Gorebridge Parish Church

10/10/2026

We hope you all have a wonderful October break🍂 We are now closed!
We look forward to seeing you again on the 27th October☕️

03/10/2026

Harvest Thanksgiving, our opportunity to show our gratitude for the fruit of the land and the sea. Come and bring a donation of non-perishable food for the Midlothian Foodbank and get ready to welcome in our new members. We are so thankful for our members. They are like farmers, they work, serve and shape the church, making sure it is fruitful for this generation and the ones to come. Though, of course, it is God who gives the increase. See you there tomorrow, ready to give thanks!

Harvest Thanksgiving, our opportunity to show our gratitude for the...

26/09/2026

Hope as an anchor. Where is our hope? Who can we trust in life's storms? In the Tabernacle and then the Temple the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, in inner sanctuary of the Temple that was forbidden for anyone else to enter. This was the Day of Atonement where the blood of a lamb was poured on the Ark of the Covenant to atone for Israel's sins. The High Priest's leg had a rope tied around it when he entered the Holy of Holies. This was to pull him out if he died in God's presence. There the High Priest would utter the name of God "Yahweh", the only time any Jew would say this most sacred name. And because of this the Jews hoped they were forgiven. And though in Jesus day the Ark was missing, a great sorrow for his people, this practice continued.

Now, because of our High Priest, hope in him envisioned as an anchor by the writer to the Hebrews. But instead of rope to pull us out if we die, we have a rope attached to an anchor that pulls us in that we might live, as we worship lifting high the name of Jesus, the holiest of names, the name that is above every other name, and in who's faithfulness we trust. Because Jesus is the incarnate God of the Jews, the one who died that we might be forgiven, liberated and freed from deceit, darkness and death.

In ancient times he is also the one who promises by his own name that childless Abraham and Sarah will have descendants that outnumber the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. We, by faith, are numbered in God's fulfillment of his promise, in Christ, in the Messiah. God is faithful to his promises, he does not lie, he is the truth. For our souls, for our life, for our families and communities, whether the rope is slack in the calm or taught with the strain of trials and adversity, hope in Jesus is the anchor, steadfast and sure.

Hope as an anchor. Where is our hope? Who can we trust in life's st...

19/09/2026

In this week's passage from Hebrews chapter 5 and the start of chapter 6, we're going to be thinking about what it means to grow up into maturity, to leave behind the basic first things of being a Christian, and becoming what our heavenly Father is encouraging us to be, is pouring His Holy Spirit into us to become. It is the ministry of Jesus' kingdom that we become mature.

So ahead of tomorrow's service, have a think about what maturity in our faith in Christ means.

In some aspects of our Christian discipleship, maturity means showing courage and fortitude and perseverance; in others, understanding and wisdom. And yet in other ways, that maturity is represented in a humble trust that whatever we face in life, Jesus has us held secure in his astonishing nail-pierced hands.

The image used by the writer to the Hebrews for the process of maturing is that of weaning, of an infant passing from just milk to solid food, from those initial steps of rescue and salvation to the real substance of what it means to live rightly, to be right with God, to be right with our brothers and sisters, to engage with the local community in a way that He is calling us to do. And ultimately it means to become Christlike.

I look forward to seeing you there and exploring this extraordinary theme together. And if you are coming, wear something colourful, because during the children's talk, that's going to help things. God bless.

12/09/2026

We have such a great high priest, one who knows what it is to be human, one who has lived a life like our, been tempted and bereaved, betrayed and befriended. That same Jesus is the one who is now in Heaven, inviting us to join him in his dimension bridging life. This answers so many longings and raises so many questions and it shapes how we worship. Join with us as we explore this together in the presence of that same great high priest.

05/09/2026

Today we hosted the Redwoods Care Foundation 40th Anniversary Thanksgiving service. GPC has a close relationship with Redwoods as Chris Townsend was sharing the other week. Not only do residents join with our church family Sunday by Sunday, make us more complete, staff do to. Indeed many members at GPC have worked with Redwoods over the years. It was a joy to gather to give thanks for what God has done through them. We will be sharing a video of "The Father's Love Letter" made by Redwoods clients during worship tomorrow.

Our Hebrews passage will be Hebrews 3.1-4.13, our theme "The Word of God is Alive and Active". We will revisit the story of Moses and Joshua and see how these stories of God's promises to his people open our own interaction with him, a story in which 40 years is an important marker. And in the promise of God's covenant with us through Christ we will be Baptising Amy Elizabeth Johanson and sharing Communion together.

Then in the evening it will be our first Meeting Place of the term. What a rich Sabbath day we have in store.

This week we gather for the Baptism of Amy Elizabeth Johanson, to s...

29/08/2026

This week our church will host the gathering of Faith Curran's family and friends. This precious 11 year old girl died after an accident in the Gore Glen. Along with all the generations who have gone before us we deal with the ultimate questions of life and death and what, if anything, follows. Stood atop the Shank Bridge where flowers, soft toys and messages of condolence have been left in memory of Faith I was struck by the tragedy and sense of loss felt by many in our community at this time. I was also filled with the conviction that in those last moments Jesus was there. He is the one who holds the keys to death and hell, he is the one whose body was broken that we might be healed.

This week in the book of Hebrews we will be meditating of the crowning of Jesus, that he experienced death that we might not have to. We go through physical death but what happens after us is profoundly changed because of his presence in our fall, in our dying to self and in rising to new life. May the radiance of God's glory, our precious Jesus, fill our worship tomorrow and a warm welcome back to everyone who has been waiting for techs of God to arise and restore the livestream. I look forward to joining with you tomorrow.

Welcome back to our livestream with our second week in the book of ...

22/08/2026

Hebrews. That is the answer to where we are going next. The question is how can we follow up meaningfully on our season in Isaiah? Hebrews is an amazing book. It is fully of imagery, Jesus our Great High Priest, the anchor of hope holding behind the veil of the Temple, faith as the substance of things unseen, Moses' house and many others. All of this is sketched on the broad sweep of salvation history, of creation and fall, of Israel and worship, of Jesus and the inbreaking of the fulfillment of every promise God makes to his people, the fulfillment of the promises made in the great prophetic books like Isaiah.

We will learn about our Jewish roots, we will see the challenges faced by the early church which we share in, we will have new, deeper and refreshed understandings of the greatest of God's acts in our world through Jesus and we will be challenged to stand up and be counted in our time, our place, our generation. There are warnings alongside the promises for the wise to heed.

Though we don't know who wrote Hebrews' 13 chapters, we know that they were Jewish, that they were active in the early church, that they probably knew the teaching of Paul, that they had interacted with the eye witnesses who shared Jesus' teaching of the Kingdom. And this author had joined with his disciples going out into the world to terraform it, to reshape it in Jesus' name and likeness.

And that is where we find ourselves here in Gorebridge, Temple and beyond... sharing the reality of Jesus' love and presence with a barely aware world full of family and neighbours too busy with other things. Then in the midst of it all the radiance of God's glory (1.3) appears by his Spirit, and is experienced through his people, his body on Earth. So bring your Bibles. Open your hearts. Ready your bodies. Engage your minds. Tomorrow we worship together.

15/08/2026

For those of you with a long memory you might remember me showing Isaiah using a structure where the really important part of what he has to say is in the middle, not at the end of the passage where we expect it. The last chapter of Isaiah, chapter 66, is really an extention of God's words in the previous chapter. Read them, it is well worth it. But we have a more important passage to visit tomorrow. It is in the middle of the book. For our Isaiah finale I want to go back to one of these. We find it in Isaiah 43.

Many of us know the opening of this chapter by heart,

Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine.
Isaiah 43.1

The Lord continues - water and fire won't harm his chosen people, they are safe in his keeping. Whatever happens his presence with them is assured. He's got them. This is the core message of Isaiah, that God's love is so fierce that nothing can separate them from the love of God. That is the ultimate assurance and it is given to Jerusalem ahead of their exile. No matter what happens the destiny of the faithful is sure. They will be redeemed. Indeed they are already redeemed.

Paul assures us this is true for us too. What was promised to the Jews is true for us too through Jesus.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8.38-39

It is through Jesus, the suffering servant who gives up his life to redeem us prophesied in Isaiah 53 that we are made children of God, the same Jesus yet lives again and will "see his offspring" (v10). Through him we become children of God (John 1.12).

When we say to God "here I am, send me" (Isaiah 6.8) we are safe, whatever floods or fires we pass through. Through Isaiah the story of the Gospel is foretold in all its cosmic majesty. This is so clear that when the Ethiopian official reads these words in the Judaen wilderness, at least 600 years after they were written, Philip could point him to his rabbi Jesus, Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7.14) lived, died and rose again to redeem him, and baptise him in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit.

We get to bathe in the wonder of this as we worship together tomorrow, held in the reality of his love, his life restoring, purpose defining, future remaking love. For we are called by name, we are his.

11/08/2026

🌸 Get it in your diary! 🌸

Our Flourishing Women’s Conference is returning this year for another amazing day of great company, worship, inspiring teaching, meaningful discussions and so much more! 💕✨

📅 Saturday 26th September 2026
⏰ 9:30am–4pm
📍 Gorebridge Parish Church
🎟️ Tickets £20

We’d love to see you there! 🤗💕
To book, email: [email protected]
or text: 07969 269795