Our monthly Café Church is due to take place this month on Sunday, 24th September in the Kirk building and will consist of a "Harvest Pot Luck lunch" event. We shall begin with coffee at 11 a.m. and then site down together around 12 noon for lunch together. The idea is that everyone brings a dish of food to share with others. Anyone and everyone will be welcome to join us!
Café Church is a more informal meeting than our normal service of worship in the Kirk. We sit at tables in the Friendship Room at the back of the main Kirk and start with light refreshments before joining together in an abbreviated time of worship, then focusing on a particular topic or questions related to Christian teaching and living in the 21st century. The aim is to give everyone an opportunity to contribute to our task as a Christian congregation of applying Jesus' teaching to our contemporary society. It also helps us to get to know each other in a more sociable setting.
This beautiful rural parish, at the western extremity of what used to be Perthshire, now comes under Stirling Council. Farming remains a major part of life here, despite the inroads made by the Forestry Commission and the predominance of tourism.
The backdrop of mountains, lochs and rivers, combined with a sense of history, appeals to country-lovers and tourists and the parish is now part of the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002. Visitors to the area appreciate the variety of attractions and, in coming to see the church, enjoy some tranquil moments in their busy schedules.
The parish extends nearly six miles beyond the end of the public road at Inverlochlarig in Balquhidder Glen and, at its widest point, measures some ten miles between the summit of Glen Ogle in the North and Ardchullarie by Loch Lubnaig to the South. Much of the parish boundary follows a watershed which takes in summits over 3,000 feet, such as Ben Vorlich and Stùc a' Chroin in the East and Ben More and Stob Binnean in the West.
The parish church is situated in Balquhidder Glen on a site where Christianity was introduced by St Angus some 1,200 years or more ago. Nowadays, a total population of almost eight hundred is divided between the two main centres of population, namely: Lochearnhead (at the junction of the A84 and A85) and Strathyre (five miles to the South on the A84). The Kirkton of Balquhidder is loosely referred to as “the village” but the glen is officially described as a “dispersed rural settlement”.
Railways were at the heart of nineteenth century developments, with stations at Lochearnhead and Strathyre. Balquhidder had its own station midway between the two, plus a halt at Kingshouse. The railway route is now followed by a good cycle track all the way from Callander to Killin. Landslides (plus Dr Beeching) closed the railways and, in 2004, affected the A84 road badly, necessitating considerable engineering works which have worked well to cope with extreme weather.
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