Sunday Morning

Our Sunday service takes place every week at 11am.  We have a vibrant mix of worship, contemporary in style while retaining a balance of traditional. Our praise is led each week by singers and a praise band comprising a digital piano, guitars and drums. 

Praise items and scripture are projected onto the large screen using Easy Worship software. Occasional use of DVDs and power point presentations enhances worship. We currently subscribe to a CCLI licence which enables us to embrace a more varied form and range of praise.

We use online technology to stream our services using Facebook, with the weekly services live-streamed and also available to be viewed at a later time.    We continue to invest in our sound and visual systems.

Congregational involvement in leading worship

Many in our congregation are on a ‘worship rota’ and share in prayers, praise and readings.

Young people

Our children’s groups (‘Transformers’ and ‘Creche’) meet on each Sunday morning where they join the first part of the service in church, then meet separately for relevant Bible stories, reflections and related activities.   Transmission (our teenagers’ group) meets regularly on Sunday evenings.

Sunday evening

We have a monthly Sunday evening time of worship and fellowship.  This is held in the church on the last Sunday of each month and runs from 6pm until 7pm, involving praise, prayer, and an opportunity to consider and discuss relevant topics and themes.  We encourage families, young children, and friends to come along.

Our minister is Rev Peter Nelson.

Prayer

We have a weekly time for prayer, comprising:

• Twice monthly evening prayer meeting on Zoom;
• Twice monthly in-person daytime prayer meeting in church.

Dates, times and links for these prayer meetings are included in the Diary section.

There is a short time of prayer from 10.30am to 10.40am before the service on a Sunday morning and anyone is welcome to come along.  We can pray for the service, for people that we know may need prayer, and for other situations that are on people’s hearts.

Bible Study

There are three Bible study groups which meet either online or in person and these are open to everyone.  These groups are well attended and focus on Bible study, prayer and fellowship.  Details of the meeting times and links for each group are included in the Diary section.

‘Little Steps’ Baby & Toddler Group 

If you are interested in registering for Little Steps, please complete and submit our registration form which can be found here

Youth Organisations

We currently support and encourage the following organisations in our church:

BB Company, Junior Section and Anchor Boys - all sections meet on a Thursday evening in the church hall
Scouts, Cubs and Beavers - all sections meet on a Friday evening in the church hall
Guides, Brownies and Rainbows - Brownies meet on a Tuesday.  Rainbows & Guides meet on a Wednesday.  All meet in the church hall

Link to Hope

We continue to support the ‘Link to Hope’ shoebox appeal where filled shoeboxes containing Christmas gifts and essential items for individuals or families are delivered to countries in Eastern Europe.  It is a particular delight and very touching to watch the videos of those receiving gifts and the joy this brings them. 

School links

We are involved in chaplaincy work in the local schools.  In Pentland and Oxgangs primary schools the Minister is involved in assemblies, as well as class teaching elements of the RME curriculum.  There is also involvement in Scripture Union (“SU”) in Pentland primary school.  The linkage and relationship with these schools is not a formalised chaplaincy arrangement, but a more informal and regular opportunity to be involved in the classroom.

We share a growing chaplaincy presence at Firhill High School, sharing this with other local churches in the catchment area.

Holiday Club

We run a joint week-long summer SU Holiday Club in conjunction with other local churches. This is aimed at P1-7 children and includes a family evening to share the experiences of the children.

Community and Social issues

We actively support the Bethany Trust Care Van, with teams from our church involved periodically throughout the year, distributing soup, rolls and clothing to the homeless in the city centre.

Members of our church are involved with the Street Pastor initiative in Edinburgh where teams go into the city centre in Edinburgh of Friday and Saturday nights to share God’s love by listening, caring and helping those out late at night. 

We provide facilities for Gamblers’ Anonymous to meet regularly in our Halls throughout the year.

Our harvest thanksgiving donations of foodstuffs enable us, working with other groups, to help support families in need within our community.

The Christmas gifts appeal last year was very well supported, with gifts for women and children given to families supported by The Salvation Army, with other gifts given to adult residents at Cunningham House.

Our Christmas fund raising appeal in 2022 focused on raising funds for the Bethany Welcome Centre, which provides emergency accommodation and support for those who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Edinburgh.

Proposed Property Development

The proposed redevelopment of our church and halls was granted planning consent in 2022.  The next stage in this project is to move to the detailed design, building warrant and tender stage, which will be progressed once Presbytery approve the consultants’ costs required.  This is expected in Autumn 2023.  This is an exciting and wonderful opportunity to continue to build a vibrant, growing church at the centre of our community, and to share the good news of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ in our community and for our church to be the focal point of that community.