Who We Are – Church Different
We are Musicians, Teachers, Lawyers, Administrative Assistants, Students, Nurses, Self-Employed, Actors, Managers, Retired, Dancers … we are your neighbors.
Our worship style is casual, respectful, and creative.
We celebrate The Lord’s Supper every Sunday at every service. It is not a Presbyterian table, but a table open to all who follow Jesus and to those who want to know him more.
We study Scripture as we follow Jesus Christ so that we might become more like him.
We baptize infants and adults, knowing that it is not by anything that we do but by God’s grace that we are called children of God.
We become members of Christ’s church by publicly confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
We believe that God changes us through our worship and discipleship, so that during the week, we are enabled to be kind, to stand for justice, and to walk humbly with God.
Our name “kirk” means church in Scottish and has prompted us to study and embrace Celtic Spirituality.
Our worship style is casual, respectful, and creative..
What is Celtic Worship?
Celtic Worship calls upon all of creation to praise God.
The Celtic tradition is a way of seeing the world.
The tradition emphasizes the goodness of creation and makes us aware of the connections of nature with God’s creatures. Nature does not serve humankind. Rather, all of creation joins with humanity to praise God.
Celtic worship values the everyday experience and the ways we use our senses to praise God.
We respond to God’s gifts of seeing and tasting, hearing and feeling, singing and dancing by offering our whole selves to God in worship.
For more information on Scottish heritage, visit our friends at Richmond’s St. Andrew’s Society.
Nature does not serve humankind. Rather, all of creation joins with humanity to praise God.
Connecting to God in Creation
All creation declares the glory of God! At The Gayton Kirk, we want to use all of our space for the purposes of God. The labyrinth, the outdoor worship space, and the Celtic garden provide opportunities to experience the beauty of nature and inspire our connection with the Creator.
The Labyrinth is patterned upon an ancient prayer path. Do you ever feel like you can’t keep still enough to pray? Does walking help you think? Then maybe the labyrinth would be helpful for your prayer life.
“Labyrinth prayer is a contemplative spiritual discipline on a simple marked path that is based on the ancient practice of pilgrimage. On a pilgrimage, a pilgrim intentionally (1) leaves the world, journeying away from the noise and distractions of life, (2) eventually arrives and rests with Christ, and (3) returns home to live more deliberately and obediently as Christ’s own.” From Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, 2006.
Our labyrinth is available to all who want to take a pilgrimage without leaving Richmond, or to spend some time apart with God.
The Celtic Garden, currently under construction, has already become a popular place to meet a friend for a bag lunch or a quiet conversation. As with the other outdoor spaces, one does not need to come inside the building to use the space. It belongs to God, and God welcomes all.
The Outdoor Worship Space has been the site of Blessing of the Animals, Celtic Worship Services, and Musical Concerts. We enjoy using this space to gather in the midst of nature, remember our Celtic heritage, and praise God the Creator.
