Looking Back: St Columba’s, Pont Street

The July 1941 issue recorded the destruction of churches and church buildings during the early years of the Second World War.

THE tale of the destruction of churches through air raids is a sorrowful one. In Scotland there was special distress when it was learned that St Columba’s, Pont Street, the congregation which has so long and so nobly represented the Church of Scotland in the English capital, has been robbed of its fine building.

To its ministers and people our sympathy goes out in full measure. A story has reached us that is characteristic of the spirit of St Columba’s. On the Sunday morning following its destruction, a member went round to the church and found on the wall by the doorway, which is still standing, a Union Jack; beneath it a notice telling where the usual morning service would be held; and beneath that the words: ‘Nec tamen consumebatur’. In Scotland, churches and halls have been wrecked at a pace that is melancholy contrast to the rate of progress of our Church Extension movement. Seven of our churches, five halls and four manses have been totally destroyed; twenty-five churches, twenty-one halls and thirteen manses seriously damaged; which much greater numbers of each have suffered superficial injury.

 Previous: A Counter to Emigration

Looking Back menu