Church Services

Church Services are held every Sunday morning. Because there our five churches in our linked parish, four of which are used on a regular basis, services have to be rotated between churches in Ruberslaw Parish, while Hobkirk and Southdean have a service in Hobkirk Church every week. In addition, service times at 9-30am and 11-00 am are changed twice a year to ensure that each of the linked parishes gets ‘early’ and ‘late’ services, for the convenience of members. Coffee is served after ‘early’ services.

At Easter and Christmas time, there are additional services and times of some regular services change. Watch the ‘Service Time’ page on this web site, or church notice boards and local press for more details.

 Worship during the Covid-19 Pandemic

During this period when church buildings are closed, worship is being provided in the form of printed Weekly Bulletins to enable personal devotions at home. These can be found on the News & Events page, along with associated Children’s Bulletins. Video Worship is on our YouTube channel ‘Hobkirk and Southdean with Ruberslaw’   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC00ztH8Y86E0tiyeFEp2T8w

Covid-19 Update: 11 July 2020

The church buildings of Hobkirk &Southdean with Ruberslaw will not be reopening until Phase 4. We will continue to seek new ways to reach out to the community in the intervening period.

Earlier this week, a Joint Office Bearers Meeting was held via Zoom to discuss the options around the reopening of our church buildings once it was permitted by the Scottish Government. After assessing both the practical and spiritual issues it was agreed that we would not be reopening the buildings whilst still under the restrictions of Phase 3. What with the health & hygiene requirements, the limits on numbers due to social distancing, bans on singing and on post-worship tea and coffee, our worship would be radically different from how it was prior to lockdown.  Most importantly, we felt that these restrictions would prevent us from being as inclusive as we would like to be, and that although we desperately look forward to worshipping together, we would rather develop further the written and online methods of worship that we are currently using. So, our buildings will not be reopening until we enter into Phase 4, (which may not be for another few months) by which time most of the current restrictions on worship will be lifted. In the meantime, the Joint Worship Group will be meeting via Zoom next week to discuss options for the future, e.g.

  • Live Zoom worship (rather than pre-recorded)
  • Further celebrations of Zoom Holy Communion
  • Zoom Coffee & Chat sessions for both parishes
  • Zoom Bible studies
  • family & children’s worship activities.
  • Prayer walks in church grounds

 (At present outdoor worship is still not permitted, but we will be considering this option as soon as we are able)

 If you have any suggestions you would like us to consider, please contact your Elder or the Minister.