Tealing Women's Guild (Est. 1909)
Mrs Christina Campbell recalls "I can remember very clearly the first night I went to the Guild. It was a very stormy night of strong winds and showers of hail and sleet. Mrs Miller, late of Moatmill, took me in her car along with Mabel and Mrs Carrie. We met in the vestry because we had a vacancy in the church and Reverend Harkness had just left (1957). The vestry was a small dismal room with poor lighting no heating and it was so cold that night. The guest that night was a missionary from Afghanistan and I was enthralled with her talk, life there was so hard for women. We took our own cups and Mrs Miller provided an electric kettle with water for our tea. The plug unfortunately was in the church!
At that time we were having talks with delegates from the Presbytery of Dundee, who were so determined that we join with Auchterhouse Church. Our last meeting with the Presbytery lasted four hours until we got permission to call a new minister for a period of 5 years. Before the Rev. Smith arrived, 8 members of the Guild cleaned and scrubbed the whole manse from the attic floor to the ground floor. When Mrs Smith arrived, the Guild was held in the manse, much more cheery and comfortable. I remember one particular night when our speaker failed to turn up, and I was asked to speak about my experiences working in the Balmoral Estate. This was a bit of an ordeal for me, but the end product was quite a success.
When houses were built in Inveraldie and a hall opened there, in the early fifties, the Guild moved to Tealing Hall. Members remained static for sometime, but in spite of much publicity, we failed to attract young members. We had an outing in the summer and sales of work or concerts in the wintertime, to contribute funds for church. When the Rev. J Kidd arrived we bought a more suitable and modern bungalow in Huntingfaulds Road because the old manse was so big, old fashioned and difficult to maintain. When we joined with Murroes Church, I was happy with the arrangement as Murroes Church was a beautiful church, but we had a problem - would we join Murroes Guild or try to persuade Presbytery to allow us to carry on at Tealing? I wrote to all the governing bodies asking for permission, which was freely granted, so we continued as Tealing Guild.
Unfortunately the members are much less now. But, during the many years I attended, found the Guild very friendly and I enjoyed most of the programmes and working as a delegate on social responsibly, Home missions and Foreign missions and attending General Assembly. Although I am unable to attend Guild meetings now I am still am Honorary President and proud to be so".