The Alloa Guild

A couple of years ago, St Mungo’s Guild united with Ludgate Guild to become Alloa Guild and this has been a successful move.  Our Guild normally meets in the Session House every second Thursday between September and April, with the exception of January, from 2-4 pm.  The Guild is open to all, men as well as women, and we meet for fellowship, friendship and fun.  Our syllabus is always a mixture of music, talks (often about projects we support, both in this country and overseas), demonstrations and presentations.  We always have tea and biscuits as well!  The current Guild Strategy is “Let us build a house” and the current theme is “Living stones”

The Guild nationally was started in 1887 by Rev Dr Archibald Charteris. Today, almost 135 years later, with around 15,000 members, the Guild is one of Scotland’s largest voluntary organisations. Although women make up the bulk of our membership, increasingly, men are becoming members and taking active roles at local and national levels.  The Guild nationally is restructuring and our local Guilds Together will cover a wider geographical area.

The Guild motto is “Whose we are and Whom we serve” and members across the years have lived up to this.  The first mention of the Guild in the Session minutes of St Mungo’s was in 1896 when they were thanked for giving cloths for communion to the Church and over the years since then the Guild has contributed a lot both in items donated to the Church and time given to support Church projects.  They also look outwards and have supported Guild projects across the world in recent years and sent “comfort packages” to troops during the world wars.

This session we have had a variety of topics and the session got off to a good start with a talk from Rev Philip Hacking about his work as a prison chaplain.  We have also had information about heart health, how different religions can have a lot in common and heard about the WW1 battlefields.  We also have lighter moments like our Scottish afternoon and learning to paint stones – and of course the Christmas lunch!  Between February and April, we will hear from 2 of the Guild projects, learn more about Gartmorn Dam, hear about the progress being made with Lochies House and the Wellbeing Hub and learn about the benefits of simple exercise.

The old stereotype of Guild meetings is long gone and the guild is prepared to tackle hard issues as well as more fun things. It provides fellowship to those who attend and the chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones.  Each year the National Convenor sets a Convenor’s Challenge.  Our challenge to you is to try a Guild meeting for yourself!

 

December 2025

guild logo

Craft Group

We are a group who meet on TUESDAYS, from 2 to 4pm in the Session house of the church.

Crafts?

We knit, crochet, cross stitch, sew, make cards and jewellery for ourselves and also to sell to raise funds for Church or to support charities.

It’s a good humoured afternoon and more members joining us would be welcome and perhaps teach us/share new crafts.

Over the years we have donated to Strathcarron hospice, knitted hats for Sailors coming from warmer climes to chilly Scottish ports, knitted hats for prem. Baby unit at FVRH, (both always needed), knitted teddies for tragedies (overseas), twiddlemuffs for elderly, blankets, fish ‘n chips jumpers for new babies in  Africa. 

In recent times we knitted comfort dolls and donated them to local emergency services.  Generous donations from knitted poppies were sent to Poppyscotland.

At the close of year 2025 our funds in Honesty Box were split between Church, Salvation Army, local Young Carers and more comfort dolls were given to the Bookbugs group at Alloa Library.

So, as you can see, we are a busy group, very caring of others less fortunate and EVERYTHING we make, we make with love in every stitch.

Looking forward to 2026 and learning new crafts.

 

December 2025

Sunday School

The Sunday School meets every Sunday during the school term at 11.15am. We have a lively group of children aged from 3 to 11 who participate in bible studies and craft work on various topics from the Bible. If your child attends nursery or primary school and would like to join us please come along on a Sunday morning.

On Easter Sunday this year the Sunday School children organised an Easter Bonnet parade for the congregation to take part in and the picture to the left shows some of those who participated.

Connect Alloa

We are sorry that Connect are no longer meeting in St Mungo’s but delighted for the group that they have managed to obtain funding which has allowed them to obtain their own space to meet.  The group has gone from strength to strength since it started and was able to continue to provide a service to its members even during lockdown.  We wish them continued success in the future and know that we still have a positive relationship and connection with them.

New volunteers are always welcome to apply, whether it be for the youth groups themselves or if you have an interest in raising funds on their behalf to support the group in these hard times.  Lastly, there is the possibility of ‘micro-volunteering’.  Micro-volunteering can be many things, but it is essentially volunteering on a small scale, remotely or in person, and finding something that can be a taster to volunteering with Connect or supporting the group in a way it may not have time for.  The hope is that with this, they can support more people who are not ready for a larger commitment or even people who are more comfortable volunteering their time to support Connect in some way from their own homes.

If you want to get to know more about Connect you can find them on www.connectalloa.org.uk or on all social media platforms by searching ‘connectalloa’.  The group supports any young person aged between Primary 7 and 19 years old as long as they have a parental or guardian permission form which can be completed here: https://connectalloa.org.uk/join-connect-alloa/.  If you have any questions, comments, or queries you can also contact Dave Crozier, Project Leader on 07598247277 or dave@connectalloa.org.uk.

 

July 2023