At St Columba’s, we warmly welcome everyone who comes though our open door! We believe that our purpose is to serve God to the very best of our abilities, bringing people together to use their own individual talents to stretch out our arms around our local community and overseas. We have 5 areas which we focus on:
Growing our congregation. We understand that life can sometimes ‘take over’ how we feel, and we want to encourage people to have space and time to reconnect and reflect on God’s work and it’s impact on us all.
Growing in God. We do everything we can to encourage people to visit us, to gain an understanding of how God can help in both good and bad times and provide space for personal growth in faith.
Helping those in need. We provide assistance to many local charities from collections at our refreshments after church services, as well as by our Charity & Mission envelopes supplied to every family. The list of charities to benefit comes from parishioners who volunteer with a specific charity and can come along to discuss how it works during one of our services, or by those we know which are in desperate need – following disasters, famine, drought etc. We always support an Overseas charity as well as local ones.
Each year, we support both the Black Santa Appeal at St Anne’s Cathedral and Marie Curie, which is local to us.
We encourage the use of local retailers and businesses as much as we can, e.g., our ‘Pause group’ use local eateries to meet up. We have found that this support works both ways, as many of the businesses are happy to help us when we need it too!
- We support the work of our neighbouring churches for example we share our Holy Week services with Knock Methodist Church.
- Our daughter churches of St Molua’s, Stormont and St Dorothea’s, Gilnahirk are both included in many of our activities.
- The Reverend Chancellor John R. Auchmuty, Rector of St Columba’s, meets with clergy and staff regularly to discuss how we can help each other in our neighbouring churches.
- We are extremely lucky to have a Rector and two Assistant Priests, who visit every family in the parish. This allows for individual support or supporting a family together. Visits can be easily scheduled by contacting clergy directly or our Parish Administrator.
- Our friendly parishioners assist one another – the groups of friends made here are like-minded Christians who help each other through turbulent times and support each other during good times. The feeling of “belonging” to our church family cannot be underestimated and the smiling welcome received can make someone’s day.
“Let your gift shine!”
Every single person in our parish has a gift which we encourage them to use in our parish. This gift can be anything – from making coffee to accounting. Each person has an individual ability which we can use to help our church build for the future, and we warmly welcome you to share your own personal skills and talents with us.
Contact our Parish Administrator Karen Patterson or The Rector in the first instance if you believe you can help out in any way, from delivering magazines, gardening in the church grounds, cleaning the church hall, joining an organisation or if you have a specific skill which you think we could use.
We encourage people from all ages and backgrounds to join us in worship, either online or in person. Our Sunday services are streamed from this website.
We provide interesting Sunday School classes, Confirmation classes and a wonderfully creative Creche, so that everyone has a chance to connect with God in their own unique way.
We have a wonderful musical tradition, with our very gifted Organists, Cantors and Choir, all professionally led by Dr Joe McKee. They provide music of an exceptional quality, enjoyed by everyone. We have even been privileged to host the BBC on several occasions for live worship.
As a result of these 5 purposes (Support, Growth, Help, Gift and Worship), we have a forward-thinking, growing and thriving parish church. We love meeting people and new parishioners, and everything we do is to meet these purposes. We would love you to come along and experience it for yourself!
