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 recognized as a Local Ecumenical Partnership by the Scottish Churches National Sponsoring Body, under the name of The Local Church.

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, representatives from the Christian Fellowship of Healing, the Grassmarket Mission, the Mental Health Chaplaincy and occasionally observers from other churches meets every two or three months.

Items from the meeting of the steering group on 7 December 2011.-

The Revd.  Zachary Fleetwood was welcomed, and his induction as Rector of St. Columba’s by the Castle on 4 November was agreed to have been a great TLC occasion.

There was discussion of how TLC should develop its outreach, in view of the diminishing importance of  Parish Meals in the Grassmarket Community Project.  The question was sent to our congregations and discussion will  be continued at the group’s next meeting.

The next joint service will be at St. Columba’s on 12 February 2012, and will include thanksgiving for the work of the Christian Fellowship of Learning.   Following services (apart from Holy Week) will be at Greyfriars on 27 May and Augustine UC on 7 October.

A TLC Lent study group will meet (again at AUC) on Wednesdays 29 February 2012, and 7, 14, 21 & 28 March, using a York Course entitled ‘Handing on the Torch’.

The next meeting of the Steering Group will be at Greyfriars on 8 February, the following one at St. Columba’s on 16 May.

New item.   The Fourth Biennial Local Ecumenical Partnership Gathering is being held at Murrayfield Parish Church on Saturday March 10th.    Booking forms can be downloaded from the ACTS web site.