An important reminder

ELGIN is in north-east Scotland, the administrative centre of the local authority area of Moray, an expanded version of the former county of Moray, for long known as Elginshire.

The town (or city, for it has a ruined cathedral) is on the river Lossie, on the southern edge of hills that slope up to the Grampians. It also sits on the northern edge of a coastal plain – the ‘Laigh of Moray’ – that has a mild, dry climate, excellent for growing grain, notably barley, hence the concentration of Scotch malt whisky distilleries in the area.

Within Elgin is a large mound – the Ladyhill – which was probably the site of an Iron Age hill fort. When in the 6th century St Columba’s mission to the Northern Picts took place Elgin was almost certainly a regional capital, and was also a good base for missionaries to reach the river valleys to the north. The member of the mission team based in Elgin was probably St Giles, for whom the parish church in the High Street was named. Its predecessor, the ‘Muckle Kirk’ and its associated graveyard were probably the site on which Giles constructed his base. The present Kirk of St Giles, which has been described as the most beautiful Greek Revival church in Scotland was built in 1825-28 and designed by Archibald Simpson of Aberdeen.

But beautiful as it is, St Giles is not the subject of this article, which is St Columba’s, built in 1906 because St Giles could not accommodate the growing population of the parish. The new church was designed, in his favoured Byzantine style, by Peter Macgregor Chalmers of Glasgow, the leading Scottish church architect of the early 20th century. Externally the building is very simple, apart from the carving round the entrance, which is particularly fine. What is really exceptional, however, is the pulpit. This was made for the Muckle Kirk in 1684, when that building was rebuilt after its heavy stone-slab roof collapsed, fortunately between services. When the present St Giles took the place of the Muckle Kirk this pulpit was taken to the ruined Pluscarden Abbey, where some of the Elgin parishioners were meeting for services. When the new St Columba’s was completed the pulpit was installed in it. Its handsome carving represents the taste of the Church of Scotland of the time, in which Episcopacy had been reintroduced by Charles II in 1660, a popular move in north-east Scotland.

The dedication of the 1906 church to St Columba is an important reminder of his mission to the kingdom of the Northern Picts. What I did not realise until recently was that the Christianity which Columba brought was that of the Church founded in the 4th century in Constantinople, whose belief centred on the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as forecast by Christ during the Last Supper, not on His sacrificial ‘atoning’ death on the Cross, the core belief of the Roman Pauline Church. In that context it is worth mentioning that Elgin’s splendid (now ruined) cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, evidence of its link to the Columban mission.

It is well worth coming to Elgin, a historic town in a beautiful part of Scotland, with the three churches I have mentioned (St Giles, St Columba and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity) and other fine buildings. Visitors (or pilgrims, if you like), can also meditate on the deep roots which link the place directly to the life and ministry of Christ himself, and particularly to his message to the disciples during the Last Supper that the Holy Spirit – the Helper – would come to be with all believers so that they ‘might have life and have it more abundantly’.

This article appears in the October 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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