St. John’s Church 1980 – 1999
We continue the history of St. John’s from 1980 to 1999.
In 1980 the rock musical “Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat” was performed during a morning service by the younger members. The young people of the Church were very active and sponsored two children in the Middle East as well as holding sponsored cycle runs and hosting an Open Day.
A 10th anniversary was celebrated by the Young Women’s Group.
The annual Christmas fayre, held in mid November, was still a key date in the Church calendar with good support from the local community.
As with all new buildings, problems do occur, so additional fund raising was required to repair the original lightweight roofing material which was made of noise absorbent foam with a covering of aluminised felt. A grand fete was held in 1993 to raise funds for the roof repairs to the Church and the halls. The repairs were finally complete in 1996.
A new Mothers and Toddlers group started in 1993 (closed in 2013) while in 1994 St. John’s joined in the 750th celebrations of the ‘mother Church’, Kirkcaldy Old Parish Church.
A new hymn, “St. John’s Kirkcaldy” was written by Rev. John Millar for the celebration, in 1993, of 25 years service by Rev. McNaught in the ordained ministry.
A new ‘Book of Remembrance’ was introduced in 1995 to which new pages can be added as requested.
A bequest allowed a suitable table to be provided to provide a home for the book as can be seen here.
In 1996 the Boy’s Brigade Junior Section held a special service for those killed during the Dunblane incident and planted a memorial garden.
In 1997 the Rainbow Guides held a ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ in Balwearie High School to celebrate their 10th birthday.
A flower festival was held from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st September 1997 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the new Church building. The theme of the festival was “All things bright and beautiful”. Two special Church services were then held surrounded by the flower arrangements.
The video below was filmed before the festival opened and shows all the exhibits in position around the Church.
The Sunday morning service to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the rebuilding of the Church can be viewed below:
On the Sunday night a special Songs of Praise themed service was held. This was also recorded and made available as a VHS video souvenir of the service. You can watch the video below:
In 1998 a display of Lladro figures depicting the Nativity Scene were gifted to the Church and are displayed in a hand-crafted cabinet.
The Woman’s Guild was, in 1999, renamed as the “Church of Scotland Guild” with men welcome to attend. There was even a bowls match between the Women’s Group and the Men’s Association.