Welcome to our News page.
We currently hold one weekly service beginning at 10.30am every Sunday morning, and a monthly united evening service at 7pm on the last Sunday of each month. Visitors are always welcome at any of our services. Please be aware that the church is situated within the City Council’s designated Low Emission Zone. Regular parking restrictions are in force between 12.30pm and 6.30pm on Sundays, and we are conveniently placed for the 35 bus route. The morning service is livestreamed and available on this homepage.
Read the latest edition of our MONTHLY NEWSLETTER. Paper copies can be sent out on request.
Our weekly Sunday service is livestreamed at 10.30am. Click on the picture below to watch.
Click here for the order of service for Sunday 19th January 2025 – Epiphany 2
Watch previous services on our You Tube channel.
Monthly Evening Service
Join us on the last Sunday of each month at 7pm here at Canongate Kirk for our monthly united evening service with St Giles’ when we are joined by a quartet of singers in the gallery.
Our next evening service is at 7pm on Sunday 26th January with a Robert Burns theme
and music by Orlando Gibbons and Palestrina.
All welcome!
Christmas Appeals 2024
Many thanks to everyone who helped us raise £1,700 towards the Moderator’s Challenge – Let Your Little Light Shine – supporting the Church’s work in education in Malawi. Thanks too for the donations of over 100 washbags, pictured here under the Kirk Christmas tree, in support of Crisis at Christmas, the local charity helping to combat homelessness.
January Concert
Order of St John Carol Service
The Minister is joined by The Lord Provost and Prof Paul Mealor after the first carol service held by the Order of St John in Canongate Kirk. Music was supplied by the St John Festival Choir, directed by Paul, and a retiring offering of £1,100 was raised for the Lord Provost’s One City Trust.
The Tri Service Benevolent Funds’ Carol Service
This year’s charity carol services got off to a good start on Thursday 5th December, with musical support from Fettes College.
St Margaret’s Day at Canongate Kirk
The Minister is joined by The Most Reverend Leo Cushley, The Right Reverend John Armes and The Very Reverend Colin Sinclair, representing the Roman Catholic Church, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Scotland respectively, in leading the annual service for St Margaret’s Chapel Guild in Canongate Kirk on St Margaret’s Day, 16th November 2024.
250th Anniversary of the Death of Robert Fergusson
On Sunday 13th October we marked the 250th anniversary of the death of the poet Robert Fergusson (1750 – 1774) who is buried in our kirkyard . Flowers were laid by his grave and the Minister gave a short commemoration, reading a prayer by Henry Newman.
August 2024 at Canongate Kirk
As part of the Fringe, the opening service of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Festival took place on Sunday 11th August. We were joined by the Choir of the Robin Chapel and the address was given by James Holloway CBE, formerly Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. We were also the venue for two more Sacred Arts Festival events – ‘Refuge and the Road Home’ with poets Christine De Luca and Elspeth Murray and Katherine Wake on flute and the final of the Edinburgh Sacred Art Foundation’s Young Composer competition with prizes presented to these very talented young people by Dame Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music.
The closing service of the Edinburgh Festival of the Sacred Arts took place at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Lauriston Street with Neil Gardner invited to give the homily.
As part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Canongate Kirk once again became Venue 60 and hosted a wide range of concerts including our own organist Simon Leach’s harpsichord recital, That 70’s Choir performing to a packed-out and dancing audience and traditional Scottish folk music from Fringe regular Alastair Savage and friends.
Royal Banner and Prayer
The banner which hangs on our north wall to the left hand side was temporarily returned to the Cathedral for the Service of Thanksgiving during which HM The King was presented with the Honours of Scotland in July 2023. It hung again exactly where it did on 24th June 1953, when The late Queen attended a similar service soon after her own coronation. In connection with the more recent service our Minister was asked to write the following prayer for the Church of Scotland website:
Loving God, centuries ago you kindled a flame of love in the heart of your servant Queen Margaret and by her humility and kindness made clear the way of royal service in this land. Now as we give thanks for our newly-crowned Sovereign King Charles, we pray that having been called to an earthly throne he might advance your heavenly Kingdom. Amidst all the panoply of Church and State, may our ancient ceremonies and symbols reflect your unchanging purpose of peace and goodwill. May they speak not just of our history and heritage but of our hope for years to come. For our hope is rooted in faith, and our faith rooted in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. Amen.
New York Organ Recital
Canongate Kirk organist Simon Leach was invited to give a recital in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, New York city, on Sunday 23rd April 2023. Click on the picture below and enjoy. Bravo Simon!
Bird’s Eye Views of Canongate Kirk
Taken from a drone during a recent roof inspection.
