August 2024: Rev Pamela Kennedy

The Church of Scotland's Talking Ministry series shares personal stories from those serving in Christian ministry, along with resources filled with questions, prayers and reflections to help encourage reflection on how God might be calling you at this time.

For August, Rev Pamela Kennedy speaks about moving from a pioneer minister role to becoming a parish minister at Culloden and Ardersier.

Rev Pamela Kennedy

One of the Church of Scotland's newest parish ministers, Rev Pamela Kennedy was inducted as the first minister of the united parish of Culloden and Ardersier only in June, having previously been a pioneer minister at the village of Cardrona in the Scottish Borders. Previously a local authority educational psychologist, she is married to Dougal and is mother to sons Roderick, 14, and Struan, 13.

What is your religious background?

I suppose it runs in the family because my grandfather was an Episcopal minister and my aunt is a retired Episcopal minister, but my faith really began when I became friends with someone at high school who encouraged me to go along to Scripture Union and I started going to youth groups and Christian events. It was at one of these big youth events when I was 14 where I raised my hand and said: I want to follow Jesus.

I then had a gap when I went to university and I just didn't think about God for about 16 years. I had just started studying to be an educational psychologist, when God brought me back to Himself through a number of different ways such as placing particular people in my life who were Christian, and also through something that I was studying: the innate predisposition for relationships. Something clicked into place reading that and I realised we are made for relationships, we are made for love. There was something about having a richer understanding of love.

Something clicked into place reading that and I realised we are made for relationships, we are made for love. There was something about having a richer understanding of love.

Probably the final trigger was an article about the epistemological basis of educational psychology practice. I had never thought about concepts like epistemology, the branch of philosophy dealing with human knowledge and its limits. That deep level of thinking brought me to the conclusion that God must exist and caused me to revisit all of the things from my youth and gradually, like a little seedling, my faith grew and grew.

What made you decide to study for ministry?

When my son was very young, we went to a missions evening at the Keswick Convention. Even going along to it, I had a sense of anticipation and when we got there and they said the Bible reading for the evening would be from the beginning of Revelation 22, I knew that was going to be a significant moment. It was a passage that God had spoken to me about just a few weeks earlier. It says that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nation and it had given me a very vivid image of a limb being bound with leaves. It was a very ambiguous image. It was my limb and I was allowing other people or Jesus to bind my wounds, but they were also my hands binding someone else's wounds.

After I heard it was that verse, the preacher started his sermon and I'm sure he said lots of wonderful things, but I never heard a word because I just sat with my head bowed and my hands open and had a sense of the weight of God bowing my head. Then we were asked to stand to sing, I couldn't get the words out. That was the moment that I knew that God was going to ask me to give up all that I am and all that I have in His service.

I was not ready then, but in his Grace, He gave me a period of about seven years to prepare me.

That included a number of things I was given opportunities to do such as leading creative responses to sermons, little bits of speaking and joining the prayer ministry team.

Seven years after going to Keswick, I had a conversation with my minister where I tried to articulate feeling called to full-time ministry and I couldn't get the words out because I was asking if this was just coming from me and was just my ego. I was also wrestling with imposter syndrome and asking how could I possibly imagine that I could ever do this? My minister was the one who really encouraged me to speak about it and then go to a vocations conference. But I knew already it was what I had to do.

I knew some excellent ministers and I would look to them and think: there is no way I could be like that! But God doesn't want me to be like them. God wants me to be like me in ministry. That's the thing that needs to sink into place.

After you were ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament at Innerleithen, Traquair and Walkerburn Parish, you were employed as a pioneer minister, working with the community rather than at a church. What was that experience like?

Pioneer ministry is one of the exciting things that has come out of the recent changes in the Church of Scotland.

I was working in Cardrona, between Peebles and Innerleithan. There was no church building and virtually nothing by way of community facilities apart from a village hall which is used by all sorts of groups. The other challenge is that it is effectively a commuter village. People drive off to work and when they come back in the evening, they go into their house and close their doors.

The question is how do you engage with people in a community like that? We did all sorts of things, like American Football for young people. That was great fun and because we held it on the the village green, it was very visible. People who were driving past would see you and wonder what was going on.

The single most successful thing we did was actually not our idea at all, it was a community idea. Quite often, I think the Church tries to do things instead of listening and finding out what the community is saying that they need and seeing how we can partner with and support that.

The community wanted to start a lunch club. I had never been involved with anything like that, so it was a very steep learning curve, but I ended up being the coordinator for this lunch club, Meet and Eat, which is still operating. It was wonderful to be involved with because I met members of the community I would never otherwise had the opportunity to. That helped us connect with the community in a way that was meaningful for the community itself.

I was only there for 20 months, but in that time, we built relationships and helped the community recognise we were for them. I think that quite often, people believe the Church is not there for them, so there is a lot of work to do just to convince people that we want to care and demonstrate love practically. It's a very soft, gentle start, but I think that without that gentle start, we can't then do the other things we might like to do. You have to first have a relationship with people before you can share Jesus in a meaningful way.

What drew you to Ardersier and Culloden?

Before I had even read the first page of the parish profile, I thought: this might be a fit. None of the other vacancies I looked at had this effect.

For me, it was the focus on word and spirit, and also a passion for young people and youth ministry, which matched my experience as a coach for Growing Young ministry.

We talk about the kinds of ministry in terms of APEST: Apostolic, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher. The two aspects that always stood out for me were Prophet and Teacher and here was I looking at a parish profile where they spoke about the prophetic and speaking about the spirit at work and listening out for God's voice. It was the first parish profile I'd seen that had done that.

The new parish has a mixed profile given that Culloden is effectively a suburb of Inverness, but you also have a more rural element including the village of Ardersier. Does that bring its own challenges?

I think there is something very exciting in that. There is no other church presence in Ardersier, but they have a primary school, and there are huge opportunities for us. The congregation is currently leading Godly Play in the school, and the Barn Church, Culloden has a lot of experience in working with children and young people, so there are ways that each part of the congregation can learn from one another.

They are different communities with a 20-minute drive between them, but that was one of the things I was drawn to. They had this vision based on the Feeding of the 5,000. You have farming with The Barn in Culloden, and with Ardersier on the coast you have the fish, so we are bringing the loaves and fishes to God and asking how we can use them for the community.

We have yet to figure out what it is going to look like and there are probably more questions than there are answers, but I am able to go on that journey with everyone.

The issue is not so much whether there are opportunities, it is which are the ones for now. We need to ask the Lord to help us identify which are the opportunities for this season and which might be for later. I still feel I am trying to get to know the lie of the land and how things operate, but I'm very enthusiastic. And the number of conversations I have had with people where they have said it is exciting.

Does your background as an educational psychologist help in ministry?

God doesn't call us in a vacuum. He calls us with everything we've been and all that we have done and I am sure I am using my previous work in my current role.

One thing that we always tried to do in that role was work towards giving people a voice, so making sure that we are working together is important for me. Certainly, as a Church, we have to be thinking about our young people. We have to create a space where young people feel they belong and that is not just tokenistic. I think we have an imbalance to redress because the majority of what the Church does is aimed at the needs of older people. What would it look like if we were to really get to know our younger people and try to build things around where they are coming from?

That's not about saying they are more important than anyone else. It's about trying to level things out in order that they do feel they have space. That is something I am quite passionate about and I think that has come from my educational psychology background and before that my teaching background as well.

As someone at the start of your parish ministry, what are your hopes for the future?

Our next thing to do, as a united charge, is to work out what our priorities are across that charge, to listen to our community and try and get a sense of what to do there. I would also really love to make connections with the other churches in the area because there are a lot of them and there is potential for us to do a lot of exciting things together. We have the prospect of being able to hire a full-time mission development staff worker so we need to start thinking about what that role might look like and what is needed from that role.

For me, I am always thinking about younger people. We need to try to listen to younger people in our communities. We need to go to where they are and not expect them to come to us.

The other thing is that we have so much new housing here and we need to connect with people in the new houses. The village in the Borders I was working in was a nearly new village. I became part of the Presbytery New Housing group and I made connections with others who had new housing in their area. One church made packs for people who were moving in, welcoming them to the area and inviting them to have a cup of tea on us, and including a map to give an idea of where everything was and basic information on when the library or shops were open. I think that is a great idea and I would love to do something like that.

You have these conversations and hear these ideas and you store them up and think: I might use that!

Ministry is obviously a vocation, but is it fun too?

Absolutely! I've just returned from the Refuel Festival in Fochabers because a number of our congregation were there to support local charity Adopt-A-Child and it was a wonderful experience. I like engaging the congregation with the all-age talks as well. That's always one of my favourite things. We had a big inflatable ball on Sunday and we were throwing it around the congregation. Great fun!

August Discernment Resources: The Next Chapter

What is mine to do?

Stories are such a powerful way of connecting. In days gone by, there was, in most Scottish communities a designated story teller - a Seanachaidh - charged with keeping tradition alive by passing on tales from generation to generation.

On Easter morning, it was the women at the tomb who were charged with passing on the story of the Resurrection.

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

- John 20:16-17

It's the most natural thing in the world to want to hold on...To hold on to whatever is in front of us because who knows what the future will bring? To hold on to what we know because we fear the unknown. To hold on to what feels good and to what brings challenge because alternatives cause us to be anxious.

Jesus' encounter with Mary reminds us that only by letting go will we experience whatever God offers next. Only by letting go will we be enabled to follow where Christ has gone and experience

a new way of being that fulfils our potential in God who calls and equips and leads us on to whatever is next – when we let go.

We are charged not only to pass on the stories but, along with God, to write the next chapter – perhaps even the e-book version of the story of the saints of God.

Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

- Hebrews 11:39-40 (The Message)

To contemplate/discuss

• Who is it that shared stories of faith with me?
• What is it that is holding me back from following their example?
• What part of the story are you being invited to co-author with God?
• Is our story one of romance or mystery, crime or adventure?
• Who might join you as you move forward in faith?

Prayer

God, enable me to be present in every moment, to take my cues from you. To discern what is mine to do and to let go of those things that do not further your kingdom.

And, in the releasing or relinquishing may I know growth not loss, peace and not yearning and the sheer joy of knowing that I continue to do your will becoming exactly who you created me to be, co-authoring, with you, the next chapter in the journey of faith.

For that is enough.
I am enough.
Amen

More information

If you would like to consider how God might be calling you to serve at this time, you may want to discuss further with your minister or be in touch with your Presbytery to explore local opportunities.

If you are interested in exploring a call to the recognised ministries of the Church, you can find more information on our vocations page and can contact ministry@churchofscotland.org.uk for a Discernment Conversation with one of the Recruitment Team.