Format changes hand Moray Coast Convention huge boost
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CHANGE brought its own rewards for a popular annual Buckie bible study convention.
Formerly Keswick in Buckie, the convention re-launched on August 5 as the Moray Coast Convention, running until August 11.
A change of venue was also on the cards, with the event moving along the road from previous host Buckie North Church to Buckie Baptist Church.
The format of guest speakers was refreshed, with the normal complement of three being reduced to two in order to give a greater focus on the morning and afternoon bible study sessions. Joining the convention for the first time were guest speakers Rev Dr Colin Dow from Glasgow City Free Church and evangelist Roger Carswell, who was born and raised in Leeds and has lived in Horsforth for many years.
Rev Dr Dow's seminars dealt with the subject of the Names of Jesus Christ while Mr Carswell pondered the challenges of Faith in a Faithless Society.
With numbers down last year for the first convention to be held after the pandemic, Moray Coast Convention chairman Bill Mowat said that this year's event had taken off.
He said: "The convention has exceeded expectations, we're all just delighted with how things have gone.
"The numbers are definitely up, with the morning and afternoon sessions all packed.
"We've had 200 coming along every evening, with both the church and overflow rooms full.
"We've also had a lot of visitors coming along to the convention.
"The changes we made have been very well received and we had more people coming along from further along the coast.
"We had a praise evening in the church, which was full, on the Saturday featuring the Highland Harvest Band. This was an excellent evening, the audience were very enthusiastic.
"The following evening we held a fellowship evening featuring informal interviews with guest speakers, including Colin Murray from Portsoy who talked about his MND diagnosis and his hopes for the future. It was quite emotional and very inspirational. He talked about the role God has in his life and his view was not 'Why me?' but 'Why not me?'.
"It's all been very encouraging for next year and it was great to have all the local churches involved."
In addition to the guest speakers there were also sessions with some of the missionary delegations which had stalls at the convention.
The Northern Scot caught up with Mr Carswell near the end of the convention and he said he had thoroughly enjoyed his first visit to the Moray Coast Convention.
Explaining why he was keen to accept the invitation to head north, he said: "I became a Christian when I was 15 years old.
"I was on holiday in Lebanon staying with missionaries when one evening, after we'd played a game of tennis, one of them explained to me that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins. I'd never understood that before and from that moment on all I wanted to do was preach the Gospel.
"I was a teacher for 11 years but my heart was always in spreading the good news of the Lord Jesus. I spend a lot of time going to schools and universities, I don't normally do many conventions but it's been great to be here."
His choice of theme at the convention was driven by contemporary events.
Mr Carswell added: "I talked about current events and how there is an undermining of Christian values and agenda.
"People are angry at God. What do Christians do in the face of this? We stand firm.
"Everyone attending my sessions were every warm, appreciative and attentive. This is a lovely place to be."
During his free moments during the week in Buckie he visited the Buckie Fishing Heritage Centre Ltd and the Seamen's Memorial Chapel, an experience he described as "very moving".
