Welcome to St John Ogilvie's parish website.

We are a small but active Roman Catholic parish situated in the South-West of Edinburgh. We serve the areas of Baberton Mains, Calders, Clovenstone, Dumbryden, Hailesland, Murrayburn, Sighthill, Westburn and Wester Hailes. From its beginnings in 1970, St John Ogilvie’s has always been a living, vibrant community. In more recent times, that community has been greatly enriched by new arrivals from Africa and Poland.

This website will tell you some more about us and about our activities. It provides information about when and how we became a parish and gives a brief history of our patron, St John Ogilvie. There is also information about a number of our groups and about what we support.

The times of Holy Mass in the parish can be found by clicking the "Mass Times" button on the menu bar on any page or see further down on this page. Our weekly Bulletin, which is published on the site, will keep you up to date with what we are doing at any particular time. "Bulletin" buttons can be found on the menu bar and on the panel to the right/below.

We hope you will find something of interest on the website.

Our Beginnings

The parish was established in 1970 in the then new area of Wester Hailes. This was only a year or so after the first houses in Wester Hailes became occupied. Very little housing had been built at that time but plans for the area envisgaed a population of around 20,000.

In 1970 a priest from the Sacred Heart parish in Lauriston was "despached" to Wester Hailes to set up a parish there. The first parishioners, some 40 or so of them, were from Dumbryden and Hailesland which were the only two parts of Wester Hailes that had been built by that time. The priest in question was Father John McQuade, SJ who became the parish's first Parish Priest. The parish was, at the request of Father McQuade, dedicated to the then Blessed John Ogilvie

In the first few weeks in the life of the parish and in the absence of a parish church, Mass was celebrated parishioners' houses and in the near-by St Cuthbert's. Later, and until 1978, services were held in 2 local schools.

In 1978 the church building was opened and the first service was celebrated there on St Andrew's Day, 30 November, 1978. Father McQude remained as parish Priest until 1980 when the parish became part of community of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Oblate Centre of Mission

The parish is now part of the Oblate Centre of Mission Edinburgh which also includes St Mary's, Star of the Sea, Leith and the Priests of both parishes.

Resident at St John Ogilvie's: Fr Tony Quinlan OMI and resident at St Mary's Star of the Sea: Fr Martin Moran OMI.

To help foster a greater sense of belonging to a Centre of Mission, both parishes have agreed to make their weekly newsletters available to each other through their respective websites. Click on the button below to view St Mary's newsletter.

Our Patron - St John Ogilvie

John Ogilvie, a convert to the Catholic Faith, was born in Keith (Banffshire), educated on mainland Europe before being ordained a Jesuit Priest. He returned to Scotland to serve for a short time. He was hanged at Glasgow Cross on March 10th 1615 after having been arrested for saying Mass and celebrating the Sacraments with persecuted Catholics in and around the Glasgow area.

He was Canonised in 1976 following the miraculous cure of a Glasgow man John Fagan from cancer.

Some more information about John Ogilvie and two short videos about his life (Part 1) and about the miraculous cure of John Fagan (Part 2) can be found on the St John Ogilvie page of this website.

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