On Saturday 24th August, Rev. James Blackwell was inducted to the Free Church Congregation of Glenelg and Arnisdale, Lochalsh and Glenshiel in the Free Presbytery of Skye and Wester Ross. James was formerly a Pastoral Worker at Fort William Free Church and we are blessed that he answered the call to join the congregation of Glenelg and Inverinate after a vacancy of 24 years.
The ceremony was attended by over 100 people who enjoyed the preaching from the Rev. Donald G MacDonald, and privileged to witness the laying on of hands by other ministers of the area. After the service, lunch was served so that we could enjoy a time of fellowship and presentations were made to James and his family, to Rev. Roddie Rankin who had faithfully served the congregation during the vacancy and to Rev. Gordon Martin for his dedicated work as Interim Moderator.
We were thankful that James and his wife Claire, and children Thomas, Maryann and William were able to move into the Manse just in time for the start of Thomas’ first day of nursery despite welcoming wee William to the world only two weeks before that! A busy time for all but its good to have them as part of our church family.
On behalf of the congregation, Colin MacDonald said, ‘We are absolutely delighted to welcome James and family and look forward to his ministry to us and to serving our Lord and Saviour together and making Him known in our community.’
James said: “My wife and I have always had a heart for rural ministry, so we were very pleased when God called us here to serve Him in this beautiful part of Scotland. We will miss Fort William and the people there but are excited by this new challenge and seeing the wonderful transforming power of the gospel at work here in Glenelg and Inverinate. (and beyond!)”