Dundee was united via kirks

As an addendum to a recent photo on this page of his Boys’ Brigade chums at a dinner at St James Church in Arklay Street in 1955, Donald Abbott today provides a paean to the long-demolished place of worship.

The Invergowrie ecclesiastical history buff writes: “St James was a successor to the James congregation founded in 1837 – the second Relief congregation in Dundee.

“It firstly did not have its own church building and was peripatetic in the centre of the town, but by 1844 it had its own kirk in Bell Street. In Scotland, the Relief Church was sometimes known as the second Secession Church and given its affinity with the Secession Church of around 1733 the two ultimately coalesced to form the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

“James Church was the first Presbyterian church in Dundee to introduce the singing of hymns set against the hitherto singing from the psalter. Later, both the Relief Church and the Secession churches nationally had conjoined to form the United Presbyterian Church – ultimately what had been the James congregation had moved its church to a new building at the corner of Tannadice Street and Arklay Street.

“By 1900 the UP Church and the Free Church had amalgamated to form the United Free Church of Scotland, and so the former James congregation later followed the trend and became a United Free congregation. By 1929 most UF congregations had amalgamated with the Church of Scotland, so Dundee found itself with two congregations named Clepington.

“The former UF church solved that problem by reverting to the original name of James and adding a Saint.”