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History
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The Balloch
community
Housing
began to be developed in Balloch / Eastfield in the late 1970's and
as
people moved into the area they looked for a place where they could
worship locally.
At that time these areas of Cumbernauld were
part of Condorrat Parish and so the Kirk Session of Condorrat looked at
ways of meeting this need.
The minister of Condorrat at that time was Rev Bruce McNicol and, along
with the Associate Minister Ailsa McIntyre, they began to introduce
worship services in the new and growing community.
The first worship service at
Balloch took place on Easter Day 1982 and
so, in addition to the usual significance of Easter Day in the
Christian church, it has another special significance for us as it also
marks our 'anniversary'.
Ailsa McIntyre was the driving force behind the start of church
services at Balloch and the person who got everyone involved at the
outset. Ailsa said to many of the congregation, “Just help me out for a
short while”, and are we still here many years later!
From meeting in people's
houses to begin with, our first 'permanent'
home was in a 'Portakabin'.
During this time plans were formulated for a church building, and land
had even been identified on which it might be built. However, these
plans fell through and the Forge Community Centre, owned by North
Lanarkshire Council, became our new home.
The
continued expansion of Cumbernauld northwards in the 1990's (and since
then) resulted in a realignment of parish boundaries. Balloch and
Eastfield then became part of Cumbernauld Old Parish Church, which is
where we are today; the new alongside the old as it were! On 1st April
2007 we celebrated 25 years of worship in Balloch /
Eastfield with a church service and social gathering afterwards.
In mid-2018 we
were advised by
North Lanarkshire Council that they would no longer be able to provide
us with a let of the Forge at weekends after the end of September. At
the moment of writing, we are still looking for alternative worship
arrangements in this part of our parish.
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