Kirk of the Canongate - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Kirk of the Canongate, or Canongate Kirk, serves the Parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

of Canongate

Canongate

The Canongate is a small district at the heart of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland.The name derives from the main street running through the area: called Canongate without the definite article, "the". Canongate forms the lower, eastern half of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's historic Old Town....

in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

's Old Town

Old Town, Edinburgh

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is the medieval part of the city. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings....

, in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

. The parish includes the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

. It is also the parish church of Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

, even though the castle is detached from the rest of the parish. The wedding of Zara Phillips

Zara Phillips

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, MBE is the second child and only daughter of Princess Anne and her first husband Captain Mark Phillips and is 13th in the line of succession to the throne...

, the Queen's granddaughter, and Mike Tindall

Mike Tindall

Michael James Tindall, MBE is an English rugby player who plays outside centre for Gloucester Rugby and has captained the England team...

, took place at the church on 30 July 2011.

Canongate

The Canongate was a separate burgh

Burgh

A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...

before it was formally absorbed by Edinburgh

Edinburgh

in 1856. By the late 1970s, the lower part of the Royal Mile

Royal Mile

The Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...

, including the Canongate, had become unfashionable and run down. The local population was declining. The Kirk was threatened with closure, which was successfully resisted by the minister and congregation. Since then, circumstances have changed radically - notably with the construction of new flats in the vicinity as well as the new Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

building.

The building and kirkyard

The church was founded in 1688 and completed in 1691. The master mason in charge was James Smith

James Smith (architect)

James Smith was a Scottish architect, who pioneered the Palladian style in Scotland. He was described by Colen Campbell, in his Vitruvius Britannicus , as "the most experienced architect of that kingdom".-Biography:...

. A plaque on the front of the church bears witness to it having been built through a large bequest from a local merchant.
Previously the residents of the Canongate had used the Abbey Church

Holyrood Abbey

Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded...

adjacent to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, but King James VII

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

ordered the construction of the new Kirk of the Canongate, allowing the Abbey Church to be converted into a Chapel for the Order of the Thistle

Order of the Thistle

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order...

. (The current Thistle Chapel is attached to St Giles' Cathedral).

Architecturally, the Kirk has a Dutch-style end gable and a curious, small doric-columned portico over the entrance. Although outwardly rectangular, the Kirk's interior has a cruciform layout (highly unusual for a post-Reformation, pre-Victorian Church of Scotland building). The Kirk's interior was extensively remodelled in 1882, with the inclusion of a pipe organ and a central pulpit. These unsympathetic alterations were removed in the early 1950s, along with the galleries. The resulting reordering considerably increased the levels of light; the original dignified simplicity of the Kirk was able to be appreciated once more. The Kirk was further restored in 1991 by the Stewart Todd partnership, followed by the installation of a new Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

-built Frobenius

Frobenius Orgelbyggeri

-History:Frobenius Orgelbyggeri was founded in Copenhagen by Theodor Frobenius in 1909. The firm moved to Lyngby in 1925. Theodor's sons Walther and Erik joined the company in 1944, at the same time that they began to build organs in the classical tradition, with mechanical actions and slider...

pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

in 1998, in memory of the late Very Rev Dr Ronald Selby Wright. This was the 1000th organ to be built by the Frobenius company.

Following the Disruption of 1843

Disruption of 1843

The Disruption of 1843 was a schism within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland...

, a Holyrood Free Church congregation was formed. A church was built in front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, but the building was closed in 1915 (when that congregation united with Abbeyhill United Free Church, becoming Holyrood Abbey Church

Holyrood Abbey Church

Holyrood Abbey Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is based in a late-Victorian church building on London Road, Abbeyhill, around north of Holyrood Abbey...

, located in London Road.) The former Holyrood Free Church building was reopened as The Queen's Gallery
Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh
The Queen's Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It forms part of the Palace of Holyroodhouse complex. It was opened in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II, and exhibits works from the Royal Collection...

in 2003, to house exhibitions from the Royal Collection

Royal Collection

The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...

.
The Canongate Churchyard

Canongate Churchyard

The Canongate Kirkyard stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. The churchyard was used for burials from the late 1680s until the mid 20th century....

is the resting place of several Edinburgh notables including the economist Adam Smith

Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...

, the philosopher and Smith's biographer Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and mathematician. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh .-Life and works:...

, Agnes Maclehose (the "Clarinda" of Robert Burns), David Rizzio

David Rizzio

Davide Rizzio, sometimes written as Davide Riccio or Davide Rizzo , was an Italian courtier, born close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts de San Paolo et Solbrito, who rose to become the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots...

, the murdered private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the poet Robert Fergusson

Robert Fergusson

Robert Fergusson was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson followed an essentially bohemian life course in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and cultural ferment as part of the Scottish enlightenment...

, whose statue in bronze by David Annand stands outside the kirk gate. Bishop James Ramsay

James Ramsay (bishop)

James Ramsay , bishop of Dunblane, bishop of Ross, was son of Robert Ramsay . The latter was successively minister of Dundonald , of Blackfriars or College Church, Glasgow , and of the High Church , Glasgow ; was dean of the faculty of Glasgow University 1646 and 1650–1, rector in 1648, and...

is also buried here.

Current work

The Kirk is in regular use for Sunday services, as well as for concerts. The Kirk is extensively used as a venue for music during the annual Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

, as is the Kirk's nearby hall - the "Harry Younger Hall" (which is known as "Venue 13" for the duration of the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Venue 13 is run jointly by the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire within the University of Glamorgan Group located in Cardiff, Wales....

and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama). The Kirk was previously the regimental chapel of The Royal Scots

The Royal Scots

The Royal Scots , once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest, and therefore most senior, infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of Scotland...

Regiment of the British Army and is now the regimental chapel of The Royal Regiment of Scotland

The Royal Regiment of Scotland

The Royal Regiment of Scotland is the senior and only Scottish line infantry regiment of the British Army Infantry. It consists of five regular and two territorial battalions, each formerly an individual regiment...

Ministry

Canongate Kirk has been served by several well-known former ministers, two having also served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

The Moderator of the General Assembly of Church of Scotland is a Minister, Elder or Deacon of the Church of Scotland chosen to "moderate" the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every May....

. Thomas Wilkie was twice Moderator - in 1701 and 1704. The Very Reverend Dr Ronald Selby Wright

Ronald Selby Wright

Ronald William Vernon Selby Wright CVO TD JP FRSE FSAScot was a Church of Scotland minister....

, known as the "Radio Padre" for his famous wartime broadcasts, was minister from 1937 until 1977 and served as Moderator in 1972. Whilst Dr Selby Wright was away on wartime service as an Army Chaplain, the Revd George MacLeod

George MacLeod

George Fielden MacLeod, Baron MacLeod of Fuinary, MC was a Scottish soldier and clergyman; he was one of the best known, most influential and unconventional Church of Scotland ministers of the 20th century. He was the founder of the Iona Community.-Early life:He was born in Glasgow in 1895...

(later the Very Revd Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, founder of the Iona Community

Iona Community

The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by the Rev George MacLeod, is an ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions in the Christian church....

and Moderator in 1957) served as locum. Dr Selby Wright was succeeded as minister by the Reverend Charles Robertson LVO MA, who retired in 2005.

The current minister (since 22 June 2006) is the Reverend Neil N. Gardner MA BD (who was previously minister at Alyth

Alyth

Alyth is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, situated under the Hill of Alyth five miles northeast of Blairgowrie. The village has a population of 2,301...

and an Army Chaplain in the Black Watch

Black Watch

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....

Regiment).

External links

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Canongate

The building and kirkyard

Current work

Ministry

See also

External links