23rd November 2025

Community Church Edinburgh

my friend and i both arrived very late after grabbing a coffee & a hot choc from uplands respectively. walked in mid-hymn and quickly slipped into the flow of it all. worship was very simple, plain, and jesus-focused. it was also live-streamed, which is a first for me. the sermon focused on connectedness and belonging, both within & without church enviroment. included some very minor breathwork, also never seen before in a church(???). it was really strange as i had been attending a meditation retreat for the past two days which focused on very similar themes.

ratings

• aura

  -2/10 the setup at the front really reminded me of like an ikea room... string lights and plant pots. i think that's kind of charming in its own special way though

• holiness

  9/10 i cried quite a bit

• smell

  5/10 no comments

• community

  15/10 um really something special. when i walked in a member of the congregation had obviously made jam and was handing out little homemade jars to everyone they knew. lots of kids/teens around who seem honestly really willing to be there and as though they're legitmately enjoying their time. the community aspect is reflected in the seating arrangements -- it's all deeply informal and to some maybe messy but just legitimately connected. one woman invited the whole congregation to her coming wedding, wow. i cannot stress the community aspect enough. my friend observed that theyre actually sometimes too tight-knit, and people kind of throw themselves at you if you're new in an attempt to overcome it. overall a wonderful thing to experience

• engagement

  7/10 good engaging preaching, really appreciated the addition of meditation/breathwork...? i think some protestant/non-denom services stumble in lacking some form of stimulus that other denoms (catholicism, ortho) place a great degree of emphasis on. so having this very physical form of worship was great

• music

  5/10 sorry i just cant personally get with acoustic guitars but everyone involved was very skilled. not big on the hymns but they ahve been stuck in my head ever since sadly

• theology

  6/10 idk how to feel about non-denom jesus focus... sometimes it was a bit too much. but the content of the sermon itself was great -- a lot about what it means to belong, and how you can only really belong to anything (and to god) when you lose a lot of your preconcieved notions of self. i remember reading this random book in a church library in peterchurch in june that said similar, and it really deeply touched me then as this sermon did now.

• nice older ladies

  5/10 there were really nice women above the age of 30 but idk if they fall into this category

• special category: food

  8/10 bread was this nice kind of tiger bread. not real wine only grape juice :( they had a (very advertised) student lunch after which was honestly really good, chimichurri chicken tacos with a solid vegetarian alternative. would go for this alone. students were all very interesting, lovely people

  final score: 7.5/10

  i am going to go again for the student lunch

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