Community aims to buy Lumphanan kirk

OVER the Easter weekend communities around the north-east will be gathering in their local church to celebrate one of the most important events of the Christian calendar.

But residents in Lumphanan will hold their service in the local hall, in protest over the continued uncertainty surrounding the future of the village church.

Lumphanan Church closed to worshippers in 2005 following an announcement from the Church of Scotland that they intended to sell the building. The church’s General Assembly upheld the plans following a review.

The community have now decided that the only way to retain the building and stop it being sold privately, would be to buy it themselves.

Leading campaigner, Dr Alison Carroll, of Lumphanan, said: “We are working together as a whole community towards buying the building.”

The newly-formed Lumphanan Heritage Society has already begun fundraising locally. A spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland said that no decision had yet been reached about the future of the rural building.