KIRK NEWS
Due to COVID-19
and
following the Guidance
set out by the
CHURCH of
SCOTLAND
the
Church
Buildings are
CLOSED
for SERVICES
and Meetings.
SUNDAY
11th APRIL
2021
A video Recording
of a Sunday
Service
is available - details
of how to access are
available by clicking
on the
WORSHIP
Webpage
ONLINE
LIVE-STREAMED
Services are also
available via
Stirling Presbytery
website OR
via the Church of
Scotland Website
********
The 3F group meetings
Blairdrummond
Blethers
CANCELLED
until
Further Notice
********
Gargunnock Parish Church serves the village and its farming surrounding's population of approximately 1000 residents situated some 6 miles west of Stirling.
The building itself is T shaped, with three galleries, each with its own external staircase, and has two beautiful stained glass windows which colour the sunlight as it streams through and across the congregation on sunny Sunday mornings at 10.30am as young and old gather together for worship before going out into the parish to live the
Gospel there.
There has been a church here for a thousand years, although the one you see today is the result of several rebuildings over the centuries.
Gargunnock has character, displayed by flying our own flag and singing our own village anthem at the slightest excuse. We also boast the best village shop (2014) in Scotland, enjoy the fare of Gargunnock Inn, support our own village football team, and host the second oldest agricultural show in Scotland. We have a new Community Centre, a great Primary School and our own choir - The Gargunnock Songsters.
This is very much rural village life as people imagine, and the local Christian Church is part of it. Recently we held open conversations in the Inn called "Theology on Tap", and while pool was played at one end of the pub - prayers were being said alongside. Monthly prayer walks through the village have been a feature of the church's worship & witness and we are delighted when the church is used at Christmas for both the Gargunnock Songsters Christmas Carol concert and a Christmas tree festival - both which raise funds for charity.
We believe there has been a village church here for almost 1000 years The one you visit today was initially built in 1628
on a pre-Reformation foundation, altered in 1774 and again in 1891, 1950s and 1960s, each time improving the facilities. The T-plan kirk with three individual outside stairs to three separate lairds' lofts also has two good 20th-century stained glass windows, one attributed to William Wilson. Some of the chancel area woodwork including the War memorial behind the pulpit is by Robert Lorimer.
On one gable end there is an attractive bell tower with weather vane, a second has a traditional stone cross, and the third has a stone crescent lying on its back, about which there is very little knowledge.
From the steps leading up to the gallery on the southern aspect there is a mountain indicator as well as magnificent views over the Carse of Stirling.
The surrounding graveyard is well documented and information is available online at the Gargunnock website.