S.E.E.C.O.S.
Liberton Kirk is a Church of Scotland church serving an area of South East Edinburgh. It is part of a larger parish called SEECOS, which stands for South East Edinburgh Church of Scotland. Also part of SEECOS are Liberton Northfield Church in Gilmerton Road, Tron Kirk (Gilmerton and Moredun) at Craigour Gardens Moredun and at the Hub in Ravenscroft Street Gilmerton, and Gracemount Church, which meets currently on Sundays in Gracemount Primary School.
This relationship gives us the opportunity to focus our prayers and our action on areas of need, and share our resources. The website www.seecos.org.uk and the quarterly newsletter Heartbeat provide more information.
Links with other Churches/Organisations
The “Big Idea” churches are committed to spreading the good news of Jesus in their communities. They run programmes of events where people can meet in a relaxed atmosphere for a particular activity such as walking, music or golf mingling with Christians and having opportunities to speak about faith. In recent years the Big Idea churches have focused on the power of prayer, linking with TryPraying, whose website is www.trypraying.co.uk, offering prayer to anyone who would like it and prayer-walking their communities. Joint worship events are organised several times a year at which enquirers are very welcome.
A summer event “Messy in the Park” invites local communities, especially young families, to come and have fun. The Big Idea also organises the annual Fischy Music Concerts for primary school children.
The Big Idea churches are the SEECOS churches (see above) plus Ferniehill Evangelical Church, and St. Barnabas’ Scottish Episcopal Church. For further information about their activities see www.whatsthebigidea.org.
S.E.E.C.A.T
Liberton Kirk is part of a group of local churches of different Christian denominations called South East Edinburgh Churches Acting Together. Eight churches are involved – the local Roman Catholic Cluster, made up of St. Catherine’s, St. Gregory’s and St. John Vianney’s, together with St. Barnabas’ Scottish Episcopal Church and the SEECOS churches mentioned above. The Old Catholic Apostolic Church (www.liberalcatholics.org) is an Associate Member. We try to get to know each other better, to worship, study and pray together, and to witness to our faith in the community. SEECAT’s annual programme is published in October and includes major joint events in Holy Week.
SEECAT has a quarterly newsletter CROSSTALK and the latest edition can be viewed on the website (www.seecat.org), together with full programme details and more information about the SEECAT churches.
Young Life International
Along with a number of other churches we work closely with Young Life International to support in different ways their youth work in the area. This includes the annual Stage’N’Slam week in July, which is a sports and arts day camp based partly at Liberton Kirk Centre.
Try Praying
We work closely with Trypraying, with their booklets freely available in all our public places. You will have seen advertisements on the buses or outside churches.
Their main booklet seeks to reassure people over seven days that God is listening, that God cares, and that they can get to know him and find the difference he can make in their lives. There are also special versions for youth and for children, an app for your smartphone, with videos and space for thoughts and reactions – you can find it on Google, Apple or Windows.
