It is really tough at the moment, I know, to keep the church building closed. We would all love to be meeting together, and a time will come when we can do that. But it is not now, and not yet. At Ferryhill we have been regularly reviewing where we are and the Kirk Session has remained of the opinion that it is better to keep the church building closed for public worship. This ensures we are not adding to any possible transmission of the coronavirus within the community through communal gatherings of people. We maintained this position even when it was legally allowed to have public worship. We wanted to go above and beyond what the Scottish Government was saying was permissible.

A small group of church congregation's leaders have moved a legal challenge this week to the Scottish Government's instruction to close places of worship. This is not the Church of Scotland's position, nor that of Ferryhill Parish Church. Because of the confusion the reporting of this legal case may have amongst communities, some Church of Scotland ministers offered their voices of support to keeping places of worship closed at this awful stage of the pandemic. You can watch that statement above.