INTRODUCTION
This newsletter covers all the main events that have taken place over the last few months. This includes our AGM which I hope will be held earlier on in the year. It is convenient to have both the AGM and our Commissioning Mass on the same night, but it does result in a long evening.
Our Commissioning Mass will still take place sometime in early September, and it was a special delight to have Fr Philip Kitchen celebrating his first event as our recently appointed Chaplain. It has also been a great pleasure to welcome Adam Robertson, who is now more than halfway through his 26 Week Placement as our Clerical Assistant. He has been that and so much more during his time working in the SPRED Office with me.
Our OSCR Annual return was made just before our deadline, and full details are included. Remember that you can look us up on OSCR’s Website using either our charity name of SPRED Galloway or our Registered Charity Number: SC028764.
ICT and Media Matters. Adam will be writing about the regular use of our Website and some Facebook Developments.
As usual we have a ‘Dates for your Diary’ section and hopefully you will be able to come along to as many of our planned events as possible.
COMMISSIONING MASS – September 11th
Everyone present was delighted to welcome Fr Philip Kitchen to celebrate our Commissioning Mass as our newly appointed Chaplain.
Our anthem Companions on the Journey and our favourite hymn Shine Jesus Shine were sung with our usual SPRED gusto. Gestures were used in both as well as during our Psalm. Members of various Groups both Friends and Faith Companions were involved throughout the Mass.
After Fr Philip read the Gospel, he delivered the simple message of “Follow Me,” then led us in a Rite of Commissioning for our Catechists/Faith Companions. He then gave a Blessing to our Friends and their Family and Carers.
During our Communion Thanksgiving Hymn we sang The Summons, which helped us to reflect on our own calling within SPRED.
Our Commissioning Mass was both a holy and joyful celebration.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS BY ADAM ROBERTSON
I asked Adam to write down some of his reflections on our Commissioning Mass. It is always good to hear other people’s reflections other than my own and especially from someone outside the SPRED community bubble. Here they are. Enjoy.
In the spirit of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I must confess something; I am not an avid churchgoer. At first, it was a lack of opportunity, then a lack of desire, then my faith lay elsewhere.
I arrived early to make sure the hall was well-lit enough to work with, and at first, it was just making sure I could take pictures with it. The day had broken its promise to be cloudy. The sun set the hall ablaze through those tiny square windows.
There was a moment. One I couldn’t truly catch with a camera, where everything, everyone, fell away. I was the only living thing in that hall—that light—that world. I’d stepped an inch in a direction that doesn’t exist into a world of light and quiet.
I breathed deep, and the sunlight stuck to my ribs.
The moment passed, and suddenly I was meeting a dozen new people and learning a dozen new names, not one of which stuck, and I apologise for that. Of course, I know names, I can place them to faces- but only because I’ve spent so long looking at you all through photographs labelled by Hugh. Names and faces, static and unchanging, now given life and breath. Like a painting’s eyes turning to follow you, or a statue springing into motion. Terrifying.
The sudden depth meeting a person for the first time gives them- all the little details you miss in pictures. The way someone laughs, the way they move, the quiet reverence they have for the event they came all this way to attend- seeing a person rather than a photograph or a painting or a statue.
Exhilarating.
You were beautiful pictures to me before, and now you are beautiful people.
The Mass started. The Agape started. Everything between those points is a vague blur. Trying to understand and capture events as they unfolded, the decisive moments. Flinching every time the camera made a noise. Feeling so out of place yet doubly so that I was right where I was supposed to be.
A camera shutter going off right next to your head—especially when you mistime it and it goes off directly as the noise you were using as cover stops dies down to reverent silence—is like a cannon going off.
Asking me for the thoughts behind any given photograph, any given decision when it came to my photographs, would be like asking a man running from a bear; “So, why did you hang a left at that tree back there?”
Would you expect anything other than screaming panic?
My first SPRED event was three hours of running from a bear. My first Mass exists in 71 pictures, some of which are the closest I’ve come to creating the perfect shot. It was a dozen names forgotten, a dozen faces I’ve seen a dozen times before. A great-gross of forgotten memories. It was sunlight brighter than sunlight, pulling me into a silent place. It was a quiet conversation about phone upgrades and cloud storage.
Most of all? It was a ham salad sandwich on an empty stomach. It was the best thing I’d ever eaten.
My first Mass was all these things, and I wouldn’t change one of them.
AGM
Our AGM was held after our Commissioning Mass.
During it the following Reports for 2024 were considered:
- Annual Trustee Report
- Coordinator’s Report
- Financial Report
There were no nominees for election to the Board of Trustees.
It was noted that the Constitution has been amended to allow Teams or Remote Board of Trustee Meetings.
Questions to be addressed were raised during the Agape.
The Annual Trustee’s Report and our Independent Examiners’ Report and our internal Receipts and Payments Account have been posted on our website. Fuller Minutes of this meeting will be made available and Helena Burgoyne from the Ayr Monday Evening Group acted as a temporary Secretary.
ANNUAL OSCR RETURN 2025
A major issue over the last couple of years has been the Appointment of an Independent Examiner. Just a month or so before our latest Annual OSCR Return was due, I discovered that previously we had been using The Ayrshire Community Trust (TACT) as our Independent Examiner. I got in contact with them, and they agreed to again take up this role. This is a great relief to me, and my intention is that we continue with them in the coming years.
Our OSCR report for 2024 was submitted just before the deadline. My hope is that we will be able to do this much earlier in 2026, enabling us to hold our AGM earlier on in the year.
OSCR REPORT SCREENSHOT 2020-24
The graph below shows that between 2020 and 2023 we ran up an accumulated deficit of £32,476. The Board of Trustees and others were worried about this situation and the financial viability of SPRED Galloway going forward.
When I took over in August 2023 my main priority was to reduce our Expenditure. This has been achieved with our Expenditure coming down from a high of £33,705 to £18,821. There are issues in terms of Staffing that still need to be resolved. We have even managed to have a small surplus of £84 in 2024.
ICT AND MEDIA MATTERS
Recently, we’ve been doing some work on Facebook, which is to say posting more than just updates about upcoming events. Adam has been posting about our community sessions, the symbolic objects we use in them, and what they represent, as well as the hymns and messages we use during our sessions
Since Scott O’Hare beat us to it, we’d also like to make a proper, formal, signed in triplicate and sealed with the nice wax appeal for people to sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on Facebook if you haven’t already! Also just a reminder that we update the website on a fortnightly basis, so you should check it out more often than just the newsletters.
We’re also looking to reach 100 followers on Facebook by December 3rd, so we can launch our inaugural livestream on December 4th documenting our Advent Service!
So, sign up for the newsletter and check out the website, talk to anyone you know who wouldn’t mind following our Facebook Page, and please send any suggestions on what we should include in either place to office@spredgalloway.org along with any stories or photos involving our local groups you want to share with your extended Galloway SPRED family!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
ADVENT DIOCESAN MASS AND CHRISTMAS PARTY – SUNDAY 30 NOVEMBER
We will be joining with the Parishioners of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Meddan’s at their 11.15 Mass.
Afterwards we will head into the Church Hall and join the parishioners for a cup of tea followed by our Christmas Party.
ADVENT SERVICE – THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER
This will take place in St Margaret’s Church Hall, beginning at 7 pm.
It is open to everyone in the SPRED Galloway Family.
This has been a popular and well attended event. Come along and bring someone with you.
CAROL SINGING – WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER
We will be in the Ayr Central Shopping Centre between 11 am and 1.30 pm.
It is hoped that just like last year we will be joined by Choirs from St John’s Primary and Queen Margaret Secondary. Come along and join our SPRED Galloway Choir. Again, we welcome all who want to come along and join in the fun.
FINAL THOUGHT – MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS
Since November is the month of the Holy Souls I will end this newsletter with the prayer we say for all our dead relatives and friends.
“Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine on them, may they rest in peace. Amen.”
SPRED GALLOWAY 