Holy Cross is a community rooted in the Christian faith that looks outwards, beyond our church building, to the local community and to people in need throughout the world.

We are proud to be part of our local community in Davidson’s Mains and Silverknowes, being the hub of the Community Christmas Market, taking part in the Remembrance Day Service on the Green, hosting community groups in our hall and having some of the Christmas Lights on our property. We work together with other local Churches, both Presbyterian and Roman Catholic, and sometimes share services and events.

Holy Cross has had international links from the beginning. Rectors have come from Canada, South Africa, the United States and Ghana as well as from the UK, and members of our current congregation come from all over the world. Mary Harrison, a former member of the congregation, did mission work in Jordan from 1948–1970, and more recently we supported the Russian Orthodox Parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Kondopoga, Karelia, helping their ministry to children, the homeless and those with addictions.

We also have strong links with the Church in India, particularly with the diocese of Tirunelveli in the Church of South India. Three flourishing Indian congregations of the Syrian Orthodox Church, St Andrew’s Knanaya, St John’s Malankara, and St Mary’s Jacobite, currently worship at Holy Cross each month. Sally Mair of Holy Cross regularly visits Tirunelveli and writes, ‘Our links with South India have truly enriched our life as a congregation and widened our experience and knowledge of life in the sub-continent’.

Today Holy Cross supports a number of local and international charities, including: Vellore Christian Hospital in India; Mary’s Meals; Aberlour: Scotland’s Children’s Charity; St Salvador’s Food Bank; Pilton Youth & Children’s Project; Christian Aid; and Live Music Now Scotland. At Christmas members of the congregation join with local churches in delivering hampers to refugee families in Edinburgh and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have been actively involved in supporting Ukrainian refugees coming to our city.