Services and Programs

SCC is a contemporary church located in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. Services are held on Sunday mornings. There are also various groups or events at different times throughout most weeks.

Sunday services are informal. Everyone is welcome. Our most regular teachers are Jess Williams and Walter Thiessen, but quite a few men and women share their thoughts from time to time. Some messages seem serious and are touching; others are light-hearted and fun. There are usually questions or comments and, at times, banter from the rest of the crowd.

At the end of most services there are opportunities to sing, pray, or chat.

Sunday mornings, upstairs in the café
9:15 am: coffee/tea and muffins
9:30 am: Celtic liturgy (40 minutes)
(On the 1st Sunday you can also join by Zoom if you let us know on our Facebook Group. Join our Facebook group for info or email Walter Thiessen: waltert@nb.sympatico.ca)

Since 2007, a smaller, early service has been meeting in a style we refer to as Celtic – mostly because we identify with this tradition’s valuing of the informal use of liturgy.

We alternate between two liturgies that draw on our own creativity as well as Celtic communities like Iona and Northumbria, modeled on a contemplative approach that engages positively with culture. We hope the liturgy can create a beautiful and consistent framework that will allow the meaning of the words to soak into us as we grow more and more familiar with them over time. Within the form created by the liturgy, there are moments for sharing reflections on the weekly readings and shared prayers for others.

After the service, people often linger and chat around the tables in the cafe reflecting on their week or thoughts from the service. Everyone is welcome!

After a long season through the pandemic that was tough for children and church, we’ve been slowly coming back to prioritizing children. Most Sundays there is a children’s story downstairs. Then parents and other volunteers take the kids up and share stories, art projects, and games will centring around sharing who we are –what makes each of us uniquely ‘us’, and celebrating this together.

I had such a fun time popping around your backyards with the youth over the summer (I hope they did too). Thank you so much to all who offered their time and space to spend with us! It was a real treat!

Heading into the fall we’ll be switching our gatherings to Sunday mornings at the church. During my piano teaching season my evenings are unavailable, but hopefully we’ll do some weekend evenings here or there too. BUT our regular weekly gathering will be Sunday AMs at SCC during the service, beginning THIS Sunday. Kids and youth will gather downstairs with everyone for the music time and announcements. After which we’ll head up stairs to the youth room to do our own thing.

In 2012, we decided to start a community garden. We named it the Victoria Street Community Garden to help ensure it would be a welcoming place for everyone in the community, not just those from SCC. With the help of some grants and lots of hard work from volunteer work parties over the years, we’ve added raised beds, a garden shed, trellises, and a high-tech rain collector from the church roof!

 “Garden beds available – come join us!”

The garden has a perennial border to face the street and eight beds dedicated to grow food for the local food bank. If you’d like to adopt one of the food bank beds (care for it through the growing season), please email vicstreetgarden@gmail.com.

You can also get a better sense of the garden by checking out our Welcome Packet 2022. Or join our Facebook group .