Sandra celebrates decade as minister
Sandra Boyd knew she was stepping into some big shoes when she took over as minister at King’s Park Parish Church.
However, after a decade in the job she feels she has managed to make her own mark.
It was November 2007 when Sandra arrived, replacing Stuart Smith, who had been at the church for over two decades.
She recalled: “This was my first ministry and I was following on from Stuart, who had been there for over 20 years and was so well loved within the community.
“Although I was in my forties I was still a new minister and I knew I had big shoes to fill.
“In some ways it now feels like I have been doing it forever and in others it’s like it was yesterday.”
Some of Sandra’s proudest achievements over her time in charge have been the various programmes and clubs established to help link the church with the wider community in King’s Park.
She feels this is important to the church’s future.
“We’ve developed some things a lot, like worship team, the dementia cafe and a lot of things with a focus on the community.
“It’s a huge challenge in a large parish, but I’m proud that we have established so many things like Messy Church or the summer clubs.
“Something like Messy Church is a great assist as it is based around families and is another way of worshipping, and something like the Dementia Club has worked well with Alzheimer’s Scotland, and has really helped a lot of people.”
The biggest challenge for Sandra is a familiar one for churches across Scotland - a decline in numbers attending on Sundays.
“We are fortunate that we have do have a good spread of younger people but it is not as much as we would like.
“Our whole outlook in the church is changing, and we have to engage more and be out there in the wider community, not just the within the church itself.
“That’s why we have introduced the community festival for everyone every summer.
“We started that to tie in with the Commonwealth Games (in 2014) and this year we started the Great Get Together, trying to get people together and to know their neighbours a bit more.
“We can’t just look at ourselves, we have to find ways to engage with the community.”
While that is a difficult task to face, Sandra is a huge admirer of the spirit in the local area.
She concluded: “The people of King’s Park are very caring and very loving.
“The church is not a building, it’s about the people, and it’s about the heart of the community.”