St Columba Gaelic Church is part of the Church of Scotland.  Christianity came to what is now Scotland around 400 AD, with St. Ninian, who led a mission based at Whithorn in the south-west of the country.  St. Columba, (521-597 AD), our church’s patron, was an Irish Abbot and missionary, who settled on the island of Iona, which became a base for spreading Christianity principally to the Picts of the north. 

​

The Church of Scotland was founded in 1560, following the Reformation and the work of John Knox and others, although it did not finally become Presbyterian until 1690.  It had comparatively little influence in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland owing to the lack of Gaelic-speaking clergy, and the process of conversion and consolidation was very gradual.  In the late 18th century, the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) established schools in the Highlands with the object of preventing a resurgence of Catholicism and countering Jacobitism.  While this helped the cause of the Church of Scotland it did nothing for Gaelic, as the language was forbidden in schools and pupils were punished for speaking it.

​

By the late 18th and on through the 19th century, Highlanders were flocking to the cities, particularly Glasgow, to find work and escape poverty.  Several Gaelic speaking congregations were established.  The one to which St Columba's traces its beginnings was the first, in 1770.  The building was opened on the 18th February in that year, in Ingram Street (see map below).  In 1839, the second church was opened in Hope Street, the first having been sold to the British Linen Bank which developed the site for their Glasgow Chief Office.

​

At the great schism of the church in 1843 known as the Disruption, the exodus to form the Free Church was particularly strong in the Highlands.  However, St Columba’s remained in the Established Church of Scotland.  One reason for this was that, since the main issue was the unpopular practice of lay patronage - the local landowner choosing the minister – and since St. Columba’s could already choose its own minister because of its unique constitution, the grievance simply did not apply to it.  There were also theological differences.  Whilst many Highland churches belonged to the Evangelical tradition, St Columba’s traces its roots back to the 18th century tradition of Moderatism, which originally drew on the acceptance of Enlightenment ideas.

​

In the 20th century The Church of Scotland became recognised (under the Church of Scotland Act 1921) as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the monarch, whilst Supreme Governor of the Church of England is an ordinary member of the Church of Scotland.  As the national church the Kirk, as it is popularly known, has responsibility for every part of Scotland.  It exercises this territorial ministry through the parish system, where every congregation has responsibility for a geographical parish.  St Columba’s is the unique exception.  Its parish has no physical boundaries but is defined instead by its language and culture, so that any individual requiring the services of the church in the Gaelic language may regard themselves as a parishioner of St. Columba's.