St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church
St John's
Where we are
St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church (Anglican/Methodist), St John’s Church Office, Lovers’ Walk, Dumfries, DG1 1LW.
Location map.
Contacts
Rector: Canon Robin Paisley. Church Secretary: Mrs Carol Finlay.
Phone 01387 254 126.
Email enquiries@stjohnsdumfries.org.
Website www.stjohnsdumfries.org.
Regular times of worship
- Sundays: 8 am, 11 am (main service), 6 pm
- Tuesdays: 6.30pm
- Wednesdays: 10.30am
The church is open daily from 9 am to 5pm for individual prayer. For more details, including Daily Prayer service times and monthly services held in St John’s, the Crichton Royal Chapel, Maxwelton Chapel (Moniaive) and Charnwood Lodge Nursing Home, see St John’s own website.
Our mission, ministry and social action
Nave and chancel
We seek to praise God in meaningful and inspiring worship which glorifies God, helps people respond to God and draws from the best of traditional and contemporary sources.
We want to serve Jesus Christ in joyful, obedient discipleship, recognising that we are on a journey of constant discovery about the nature of God and His call to us.
We have a desire to see the church renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit, every member empowered to minister, and to make our church inviting and relevant.
We want to engage with our local community and wider world with the gospel of God’s accepting, forgiving and transforming love, expressed in evangelism, social and pastoral care and in a commitment to justice, peace and the renewal of creation.
We are a Fairtrade Church and we are planning to become an Eco-congregation.
We are founding members of the Christian Care for the Homeless charity in Dumfries and support the work of “Let the Children Live” a Colombian charity helping homeless children.
Activities
West nave
St John’s has a very strong musical tradition and its choir of approximately 30 men, women and children, together with the recently rebuilt pipe organ, support the worship of the church and welcome new members joining from the community. A Choir Welcome leaflet is available in the Church. St John’s has also recently added a Handbell Choir which plays occasionally in Sunday morning services. Participation is open to older children through to adults.
St Johns Church is also looking into the possiblity of installing a ring of 8 bells for full circle ringing. Further information can be found on the Church website.
Organ recitals in aid of charities are held regularly and St John’s is also a regular venue for concerts and recitals of the Dumfries Music Club and other organisations.
Groups such as St John’s Children’s Church and Youth Group, Dumfries Flower Club and Youth Befrienders make use of St John’s facilities. The church, hall and meeting rooms can be booked for community events.
St John’s hosts the annual Christian Aid Lent lunches, which are an excellent example of ecumenical cooperation to which we are committed as an ecumenical church.
History
Reredos
Our commitment to ecumenism is in response to the history of Christianity in Scotland since the Reformation of the 16th century which often features division. In this present age St John’s seeks to foster unity amidst diversity which is the challenge the Anglican Communion, of which St John’s is a part, is also addressing. St John’s is in a Local Ecumenical Partnership with the Methodist Church and is rebuilding links with St Michael’s Church of Scotland, the oldest church in Dumfries, out of which the St John’s congregation came in 1690.
A fuller explanation of the history and the link with the Methodist Church is on the St John’s website. St John’s people strongly support the DCC’s role in fostering dialogue between the Christian traditions in Dumfries.
St John’s, as part of the word-wide Anglican Communion of Churches, including the Churches of England, Ireland and Wales, seeks to provide for all traditions within the broad range encompassed in Anglicanism while preserving its distinctive Scottish identity.