Uncovering the Past

Tuesday January 14 2014

A Rutherglen church uncovered a message from over 100 years ago during a refurbishment project.

A time capsule from 1912, the year the Stonelaw Church was built, was discovered when a wall in the Sanctuary was demolished. It had been placed beneath the Memorial Stone for the new building.

Inside the copper tube were copies of the Glasgow Herald, Rutherglen Reformer and the church’s monthly magazine, annual reports and history of the congregation – then Rutherglen United Free Church North – and an order of service from the laying of the Memorial Stone on March 30 1912.

Church minister, the Rev Alistair May, said: “I knew it was there because it was in the church history book, although one or two of the congregation didn’t believe me!

“It’s been very poignant – as we move the church forward in a new phase, we have had a message from the people who previously moved it on a phase.

“We first showed the capsule to the congregation on Remembrance Sunday, and we were very aware that some of the folk who put it in the wall probably had their names added to the war memorial plaque on the same wall five or six years later.”

The war memorial plaque has been relocated into the Sanctuary.

The refurbishment was to enable the church to extend its community café, which has been running in its vestibule for the past 10 years. The work, funded mostly by the congregation, was completed on time and on budget in December.

The contents of the capsule were shown to the congregation at a special service celebrating the refurbishment last Sunday (January 12), and displayed at a Thanksgiving reception in the evening.

Comments

There are currently no comments on this post

Add a reply

All fields are required. Email address will not be published.