Edinburgh: New Town Church
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Edinburgh: The New Town Church of Scotland | |
---|---|
Saint Andrew | |
Events | Disruption of 1843 |
Architecture | |
Heritage designation | Category A listed building |
Designated | 13 January 1766 |
Completed | 1784 |
Administration | |
Presbytery | Edinburgh |
Parish | Edinburgh New Town |
Clergy | |
Minister(s) | vacant |
Laity | |
Organist/Director of music | vacant |
Edinburgh: The New Town Church of Scotland serves Edinburgh's New Town, in Scotland. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland, formed on 1 February 2024 by the union of St Andrew's & St George's West and Greenside Church.
The parish today constitutes the whole of the First New Town of Edinburgh and a small part of the early-19th-century Second New Town of Edinburgh. The George Street building (formerly St Andrew's Church) was completed in 1784, and is now protected as a category A listed building.[1]
Buildings
Two churches, St Andrew's and St George's, were planned as principal elements in the
St Andrew's Church
The Town Council held a competition for a design for the eastern church, St Andrew's, which was won by Captain
The original design for St Andrew's Church included a short tower but the Town Council opted for a 51m steeple, built in 1787. It contains a unique peal of eight bells cast in 1788 by William and Thomas Mears at the
In 1976 the cellar space under the church was adapted for use as the "Undercroft", later linked by a stair to the vestibule.
In 1947 St Andrew's Church was united with Queen Street Church of Scotland, with the Queen Street church building used as church halls. Queen Street Church had been formed by the union in 1891 of Tollbooth Free Church and St Luke's Free Church to form Queen Street Free Church, which became Queen Street United Free Church in 1900 (at the union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterians) and then Queen Street Church after the 1929 union of the United Free Church and Church of Scotland.[3]
St George's Church
St George's Church, on the west side of Charlotte Square, was begun in 1811, with
St George's West Church
Free St George's Church was built in 1866–69 to designs by David Bryce in Roman Baroque style. The tower in the south-west corner is partly by Bryce, but was completed by Robert Rowand Anderson, who had briefly been in partnership with Bryce, in 1879–81 with a 56m Venetian campanile, modeled on that of San Giorgio Maggiore.
In 1900 the church was one of the several which partly amalgamated with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to create the United Free Church of Scotland. It continued to be called St George's Free Church. In 1929 the United Free Church merged with the Church of Scotland with relatively few staying in the continuing church. The church was thereafter simply called St George's West and was operated by the Church of Scotland.[4]
The Shandwick Place building was sold by the Church of Scotland to Charlotte Chapel.
Greenside Parish Church
Originally part of the parish of St Cuthbert's (which covered Edinburgh's outlying areas) Greenside was formally made a parish in 1836.[5]
The church lies on the northern approach to Calton Hill between Blenheim Place and Royal Terrace. It was designed by James Gillespie Graham in 1830 and took nine years to complete, opening on 6 October 1839.[6]
History
St Andrew's Church was the setting for the Disruption of 1843, one of the most significant events in 19th-century Scotland. Fuelled by increasing concern and resentment about the Civil Courts' infringements on the liberties of the Church of Scotland, around one third of the ministers present at the annual church's General Assembly walked out, cheered by onlookers outside, and constituted the Free Church of Scotland.
In 1964, the congregation of St George's Church in Charlotte Square was united with St Andrew's, forming St Andrew's and St George's. The St George's Church building is now used by the National Records of Scotland. Today, the church hosts an annual book sale for Christian Aid. First held in 1974, in 2006 this event raised over £113,000, including the proceeds of the sale of the script of the Doctor Who episode "New Earth", signed by David Tennant and Billie Piper.[7]
In January 2010, the congregation of St Andrew's and St George's was united with St George's West, Shandwick Place, to form the congregation of St Andrew's and St George's West.[8] Both buildings were in use for three years, with the former St Andrew's and St George's building as the principal place of worship until renovation work started in 2012.
On 17 February 2013, St George's West church held its final Church of Scotland service; a special piece of choral music (which was dedicated to the choir of St Andrew's and St George's West Parish church) was written by Stuart Mitchell for the occasion. The congregation moved back to the church on George Street, and the Shandwick Place building was handed over to Charlotte Chapel, an independent Baptist church on the nearby Rose Street which had outgrown its building and purchased the church for £1.55 million. Charlotte Chapel don't expect to move in until 2016[9] while £750,000 worth of renovation work occurs, most prominently the re-siting of the centrally-located organ console to make way for a baptismal tank. This will be the console's third position since its installation in 1897, and the church's third denomination (originally opened as a Free Church in 1869). The final hymn played on the Hollins organ was 'Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided'.
Ministry
A former minister of St Andrew's and St George's was the
The two most recent ministers of the former St George's West Church were the Rev Peter J. Macdonald (1998–2008), who went on to become the leader of the Iona Community, and the Rev Robert L. Glover (1985–1997), who became minister at Chalmers Memorial Church in Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian.
Ministers of St Andrew's Church
- 1784 William Greenfield
- 1787 William Moodie
- 1801 David Ritchie (second charge)
- 1813 Andrew Grant
- 1837 John Bruce
- 1843 Thomas Clark
- 1844 Thomas Jackson Crawford (second charge)
- 1857 John Stuart
- 1889 Hon. Arthur Gordon
- 1896 Peter Hay Hunter
- 1908 George Christie
- 1937 William Erskine Blackburn
- 1941 James Stuart Thomson
- 1948 Donald Davidson
Ministers of St George's Church
- 1814 Andrew Mitchell Thomson
- 1831 James Martin
- 1834 Robert Smith Candlish
- 1843 Robert Horne Stevenson
- 1880 Archibald Scott
- 1909 Gavin Lang Pagan
- 1918 Charles William Gray Taylor
- 1951 James Robert Thomson
- 1956 William Cecil Bigwood
Ministers of St Andrew's & St George's
- 1962 William Cecil Bigwood
- 1972 William Andrew Wylie
- 1986 Andrew R.C. McLellan
- 2003 Roderick D.M. Campbell
Ministers of Free St George's (later United Free)/St George's West
- 1843 Robert Smith Candlish
- 1861 James Oswald Dykes
- 1870 Alexander Whyte, until 1916[10]
- 1896 Hugh Black
- 1907 John Kelman
- 1921 James Macdougall Black
- 1949 Murdo Ewen Macdonald
- 1965 William David Ranald Cattanach
- 1985 Robert Glover
- 1998 Peter McDonald
Ministers of St Andrew's & St George's West
- 2011 Ian Y. Gilmour (to 2018)
- 2019 Dr Rosie Magee (to 2022)
Ministers of Greenside
- 1839 to 1871 - William Glover DD (1801–1871)
- 1871 to 1880 - Archibald Scott
- 1880 to 1884 - John Milne
- 1884 to 1887 - John Rudge Wilson
- 1887 to 1898 - John Patrick
- 1899 to 1923 - John Lamond (born 1855)
- 1924 to 1928 - Peter Alexander Dunn
- 1929 to 1949 - Dudley Stuart Hopkirk (subsequetly Chair of Systematic Theology, Ormond College)
- 1950 to 1968 - Murdo Macdonald
- 1968 to ? - James Watson
- incomplete
- 1981 to 2011 - Andrew Anderson
- 2011 - 2024, no fixed minister[11]
In Jan 1974, Greenside Church united with Hopetoun (itself a 1962 union of Guthrie Memorial Church and St James's, Easter Road); and in Jan 1975 united with Abbey Church.
Edinburgh City Centre Churches Together
Edinburgh:The New Town Church of Scotland [Edinburgh New Town Church] is one of three churches which form Together, an ecumenical grouping in the New Town of Edinburgh. The others are
See also
References
- ^ a b Historic Environment Scotland. "George Street, St Andrew's and St George's Church with Railings and Lamp Standards (Category A Listed Building) (LB27283)". Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ^ Ruins of Palmyra, at Royal Collections Trust.
- ^ National Records of Scotland, catalogue entry for CH3/120 (records of Queen Street church).
- ^ "The Demise of St George's West, Shandwick Place | EdinburghGuide.com". Archived from the original on 27 July 2010.
- ^ Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae; by Hew Scott
- ^ Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker
- ^ "Christian Aid Book Sale 2006 at St Andrew's and St George's Edinburgh and Dr Who script". St Andrew's and St George's West Church. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ "City churches to congregate after worshippers decide on merger". The Scotsman. 28 December 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ Why Move? Archived 24 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0567096505.
- ^ "The Minister". greensidechurch.com. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ Together Trust Archived 22 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Edinburgh New Town Church, the church's official website
- churchofscotland.org.uk, the Church of Scotland's official website
- BBC news article on refurbishment of bells
- Report in The Scotsman newspaper, 30 September 2008
- St Andrew's and St George's, Archiseek web site