My church

Elder Johnnie Burgoyne, highlights how lives have been ‘richly blessed’ by the evolving work of Livingston United Parish Church in West Lothian.

MY wife Nancy and I moved to Livingston as newlyweds in 1975 with one of our first objectives being to find a church.

Coming from a West Lothian Church of Scotland background, we had heard about the Ecumenical Experiment in Livingston and on our first Sunday in the new town we were warmly welcomed to St Paul’s Church in Ladywell and were happy to settle there.

We soon became involved in the life of the congregation and the wider aspects of the Ecumenical Parish. At that time there were two church buildings in the experiment – St Paul’s and St Columba’s in Craigshill. Over the ensuing years, the Ecumenical Parish established additional worship centres in Knightsridge, Carmondean and Dedridge/Murieston.

In the new town setting the church played an essential pioneering role in the community life of the town being instrumental in the setting up of many community and charitable organisations.

From the very outset of our involvement with the Ecumenical Parish, we enjoyed the freedom and enthusiasm that this ‘different’ approach to church life offered. There were, and have been since, many challenges along the way however, the overriding experience was one of finding new ways to ‘do’ church for the 21st century. During our time here we have both been ordained as elders and I have taken the office of Church Council Convener on a number of occasions.

The steady decline in church attendance resulted in the parish taking a difficult decision to amalgamate the five worship centres into one in 2013. This provided the congregation with a new challenge and fresh opportunities to review how we did things. We established a new format for Sunday worship – maintaining the 8.45am eucharist in keeping with the Scottish Episcopal Church tradition but also introducing intergenerational worship at 9.30am planned and led by lay worship teams. The Sunday worship diet is completed with a more traditional service at 11am. We changed our name to Livingston United Parish Church as ‘ecumenical’ had always been a difficult word to understand and the congregation has flourished in its new life. Our community involvement has continued to be integral to our work especially with our successful sponsorship of a community café and a weekly soul food dinner for around 60 people.

“ We soon became involved in the life of the congregation and the wider aspects of the Ecumenical Parish.

Church has always played an important part in our family life and the experience that we have enjoyed in Livingston United Parish Church has enhanced that. We have raised two daughters and a granddaughter all of whom were brought up in the church and are still very involved in the life of the congregation – our daughters are also ordained elders. We are part of an amazing extended family in our congregation, friends who have celebrated with us often but also supported us when needed throughout our time here. Our faith has benefitted from an approach to church life that is team led with laity and clergy working closely together while facing the challenges we have as a congregation that is ‘different by design’. However, most importantly, we have been afforded the opportunity to experience worshipping our Lord in a variety of ways benefitting from the traditions of our different denominations while experimenting with fresh ideas. We have indeed, been richly blessed.