ALMOST 127 years of history could soon be no more as a Stevenston church on the verge of being dissolved.

Stevenston Ardeer Parish Church was informed of this potential move last week, with a final decision to be made soon, by the committee.

The decision has been made mainly for two reasons, first of all the current state of the church building, which is in desperate need of repair and has seen the church closed in recent times.

Further to this, it has fallen short in ministry contributions of over £75,000.

This was confirmed in a service in Livingston Church this weekend, which has incorporated Ardeer over the period of its closure.

While there is potential for both churches to merge long-term, it is not considered by the presbytery for this to be a viable long-term solution.

This is because the dissolving of Ardeer will ensure no burden of the building, nor financial shortcomings, will be passed over to Livingston Church.

READ MORE: Ardeer Parish Church building in Stevenston closing ahead of union

What is very uncertain, is what will happen to the money raised through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland, Church of Scotland trustees plus fundraising by the congregation which allowed for restoration work to begin on the building earlier this decade.

Further to this, it was considered that “a union was always going to be a short-term solution” due to the upcoming presbytery mission plan, which will see vast church closures across North Ayrshire.

This will see further unions of other churches in the area, in the not too distant future, therefore having two unions so close together was not seen as a suitable solution.

This mission plan will see the Presbytery of Ardrossan join with five other Presbyteries to create the Presbytery of the South West Scotland in September 2022.

The Presbytery of Ardrossan was informed that the number of centrally funded posts would be reduced to 13.5 FTE posts from a current level of 23.1 FTE posts.

In the mission plan, the Ardrossan presbytery states: “We have a number of vacancies alongside a number of ministers who will be looking to retire in the not too distant future. We also have a surplus of buildings.”

The overall mission, as well as reducing the number of FTE posts from the current level, will also see the union of several congregations in the areas which will soon form the Presbytery of the South West Scotland.

This will lead to the closure of further church buildings, a decision which will be reached by May or June of this year. An audit of all buildings was carried out to aide this decision, and these will be complete by the end of this month.