COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Nurture Each Other in Faith
At New Laigh Kirk, we aim to be a hub within the community, that everyone can come to rely on, depend on, and enjoy in every day life. In partnership with this, we also provide different elements of community outreach. With each of our community outreach projects, we aim to bring Jesus to the community and introduce as many as we can to a faithful way of living. Jesus can be found in all aspects of our community and we strive to enhance the work of God in everyone, everywhere.
EACHA
East Ayrshire Churches Homeless Association
Each Person Matters
East Ayrshire Churches Homelessness Action (EACHa) is a charity that was set up to help relieve hardship or distress experienced by people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless within East Ayrshire.
EACHa (East Ayrshire Churches Homelessness Action) is an ecumenical charity, formed in 2005, with around 20 participating congregations.
The EACHa/Community Friends Action Plan sits within the Celebrate Kilmarnock Town Centre Action Plan. Our town, and the surrounding area, is for everyone, those with disposable income, those in positions of authority, and those with no income, the very poor and vulnerable. For all who live, work, shop and simply enjoy our community. Each person matters. Those in positions of authority must confront and understand the humanity of those whose lives their decisions affect. Those living vulnerable and chaotic lives must do the same. Transformation will only come by all talking to each other, working together. After two conferences and the publication of a hard hitting Action Plan, it is now time for action. The recommendations of the Plan are achievable. There is a will to make the necessary changes to begin to transform the lives of the most vulnerable in our community. Together – professional bodies, agencies, churches, volunteers, partners, staff and citizens– we must work harder and honour the commitment to transform lives now and inspire lasting hope for the future.
ECO-CONGREGATION
New Laigh Kirk are an Eco-Congregation
“Before you finish breakfast this morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world”
Martin Luther King
These words were spoken a generation ago but still demonstrate how our habits affect others globally as the Global South strives to feed the Global North. To support this approach, NLK has achieved a Bronze award status as an eco-congregation.
What is Eco-Congregation? Eco-Congregation is an ecumenical programme helping churches make the link between environmental issues and Christian faith, to respond in practical action in the church, in the lives of individuals, and in the local and global community.
Why are we doing this? As a Congregation, we connect with each other plus others in our community. We also connect with others we do not know or see globally but we do it in a Christian manner that, hopefully, is eco-friendly.
What does this mean? This approach is about how we consider climate and eco-issues as part of our spiritual lives as well as our day to day living. The current cost of living crisis and energy costs have escalated these issues into our day to day living and has an impact on how we look after our homes but also our Church buildings and surrounding areas.
What have we done so far? We continue to support Fair Trade and promote Fair Trade products. In December 2023, we successfully achieved our Bronze status award. This has been a combination of assessing where we are as individuals and as a congregation in terms of spiritual and daily living and how we consider climate issues locally, nationally and globally. Our prayers and worship regularly remind us of the gift of creation.
Through self-assessment work, we have developed our climate efficiencies and embraced suggestions on how we can continue to look after our beautiful sanctuary and other Church buildings, but in a more energy and eco-friendly way for our lighting and heating. A water meter is also being installed to monitor use and we continue to support and encourage recycling where possible.
What can you do? There are steps that individuals can do to promote the work of our eco-congregation. Pray for the issues within our town, our country and our world. Take appropriate steps to reduce carbon footprint where you can. Reduce inefficiencies in our energy use at home and in the church – switch off lights, using heating timers, maximise use of the halls and sanctuary to make the most of the heating and lighting; reduce food waste and landfill.
Over the coming months, the Eco-Congregation will look to provide more information, hints and tips but further information can be found here.
“No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.”
For more information about Eco-Congregations, Fair Trade and more, please see the links above.
Our Eco-Congregation
Scotland Journey
Check out our recent Eco-Congregation flyer here: ECO-FLYER
Eco-Congregation Scotland Silver Award-Caring for God's World
New Laigh Kirk is delighted to be a Silver Award Eco-Congregation Scotland church. As a congregation, we seek to live out our faith by caring for God’s world — locally, nationally and globally.
We connect with one another within our church family and wider community, and with people across the world whom we may never meet, acting in a Christian way to protect creation. Through sustainable practices and eco-friendly choices, we aim to reduce our impact on climate change and to encourage hope and responsibility for the future.
Being an Eco-Congregation is about recognising that care for creation is part of our spiritual life as well as our everyday living. In a time of rising energy costs and ongoing cost-of-living pressures, these issues affect how we care for our homes, our church buildings, and the land around us.
♻️ Our Eco-Congregation Commitment
As an Eco-Congregation Scotland church, New Laigh Kirk demonstrates progress and commitment to environmental sustainability across four key areas. Below is a summary of some of our current activities and our journey towards our next award.
📊 General Activities
-
New Laigh Kirk completes an annual carbon footprint assessment to help identify ways to reduce emissions and, where appropriate, offset our impact.
-
Information about our eco-work is shared regularly through church magazines which can be found on the 'Home' section of our website and on social media:
-
To support individuals and the wider community, we have developed seasonal eco-information presentations:
🙏 Spiritual Life and Worship
-
At New Laigh Kirk, care for creation is integral to our praise, worship and spiritual life. We celebrate God’s world through worship, reflection and action, and invite everyone to join in our activities or to listen online to our services.
🏡 Practical Living
-
A congregational eco and climate change flyer is available here. Our focus extends beyond recycling to include reducing waste and reusing resources.
-
A new upcycling flyer is also available: Please see above.
-
As a church, we continue to expand our recycling facilities, with regular access for paper and plastics.
-
We have also introduced domestic battery recycling. Batteries should be dead/not working but not leaking or damaged.
-
In 2026, we are delighted to launch our new Recycling Calendar, which is available here:
New Laigh Kirk – Recycling Calendar
Following suggestions from the congregation, we are expanding our recycling capacity within NLK.
All of the products listed below will be sent to local locations for onward recycling or redistribution. As space is very limited in the sanctuary, we are introducing a recycling calendar or schedule. This will enable us to support all of the suggestions across 2026 whilst being mindful of storage etc in the church building.
Item Months
Domestic batteries All year
Medicine blister foils All year
Specs/glasses January, February, September
Cabling, phone chargers March, August, September
Small electricals (eg toaster, kettle, iron) April, May, October, November
Soft furnishing eg cushions, towels, bedding June, July, December
Mobile phones March, June, September
Please note:
-
Small electricals (eg toaster, kettle, iron). These must be still working and undamaged for distribution via EACHa Fresh Start programme
-
Soft furnishings will also be distributed to EACHa. Includes, bedding, towels, cushions, cushion cover.
-
Mobile phones will be assessed by local trade in dealer or recycled. Any cash offered by dealer will be donated to NLK renovation fund.
-
Medicine blister packs must be empty. Any blisters that still contain unwanted or unrequired medicines must be returned to the pharmacy for destruction.
-
We continue to work closely with local schools, and we encourage you to follow our social media pages for exciting collaboration news during 2026.
-
Increasing biodiversity is a key focus for 2026. We are delighted to be working with local stakeholders, including care homes and a local primary school, on a pollinator project. More information will follow.
🌍 Global Concerns and Fair Trade
-
Our Fairtrade Ambassadors continue to promote and support Fairtrade initiatives. During Advent 2025, we were pleased to sell Christmas tree decorations made by producers in Bethlehem.
-
Profits from these sales support our Toilet Twinning project. New Laigh Kirk currently has two toilets twinned — one in Malawi and one in Zambia.
-
We also continue to support the work of Christian Aid, both locally and internationally.
🤝 Local and Community Action
-
New Laigh Kirk hosts two community litter picks each year, in March and October. These events are advertised on our social media channels and offer a simple, practical way to care for our local environment around the church and town centre.
-
Everyone is very welcome to join us — each litter pick is followed by a hot drink, a snack and good conversation.
-
For those affected by rising energy costs or the cost-of-living crisis, the following organisations may be helpful:
-
East Ayrshire Churches Homeless Association (EACHa) – Each Person Matters
-
East Ayrshire Recovery Network
-
The Trussell Trust Foodbanks
-
23 Riverbank Place, Kilmarnock
-
15 Shortlees Crescent, Kilmarnock
-
Clean Green East Ayrshire – East Ayrshire Council
📅 Dates for Your Diary
-
· Harvest Sunday – Last Sunday in September
-
· Fairtrade Fortnight – 21 September to 4 October 2026
-
· NLK Community Litter Picks – March and October, 1.30–3.00pm (Dates to be announced)
Please continue to support the eco-congregation work by supporting our efforts to be more energy efficient in the Church buildings and at home if possible. Please also be encouraged to recycle our paper and plastic waste in the Church, halls and at home.
For more energy saving tips, please see the links below.
-
Ten Tips for saving energy in your church and home. (ecocongregationscotland.org)
-
Clean Green East Ayrshire · East Ayrshire Council (east-ayrshire.gov.uk)
Elaine Paton
On behalf of the Eco-congregation Committee
SCHOOLS
As part of our family outreach work, our Family and Community support worker, Amy, and parish minister, David, currently make regular visits to primary schools within the community. These visits can entail assembly talks, lunch clubs, after school clubs, parent council work and educational support.
As of January 2023, New Laigh Kirk are involved with Loanhead Primary School, Annanhill Primary School and Onthank Primary School, working alongside all children from primary 1 through primary 7.
Bible led lunch clubs are ran within the schools, introducing the different age groups to the stories of the Bible and diving deeper into the meaning of living a life with Jesus. We encourage group participation, discussion, interactive games, crafts and even celebrations to build the faith of children within the schools.
We love visiting the schools for assembly talks, where we can build on the school's themes of the week and tie these into a Bible story that we can make come alive with whole school participation.
PASTORAL CARE GROUP
Belonging to a church means being part of a church family who care about one another’s well-being. Our Pastoral Care Group helps everyone in our church family to feel connected to our church and supports anyone who feels isolated or in need of a little extra support at a tough time in their life. We do this in several ways.
· Every month we send a friendly newsletter to people on our mailing list.
· We keep in touch by phoning people or, if they prefer, by visiting them in their homes or in residential care.
· With our minister we host occasional Silver Sunday afternoon worship in the church, with door to door transport provided if required. These services are shorter than Sunday morning services. They are followed by tea, coffee and home baking, with an opportunity to chat to friends whom they don’t meet often.
· Seasonal events such as a Daffodil Tea and a Christmas afternoon tea are held in our halls, with entertainment and home baking!
· With our church’s Revive team we help to link up our young and older generations.
These activities can keep you in touch with what’s happening in our church. If you want to be on our mailing list, our Pastoral Care Convenor, Barbara Graham, will be pleased to hear from you. Contact Barbara at barbara.graham74@btinternet.com or phone 01563-522108.
Pastoral Care volunteers benefit too from offering these activities. We’ll be glad to hear from anyone who can help by making visits or phone calls, delivering letters, driving our guests to events, baking, singing, playing the piano – and above all simply by being a friend to members of our church family. If you would like to volunteer with the Pastoral Care Group, please contact the above email or telephone number.
REVIVE
The Revive Group is stemmed from our church's Learning Communities Group. The Learning Communities training gave some of the members in our church an opportunity to think clearly about certain types of outreach our church could develop. From this, a small group of volunteers have shown rapid growth in community outreach and have established connections with our pastoral care group, schools and social work and have developed links into the heart of the community.
The Revive Group are responsible for the intergenerational link between the youth in our church and our pastoral care teams. In 2022, Revive created both summer and autumn worship events which brought together children and youth within our church and the community, and members of the pastoral care team to come together and worship Jesus through a variety of musical worship styles, food and friendship. These events also helped to connect members of our 'Pen Pal Project' together; children and elderly who were able to write to one another as pen pals over the winter season.
Revive also run a weekly baby and toddler group, 'Little Seeds' for any and all parents with children ages 0-4. Parents and or carers are welcome to come along to our Church halls on Tuesday mornings from 10am-11am to enjoy a coffee, tea and small snack and a variety of snacks and refreshments for little ones too. Here, parents can depend on the warm friendship and kind support of the Revive group members as they encourage discipleship and faith in different ways, whilst little ones have the freedom to play and engage in interactive activities and led music time.
For three years in a row, the Revive group also ran a 'Backpack Project'. This involved encouraging members of our church and community to donate money, or backpacks and school supplies that were collected and distributed between the local community social work system and to local primary and secondary schools for families who could benefit from some extra support on the run up to the new school term starting.