Edinburgh’s Granton and Newhaven Churches
The Church of Scotland is facing the challenge of how to serve our communities in these changing times, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In 2021, against a background of falling minister numbers, a decline in membership and a drop in income both nationally and locally, the General Assembly tasked the local church with creating five-year mission plans that would ensure Church of Scotland congregations are properly equipped to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, and to serve their communities for the coming decades.
The future of Granton Parish Church and its buildings are now assured, following Presbytery's decision to recategorise our buildings as "A".
The Steering Group comprising representatives of each of Granton Parish Church and Newhaven Church held its second meeting at Newhaven Church on 26 April 2026.
26 October: Kirk Sessions meet to review the Basis of Union and the Basis of Team Ministry, with a view to approving the documents.
1 November: Congregational information meetings after each service
15 November: Congregational votes on the terms of the Union
1 December: Presbytery meets to approve
1 January 2027: Congregations unite
Each congregation will have meetings after the service on 1 and 15 November. At these meetings we will give you all the information on the proposed union.
The Basis of Union and the Basis of Team Ministry documents will be available for review by the congregations once the Kirk Sessions have approved them. They will be included in the weekly email on Thursday 29 October. Hard copies will be available at each church.
Each Congregation will have meetings after the service on 1 and 15 November and you will have the opportunity to ask questions at these meetings?
These are two documents required by Presbytery for the proposed union of the two churches.
A Basis of Union is a formal legal and administrative document required by the Church of Scotland when two or more individual congregations decide to unite into a single new charge.
The Basis of Team Ministry in the Church of Scotland is a formal constitutional document linked to a Presbytery Mission Plan that outlines how multiple ministers and staff will collaborate to lead a united or linked parish charge
You will be asked to vote yes or no for the proposed Union on 15th November after the Church service.
The Granton congregation will also be asked to vote to accept Peter as their Minister.
Anyone who is a member of the Congregation or an adherent can vote.
Full communicant members have taken formal steps like a profession of faith or transfer of certificate, giving them full standing in church sacraments and governance, whereas adherents are regular attendees who have requested to be listed on the specific roll.
Check with the Minister or Session Clerk, (Mary and Dan at Granton and Peter and Colin at Newhaven).
They will be able to tell you.
If you have been a member of another Church of Scotland you can arrange to have your membership transferred.
If you have not previously been a member of the Church of Scotland then you can join by making a profession of faith.
Speak with the Minister or Session Clerk.(Mary and Dan at Granton and Peter and Colin at Newhaven) for more information.
Speak to the Minister or Session Clerk (Mary and Dan at Granton and Peter and Colin at Newhaven) to express your wish to be placed on the Adherents’ Roll.
On the 15th November after the service both Congregations will be asked to vote in person on the proposed union. The Granton congregation will also be asked to vote to accept Peter as their Minister.
Unfortunately Church of Scotland rules state that voting on these matters can only be done in person, so there is no scope for proxy voting or placing your vote on a Zoom call. We have checked and rechecked this requirement and can confirm that this is the case.
However, if you cannot make the vote on 15th November in person you can email your views to info@granton.org.uk for input into the meeting. Note that any views would not be counted as a vote in favour or against.
The Congregations votes for the Union and, in Granton’s case, to accept Peter as their minister. This will be done on the same day. If Granton votes against accepting Peter, or either Congregation vote against the Union, then it would be back to the drawing board until a new plan was devised.
The protocol when proceeding with a union, where one congregation does not have a minister but the other already has one in place, is to hold a second, separate vote to approve the specific minister(s) coming from the other charge.
In our situation, the congregation at Newhaven voted for Peter as their minister when they called him years ago, so Granton will now vote on whether to accept Peter as their minister.
The name of the new church will be important and will reflect that this is a new start for both congregations serving the communities of Newhaven and Granton as one united church.
The name will be announced after the Kirk Sessions have voted to approve the Basis of Union and the Basis of Team Ministry documents on 26th October, so check back after October 27th. The new name will also be announced in the weekly emails from both churches on 29 October.
The new parish would include the boundaries currently served by Granton Parish Church and Newhaven Church. The map below also shows the boundaries of Wardie Parish Church
The future of Granton Parish Church and its buildings are now assured. See this news post
There are sub-groups for Worship, Mission, Communications, Team Ministry and Social. The charts in this document explain how they fit together.
Yes there is an agreed process. The diagram in this document explains the stages of the process.
Not in the long term. General Assembly have tasked each Presbytery to come up with changes that will allow the Church fully and faithfully to focus on mission to the community against the background of very limited resources. That objective of fully and faithfully focusing on mission to our community would not be achieved if each Congregation remained as it currently is, in the long term.
No. This would be akin to a Parish Grouping, where two distinct parishes work together but with a view to further combination. In a sense this is what we have already been doing and we won’t get a 2nd minister till we go into the Union and set up the Team Ministry
This is down to their individual circumstances, and we don’t expect that they will remain as they are for all time.
It will be after the Union.
Mary can’t be appointed as our new minister, because she is not a Full-Time Minister of Word and Sacrament (FTMWS) – she is an Ordained Local Minister (OLM).
OLMs can only change to being FTMWS if they would be 57 years old or less when they finished the additional training, and Mary couldn’t do this.
There are not as many ministers out there so it will just depend on the circumstances at the time. The two Kirk Sessions see the prospect of Team Ministry as an exciting foundation for taking the Gospel into our communities and we trust that God is part of this plan.
No, the Steering Group is responsible for the Union of the two Churches. It will cease once the Union is complete. Once the Union has been completed a nomination committee (expected to be around 13 people) from the new united Congregation will be voted in. They will draw up the Parish profile, job advert, go through the applications received, conduct interviews, go and listen to the applicants preach and propose a nominee who will preach to the Congregation and then be voted upon. It is worth noting that Peter will not be on the nomination committee.
Both are similar in number of members and regular worshippers, but Granton Parish is twice the size of Newhaven both geographically and by population.
The Presbytery Plan has been drawn up on the background of diminishing finances and fewer Ministers and resources.
However the plan also focuses on mission and we hope that the Team Ministry that is proposed will help us focus on mission and outreach in the new Parish. The focus is community not buildings. Originally in the plan Granton was in a grouping with Wardie, Stockbridge and St Serfs and none of their buildings are guaranteed to be kept. Cost savings may come from elsewhere in the plan but not necessarily in this Union, if Granton’s buildings are retained.
No, it will be the Steering Group who come up with this as it is part of the Basis of Union, and will require approval by Presbytery. Peter will be on the Steering Group so obviously he will have input into this.
Each Minister would have their own responsibilities i.e. one could be focusing on mission and the other having overall responsibility for worship, and one would be the Moderator of the Kirk Session. But there will be tasks that they will share and weekly worship could be one of them. They will have responsibility over the whole parish not just Granton or just Newhaven. But this is for the Steering Group to work out, as this will be part of the Basis of Union.
We don’t know for certain yet. With Team Ministry each minister will have responsibility for specific roles. This could mean that Peter will not be preaching in Newhaven every week. The two ministers could take turns each Sunday. The Steering Group initially, and thereafter the new Kirk Session, will have the responsibility of working this out.
Yes, the expectation is that the new minister would live in the Granton Manse.
These meetings reflect the planned calendar of events to take us through the process to union. As many of these dates are conditional on decisions taken at previous meetings, they are subject to change.