Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen

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Queen's Cross Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is located at the intersection of Carden Place and Albyn Place, in the heart of Aberdeen's west end business community, and a short walk from the main shopping areas of the city and several main hotels.

Contents 1 Origins 2 World War II 3 1980s onwards 4 See also

[edit] Origins

At the beginning of the 1870s, fashionable Aberdeen, like most other big cities, began to move westwards. The name Queen's Cross only made its appearance in the Aberdeen Directory in 1866, yet by 1872 there was enough settlement in the area for some leading Free Churchmen to feel that a church should be erected to serve the people living here. Accordingly, in 1878, a site 445 feet on the north side of Albyn Place Road and 449 feet on the south side of Carden Place was purchased for £1178.

"being part of the said lands of Rubislaw, lying within the parish of Oldmachar"

Four loans of £1500 each from the bank were raised, a large sum for those days.

The first morning service, on April 18, 1881, was taken by the Rev. Walter C. Smith, whose hymn, "Immortal, invisible, God only wise," is still a favourite in the Church Hymnal. His preaching, or perhaps a sense of occasion, inspired the congregation to donate the handsome sum of £133.16.5¾d as a first collection. Later in the year a Sunday School was opened "with a large attendance," and early in 1883 a "Young Man's Mutual Improvement Association" was formed - though what improvement was intended, or indeed achieved, remains obscure. In April, 1882 George Adam Smith was installed as minister. Before he could even take up his position, and less than a year after the opening of the church, the communion roll was purged. This was a serious business, striking off those who for reasons of non-attendance, or worse, were deemed unfit to sit at the Lord's Table. References to these purges are frequent in the minutes of the Kirk Session, and they were often merely a question of keeping the records straight - though the sinister phrase, "removed by death" sounds to the uninitiated a powerful inducement to regular church attendance. During his first month as minister, Adam Smith found himself with an awkward problem. Within the Kirk Session, passions were running high over the question of the baptismal font. Should it be specially adapted to the building? Should it be further back? Should it be nearer the pulpit?

In June, an eloquent entry reads,

"The font gifted by Mr. George Allan was removed by him without instruction."

However, the saga concludes in November 1882 when,

"The Kirk Session decided to take the necessary steps to recover the baptismal font."

What these "Necessary steps" were is never disclosed; one can only assume that after this the position of the font was more peaceably agreed. In 1883, the congregation began to complain about the temperature of the church. 'Cold draughts' continued to blow through the church, despite the Building Committee being given "powers to make various experiments" (unspecified) until a new boiler was installed in 1932, at which time complaints were received that the church was too hot. Problems with the boiler were a recurring theme. On January 15, 1912, after the boiler had burst during a cold spell, the church officer was instructed that he must keep the boiler burning day and night during the continuing frost. However, on April 1st the minister was obliged to intimate that he had given the church officer powers to modify these instructions "during the continuance of the coal-miners strike." The modern impression of the Victorian era as one of strict moral propriety is somewhat shaken by the evidence of the minutes of the Kirk Session. There are church members disciplined for drunkenness and dishonesty, for ante-nuptial fornication; illegitimate births are recorded, and in 1883 a special meeting had to be called to consider the complaint of a lady cleaner that the church officer had "taken advantage of her" during the cleaning of the church in April that year. He was cleared of the charges, but for the next year both Kirk Session and Deacon's Court minutes refer to similar charges and allegations that the church officer "had used profane language in church." It was clearly a relief when the man at last resigned, but the Deacon's Court recorded;

"In view of the law and practice of the church, it does not tend to edification to make single acts of this nature the subject of formal judicial enquiry."

A precentor had been appointed in 1882 at a salary of £30 per annum; his duties included conducting congregational singing classes as well as training the choir. However, by 1887 there was strong pressure to install an organ. Most of the money was raised by subscription, and again the controversy raged over the positioning of the instrument. No fewer than five alternative sites were proposed, and at last a scheme was adopted which involved building an organ chamber off the south transept. The organ was ordered from Messrs Willis & Son of London, and cost £609, together with a 'patent Hydraulic Engine for blowing the Organ' at £49. When the organ chamber had been completed the bill was not far short of £1000. It was obviously never wholly satisfactory. Only ten years later, improvements to the organ, including bringing the keyboard downstairs, were being discussed. Despite the "strongest possible recommendations" that these should be carried out in 1899, nothing was done until January 1916 when, following the appointment of William Swainson as organist, a professional report on the organ was received, which began:

"The whole organ is very dirty. The mechanism is worn out, of an obsolete design, and obviously cannot last much longer. The keyboard and console arrangements are antiquated and clumsy, and the organ can only be manipulated by the player with labour and discomfort."

The organ pipes as they are now

The repairs were duly done, and the organ keyboard was brought downstairs. It was later moved up to the West Gallery, from which situation it was recently brought down. In about 2112 A.D. it should be due to go back up again. In 1891, the church was closed for four weeks, during which time the church and halls were cleaned and decorated for the sum of £183.3.0. However, since this had been discussed since 1889 and at least one convenor of the Buildings Committee had resigned, it was obviously as difficult to put this project in hand then as it is now!

In 1892 George Adam Smith left to take up the chair of Hebrew in the Glasgow College. The communion roll stood at over 700. He was succeeded in 1883 by Martin Lewis. That he was an accomplished speaker is clear from an extract from his induction speech which appeared, with comments, in the "British Weekly"

"In the course of a felicitous address at his reception meeting, Mr Lewis said: -

"I have been described, I see, as an Englishman; but I have often wondered what I am. (Laughter). A few weeks ago a young officer of the Royal Engineers, who had been attending my church in Gravesend, was in my company, and I said to him, 'Now, what country do you come from? Are you a Scotchman?' And he said, quite gravely, 'Well, I have often wondered. (Laughter.) My family is of Welsh extraction, my father was an Englishman, my mother was Scotch, I was brought up in Ireland, and I was born at sea. (Loud laughter.) Now, I am not such a hybrid as my friend, but I am of the same composite order of architecture. (Laughter.) I am Irish on my father's side, I am Scotch on my mother's side - a good East coast Scotchwoman - I am English born and English bred; and I often wonder what I am." (Continued laughter.)

The congregation had, before George Adam Smith left, paid off a debt of nearly £10,500 - a very considerable sum of money for that time. However, repairs and redecoration were a continual strain on the church's financial resources, and improvements were constantly being made, from the planting of "limes, chestnuts and plane trees" in 1887, and the concreting of walks about the church, to the installation of electric lighting and heating at a total cost of £196.11.9d in 1900.

The next major appeal for funds was not proposed until 1921. It arose out of the apparently uncontentious proposal in 1919 that a War Memorial of some kind should be erected to the fallen members of the congregation; the animosity, however, engendered during the discussion of the most appropriate form for this to take, and its position, made the hostilities which had just ceased seem tame by comparison. Minutes are larded with such expressions as "surprised" and "disappointed;" some military gentleman felt, despite strong opposition, that rank as well as name should be displayed, and criticism of the unfortunate elder who occupied the unenviable position of convenor of the Property Committee was severe. It was eventually agreed that the Memorial should be in the form of a panel in the front of the West Gallery, and that this should form part of a reconstruction programme which was to cost £5096.10.0. However, because by this time,

"an extraordinary change had come over the financial position of the country, it was felt it might be difficult to raise the desired funds"

Only the work in connection with the War Memorial was completed. Martin Lewis resigned because of ill-health in 1918, and in 1919 he was succeeded by James Robertson Cameron, a man of considerable artistic gifts and evangelical fervour, the brother of D. Y. Cameron, the artist. But his ministry was not long, ill-health forced him, too, to resign at the end of 1926, and he was succeeded at the beginning of 1928 by the Rev. W. W. Gauld. In 1927, the church acquired its first manse, at 46 Forest Road, previous ministers having lived in their own houses, all close to the area surrounding the church.

Under the Rev. W. W. Gauld's ministry, the church celebrated its Jubilee in 1931. Sir George Adam Smith was there to preach the sermon, and view with, no doubt, some satisfaction, the flourishing church which his leadership had established. Indeed, so vigorously had the church and its organisations flourished that the question of space was becoming an increasingly vexed one. An appeal, to coincide with the Jubilee of the church, was launched in 1929, "for a sum not less than £6,500." However, the beginning of the 'thirties was not a propitious time for asking people for money, and by 1934 less than half of this sum had been raised. Ambitious plans for an extension were drawn up, to include a new hall, a kitchen, and anteroom to the platform, and a new vestry and waiting room, each with a separate W.C. The proposed expenditure was clearly alarming, and discussion was dropped until 1936 when a less expensive plan was suggested. But by the end of that year the Buildings Committee was stating, unequivocally, that this plan provided the minimum necessary accommodation. In January 1937 the recommendation was at last accepted, and work began later that year. The extension was able to be opened on Saturday 11th March 1939, free of all debt, thanks to a generous bequest from Dr. Martin Lewis and a grant from the Baird Trust. The church had run several "Sabbath Schools" for some time: Rubislaw Sabbath School, Ashley Sabbath School, and the Congregational Sabbath School are all mentioned. A visitation in 1928 mentions 102 scholars on the roll. Responsibility was also assumed by Queen's Cross Church for the Oakbank Sabbath School run, apparently, for boys from less privileged homes. The difficulty in staffing a Sunday School is clearly not simply a modern problem. In 1938, Mr. Laing says feelingly in his annual report on Oakbank,

"Some temporary losses are unavoidable when teacher are so strong and healthy - one may be off on account of an injury on the Saturday afternoon, another due to dental work, another on account of his voice, for he has such a good one he is often asked out to sing. I find the most reliable teachers as regard regularity are old ladies who do not play football."

[edit] World War II

During the Second World War, Queen's Cross Church luckily escaped damage, though insurance was taken out to cover this, and a professional fire-watcher was appointed, to be assisted by volunteers. The church was also designated a centre for the homeless in the event of a major emergency, and the Deacons' Court had to make arrangements for the water in buckets placed around the church in case of a failure in the water-supply to be changed three times a week. The church, however, has not been totally lacking in drama. Three fires are reported in the minutes; one, which damaged the roof, in 1896; another which ruined all the plaster on the side of the East Gable, in 1919; the third in 1931. In the early morning of Wednesday 21st October, Mrs. Coutts of 50 Carden Place was horrified to see smoke and flames coming out of the Session Room and, with presence of mind officially commended later by the Deacons' Court, at once summoned the Fire Brigade. The damage was messy rather than disastrous, but the framed photographs of church dignitaries were destroyed, leaving gaps in the church's photographic records which have never been filled. Headlines in the "Evening Express"(13/10/1924) read "Sacrilege in City - Daring Burglary." On the evening before the Autumn Communion thieves had broken into the Session House and stolen Communion Trays and Cups. The place was in disarray. In 1969 one of these cups was to reappear. A minister on the Isle of Lewis examined an old cup which had lain disused for many years in a cupboard of his church. It appeared to have been in a fire, and when it was cleaned it was found to be one of the cups stolen from Queen's Cross on that dark Saturday night nearly half a century previous. It is still used today at Communion services.

In October 1945 the Kirk Session decided that women should be eligible for the Eldership. A direct negative found no seconder. The 1945 vote on women elders was way ahead of the General Assembly. After the Assembly did agree (in 1966), the congregation's first women elders were ordained in 1970.

In May 1952 the Rev. W. W. Gauld, having been honoured by the University of Aberdeen with a Doctorate in Divinity, felt that he should retire in the interests of a younger man being appointed. In November 1953 the Rev. G. B. C. Sangster acted as Moderator of the Kirk Session for the first time.

Meanwhile the youth organisations were flourishing. A lively Cub Pack fed into a Scout Troop which soon boasted 100 boys. On one occasion, televised by the B.B.C., no fewer than 10 senior boys were awarded "Queens Scout" Certificates - a record for Scotland. In the Autumn of 1962 the stewardship of the congregation began to explore an ambitious new avenue of service to the community - a residence for the elderly or those living alone and needing companionship. That vision came to fruition with the opening of Queen's Cross House at 54 Forest Road on 9th December 1967, providing tasteful accommodation for a housekeeper and seven residents. None of those present could foresee that both city and congregation were poised on the edge of a new industrial revolution which could significantly change the future of Britain and the face of Aberdeen. North Sea Oil was soon to be harvested from the North Sean and the "auld grey toon" to take its place beside Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. Under the energetic leadership of the young minister, the Rev. Dr. Edmund Jones, Queen's Cross was the first city church to seek ways of actively responding to the spiritual and social needs of the newcomers. In personal contacts, in officially organised "Welcome Evenings" run with the help of the Town Information Centre, and in special services such as the televised American Bicentennial Service on 4th July 1976 the Church sought to become a home for many nations. It seemed that the Promises of God were being fulfilled in a very special way that would have given great satisfaction to those who a century before had prayed for God's blessing on the fledgling congregation gathering to sing the "Old Hundredth" on an April morning in a new church on the outskirts of Aberdeen.

By that date, a further service to the community was being offered in the shape of a nursery school. This was established in 1971 in the new three-room extension of the church premises, at a time when nursery school provision was still generally scanty.

[edit] 1980s onwards

To mark the centenary of Queen's Cross Church in 1981, renovation of the interior introduced the present varied colour scheme instead of the previous uniform grey, and removed the pulpit to make space for activity at the front of the church.

The most striking feature introduced was and is the large memorial hanging on the east wall, depicting the Cross against a sunburst, and harmonising in its colours with the scheme of the interior as a whole.

Dr Jones left Queen's Cross in November 1983 after a lively and occasionally controversial ministry of 18 years. The Rev. Bob Brown, the current minister, was inducted as his successor in November 1984. Two important developments have taken place during his ministry and under his leadership. In 1989 a harmonious union took place between Queen's Cross Church and Melville Carden Place Church. Then, to mark the millennium, further alterations to the sanctuary included the replacement of the pews by chairs. This has allowed flexible seating arrangements for church services, and contributed to a more informal atmosphere. Further, in conjunction with improvements in other facilities in the church buildings, it has made the church an excellent venue for concerts and other events. The church is now therefore better able to serve as a centre in and for the local community.

[edit] See also

• List of Church of Scotland parishes