About Kilbarchan East...
Kilbarchan East Church can be found at the heart of the historic Renfrewshire weaving village of Kilbarchan and accessed from Steeple Square. (See map)
If you have Google Earth installed on your computer then you can find us by clicking on the icon at the bottom left of the page.
|
|
Our parish takes in the east side of Kilbarchan and the neighbouring village of Brookfield. We have a congregation of four hundred with services held every Sunday at 11am, led by our minister Rev. Owain Jones.
The Sunday School and crèche meet in the church hall at 10:45am. While the smaller children in the crèche remain in the hall, the children from the Sunday School join the congregation in the church before returning to the hall to enjoy activities like arts and crafts, singing, drama and bible stories. |
|
For older kids there is fEWsion, which is a Bible Class run jointly by the East and West churches. There is also the Youth Fellowship (YF) for those in mid to late teens. More information on these groups is available in our organisations section.
There are also many varied organisations offering a wide range of activities avialable to church members and the community of Kilbarchan as a whole. To find out more about these click on the organisations button in our menu.
|
|
The church itself and the adjacent church hall have superb access for those in wheelchairs or those who may find stairs hard going. Disabled toilet facilities are available in the hall. The church also has a hearing aid loop system installed so that no-one need miss out on any part of the service.
Our History
We’re very proud of our church and its history. Our congregation began as a protest against the system of "patronage", whereby a local land owner would have the right of "presenting" a Minister to the parish. The congregation's right of electing the Minister, held out for by Covenanters, guaranteed by the settlement of 1688, and again in the treaty of Union of 1707, was taken away in 1712 by the General Assembly, and Patronage was reimposed. The "Presbytry for the Relief of Conscience" was a breakaway from the Church of Scotland - and in Kilbarchan, the weavers were overwhelmingly "Relief"!
The congregation of Kilbarchan East first met on
It remained a relief church until 1847 when the
The foundation stone of the Church building was laid in March 1787 with the congregation worshipping in the unfurnished Kirk a year later. By 1797 a session house was completed but the present two storey building with vestry was not added till 1859 when the date stone of “1787” was re-sited in its present position.
It was decided, at the
Our church is a house of God, hallowed by more than two centuries of worship - a place of peace, openness, acceptance and welcome.
Churchyards are always a great resourse for those interested in geneology, and ours is no different. A plan of our Kirkyard along with a list of plot holders is available by clicking HERE.
If you would like to learn more about why we worship in the way we do please click HERE.