The Building Fund Years

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, our small congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Dunfermline had a very big dream.

We wanted a chapel of our own.

In those days, local congregations were expected to raise a significant part of the cost themselves, which meant that the words “building fund” seemed to be permanently attached to almost everything we did.

Dad was serving as Branch President and carried much of the responsibility for helping us reach the target.

For years, our growing congregation met wherever we could find a home: the Masonic Hall in Priory Lane, Abbeyview Community Centre, Touch Community Centre, Netherton Institute and several other places along the way.

But we had a goal, and everyone got involved.

There were jumble sales, bazaars and craft fairs. I recall we filled little tartan frogs with lentils. We glued wooden clothes pegs together to make miniature rocking chairs.

And then there were the bottles…so, so many bottles.

In those days, lemonade bottles carried a small refundable deposit. Return the empty bottle and you received a few pennies back.

A few pennies didn’t sound like much, until you collected thousands of them.

As a boy, I spent countless hours knocking on doors around Dunfermline: “We’re collecting lemonade bottles for our church building fund. Have you got any?”

Apparently, quite a lot of people did.

Mitchell’s bottles were particularly prized. I remember they brought a slightly better return than the distinctive Alpine bottles.

Before long, they were everywhere. Bottles under beds. Bottles in cupboards. Bags of bottles stacked around the house. And our little lock up shed was always filled with bottles galore.

How my mum tolerated it for years remains one of the unexplained mysteries of my childhood.

It was hard work, pretty messy, probably a little odd, but it was also great fun!

It taught me something about what can happen when ordinary people unite around something that matters.

Nobody could build that chapel alone. But everyone could collect a few bottles, run a jumble sale, make something, give something or do something.

The Lord said: “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still… to see the salvation of God.” – Doctrine & Covenants 123:17

That feels close to what really happened, because we did what lay in our power.

Bottle by bottle. Penny by penny. Year after year.

And eventually, in 1987, the chapel on St Leonard’s Place in Dunfermline was completed.

Whenever I think about that building now, I don’t just see bricks and mortar. I see thousands of doors being knocked. I see bags overflowing with empty lemonade bottles. I see tartan frogs filled with lentils.

And I see what can happen when a small group of people, with faith in their hearts, decide to make one united effort.

Small things mixed with some effort and hard work – can make a huge difference.

What favourite memories do you have of those times?

Why not join with us this morning at 10.00am.

What might become possible if each of us simply did the small thing that lies within our power?