A HADDINGTON churchgoer who has spent the past four years raising funds for a new church in Kenya will attend its official opening later this month.

Mary Wallace, who is a member of the congregation of Holy Trinity Church, will fly out on Tuesday to attend the official opening of St Peter’s Church in Ihindu in the East African country. The event takes place on October 25.

Mrs Wallace, who lives in Gifford, first became involved in the project, which cost £22,000, after travelling on a holiday safari in Kenya with her husband in 2005 and finding out about places of worship there.

When she returned home, tour guide Sammy Karanja, who attends St Peter’s, contacted her and told her of the church’s plight.

Mrs Wallace then sprung into action when Mr Karanja revealed how services were being held in a small corrugated shack.

She has been supported by members of St Mary’s Parish Church – which has formed an official link with its fellow Presbyterians at Ihindu through the Church of Scotland – and her own Holy Trinity Church, which is a Episcopalian congregation.

• Full story at the East Lothian Courier.

• Filed under Africa, Church Buildings, Church of Scotland, Ecumenism, Scottish Christian News Monitor, Scottish Episcopal Church.