They’ve knocked down countless trees to write obituaries for the Church.
If you listen to some people, you might imagine that the pews are everywhere empty at Sunday services even as kirks amalgamate throughout the north of Scotland.
Critics of religion and the notion of faith argue that young people have other things to do on the Sabbath, while older congregants prepare for their own funerals as part of a script which is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And yet, not everybody buys into this apocalyptic doomscape where these sacred buildings are regarded as an irrelevance or an anachronism in the 21st century.
Paul McKeown’s unconventional route to ministry
Rev Dr Paul McKeown, for instance, has spent the last 20 years at Belhelvie Church near Balmedie, creating and fostering a genuine sense of community spirit, embodying the belief that religion isn’t working if the prayer houses are empty.
And, although he has left to become the chaplain at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, he is the opposite of disheartened. Yes, there are challenges, but he’s up for the battle.
Paul’s route to the ministry wasn’t exactly conventional. At the outset, he was studying chemistry in Glasgow, but matters changed in the mid-1990s and he studied for his Bachelor of Divinity degree from 1996 to 1999.
And, while he is originally from Northern Ireland and admits his accent is still “somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea” after 35 years, there’s no doubting his love for Scotland.
Nor his determination to highlight the importance of faith and fellowship.
‘Society changes, but people don’t’
He said: “As a minister married to a doctor, we see a lot of people in the course of our work and though society has changed a lot in 20 years, I’d say that people themselves haven’t changed that much.
“All of us are still looking for things that make our lives meaningful – rewarding work, good relationships, interests and passions – and it’s great when those things deliver for us. But the truth is, they don’t always deliver.
“Things change. People can pass on, or fade out of our lives, or let us down; work can eat us up if we let it; health issues can rear their heads. Those are the times when we need a deeper foundation and that’s what we hope to offer as a faith community.
“How do we do this? Well, we start by telling that story every Sunday in church. But beyond that, we provide pastoral care in a host of different ways, and not just to folk within the congregation.
‘We help people of all ages’
“Our Mainly Music parents and toddlers group is going great guns and always has a waiting list, and part of the philosophy is to make sure the parents (and grandparents) get to have a little bit of time to themselves while the team look after the wee ones.
“I always remember one new mum saying it was the first time in months she’d been able to give her baby to someone else and sit and have a cup of tea in peace.
“Our monthly Coffee Haven cafe has also become a welcoming place for the community – there are a host of regulars who come along now and use it as a meeting place and it’s a real lifeline for isolated older folk.
“We also welcome residents from Balmedie House Care Home who really enjoy getting a trip out and a fly cup somewhere different.
Organisations are pulling together
“We are blessed to have some fantastic, mutually supportive community-based groups.
“There’s Better Balmedie, Belhelvie Community Trust, Balmedie Beach Wheelchairs, The Sand Bothy, the Wee Hub in the Congregational Church and a busy Leisure Centre and Primary School, not to mention active groups in Potterton and Blackdog.
“We do our own things, but there’s a good spirit of collaboration and we often support one another’s work and back each other up when it comes to funding applications.”
Paul isn’t naive or dewy-eyed. Regular news announcements about church buildings being sold off to private companies or transformed into cafes or hotels are a reminder that the time when Sunday used to be a day of rest have gone forever.
And yet, he counters that many of his colleagues share his view that greater flexibility has to be shown by those who used to wait at the kirk door and do attendance checks.
So what is the answer for those in the new vanguard?
‘We need to be in the community’
He said: “It’s a given that everybody recognises the need for change, but nobody wants to do it. The Church of Scotland is part-way through a painful but necessary realignment which has taken a lot of energy – especially after the pandemic.
“Many of us feel we’re still in a rebuilding phase. At the same time, it was an opportunity to reach a wider audience through online worship and we have around the same number of folk viewing online as we have worshipping in person on Sundays.
“For the housebound that’s great, but if sitting at home doing church on your iPad with a cup of coffee is taking the place of getting along to your local congregation, then something’s missing. We need to be in community as believers.
‘We can’t afford to stand still’
“It’s where we learn from others, get support and friendship and also get our rough edges smoothed out a little.
“Traditional churches aren’t always attractive to younger folk, on the surface at least, and we need to be willing to move with the times in the way we present the good news.
“Most of the spiritual growth I’ve seen in people in my 20 years here has come when small groups of folk get together to talk honestly about their spiritual journey and learn from one another’s experience.
“Just today, I answered an email from a young man who’s just come to faith but felt he needed to find a faith community so that he could continue to learn and find support.
“He’s 100% right. We weren’t meant to make this journey alone.”
Three years ago, Paul began training as a volunteer listener with NHS Grampian and ended up offering a morning’s listening every week at the Ellon GP practice.
If the doctors were aware that a patient needed a safe place where they could offload about what was happening in their lives, he would be there for them.
New role at ARI: Helping people during periods of crisis
He subsequently embarked on a year-long COSCA-approved (Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland) counselling skills course, which reinforced his conviction that he was being drawn toward this kind of work.
And, eventually, he applied for a position as a Healthcare Chaplain at the ARI last autumn and got the job, which he will start on February 17.
He said: “Chaplains are there to be a listening ear for everyone in the healthcare system: patients, relatives, visitors and also staff themselves.
“A spell in hospital can be a stressful time for everyone involved and, as chaplains, we take people as we find them and try to create a space where they feel able to talk about what’s going on: physically, emotionally and spiritually, if they want to go there.
‘People’s lives have importance’
“Sometimes, just saying things out loud to someone else with the time to listen can be help enough; sometimes, other forms of care and support can be given or signposted.
“But the heart of the work relates back to letting people know, through how we are with them, that they matter and that their lives have value, whatever their circumstances.
“Whether the folk we are with have faith or not, it’s my own faith that makes me want to create that kind of supportive, listening place for them.”
Conversation