Glasgow’s Gaelic Churches

For 200 years Glasgow's Gaelic churches filled an important pastoral role in the life of Highland migrants to the city.

Dislocated and confused, the new arrivals found welcome and reassurance in congregations which spoke a familiar language and reflected familiar values. Hearts were elevated and lives changed through the clarity and passion of Highland preaching.

The Gaelic churches were also remarkable in their sociology.

During the week immigrants toiled in domestic service and menial drudgery. But on Sundays they were aristrocrats dressed in their finest and rising to the full height of human dignity in intelligent, enraptured worship of their Maker.

Gaelic congregations were subject to the disputes that affected every denomination; but they also had to contend with problems endemic to immigrant churches in all cultures. The author, who has had a lifelong involvement with the Highland church, provides a mass of fascinating information along with some thought-provoking reflection. Today's Christians and students of religion still have much to learn from Glasgow's Gaelic churches.