the various schemes of the Church, they wrote back to the Presbytery ‘What is

needed is a sympathetic visitation of the Presbytery’.

The funds were in deficit and the church was indeed in a difficult position.

Salaries for ‘the organist and the Church Officer would be paid only if the

income warranted it’. In 1917 the proposal was put to the congregation that

Strathkinness should unite with Ceres United Free Church. As the congre-

gation felt they could no longer go on by themselves the proposal was accepted.

It was decided that the Ceres Manse would be used and the Strathkinness

Manse either sold or let, and a new minister would be appointed for the new

joint charge. Mr. Turner left Strathkinness and two years later he became

minister at Grange in Aberdeenshire. The Rev. James Whyte became the

minister for both Ceres and Strathkinness United Free Churches, living in

Ceres and the manse in Strathkinness was let to a retired Free Church minister,

the Rev. Sandeman.

The Kirk Session book in Strathkinness ends on the 17 June 1917 and the

Session meetings after that date were recorded in a book in common with

Ceres. Unfortunately, that book has been lost, and the only information

comes from the Deacons Court of Strathkinness which had been constituted

into a Congregational Board at the time of joining with Ceres.

During the first few years both Strathkinness and Ceres increased their

membership slightly and Strathkinness even managed to keep a favourable

bank balance. The contribution to the Central Fund had been divided

between the two churches with Ceres paying £50 and Strathkinness £30.

Some years both churches managed to pay more than the minimum required.

The relationship between them was friendly and cordial and money raised

from joint fund-raising activities was amicably shared. The Ladies Work

Party, which so often in the past had helped the church meet expenses, con-

tinued to raise money for essential repairs including that caused by severe

storm damage in 1920. After 1917 women were becoming more active in the

running of the church being elected to the Deacons Court and frequently

appointed auditors. Special collections for Home Missions, Overseas Missions

and the Jewish Mission were made, and they made frequent appeals on behalf

of the Red Cross. However, they did not feel they could allow the church to

be used for a concert in aid of the Red Cross when Mr. Mauch line, the school-

master, asked for it in 1921. They said they sympathised ‘with the object of

the concert [but] felt that it was not expedient to grant the use of the Church

for a secular concert of that kind’.

The years between 1917 and 1924 were more financially secure for the

United Free Church in Strathkinness, but membership was falling again. In

1923 it was 50 and although it went up to 59 the following year it was soon

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