St Columba Gaelic Church, Glasgow
Fàilte gu Eaglais Ghàidhlig Chaluim Chille, Glaschu
News / Naidheachdan
March 2023
Our Minister had the privilege of meeting with the Lord Provost and the Moderator at the City Chambers.
February 2023
The Presbytery of Glasgow has linked the congregations of St Columba and Blawarthill at a special service on 16th February 2023. The preacher was the Very Rev. Dr. Angus Morrison. The Linking was administered by the Moderator of the Presbytery, Rev Hilary N. McDougall and the Clerk, Rev Dr. S. Grant Barclay.
January 2023
Joint morning worship in Blawarthill Church at 11 a.m. on Sunday, 15th January for the congregations of St. Columba and Blawarthill.
After the service, from 12 noon approx., both congregations are called by Edict to meet to consider and vote on the Proposed Linking of the Congregations.
The Presbytery of Glasgow meets on 7th February to consider the matter. A provisional date of 16th February has been proposed for a Service of Linking, subject to the agreement of all parties.
July 2022
March 2022
St Columba Church has been awarded a Category A listed status by Historic Environment Scotland.
Representatives of the congregation are meeting in a Cluster Group of West End churches to discuss how to allocate ministries within the new Presbytery Plan. The Presbytery has agreed to reserve three additional FTE specialist posts and there is a possibility (although not guaranteed) that Gaelic ministry will be one of the specialisms.
The congregation and the Presbytery have both agreed to dispose of the church property. The matter has been passed to the General Trustees for action.
February 2022
The Kirk Session has resolved unanimously to seek the disposal of the church building at 300 St Vincent Street. The General Trustees have already indicated their desire to place the church on the open market and have had a professional valuation made. The next step is to call a congregational meeting so that all members and adherents are given the opportunity to vote on the matter. This takes place on Sunday 27th February 2022 following the service in Blawarthill Church, at 1.30 p.m. (Service begins 12.30 p.m.)
December 2021
Services, including Sunday School for young people, are currently being held weekly in the Interim Moderator's church, Blawarthill, each Sunday at 12.30 p.m. Gaelic services are being organised on dates as announced.
July 2021
The Kirk Session is considering its position in regard to the church building. The Elders hold a range of views about what should happen next. No decision has yet been taken. The Session is in the process of organising in-person services.
April 2021
A new report from the General Trustees has identified new safety concerns with the church building following a recent inspection. There is now little prospect of being able to use the church in the foreseeable future. The Kirk Session will consider the position at a special meeting and make decisions about the way forward.
December 2020
Eaglais Air-loidhne / Gaelic Church Online YouTube channel reaches the end of its first year. We have produced 1094 minutes of content, viewers hit the like button 230 times, 30 comments were made, videos were shared 67 times. We now have over 100 subscribers, and a total of 6398 new views. Viewers spent 43231 minutes altogether watching video content from our channel. We would like to thank all our contributors very warmly.
October 2020
St Columba Gaelic Church has currently suspended its activities in its building at 300 St Vincent Street, Glasgow. Plans to reopen the building have been put on hold as a safety inspection has identified issues unrelated to Covid-19 reopening regulations that have to be addressed.
August 2020
The Church of Scotland has created a new guide for Gaelic speakers and learners which will particularly support worship leaders who want to use the language with confidence.
Described as a guide to biblical and ecclesiastical language, the booklet will also more generally aim to help anyone who wants to engage in Bible study or follow sermons more easily.
May 2020
Eaglais Ghàidhlig air-loidhne
'S e iomairt eadar dà eaglais Ghàidhlig - Eaglais Ghàidhlig Chaluim Chille ann an Glaschu agus Eaglais nam Manach Liath ann an Dùn Èideann - a th' anns an sinal seo. Gheibh tu an-seo seirbheisean [laidhean, Sailm agus ùrnaighean] ann an Gàidhlig.
Chaidh an sianal seo a chur air dòigh leis an Urr. Melvyn Wood, am moderàtor eadar-amail aig Eaglais Chaluim Chille, agus ministear Eaglais Blawarthill, Glaschu.
March 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The church building may be closed but the church is open and functioning. In the light of the PM's statement requiring us all to stay at home we want to ask our members to hold each other, and our wider community in prayer, and keep in touch by phone and social media.
Funerals have been mentioned as the only permitted "social" event in which the church has an obvious locus. Attendance at those will be restricted to immediate family. We must await clarity on the details. However, it is our intention to broadcast funerals (with the agreement of next of kin) on the Interim Moderator's channel on YouTube. This will mean that wider families and friends can sit down in their homes and take part in a funeral service at around the same time as any service is being held with the immediate family in a crematorium or cemetery.
Please check back on this website for regular updates.
Stay in, and stay safe.
Co-labhairt
Air Disathairne an 28mh dhen Mhàirt, bidh Eaglais na h-Alba a’ cumail co-labhairt, “An Ath Cheum”, ann an Glaschu. A’ coinneachadh aig an Ionad Renfield (aig Ea-glais St Andrew’s West, no Renfield St Stephen’s mar a tha aig cuid oirre), bidh òraidean agus bùthan-obrach ann, a’ coimhead air leasachadh àite na Gàidhlig ann an Eaglais na h-Alba, agus mar a tha sinn a’ dol a bhith a’ cleach-dadh na Gàidhlig gus an Soisgeul a shearmonachadh a’ dol air adhart. Bidh barrachd fiosrachaidh ri fhaotainn air làrach-lìn Eaglais na h-Alba, agus nì sin aithris air a’ cho-labhairt san ath àireamh de Na Duilleagan Gàidhlig.
February 2020
SIMD Stats
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation figures for 2020 have just been published. They show a gradually improving picture for Glasgow although there is still a concerning level of deprivation in the city.
January 2020
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY
Alexander J MacLeod Gaelic Fund
This fund was originally set up in the 1930's to facilitate the Gaelic Religious Service in Crown Court Church in London. The fund has been opened up to any minister or member of staff in the Church of Scotland. The fund will pay towards taking lessons for learning Gaelic. It can also be used for other purposes. In one church screens were put up to project a Gaelic translation of hymns during worship alongside the English so that people could begin to recognise and learn. Applicants should be in a Gaelic speaking area or charge, or be planning to minister in one. Would this interest you, or anyone you know? If it would, contact the Study Leave team at studyleave@churchofscotland.org.uk to make enquiries.
September 2019
Dr Duncan Sneddon, currently teaching at Aberdeen University, is to take up the consultancy post of Gaelic Development Officer for one year from October, to work on a Gaelic Language Plan for the Church of Scotland. Among other things, he will organise a conference on Gaelic development within the Church. We congratulate Duncan on his appointment and look forward to working with him.
August 2019
Our Presbytery Clerk has written as under to ministers in Glasgow. We felt it would be good to circulate his request a little wider. We are also considering various ways of keeping Gaelic worship alive in Glasgow if traditional services are no longer possible, such as Café Church worship which a less confident Gaelic speaker or Gaelic learner could lead, or even live video streaming. Any help or suggestions welcome.
Dear Colleagues,
I write in relation to St Columba Gaelic Church which meets in St Vincent Street in Glasgow city centre.
The congregation of St Columba is having difficulty finding people who are able to conduct services in the Gaelic language. This is mainly due to the national shortage of Gaelic-speaking ministers in Scotland.
St Columba is in long-term vacancy and ideally needs to have Gaelic worship provided, either on a locumship basis, or else through pulpit-supply. If you know of anyone who might be able to help with this, even on an occasional basis, please either contact myself at the Presbytery Office, or the Interim Moderator, the Rev Melvyn Wood (gmelvynwood@churchofscotland.org.uk).
At the present time it would be helpful to receive details of any retired ministers who speak Gaelic, or of other individuals who might be able lead worship in Gaelic. Any information or help that you are able to provide will be much appreciated.
With all good wishes, George
May 2019
April 2019
The Big Footprint event on Saturday 20 April is a chance for the Church of Scotland to show itself as a visible and active presence within local communities by walking together.
The Glasgow event starts at Glasgow Cathedral at 10.30 am, going down the High Street before crossing the river over and back on the four bridges to the west of the High Court. Then via Jamaica Street to St Enoch Square then Buchanan Street and St Vincent Street to St Columba Church of Scotland where refreshments will be served. The walk is 4.3km / 2.6 miles.
The event will be led by the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Susan Brown. The Boys and Girls Brigades and the Guild are participating.
March 2019
At a meeting of the congregation on Sunday 31st March, the congregation resolved, unanimously, to adopt the Church of Scotland's Unitary Constitution. This will mean that the Kirk Session becomes responsible for all matters of governance, including finance and fabric, as well as spiritual matters. The Unitary Constitution is in many ways more suited to the present day, and this change, we trust, indicates the willingness of members and office bearers to rise to the challenges being faced by the congregation as we seek to serve the Gaelic and Highland community in Glasgow and beyond.
We will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the congregation next year. Your ideas on how we should do this are most welcome. Please write to us with your suggestions.
The Gaelic Chapel, Ingram Street (on left) in a painting by James Hopkirk. The adjacent buildings are the churches of the New Licht and the Auld Licht Seceeders.
February 2019
We have received the following email, which we trust will be of interest to Gaelic speakers.
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Vivek Pal
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Lionbridge-Language Research Project- Scottish Gaelic
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Hello, My name is Vivek Pal and I am part of the Lionbridge Global Services for Machine Intelligence Recruitment Team. Lionbridge is an American company with headquarters in Massachusetts (USA) and offices in 26 countries. We deliver translation and localization, global content management, and application testing services to the world’s top brands. Lionbridge is now looking for native speakers of Scottish Gaelic for paid remote work projects. We are helping to develop modern speech recognition systems for computers and mobile devices. We believe those systems to be important for future development. Unfortunately, these systems usually neglect to implement minority languages and focus mainly on commonly spoken languages like English, Spanish or Chinese. We believe in preserving a large diversity in languages and cultures and so we would kindly ask your support in keeping the Scottish Gaelic language alive. We really count on your help resourcing. To receive additional information, please contact the Lionbridge Recruitment Team at recruitmentWM.tampere@lionbridge.com For more information about the company, please visit our website: https://www.lionbridge.com/en-us/global-services-for-machine-intelligence Or our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LionMachineIntelligence/ Thank you very much for your kind cooperation and have a good day! Best Regards, Vivek Pal Lionbridge www.lionbridge.com
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Sent on: 27 February, 2019
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Thank you!
January 2019
November 2018
Sunday 11th November - Service of Remembrance
The Remembrance Service to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice will be a joint Gaelic and English service. It will begin at 10.45 a.m.
September 2018
August 2018
Sunday 26th August - Dedication and BBQ
The English Service will be followed by a social event outside the church. The congregation, families and friends are invited to the dedication of our new memorial bench, followed immediately by refreshments. Hot burgers and sausages will be provided, along with vegetarian food and cheese snacks, but if anyone would like to bring their own food to be cooked, please do so. Please pass this invitation on to anyone that might be interested in attending. Please do phone to confirm if you're bringing a group.
Sunday 5th and Sunday 12th August - Cycling Road Race.
The European Championships cycling races will be held on these dates and a large part of central Glasgow including St Vincent Street will be closed to traffic. Services at St Columba's will however be held as normal on these dates. All welcome, but please allow extra time to park outwith the affected area and expect a longer walk to church.
May 2018
Easter 2018
The Gaelic Group of the Assembly Council of the Church of Scotland has reported to the General Assembly of 2018. Its report is available on the Documents page of this website. Among the aims of the Gaelic Group are the development of a Gaelic Language Plan, the inclusion of Gaelic pages on the C of S website including worship resources, and seeking funding for continuing its work from Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
30th March - A Good Friday Service will be held in English on Friday, 30th March at 7.30 p.m.
1st April - Easter Day - Services in Gaelic and English.
Eco Congregations - Seminar
February 2018
Lodging House Mission Homeless Service,
Sunday 4th February at 6:30pm.
The date of our Homeless Service has been put back one week to accommodate our guest speaker, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev Dr Derek Browning.
Please show your support for our homeless Service Users by coming along to 35 East Campbell Street, G1 5DT on the night.
The statutory church cup of tea and biscuits will follow.
December 2017
Locum Minister, Graham Morrison was honoured to be invited to preach at the quarterly Gaelic service in Crown Court Church of Scotland in London.
The December Communion Services at St. Columba's were conducted by the Very Rev John Christie, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Short Sermon
This "little sermon" appears in the December Gaelic Supplement of Life & Work magazine:
Searmon Beag
(bho Àireamh 12 – 2012 – An Dùbhlachd)
Bheir iad Emànuel mar ainm air. (Mata 1:23)
Dè tha àm na Nollaig a’ ciallachadh? An gabh sin cur ann an aon fhacal?
Nan cuireadh tu a’ cheist air neach òg, ‘s dòcha gun canadh iad gur e laoidhean a tha na Nollaig a’ cial-lachadh dhaibhsan. Gun teagamh tha tarraing iongantach air na seann laoidhean sìmplidh a bhios air an seinn aig an àm seo de’n bhliadhna. Ge b’ e cànan anns
a bheil Ciùin an Oidhch’ air a sheinn, tha na faclan agus am fonn a’ dèanamh làraich air daoine.
Nam biodh aig òganach ri aon fhacal a thaghadh, ‘s dòcha gun canadh e tìodhlacan. Aig an Nollaig bidh tìodhlacan air an toirt seachad. Bidh na milleanan air an cosg anns na bùithean air tiodhlacan Nollaig. Tha an t-àm seo a’ togail ar n-inntinn chun an tìodhlaic as iongantaiche a tha ann:
Is ann mar sin a ghràdhaich Dia an saoghal, gun tug E aon-ghin Mhic fhèin, a-chum ge b’ e neach a chreideas ann nach sgriosar e ach gum bidh a’ bheatha shìorraidh aige.
Tha iomadh facal sgrìobhte anns an Tiomnadh Nuadh mu bhreith Ìosa agus mu adhbhar a theachd. Ach tha an Tiomnadh Nuadh a’ toirt geàrr-chùnntais air teachdaireachd na Nollaig ann an aon fhacal: Emànuel.
Nuair a bha Ìosa gu bhith air a bhreith, tha Mata ag innse dhuinn gum biodh Emànuel air a thoirt mar ainm air, a’ coileanadh fàidheadaireachd a tha againn ann an leabhar Mhìcah anns an t-Seann Tiomnadh.
‘S e as ciall don ainm Emànuel, gu litireil, Dia maille rinn.
Nach misneachail an teachdaireachd sin, gu bheil Dia ann an Ìosa Crìosd còmhla rinn anns a h-uile suidheachadh nar beatha, na beanntan soilleir agus na glinn dhorcha, na làithean aoibhneach agus na làithean brònach. Ann an dachaidh ann an Nàsaret dh’fhiosraich Ìosa na rudan a bhios a’ bualadh air a h-uile teaghlach chun an latha an-diugh, na rudan beaga agus na rudan mòra, na h-amannan riaslach trang agus na h-amannan saorsainneil socair.
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March 2018
The spring Communion Services will be held on Sunday, 25th March, and will be conducted by the Rev. Angus Smith.
November 2017
This is an article by the Very Rev. Angus Morrison. In it he pays tribute to the Rev Dr Roderick MacLeod, MBE, who is well known to the congregation, and who has recently retired as Editor of the Life and Work Gaelic Supplement.
Mar a bhios fios aig cuid, tha an Dr. Ruairidh MacLeòid air a
dhreuchd mar dheasaiche nan Duilleagan Gàidhlig a leigeil
dheth an dèidh 37 bliadhna de sheirbheis ionmholta don
eaglais. B’ esan an còigeamh deasaiche bhon a thòisich Na
Duilleagan ann an 1880. Sgoilear, òraidiche agus searmonaiche barraichte, tha a shaothair a’ nochdadh meas mòr air a’ Ghàidhealtachd agus farsaingeachd de dh’eòlas mu a h-eachdraidh.
Tro na bliadhnaichean, tha an obair deasachaidh aig an
Dr. Ruairidh air a bhith air leth èifeachdach. Le measgachadh
de shusbaint, an dà chuid sgrìobhte agus dealbhan, bha e
air chomas dha aire an neach-leughaidh a ghreimeachadh
ge brith ìre an cuid Gàidhlig. Bidh e do-dhèante obair cho
siùbhlach, sònraichte ath-chruthachadh. Thug e seirbheis
dhìleas don choimhearsnachd Chrìostail agus bha e na
thlachd dha charaidean nuair a fhuair e aithneachadh MBE
bhon Bhànrigh air a shon. Tha sinn uile airson ar buidheachas
a chur an cèill dha agus tha sinn a’ guidhe gach sonais dha
fhèin agus dha mhnaoi. Gum beannaicheadh Dia iad le
bliadhnaichean sona.
Tha sinn an dòchas gun gabh buidheann deasachaidh a
chur air dòigh, seach aon neach, ann an ùine nach bi ro fhada.
San eadar-àm, tha Buidheann Ghàidhlig na h-Eaglaise gus
leantainn oirre a’ trusadh stuth airson dhà no thrì irisean.
Shaoil sinn gum biodh e glè iomchaidh sùil a thoirt tro
sheann irisean airson taghadh de chriomagan a chòrd rinn
fhoillseachadh a-rithist. Bidh pìos no dhà ùr a’ nochdadh
cuideachd ge-tà. Tha sinn an dòchas gun còrd sin ribh.
Tha sinn a’ coimhead air ais le cridheachan làn
thaingealachd ach cuideachd a’ coimhead romhainn le dòchas. Tha Dia comasach ar feumalachdan uile a choileanadh. Mar bhuidhinn, tha sinn a’ sireadh ùrnaighean an luchd-leughaidh gus leigeil leinn dèiligeadh ris na dùbhlain agus na cothroman a tha romhainn a-nise.
Am Fìor-Urr. Dr. Aonghas Moireasdan
Cathraiche, Buidheann Ghàidhlig Eaglais na h-Alba