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Ideals in Urban Mission: Episcopalians in Twentieth Century Glasgow
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
At the beginning of this century Glasgow was romantic. It was a successful city, and it was growing rapidly. The 1901 census had shown that Scottish cities were growing faster than English, and Glasgow had increased by fifteen per cent in ten years.
Much of this increase came from England, and from urban England at that. The bishop of Glasgow and Galloway said of his flock in 1901, ‘I can never find a west of Scotland man who is a hereditary episcopalian. The church seems to have been wiped away just as a man wipes a dish, and turns it upside down’. Instead they had migrants who ‘have come bringing no money with them, requiring us to provide religious ministrations for them. We have done our best.’ It was estimated that there were fifty thousand episcopalians and Anglicans in Glasgow, of whom only fourteen thousand were known to the clergy. In 1894 a census of four areas rated episcopalians at six per cent of die population, and another census in Govan at ten per cent. In a famous speech to the representative church council of 1901, Anthony Mitchell admitted ‘a feeling of dejection’ at the size of the problem, though he added that nowhere else would missionary work find ‘a readier return’. The bishop substantiated this, saying that Glasgow people were ‘not hostile to religion . . . many of them are thirsting after it’, as shown by the crowds attracted by street preachers. The rural dioceses in Scotland were asked to support the work as their migrants were in Glasgow, though in fact these were probably not a significant number.
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References
1 Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh 1902) p 275.
2 Scottish Guardian (Edinburgh) 18 October 1901 p 663.
3 Ibid.
4 [The Right Rev. Archibald Ean Campbell D.D.: A Memoir, ed Farquhar, G. T. S.] (Edinburgh 1924) p 114 Google Scholar.
5 Inglis, K.S., Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England (London 1963) p 27 Google Scholar; The Times 6 August 1883 p 7.
6 Farquhar p 134.
7 Year Book of the Episcopal Church in Scotland (Edinburgh 1910).
8 St Margaret’s Magazine (Glasgow) 13 no 5, May 1921 p 74.
9 [Report of the] Council [of the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway] 3 February 1915.
10 Ibid 8 February 1916.
11 Ibid 4 February 1919.
12 Ibid 6 February 1924, 3 February 1926, 8 February 1928.
13 Ibid 6 February 1924, 3 February 1926.
14 Farquhar p 101; Council 6 and 7 February 1962.
15 Council 2 February 1971.
16 Church of Scotland Reports to the General Assembly with the Legislative Acts (Edinburgl 1976).
17 Baptist Union of Scotland Yearbook (Glasgow 1900-75).
18 Catholic Directory for Scotland (Edinburgh 1976).
19 Council 9 February 1949.
20 St Margaret’s Magazine 18 no 9 September 1926 p 110.
21 Council 5 February 1930.
22 Ibid 4 June 1929.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid 4 February 1931.
25 Canon R. Bisset, letter of 26 January 1978.
26 Council 11 and 12 February 1952.
27 Ibid 9 and 10 February 1953, 8 and 9 February 1954.
28 Ibid 12 and 13 February 1959.
29 Ibid 4 and 5 February 1959.
30 Ibid 7 and 8 February 1961.
31 Scottish Chronicle (Edinburgh) 9 February 1906 p 85.