Airdrie High Kirk

Public worship resumes in Airdrie High Kirk on Palm Sunday (28th March 2021) at 11.30am. It's great to welcome members back to our Church to praise God.

No social events or activites are taking place at present. But we hope to hold events when it is safe to do so.

Forthcoming Services

Palm Sunday worship - Sunday 28 March 2021 at 11.30am

Maundy Thursday worship - Thursday 1 April 2021 at 7pm

Easter Sunday worship - Sunday 4 April 2021 at 11.30am

Notes on worship during the pandemic

Owing to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, strict control measures still apply, solely to minimise any risk of infection from the virus.

Over the past six months or so, we have become very used to attending worship in these circumstances and the restrictions have become far less onerous than they seemed at first.

The welcome at the High will still be warm and heartfelt.

Parking

There will be no parking in the church car park, apart from those who have a disability and need to park there.

Number of worshippers and social distancing

We are still limited to a maximum of just 50 worshippers in the building at any one time and social distancing (2 metres) must be observed. Some pews have had to be temporarily closed off. Consequently, the sanctuary itself can accommodate only 35 to 40 people; once it is full, up to around 10 additional worshippers can be offered a seat in the lower hall to watch the entire service live on a TV screen.

Service time

Sunday worship starts at 11:30am.

Going into Airdrie High

As you approach the Church main doors, please maintain 2 metres social distancing. Once you enter, a member of our Welcome Team will note your details. You will be allocated a specific seat and led through our one way system to your seat.

Members with poor mobility

If you have a disability of any kind and cannot queue outside or walk up steps, please use the ramp and enter via the side door. A member of the Welcome Team will guide you through the vestibule to your allocated seat.

Face coverings

Face coverings are mandatory in all places of worship. We will have face masks available as you enter the church; so don't worry if you forget yours.

Other sanitising measures

There will be a hand sanitising station for you to clean your hands before entering the sanctuary. Wipes are also being provided in all pews which remain open.

Open doors

The new guidance requires a good flow of air throughout the church building. Therefore, throughout the service, we must leave open our front and side doors. Given this, it would be wise to take account of this in dressing to stay warm.

Giving

While we are still happy to accept donations cash, we now have a tablet that allows you to make a contactless donation using your credit or debit card.

Hymns

Music will be played during worship, but no singing is allowed.

For health information on coronavirus (COVID-19) please visit Coronavirus (COVID-19) | NHS Lanarkshire (scot.nhs.uk)

We completely understand that some very faithful members don’t yet feel ready to return to Church. When you have a date in mind to return, please phone our Session Clerk, June McCracken, on 01236 763074 at least a week in advance. Given the strict limit on numbers, this is really important and your co-operation in this is appreciated.

If – for whatever reason – you cannot attend, there are other ways to experience worship. You can:

phone 01236 808008, hear a welcome and listen to a worship service in full. This ‘dial-in’ option is available any time from Sunday lunchtime (just after the end of the service) to the following Saturday. Your call will be charged as a local landline call; for many people, this will be free.
watch worship live on this page below or on our Facebook page every Sunday morning from 11:30am.
watch videos of worship services on our YouTube channel. Videos of previous services and sermons are also available.

Follow our Facebook page for more details: it is updated very regularly. Please consider joining our Facebook group.

We are delighted to welcome you to the website of Airdrie High Kirk. We are a congregation of the Church of Scotland serving a parish in the north and north-west of the town of Airdrie in North Lanarkshire. The High Kirk has around 300 members… but these are not the only people we're here for.

Our church building is situated very near the top cross, close to the centre of the town of Airdrie and we seek to play a strong role in our community and support the people of the town.

As with all places of worship, we are under restrictions during the pandemic. However, we look forward to a time in the near future when we can once again freely welcome everyone to Sunday services, special events and activities.

Our sister congregation

We are linked with Caldercruix and Longriggend Parish Church of Scotland. We share our minister, the Rev. Dr. Ian R W McDonald (link to his biography page), who leads Sunday morning worship and other services for both congregations and serves both parishes.

Caldercruix and Longriggend Parish Church also has a Facebook page.

Service Times

Sunday worship is at 11:30am.

You can find out more about Airdrie High Kirk, our congregation, our organisations and our community by reading our newsletters below. Our newsletter comes out nine times each year. Recent issues can be seen below.

Get in touch

Feel free to contact us if you would like more details.

Here are some useful links to the Christian community in Scotland and other websites of interest:

This is the website of the Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland

'Life and Work' is the magazine of the Church of Scotland. Here are its latest news and features News - Life and Work

Airdrie High Church is overseen and supported by Hamilton Presbytery, which has responsibility for ministries in much of Lanarkshire. Here is its home page and latest news Welcome to the Presbytery of Hamilton | Presbytery of Hamilton

You can find a great deal of online worship, prayers, meditations and other content from the Church of Scotland’s pioneer online ministry Sanctuary First here Resources | Sanctuary First

Airdrie High Church is in North Lanarkshire. Here is the Twitter feed of our local authority NorthLanCouncil (@nlcpeople) / Twitter

We are committed to the ecumenical movement i.e. working with other churches of different denominations. We have had some joint praise services with St. Andrews R C Church in Burnfoot in Airdrie. In addition, we participate in ecumenical worship organised by the Airdrie Council of Churches and our representative on the ACC serves as its Secretary. The ACC is part of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, which seeks to help churches with different traditions work together throughout Britain and Ireland. CTBI – more together less apart

NEWS

POPPY SCOTLAND

Each year Poppy Scotland sells poppies in local Airdrie supermarkets. Last year (2020) £9 493.63 was raised. Although this figure is a couple of thousand pounds down on previous totals, it represents a terrific achievement in a year when many faithful volunteers felt unable to take part. Many thanks to those who sat in the supermarket entrances and congratulations to the local organiser, Margaret Jack for managing to put together such an excellent team once again.

Looking back at ‘Looking Forward’

On Tuesday 16^th March 2021 at 7:30pm we held a very fruitful and positive ‘Looking Forward’ meeting. Invitations were sent out to all members and – despite face to face meetings still being prohibited, it was great to be able to participate by Zoom videoconferencing technology. Many thanks to the High Church members who gave up their time to attend and give their views.

We agreed to resume communal worship from 28^th March (Palm Sunday) and notified Presbytery of this.
We agreed to continue our current forms of broadcasting worship online. It was felt that online worship helps specific groups of people e.g. ill / housebound people; people working on Sundays; people who have moved away from the area but who still consider themselves High Kirk folk; also people on holiday. It also gets the gospel message out there beyond our members. Once we are in the ‘new’ normal, we should think about what we offer online: if it is on a larger scale and a permanent basis, should the Church be investing in the technology? More urgent is to update and refresh our website content.
We looked at the ideas previously generated for events and projects. There is certainly a need to prioritise these and it was agreed to discuss the listed social events and select a few of the most promising ones. It was felt that events and projects which engage with our parish / community are a priority but they have to be feasible within the new realities we face. It is difficult to gauge how long it will take after the pandemic before people once again feel comfortable attending a large indoor event.