St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen
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|
Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew |
|
| Dedication | St Andrew |
|---|---|
| Denomination | Scottish Episcopal Church |
| Tradition | Broad Church |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Aberdeen & Orkney |
| Clergy | |
| Dean | Very Rev Gerald Stranraer-Mull |
| Provost | Very Rev Richard Kilgour |
| Other | |
| Website | www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org |
St Andrew's Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church situated in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. It is the see of the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney who is the Ordinary of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney.
[edit] History
The cathedral is notable as being the church where the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Samuel Seabury was ordained in 1784. This is not correct. Bishop Seabury was in fact consecrated to the episcopate in "an upper room" of a house in Longacre, approx 500 metres from the present building. The appromimate site of the house used to be marked by a polished granite tablet. This has, in recent years, been moved up the quadrangle of the former Marischal College.
The original building was designed in the perpendicular Gothic style by the architect Archibald Simpson, the first of Simpson's many commissions in the city. Rather than being built out of the usual local granite, for which Aberdeen is famous, the facade of the structure, facing King Street, was built from sandstone. The rest of the building was built of granite.
The church opened in 1817 as St Andrew's Chapel and was raised to Cathedral status in 1914.
During the 1930s, the cathedral was renovated to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Seabury's consecration. There had been a plan to build an elaborate, cruciform cathedral with central tower, commemorating Bishop Seabury's consecration on the site currently occupied by Aberdeen City Council's headquarters. This was to have been a gift of the ECUSA, however, the Wall Street Crash halted this plan due to lack of money.[citation needed] Instead, the existing church was enlarged and embellished by Sir Ninian Comper. The memorial was dedicated with a ceremony attended by the then U.S. ambassador to the UK, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
The Cathedral has always offered dignified liturgical worship and, until the late 1970s and early 1980s, was anglo-catholic in tradition. In 1982, the Cathedral Provost of the time, Very Revd Donald Howard, declared in a sermon the cathedral was giving up the large crucifix and four of the six candles on the High Altar for Lent. This permitted the westward celebration of the Eucharist. The candles were never returned to the High Altar. The worship has since become more "broad" in nature, whilst retaining the dignity of Cathedral worship.
St Andrew's Cathedral Aberdeen has a long musical & choral heritage and is now the only Episcopalian (Anglican) cathedral in Scotland to maintain a traditional choir of men and boys. In recent years, the cathedral has also formed a girls' choir and a ladies choir; both of which are joined by the Lay Clerks (gentlemen) of the cathedral choir. Over the last thirty years, the Cathedral Choir has sung in most of the UK's major cathedrals and has also toured overseas.
The Cathedral, which has a splendid acoustic, houses one of the finest three manual pipe organs in Scotland, and has been served by a number of distinguished Organists & Masters of the Choristers including Frederick Fea, George Trash, John Cullen, Geoffrey Pearce, and the current Organist, Dr Andrew Morrisson, who has held the post for over 25 years.
[edit] See also
- Religion in Scotland
- St Machar's Cathedral — the original cathedral in Aberdeen, now a High Kirk of the Church of Scotland
- St Mary's Cathedral — cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen
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