Appletree Community – a residential community for people with special needs and support staff   is being established outside Auchterarder by Lay Reader Kate Sainsbury, with the help of others. At the beginning of October the focus of Kate’s ministry is moving from serving the Strathearn Charges, to a ministry grounded in the Appletree Community.

Kate and Revd Gennie Evans (Rector of the Strathearn Charges) write,

“Bishop Ian, recognising a change in Kate’s ministry, as she develops Appletree Community, and works at national and local government level, advocating on behalf of people with learning disabilities and their families, proposes to Commission her into this new role.  Kate will report directly to Bishop Ian, reflecting theologically on what it is to be human, understood through her learning from these experiences, to share with the wider Church.

We are extremely grateful for all that Kate has done as reader for the Strathearn churches and we are thankful that she will still be based here. We pray her many blessings as she steps forward in the next stage of her ministry. Watch this space for more updates and information!”