St. Columba’s-by-the-Castle

Our Local Ecumenical Partnership

At a service at Greyfriars at Pentecost 2002 the congregations of our three churches of Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk (Church of Scotland), St. Columba’s by the Castle (Episcopal Church) and Augustine United Church (United Reformed Church) signed a covenant committing ourselves to worship and study together and work to establish a united and positive Christian presence in the centre of Edinburgh. We are members of Edinburgh Churches Together and Action of Churches Together in Scotland, and in 2006 we were recognised as a Local Ecumenical Partnership by the Scottish Churches National Sponsoring Body.

Joint services and activities take place in Holy Week and throughout the year, and a Steering Group consisting of the ministers and a minimum of two members of each church, a representative from the Christian Fellowship of Healing and occasionally observers from other churches meets every two or three months. These are some of the matters discussed or reported and events announced at the Steering Group meeting held at AUC on 29 May 2008. -

• The sharing of administrative burdens among the three churches
• The progress in the appointment of a new minister for Augustine United Church
• Financial support for the ‘Parish Meals’ provided at the Grassmarket Mission on Tuesday evenings now that Crisis Fare Share is having to charge for the distribution of food
• Our progress in becoming Eco-Congregations
• On the afternoon of Sunday 8 June Greyfriars would be holding a congregational ’strategic planning exercise’, and representatives from the other churches were invited.
• From 11 to 14 July the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church was to be held at Heriot-University.
• Before the Lambeth Conference St. Columba’s is playing host to an American bishop, welcoming him with a barbecue on 12 July.
• A NiteKirk is planned at Greyfriars from 2 to 9 August; briefings for helpers were about to begin.
• There is to be a Festival ceilidh at Greyfriars on 22 August; our annual visit to Inchcolm Island will on Sunday 24 August (bookings to Sylvia Whiskerd at St. Columba’s).
• The second Local Ecumenical Partnership Gathering will be held at Paisley on Saturday, 1 November.

The next meeting of the Steering Group will be at Greyfriars on 10 September.