Holy Week and Easter 2026
All are welcome at all our services and events to celebrate Holy Week and Easter!
Advent and Christmas 2025 at St John’s
This Advent and Christmas, join us as we wait for the coming of Christ and celebrate his light shining in the darkness!
Sunday services are at 11am and all are always welcome —
7 December: baptisms
14 December: communion
21 December: lessons and carols
28 December: year end carols, poems and readings!
We also have special services in our sanctuary, and all are welcome — no previous experience necessary!
21 December, 6pm: Service for the Longest Night. On the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, we gather in the darkness, lit by candlelight. Perhaps we’ve had a hard year. Maybe we’ve lost someone, or something, or an opportunity. We might have experienced trauma or tragedy. Maybe we aren’t feeling quite as cheerful this year as usual, or maybe we just need a break from all the hustle and bustle and festive busy-ness. On the winter solstice, by candlelight, we take a breath, get a chance to just be in the moment, and hopefully find a bit of peace. We sing some of the quieter christmas carols that don’t get as much play, we hold the light and look for it in the shadows. Whatever you are feeling, you are welcome.
24 December, 7pm: All-Age Christmas Eve! Whether you’re on your own or with your whole family, come be part of the St John’s family for Christmas Eve! We celebrate with the Christmas story, lots of singing, and often some Christmas shenanigans.
25 December, 10am: All-Age Christmas Day! Everyone is invited to bring a gift you’ve received this Christmas to show-and-tell, and we call out our favourite carols and sing them as we go. Maybe you even want to wear your Christmas jammies!
And we join together with other churches in our area for some services during this season as well. These are held in Old Gourock & Ashton’s sanctuary, just down the road about 500 metres. All are welcome!
7 December, 4pm: Gourock Schools & Churches Together Community Carol service. Our five local schools all perform, and we also join together to sing a whole variety of favourite carols! There’s room for everyone, so come along! This year we will be receiving a retiring offering (cash only) for the food bank.
24 December, 11:30pm (10:45 for mince pies): Christmas Eve Watchnight.
We also have opportunities to be together for a meal and conversation, keeping warm in our cozy hall and enjoying the decorations and the fun!
15 December: Bowl & Blether — doors open at 11:30, soup and toasties are served from 12 noon – 1:30. All are welcome, no need to book or anything, just turn up. Christmas Jumpers encouraged! We’ll also have live music, and of course some festive treats!
25 December: Christmas Lunch in partnership with Quinto. We don’t want anyone spending Christmas alone if you don’t want to, so if you don’t have somewhere else to go, you’re welcome to join us for a homemade two-course lunch, some Christmas fun (maybe even a quiz!), and some cheerful smiles in a cozy warm hall. Booking essential to be sure we have everything ready and cater for your needs, so if you’d like to book, please contact Dee at dolores (at) quinto.community or you can also contact Teri at the manse on 01475 632143 and she can pass you the phone contact details if that is easier. (Quinto is a new Gourock charity tackling social isolation.)
Please consider yourself invited to everything!
St Andrew’s Day weekend in St John’s!
Join us on Saturday the 29th of November for a coffee morning (£3 entry) and a family ceilidh (free), and then on Sunday the 30th for Cafe Church at 11am (all welcome!) celebrating St Andrew’s Day and the beginning of the season of Advent!
Easter 2025 at St John’s
Please join us as we enter into the most important story of the Christian life — following Jesus from betrayal, shared meal, suffering and death, waiting, and resurrection. New life is possible, transformation is possible, God’s power is stronger than all the worst the world can do!
We look forward to seeing you for:
Maundy Thursday (17 April) at 7pm in the sanctuary,
Good Friday (18 April) walk at 10:30am from outside St John’s,
evening service at Old Gourock and Ashton at 7pm,
Easter morning (20 April) 7am on Tower Hill and breakfast communion in the church hall afterwards,
and Easter morning 11am in the sanctuary.
Our celebration of Easter continues throughout the Easter season as well (50 days!), with our Emmaus Road communion on Sunday 27 April at 11am.
All are welcome.
Christmas Services 2024
Join us for a Christmas service as we come together to celebrate the birth of Christ!
22 December 6pm: Longest Night Service — this is a quiet Christmas service that makes space for reflection and seeking peace in the midst of the hustle and bustle, and recognises that sometimes we aren’t feeling super cheery but we still look for the coming of Light.
24 December 7pm: Family Christmas Eve service — suitable for all ages, this service has your favourite carols, a creative way of experiencing the Christmas story, and a wonderful festive atmosphere.
25 December 10am: Family Christmas Day service — everyone is invited to bring a gift you’ve received, and we show them off as well as turning them into the Christmas message! You choose the carols we sing, just shout it out and we sing it together.
29 December 11am: Lessons and Carols service, followed by a lunch and family film! All are welcome.
announcements for the second half of September 2024
- Teri is away on Study Leave from 15-30 September. Please contact Charlene or Cameron if you have a pastoral need. We look forward to welcoming to the pulpit during this time: the Rev. Robbie Hamilton, Presbytery Clerk for Clyde Presbytery, and Charlene Mitchell, our parish assistant and candidate for ministry, as well as having our favourite-hymns Sunday. So many favourite hymns were submitted that several have been chosen for each week of this month, so come along every week to sing your faves!
- The Contact Group restarts on Tuesday 24th September at 2pm. Our first meeting of the season will be an Opening Social with Skelpies Ukulele Band and afternoon tea. All ladies and gentlemen are welcome to join us for this event and our following fortnightly meetings. Our Syllabus of Events will be available soon for £5.
- The Sunday evening service is normally on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, but will actually be on the 5th Sunday in September instead (29/9). We’ll have toasties and sandwiches together from 5:30 and the service will start at the back of 6. All are welcome for this simple meal and time of worship. The Sunday evening service is informal and reflective, with guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer for our parish. Come along and discover practical ways to apply the word to your life, in a chilled vibe that fosters connection and reflection.
And looking ahead a bit — our “church family” service on 6 October includes all the various groups in the church coming together for one big celebration day and committing to another year with God, Moving Forward Together!
Christmas Post 2023
St John’s Youth Organisations are once again delivering your Christmas post! Bring your cards to the church to drop off no later than the morning of 17 December and we’ll deliver them for only 30p per card! You make a big savings AND you support the youth organisations and their work with young people in our community. the Youth Fund is entirely funded by the Christmas Post so thank you for letting us be your posties this Christmas!
Inner Visions: festival of Art and Spirituality
In collaboration we Crow Cottage Arts, we are excited to present Inner Visions, a festival of Art and Spirituality from 17 November – 1 December. For too long both creativity and spirituality have been trapped in rigid boxes that scare us off — “art” and “religion” are formal things that have rules and good-and-bad and other norms that make it difficult to break in or to try it out or to make connections.
But the truth is that we are creative beings, made for connection with the Divine, with ourselves, with each other, and with the world. In this festival, we are exploring those connections, celebrating creativity, and digging deep into what makes us human. Our spiritual lives are not confined to the box of “religion” and our creative lives are not confined to the box called “real art” as if there’s some wrong way to express the spirit within us. This festival is for all, whether part of a faith tradition or not, whether you “get” art or not, whether you think of yourself as creative or spiritual or just curious and loving beauty.
A number of local artists, from professionals to workshop-goers to high school students, have created pieces specifically for this exhibition, and also written about their experience as spiritual beings who express and experience their spirituality in creativity.
Throughout the festival, the exhibition will be open to the public for several hours each day. In addition, there are events to which all are invited and welcome. The festival is entirely free of charge.
*Exhibition opening: Friday 17 November, 6-8pm, with refreshments, artists on hand to speak with, and music to lighten the soul.
*Alec Galloway lecture on stained glass and spirituality: Sunday 19 November, 3pm
*Panel Discussion with the artists: Saturday 25 November, 6pm
*St Andrew’s Day Spirituality Cafe (an informal gathering exploring some aspect of our spiritual lives through creativity, conversation, and snacks): Thursday 30 November, 7:30pm
*Exhibition closes: Friday 1 December 5-6pm
Opening hours:
Saturday 18 November: 12-3 pm
Sunday 19 November: immediately before & after the lecture by Alec Galloway at 3pm
Monday 20 November: 10 am-12 noon, and 7-9 pm
Tuesday 21 November: 10 am-3 pm, and 7-9 pm
Wednesday 22 November: 9:30 am-12 noon, 1-3 pm, and 6-8 pm
Thursday 23 November: 10 am-12 noon, 4-9 pm
Friday 24 November: 7-9 pm
Saturday 25 November: 4-6 pm (before the artist’s panel starting at 6pm)
Sunday 26 November: 1-3 pm
Monday 27 November: 9:30 am-12 noon, and 7-9pm
Tuesday 28 November: 7-9 pm
Wednesday 29 November: 1-3 pm, and 6-8 pm
Thursday 30 November: 5-7 pm (Spirituality Cafe at 7:30)
Friday 1 December: closing reception 5-6 pm
All are welcome! Please invite friends and neighbours, come as often as you like, and join us as we seek a deeper spiritual life together through the beauty of this world and this community.
coming soon!
Youth Organisations are starting the new session! Boys Brigade has P1 – P3 on Tuesdays at 5:30, P4 – P6 on Mondays at 7, P7 – S6 on Fridays at 7. Smurfs (girls age 5-6) are on Thursdays at 6, Brownies (age 7 – 10) on Wednesdays at 6, and Guides and Rangers (age 11 – 18) on Wednesdays at 7:30.
Wednesday evening Bible Study resumes on the 30th of August, using the study book “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W”. We meet in the manse at 7:30pm.
The next Bowl & Blether is on Monday 4 September, from 11:30 – 1:30. come along for soup and a friendly chat!
