the scottish episcopal church

A New History, by gavin white

Preface

1
Tullochgorum

2
Eighteenth Century

3
Seabury

4
Worship

5
Edinburgh

6
Oxford Movement

7
Glasgow

8
Publications

9
Church or Province

10
'English Episcopal'

11
Schools

12
Social Service

13
Synods and Councils

14
Clergy Training

15
A Small Dog Barking

16
As Others See Us

17
Women

18
Society

19
Second World War and After

Selected bibliography

Links

This book is derived from the writing of a history of St. Mary's, Glasgow, for which it was necessary to read through acres of print in the weekly newspapers of the Scottish Episcopal Church. And those newspapers have provided most of the source material for the chapters which follow. The story that emerges is thus a story of the church as seen from the grass-roots, and for that I make no apology. There are those who feel with Carlyle that great men make great events; I am not of their number.

In an early draft I included the dates 1750-1950 in the title. The year 1750 was appropriate as it came between the failure of the 1745 rising, which doomed the hopes of most Jacobites and made the separate existence of Episcopalians a permanent state, and the imprisonment of John Skinner. The year 1950 was appropriate as the weekly newspapers failed in 1949, and I did not wish to become embroiled in recent controversies, though I have carried the story forward with minimum comment where it seemed necessary.

Much of this story has appeared elsewhere. Chapter 1 is drawn from a more detailed paper in the Records of the Scottish Church History Society, Chapter 3 from a more detailed paper in the Scottish Historical Review, Chapters 7 and 10 from papers in successive volumes of Studies in Church History, and Chapters 5 and 11 appeared in draft form in the Scottish Episcopal Church Review.

I am indebted to a number of historians who have aided me with comments and advice, notably the late Canon Gibb Pennie, the late Canon Kenneth Strachan, the late Bishop Alastair Haggart, Canon Ernest Brady, and especially Canon Claud Broun whose father appears so often in these pages. None of them are in any way responsible for my views and neither is the General Synod who have given me, if not their imprimatur, at least their International Standard Book Number, not to mention facilities for consulting old volumes on their premises. That it is not published in conventional fashion is because five publishers refused it as there was no market, the last asking, "how many Scottish Episcopalians are there?"

Finally, I hope that readers will find the story of the Scottish Episcopal Church not only useful but interesting and enjoyable.

GAVIN WHITE is an Honorary Canon of St. Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, a former lecturer at Glasgow University, and the outgoing president of the Scottish Church History Society.