusiastic Worship Group. Services are enhanced by modern audio-visual facilities.

There has never been a shortage of willing volunteers to assist our previous Minister in sharing the Word of God in the Church on a regular basis.

The rolls of Session Clerk and Treasurer and Clerk to the Deacons’ Court are all fulfilled by the church members as are the office bearers.

Zoom meetings with the minister during Covid for bible study and their weekly Internet services during the height of the pandemic, helped to keep the congregation together and aware that God is still present whatever happens. However, regular face-to-face Bible Study and Prayer Meetings lapsed during Covid.

During this period of vacancy we have recognised the importance of Prayer and therefore Prayer Meetings are now restarting!

As a congregation we cherish the best of the past with the expectancy of an exciting future. Although we are small in number, church members live out their faith by being extremely active in the local community.

“You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14)

Our beautifully refurbished church sits quietly amongst the trees beside Carradale Water.

As an “Eco-Church” we are acutely aware of our role to protect our God-given world.

We are fortunate to have a large, well-equipped and well used village hall in which we have held Café Church, Messy Church,“Choose Tuesday”, a successfully held outreach for school-age children run by the Minister and a band of volunteers (later held in the school itself), Youth Club and various Church Social activities in which the whole community readily gets involved. Our active Guild holds meetings there and welcomes all members of the community (including men!). They are very successful with their fund raising and donate annually to the Church and numerous charities, including the sponsorship of a child in Ethiopia.

There is a real sense of community and this rural parish brings together fishermen, farmers and a largely retired population. Each Summer the area welcomes many visitors and holiday home owners. Those who attend the church are made to feel most welcome.

The village enjoys a Community Owned Shop and Post Office, a small Primary School, a G.P. Surgery, Fire Station, restaurants, tea rooms, a camp site, guest houses and self-catering accommodation.

The Future

In this new Grouping we in Saddell & Carradale look forward to the positive benefits of working with Campbeltown and Southend and look forward to seeing what God has in store for us.

We hope to continue to attract new church members and also hope to find ways of reaching out to the next generation.

At this time when many churches are closing, and membership dropping, we are aware of the need for the church’s presence in all parts of the country. Here in Carradale having a membership of 134 obviously presents its own financial challenges. Fund raising is therefore always on the agenda in order to keep our finances on track. We wish to build on the faith lived out by many in this beautiful part of the world, and are determined to keep a church presence here, as a witness in the future. We seek to serve God in all that we do and look forward, in hope, to the next part of our faith journey.

We believe we have the potential to be an even stronger team, and look forward to new opportunities and new ideas to enable that to happen. We would welcome ideas that would enable us to build up the congregation, and encourage those on the periphery to feel that the church has a relevance for all.

The people are in good heart, and we hope that with an enthusiastic minister, the linkage will indeed grow together in the future.