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.

Important Notice

Safeguarding Audit

The Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh has been chosen to be reviewed by an external audit team from the Social Care Institute for Excellence(SCIE)/Children in Scotland from 26 – 28 March 2019. The audit team would like to hear from anyone who has disclosed abuse, shared concerns of unsafe people or practice and also from survivors of non-recent Church-related abuse, their families and friends. A notice containing further information and contact details for the SCIE is available at the back of the church. The notice can be viewed here by clicking the button below.

Lent 2019

Now that we are into Lent, we thought it might be helpful to provide visitors to the site with Stations of the Cross. These are are to be found in a separate window which can be accessed by clicking on the button below.

The Stations are entitled "Stations of the Cross for Our Time ", and include images, reflections and short prayers of "today".

Also during lent ......

Join the WEE BOX Big Change appeal and together we can end poverty

Every Lent, the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, thousands of Scots save money in their SCIAF WEE BOX to help give a hand up to people living in poverty.

By collecting your loose change, or giving up a treat like chocolate or wine and putting what you save into a WEE BOX you can make a lasting difference to families in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Donations to the WEE BOX have helped people in countries like Uganda where a generation of young people have been left without hope, trapped in extreme poverty. Together we are helping them to be independent, support themselves and their families and have real hope for the future. Please collect your WEE BOX from the back of the church today, and together we can end poverty.

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.

More about us