News

ACTS prepares to take up residence in Alloa

November 29, 2005

General secretary Kevin Franz looks forward to a new challenge and a new commitment
in the journey of ecumenical engagement

With Advent almost upon us I've been reading a newish book by Matthew Byrne called The Way it Was. In it Byrne looks at the gospel narratives about Jesus' birth and focuses on some of the key people in the story. In a reflection on the experience of Mary he retraces the journeys she made, among them the road she took to the 'city of Judah' which was home to her cousin Elizabeth. In a very evocative passage Byrne writes:

'It was a long road, a strange journey…through villages and towns and cities whose names were history, and shaped the story of her religion.'

That passage has been playing in my imagination over these last days, not only because it opens up a way of looking at Mary's experience but also because of what it reveals about the character of our faith and of our ecumenical pilgrimage. A long road. A strange journey. Through villages and towns which have shaped the story of our religion.

These images have also helped me look afresh at the changes we are living through within the ACTS community. You will be aware that our life together has been dominated by the financial crisis facing Scottish Churches House, a crisis which has had an impact on us all and which has triggered a complex and demanding set of reflective processes and responses. Along the way there have been key moments of
discernment and decision. For a long time the story of ecumenical engagement in Scotland has been bound up with Dunblane. The hope for the House must be that the extraordinary generosity of the response of so many of you to the Appeal will give the breathing-space required to craft a new chapter in that story.

While much of the focus has been on the House we have also learnt a great deal about the broader character of current ecumenical engagement in Scotland, and therefore about the context in which the ecumenical instrument seeks to carry out its mandate from the Scottish churches.

We know that one of the quiet revolutions over the past years has been the dispersal and flourishing of ecumenical engagement throughout Scotland. In 'churches together' groups in villages and towns, and in the concrete common engagement of churches in work as diverse as healthcare chaplaincy, relations with the Parliament and in relations with people of Scotland's other faiths, Scotland's churches act together. It is important to recognise and celebrate that ACTS never has been simply Scottish Churches House or the secretariat but that it is a dispersed ecumenical community, evidenced wherever churches act, study, witness, pray and serve together.

All of this sets the learning context for a decision taken at the Scottish Churches Forum's meeting in late October which concerns the location of the ACTS Secretariat.

The Forum received the report of a working group it had established in August to consider the best location of this office at this time. The Group brought together people from the member churches and from the range of ecumenical partners which are a vital and growing part of the ecumenical movement's visibility. The Group concluded that 'the locus of ACTS is wherever churches are and act together..[our] hope is that the location of the ACTS Secretariat will enable and enhance the churches engagement in their search for unity'.

After lengthy and careful consideration, the Forum made the decision that the ACTS Secretariat should leave its current offices in Scottish Churches House by the end of this year, and that it move, initially on a three-year basis, to Forrester Lodge, Inglewood House in Alloa. Can I suggest that you log in to the ACTS web-site over the next few weeks which will give details of our new location and how to contact us. Future newsletters will give you all the details you need. We hope that some of you might visit us in Alloa but it is important to stress that many of the meetings which ACTS enables will continue to be held at Scottish Churches House and in the premises of our churches and ecumenical partners the length and breadth of Scotland.

ACTS is not leaving Dunblane, for Scottish Churches House under the care of the ACTS Trustees remain a key part of us. Yet this is a significant move for the Secretariat. I know many will hear of this with surprise and even dismay. We hope that Alloa will provide a good base for our work, and we look forward to building up our relationships with the churches in the town. But Alloa will not replace Dunblane. Rather, in this phase of the churches' life together the small staff of the instrument which seeks to serve and support their pilgrimage will continue to be present where you need us.

No road is too long and no journey too strange. We are yours to use.