• Home
• News
  • Latest News
  • Newsletters
  • Subscribe
  • Missionary Partner
  • Sermon Notes
  • Links
  • Charities
  • Vacancies
• Online
  • From the Manse
  • Bennochy Live!
  • Sunday Reflections
  • Weekly Thoughts
  • Prayers of Hope
  • Online Bible Study
  • Media Services
  • Services Status
  • Quiz
  • Jigsaws
• What's On
  • Worship
  • Calendar
  • Special Events
  • Other Events & Meetings
  • Olive Branch Cafe
  • Baptisms and Weddings
  • Facilities
  • Conferences
  • Fife Interfaith
• Organisations
  • Boys' Brigade
  • Church Choir
  • Get-Together
  • The Guild
  • Sunday School
  • Women's Group
• Groups
  • Bowling Club
  • Brownies & Girl Guides
  • Community Choir
  • Country Dancing
  • DRU Yoga
  • DUPLO Club
  • Exercise Classes
  • Green and Quirky Project
  • Handbell Ringers
  • Walkers
• History
  • Bennochy
  • St. Andrew's
  • St. John's
  • Linktown
  • Abbotshall
  • Photo Gallery
  • Stained Glass Windows
  • War Memorials
  • Recorded Meetings
• Contact
  • Contact Us
  • Location
  • Subscribe
  • Reviews

The final total for our Christmas Teas on 23rd November is £940. The Women’s Group would like to thank everyone who came along and all those who helped in any way to make this a successful event.

As you may be aware our Organist, Brian Booth has announced his retirement. He has held the Organist position in a number of Churches for a total of 62 years. It is the intention to celebrate this achievement by way of a presentation in early January and we invite members of the Congregation to make a voluntary contribution from next Sunday and the following one. Envelopes are available with your order of service for any member wishing to donate, or you can enclose your donation in your own envelope (marked Brian) and place in the open plate.

Everyone is invited - adults and children of all ages, to the inaugural free Community Christmas Party on Wednesday 12th December, from 4 – 6pm, in the Church Halls - for catering purposes, entry by ticket only. Children must be accompanied by an adult. To reserve your ticket contact Louisa Turner, Development Worker.

Christmas Messy Church will be held on Sunday 16th December, from 2 - 4pm. An afternoon to share in crafts, activities, games and afternoon tea with the family, as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Everyone welcome, though children must be accompanied with an adult.

The Flower List for 2019 is now available in the vestibule of the Church. If you wish to donate flowers, please put your name on the list against the appropriate date or speak to Senga Booth.

If you wish to have a poinsettia(s) in the Church for a friend or in memory of a loved one, please put your name on the Poinsettia List in the vestibule of the Church by Sunday 9th December. These plants will decorate the Church on Sundays 16th & 23rd December. After the service on 23rd December you can take the plants home (or earlier by arrangement with Senga). The cost will be £6 and these are large plants. Payment should be made to Senga Booth.

Leslie Amateur Drama Club presents “The Flint Street Nativity” by Tim Firth (with the kind permission of Samuel French).

Join Miss Horrocks’ Class of seven year olds as they prepare to present their Nativity Play to their proud parents…. and the odd social worker. Will Mary make it through the performance without being usurped by the Angel Gabriel? Why is Ryan having to play both Joseph and Herod, and will Peter Crouch (The class stick insect) ever be the same again?

Leslie Amateur Drama Club are bringing some festive cheer to Bennochy Church on Friday 7th December at 7.00 pm with a comedy from the writer of Calendar Girls. Tickets are £8, including a glass of wine or soft drink at the interval. Any profits will be shared between the Church and the British Heart Foundation.

Tickets are available from Margaret Kinnear or Diane White.

Tickets are available at the cafe for a Christmas Lunch on Thursday 6th December - see the forthcoming events notice board for menu. This will be a ticket only event and the normal menu will not be available that day. Last opening day for the cafe will be 13th December restarting on 10th January.

Thank you to everyone who has filled a shoebox or given a donation. Again, as a church, we have filled 92 boxes and Dunnikier School has filled 58 boxes. Two excellent results! The boxes are now being checked before beginning the journey to Romania - things that we take for granted but will seem like luxuries to people living in poverty. The boxes will bring a smile to adults and children and hopefully they will enjoy opening them as much as we enjoyed filling them. Thank you for being part of this Appeal

Community Garden

There will be a community garden meeting on Monday 12th November at 10.30am in the Elgin Room. We are hoping to have enough people present to design our Spring project - the creation of a sensory garden. If you have any ideas or particular experience you would like to share at this stage, please do come along on Monday. Your input will be very much appreciated. If you have ideas but are unable to attend Monday's meeting, please contact Louisa Turner, Development Worker.

Messy Church

Team Planning Meeting to be held at the Manse, 25 Bennochy Avenue, Kirkcaldy, on Wednesday, 28th November at 10.30am. We shall be planning for our Christmas Messy Church and Christmas Messy Church @ School session. All are welcome.

The Walkers next walk is on Sunday 11th November. The walk will be starting at Markinch railway station and having our tea and scones at Banners hotel. It should be a nice late autumn walk, still with lovely colours. Hope you all can join us.

After speaking to Jenny Featherstone at our Harvest service last Sunday (through Skype) our special collection raised the sum of £534.60, which was promptly banked for the ‘Chodart’ fund and has been gratefully received in Zambia. Margaret Simpson has been in touch with Jenny by email and has received the following reply:

Thank you to Bennochy Church for your generosity and interest in Chodort. The amount raised is much more than I had hoped for and we will definitely be able to buy an overlocking machine and hopefully a new sewing machine for Orient too.

A new 'reading' group is to be formed. This will be a time of discussion around a particular book, the first of which will be 'Forming the Missional church'. Date: Monday 22nd October at 2pm. Venue: the manse, 25 Bennochy Ave. Please let Robin know if you would like to attend.

Please bring your filled shoebox to church on Sunday, 11th November as there will not be a service in church on Sunday, 4th November. If that date is not suitable, you can bring your box when it suits, but not too early as the boxes have to be stored in the church until they are uplifted by the lorry on Monday, 12th November. If you intend to fill a shoebox please take a covered box from the church vestibule or from the Methven Hall as soon as possible. Thank you for taking part in this appeal.

Every 10 years each presbytery is visited by the moderator of the General Assembly. This year it is the turn of Kirkcaldy Presbytery. On Sunday 4th November, the moderator, Susan Brown, minister of Dornoch Cathedral, will lead worship in Kirkcaldy Linktown church. It has been agreed by all the Kirk Sessions in Kirkcaldy that this will be a joint service, so there will be no service in Bennochy Church that Sunday.

This is a great opportunity for all the churches to come together. We want to make sure that everyone who wishes to attend can do so. If you have room to give someone a lift, or need a lift, please let Robin or one of the office-bearers know. Our plan is to fill Linktown Church, and it is a big church to fill!

Saturday 20th October, 6.30 p.m. in the Methven Hall. Tickets, £5 adults, £2 juniors, on sale now from Group members.

Questions to suit all ages. Come along and enjoy a light-hearted competition, prizes, raffle and delicious dessert supper.

Teams of four please.

Multi-award-winning dance company balletLORENT is looking for five older people aged 70+ years to take part in its latest fairytale show, Rumpelstiltskin.

You will be part of a cast involving all ages, selected during a free, informal workshop run by balletLORENT dancers.

You can read the full details by Clicking Here.

Bennochy Parish Church takes your privacy seriously so we have prepared a document detailing our policy.

You can read the policy document by Clicking Here.

Can you or a friend (or both!) spare a few hours on a Thursday once or twice a month?

We need volunteers in the kitchen, serving customers and to help with tidying away tables and chairs etc.

If you are interested and would like to know more, please speak to Alison Hamilton (Open Door Project) or any of the enthusiastic volunteers in the congregation!

The Walkers next walk is on Sunday 16th September leaving from the Church at 12.45pm. The walk is around 4 miles and there is a steady climb up to and then leaving Upper Largo. We will have plenty of stops to admire the lovely views. It also includes a bit of road walking. Hopefully our refreshment stop will be at the Upper Largo Hotel but am waiting for confirmation. Please come and join us if you are able.

Kirkcaldy Foodbank would like to thank you on behalf of the volunteers and those who find themselves in the desperate position of having to seek help from the foodbank.

The number of client visits to the Foodbank has remained over 600 since November 2017 (other than in December, when the Foodbank was closed for over a week); in April 2018 it was over 700 for the first time; and in May 2018 it was over 800 (805) for the first time.

Our aim continues to be to feed those families and individuals who are hungry and cannot afford to feed themselves for a variety of reasons. Times are tough and some people in the local community are struggling to put food on the table. There are so many other financial demands to keep a roof over their heads. Some may be working but simply not able to survive on the minimum salary they receive – others may be temporarily out of work and falling into the ‘pit’ of delayed or sanctioned benefit payments.

If anything this crisis has increased since we set up and your donations of food are very much appreciated and vital if we are to continue to tackle it until other avenues can be found to ensure people do not find themselves in these critical situations.

Although it is still some time away from Christmas, it’s time for us to think of those who live in poverty and others who receive only a filled Shoebox at Christmas. Covered boxes will be available in the vestibule from Sunday 2nd September to allow people plenty of time to fill their shoebox. An information leaflet will be inside every box and the filled boxes should be returned to church on Sunday 11th November. Thank you for taking part in this Appeal.

A new time for reflection begins once a month on Thursday mornings at 11 am in the prayer room. With shared readings and prayers and moments to be silent, it will last no more than 15 minutes, and conversations can continue at the café. Please note the date: Thursday 4th October. All are welcome.

Our Harvest Service is planned for 7th October. Again we hope to have our Missionary partner, Jenny Featherstone, live on screen from Zambia. An offering will be taken to support Jenny's work.

Poppy Appeal: Don’t forget to keep your empty plastic bottles - the ones with the curved bases are ideal - to make our poppy display for November. If possible please cut off the base ready for painting.

Saturday 24th November: Christmas Afternoon Teas. The Women’s Group will organise the afternoon teas, but will welcome other Church groups, friends, etc, to run the cake and candy stall and other tables.

The July 2018 newsletter is now available from our missionary partner Jenny Featherstone in Zambia.

You can read her latest news by clicking here ...

Bennochy Walkers will be taking part in the first ever Kirkcaldy Walking Festival organised by Greener Kirkcaldy. Our walk is on 15th July and takes the form of a Scavenger Hunt.

We meet at on Newliston Drive at 12:45pm. It’ll be a 5.5 mile walk down W Bogie Rd, through Raith Woods, emerging at Kdy Golf Club , then back to Church for refreshments. More info if required from Dianne - 07980367632. All are welcome.

Our joint Summer Services take place as follows, all at 11am. The theme is Crossing the Divides: money, sex, age, gender, and ethnic origin. But Jesus is the way across.

• 8th July: Bennochy Church - Taboos, and pigs might fly (Acts10)
• 15th July: Abbotshall Church - Weird, included, even inspired (Acts8)
• 22nd July: Linktown Church - Stand up, speak out - #MeToo (Mark 7)
• 29th July: St Bryce Kirk - Taboos, Touched, Torn, Transformed (Luke5)

Sunday, 10th June, is Messy Sunday. There will be an interactive family service with tea/coffee to follow. At 12.30 the new mural will be unveiled and there will then be a Barbecue, followed by activities for the children. The Community Choir will perform at 1.30 and the North Primary School choir will sing at 3 p.m. - something for everyone. Please stay if you can.

The G & Q is running an event on Sunday 17th June, 3pm - 5.30pm.

We will show a movie in the Methven Hall followed by macaroni & cheese & garlic bread, tea/coffee.

Because of licence restrictions, we are not permitted to advertise the title of the movie outside the premises or on posters but word of mouth is allowed! There are only 50 tickets available from Pat B, Rona T or Dianne W.

The Olive Branch Cafe will also sell tickets on Thursday 24th May, or you can email Dianne – diannebwaddell@live.co.uk.

Please support the first of such events in our newly refurbished community hall.

The Walkers next walk is on Sunday 27th May leaving from the Church at 12.45pm. We will be heading to Glenrothes Riverside and woods. The walk will be led by Carol and Wilma and we will leave the church at the usual time of 12.45, car sharing as usual. The walk is roughly 4.5 miles and our refreshment stop will be arranged.

Royal wedding fever is all over the media and we thought we would join in!

Abbotshall & Bennochy Churches of Scotland, invite your family along to a MESSY WEDDING!

Have fun dressing up for the photo booth! Enjoy the free wedding feast! Join in with the many traditional wedding celebrations! Hear about the first miracle in the Bible! All ages welcome, children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please note the change of time: Sunday 13th May, 3-5pm, Bennochy Parish Church of Scotland. For more information, please contact Louisa Turner, Development Worker.

Christian Aid Week this year is from 13th - 19th May.

Date for your diary - The Christian Aid Soup and Sweet Lunch is on Sunday 13th May immediately after the service. Tickets available from Christine or Charlie Low and Angela Stewart.

Update: We have great pleasure in announcing that the Soup and Sweet Lunch on Sunday 13th May raised £595.80, and a further £248 was received from the retiral collection at the funeral of the late Ann Wooton. A collection at the morning service on Sunday 20th May realised £400 and a further £67.50 will be reclaimed from Gift Aid – making the grand total for the charity £1,311.30.

Our most sincere thanks to everyone who participated in and/or supported this fund raiser in any way whatsoever.

Bennochy church wishes to congratulate our development worker, Louisa Turner, on being awarded the 'Yvonne Coull Network Coordinator Award 2018' at the Generations Working Together (GWT) annual conference. Louisa was awarded this for her enthusiasm, hard work, effort and support to GWT and to the Fife network. It is a prestigious award, which Louisa feels very humble to be given.

Louisa says, "I would not have had this opportunity to engage with this organisation if I were not employed by Bennochy Church and promoting the intergenerational side of the Open Door Project, with the church/school links, Messy Church and future intergenerational work within the community garden. Thank you for giving me free range to explore new avenues and widen my horizons."

As Louisa was not at the awards ceremony, she didn't even get to do a thank you speech! If you don't know what the award is all about, next time you see Louisa, ask her!

The Olive Branch Café will be re-opening on Thursday 29th March in the newly refurbished Methven Hall and we look forward to welcoming our customers back from the extended break. The Café opens from 11am for Teas/Coffees and Cake, with lunchtime Soup & Sandwiches etc. from 12 noon.

The Women's Group's annual Bunny Drive will be held on Tuesday 3rd April at 6.30 pm in the Methven Hall. Tickets £4 adults and £2 children can be had from Group members. Come along and enjoy the excitement, a delicious buffet supper, prizes and a raffle. This is a fun evening for all the family.

Update: The ladies of the Women's Group would like to thank everyone who came, bought tickets, donated raffle prizes etc, for their Bunny Drive on 3rd April. A very successful night was enjoyed by everyone. The Methven Hall was decorated for Easter and looked great. The sum of £406.50 was raised. Thank you.

With the congregations safety in mind if you feel that it is unsafe to come to Church then please remain at home. However if you feel you still wish to come to Church, it will be open for worship but on an ad-hoc basis.

Robin will be attending and the Church will be open.

As a result we will provide be a much shorter service and singing will be dependent on the attendance of the organist.

On behalf of The Salvation Army - Kirkcaldy Corps I would like to thank you for your kind and generous donation of toys and some monetary donations. These toys were used for our 2017 Christmas Toy Appeal. Every Christmas holiday season there are hundreds of families across Scotland who experience some type of hardship that prevents them from having an enjoyable Christmas season. Your generous donation enables us to continue to do our part to help needy families within our surrounding community in Fife.

Thank you for support to the Salvation Army - Kirkcaldy Corps. It has truly been appreciated. - Heather Coles, Major in the Salvation Army.

Abbotshall & Bennochy Messy Church team would like to invite you and your family along to our next session, which is planned for Sunday 18th February from 2pm - 4pm. Please note that we have changed our time to have fun, meet with friends and eat together whilst hearing about Abraham's journey, through games, crafts and activities. Everyone is welcome. Age is no barrier, but children need to be accompanied by an adult.

If you are unable to join us on 18th February our next sessions are as follows - Sunday 2pm - 4pm, 13th May, with our large community session of Messy Sunday on 10th June 2018. All sessions meet in the church halls of Bennochy Parish Church.

If you would like to join the team in supporting sessions, with ideas, cooking or with particular prayers, please speak with Louisa Turner, Development Worker in the first instance.

Its official! Over the past 18 months, there has been a small group of volunteers, from the Bennochy Community Garden Project, who have dug and got dirty, with planting and creating an orchard, bulb and mosaic art, along with planting bulbs and wellies, all within the church grounds. There has also been a small group of volunteers, from within the congregation, who have busied themselves in all weathers, in the church garden.

All the hard work, of all the volunteers and children from Dunnikier Primary school, has been recognised.

At a recent awards ceremonies, our partners – Growing Kirkcaldy, accepted certificates on behalf of Kirkcaldy. Kirkcaldy was awarded a Silver Gilt, for the Small City 2017, category from Britain in Bloom and a Gold award, for the Small City 2017 from Keep Scotland Beautiful. Britain in Bloom judges rated the Community Involvement throughout Kirkcaldy as Gold standard. This included the church garden which all our volunteers, contributed sterling hard work. Growing Kirkcaldy has expressed their thanks to Bennochy Community Garden Project and the Volunteers maintaining the Bennochy church grounds, and stated that we should all be proud of each individual’s efforts, which have contributed to the awards. Well done to everyone!

Good news continues - the Project was recently awarded £200 from Asda's Green Token Fund. Thank you to all who shopped at Asda and donated to our green token collection. The monies will be going towards some raised planters for our garden.

And more exciting news ...a volunteer at the Olive Branch Café - Ian Thislie, mentioned a fund which we could possibly apply to, to further support our community garden fund, we applied and were successful. We were granted four times more than what we had applied for! The Bennochy Community Garden Project's vision is hopefully going to be realised in 2018. A meeting to discuss our vision and the best way to realise it is to be held on Wednesday 7th February at 11am in the church gardens initially followed by refreshments indoors. We have invited partners from the community to attend the meeting and you are also cordially invited to join us, to decide the best way to spend our funding. If you are interested in the Bennochy Community Garden Project but are unable to attend the meeting, please have a chat with either the Minister or Louisa Turner, Development Worker.

The joint Lent studies course begins on 18th February and will run for five Sunday evenings. It is based on the film, 'the way'. All meetings start at 7pm.

Meet, ask, talk around the Christian faith: ‘a journey through Lent’ based on the film The Way.

Suits ages 13 - 113. Expect humour, stories, ideas. Come to one, a few or all - each meeting stands on its own.

Dates for the classes:

• Sunday 18th Feb. 7pm in Linktown Church
• Sunday. 25th Feb. 7pm in West End Church
• Sunday 4th Mar. 7pm in Abbotshall Church
• Sunday 11th Mar. 7pm in Bennochy Church
• Sunday 18th Mar. 7pm in St. Bryce Kirk

The Walkers next walk is on Sunday 28th January leaving from the Church at 12.45pm. The walk is around Kirkcaldy and is less than 5 miles. There are no steep hills but it may well be muddy underfoot at times. Meet at Church at 12.45 p.m. Come and join us.

A new year. A new project for Bennochy.

The G & Q aims to save tired, old castoffs from end of life in landfill, transforming them into useful, pleasing items which can be sold via social media. Our church will benefit from the profits from sales.

The sort of things we shall upcycle are:

• Small pieces of furniture (bedside table, small bookcase, chest of drawers)
• Fabric, yarn and sewing basket oddments
• Lampshades

We already have several pieces waiting to be resurrected. We have no storage space in church and so we must limit ourselves to the number of projects we can reasonably work on and keep safely at home. So,

• If upcycling appeals to you
• If you are skilled in woodwork / sewing/ electrical work/or keen to learn skills
• If you can attend fortnightly workshops at church
• If you have space in your shed to store the project you are working on
• If your creative hands are itching at the prospect of a fresh, new venture at Bennochy

First planning meeting Wed 17th Jan at 11.00am in the Meldrum Room, open to all in Bennochy Community.

Facebook Page

Latest News: First £10 sale for G & Q – Twiddlemuff sold to Lightburn Hospital, Glasgow.