AGM
The annual general meeting took place at Holy Trinity Dunfermline on the 4th December. You can read the reports through the full AGM papers, some of which we will highlight as separate articles on our website.
Communication Group
Last year we took an action to review the website fully. Whilst the look of the site changed over the lockdown and some content was updated, now we are in normal time the group fully reviewed and edited the complete site to bring it up to date.
There are now 42 pages on the website all with thousands of words, sharing information and pictures. We have updated most of this and have added new sections for weddings, live-streaming and general information. We will keep updating and amending this as time goes on, please send us any suggestions.
A recent suggestion was to use the online calendar to ensure we don’t clash with hall bookings and church events. We now also have the latest service appearing on every page which is updated weekly so you don’t have to miss a service.
Another action was to improve the Wi-Fi in the church, which was previously unreliable at best, and inaccessible in much of the church. Lots of work has gone in, with us recently changing internet service provider, and we are pleased to say a contractor has completed the first phase with a great signal in the vestry, the church and the hall.
We have almost 100 people subscribed to our YouTube channel with almost 400 views every month. Over 50 people watch an average service each week across both YouTube and the recording we upload after the live service to our Facebook page. Please do subscribe if you can.
It was a great honour to be invited to participate in the SEC project to move away from producing the weekly provincial online services themselves, and instead to showcase the online services being produced across the province. We were one of the first to stream our services, and this was in part due to our reputation for reliably producing a good quality weekly online service.
We have now shared our service with the province on several occasions, in one case stepping in at short notice after the congregation originally asked to provide the service for that week suffered a technical failure. On these occasions our service is still shared on our own channels as normal for our own viewers, but simultaneously gets broadcast on the provincial channels bringing in viewers from across the world.
We were also able to privately live-stream a wedding during the year and give the couple and their family a unique recording of the service. We also managed to do the same for some of the funerals we had this year allows those not able to attend in person to pay their respects.
We see over 1000 views of the website every week, almost 2000 during the start of our interregnum. We have reached over 8000 people through Facebook and almost 1000 on Instagram with 2000 and 200 views respectively. Instagram was a new venture for us this year and has grown around 895% in the last year with our more established Facebook page reaching a further 20% this year.
We believe this is all part of our mission and accessibility to those inside and outside our four walls. We hope the congregation will support us to grow and develop our offering over the next year. With a new rector in postwe hope we can be more ambitious and look at how tech can help those in church with our regular services.
Thanks to all those who spend the hours each week with the services and updating our website and social media channels. Thanks to all those who make suggestions and the wider support and thanks also to our families who not only help but have to put up with the many hours spent keeping our online presence so strong even into the wee hours of the morning.
Andrew Wedge
Contact Group
I have to say a big thank you to all the group who keep in contact with church members.
We speak to members in church, by telephone, email
During Covid we had to rely on the telephone and emails and the occasional outside visit when allowed. We also send Easter and Christmas cards
I must also thank Wendy Stephen and Adrienne Lyon who have been involved for a number of years and decided to retire. If anyone feels they would like to help please let me know, it is not an onerous task and great to be able to chat with members of the congregation who are unable to get to church on a regular basis. We would love a couple more volunteers
Hilary Ballinger