Dunfermline will welcome more angelic visitors this festive season as local churches band together to share the Christmas story and message.

Now in its third year, Angels Everywhere Dunfermline has returned to the Kingsgate Shopping Centre in Scotland's newest city to help bring the real story of Christmas to life.

"We are now at the stage where if we didn't do something, people would miss us," Barry Meiklejohn, one of the project leaders, said.

This year, a shopping centre unit will be transformed into a Bethlehem stable, with volunteers on hand to tell the Christmas story in person.

Inspired by a pop-up church in England, Angels Everywhere Dunfermline launched two years ago when local congregation members were invited to knit little angels which were eventually handed out at local primary schools.

"We know that a lot of kids really appreciated those," Mr Meiklejohn said.

"I did hear some of them used to carry their knitted angels all over the place with them, like a little toy."

Also appearing across Dunfermline were posters of angels which smartphone users could use to access videos telling part of the Christmas story, while Kingsgate Shopping Centre provided a window in an unused unit for a Christmas themed display.

That expanded to the loan of a full shop unit in 2021. Local primary school children coloured in hundreds of angel wings which went on display in the shop window. The shop also screened short films made by pupils at Dunfermline High School, again featuring the angel theme.

Wings of angels

Interior design students at Carnegie College also contributed by building full-size sets of angel wings to be installed in the donated unit as well as on Louise Carnegie Gates at Pittencrieff Park and outside the former Andrew Erskine Church with people of all ages encouraged to pose for selfies and think about the Christmas message.

Mr Meiklejohn said: "That was a great success. It got the churches working together and we were doing something that was outwardly focused in line with the Church's mission approach."

This year, children have been invited to colour in Nativity scene templates which have been collected together to create Christmas montages to accompany the Kingsgate Nativity scene.

"We are envisaging something almost like church windows within the shop unit, but instead of stained glass we will have the coloured in pictures of Mary, Joseph, angels, and all the familiar Christmas images," Mr Meiklejohn explained.

"The hope is it is going to be quite something to see when it is all done."

The main aim of Angels Everywhere is to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas and Mr Meiklejohn believes it is doing just that, at least with its youngest participants.

"I think a lot of the children who get involved are becoming aware of the Christmas story as opposed to 'the Man in the Red Suit' just being the whole focus of Christmas," he said.

"We have an Angels Everywhere Dunfermline Facebook page and participating churches are encouraged to do something on their individual websites. The participating churches also have similar matching banners to hang outside their churches to show the local community that we are one group of people working together."

Walk of witness

Connections made between local Church of Scotland congregations have also led to Angels Everywhere organising an Easter Walk of Witness through Dunfermline centre.

Already looking at ideas for 2023, Mr Meiklejohn hopes next year's Angels Everywhere will be bigger and better than before.

He said: "Because we now have a bit of momentum from working together we can look at what else we can do within the town as an act of witness.

"We hope Angels Everywhere will keep going from strength to strength and I would love to see it spread to other towns around Scotland."

The Angels Everywhere Dunfermline team will be retelling the Christmas story at Unit One in the Kingsgate Shopping Centre at 11am, 1pm and 3pm this Saturday 17 December.

The unit will also be open between 10am and 4pm to allow the public to see this year's Christmas artwork.

The Angels Everywhere Dunfermline team will be retelling the Christmas story at Unit One in the Kingsgate Shopping Centre at 11am, 1pm and 3pm this Saturday, December 17th.

The unit will also be open between 10am and 4pm to allow the public to see this year's Christmas artwork.