Pioneering church marks 200th year

A CITY church which has pioneered a new style of ministry is celebrating its 200th anniversary.

Canonmills Baptist Church has no permanent minister but instead operates a "corporate ministry" where the whole congregation shares in the pastoral and other work of the church.

Worship on Sundays is often led by guest preachers from different denominations, including several former Church of Scotland moderators.

Actor and broadcaster Tom Fleming, who died earlier this year, was leader of the corporate ministry for several years. His father had been minister of the church in the 1920s and 30s.

Amanda Bruce, the church's "care-taker of worship" since 2007, said: "Tom was much loved by all his Canonmills family and was instrumental in bringing about the concept of a form of ministry where every person has an important function in the life of the church.

"He is, of course, hugely missed as a friend and encourager who had remarkable vision, but he has left a wonderful legacy. Tom was very much involved in the planning that has gone into our bicentenary year and we celebrate all he has done by looking forward to the next 200 years."

The Canonmills congregation traces its origins back to 1810, when the Rev Dr William Innes and 17 followers began holding services in Laing's Academy in East Thistle Street.

Rev Innes was the son of the Kirk minister in Gifford, East Lothian, and was educated alongside Sir Walter Scott before training for the Church of Scotland ministry and being appointed to a prestigious church in Stirling.

But he objected to the authoritarian rule of the Kirk and quit in 1799, becoming minister of Tabernacle congregations in Dundee and Edinburgh before finally becoming a baptist.

Miss Bruce, who has written a biography of Rev Innes to mark the anniversary, said: "Innes was a man of vision. To found a congregation as he did in 1810 on the principles of open membership, open communion and the desire for a shared pulpit was rather extraordinary, and he led that small congregation to see that differences of opinion on some matters need not prevent them worshipping together.Indeed, it made for a richer experience and encouraged individuals to think about their own beliefs in a way which perhaps they never had before."

In addition to Miss Bruce's biography, honorary life deacon Hamish Coghill has written a history of the congregation.

It tells how after three years in rented accommodation in East Thistle Street, Rev Innes and his followers moved in 1813 to a new chapel in Elder Street, off York Place, now the site of a multi-storey car park.

In 1858, three years after Rev Innes' death, the congregation moved again, to Dublin Street, where it remained for the next 130 years before moving to its current home in Canonmills, a building where Robert Louis Stevenson went to school.

The 200th anniversary celebrations have included special services, concerts, the inauguration of a Canonmills Lecture and a panel discussion about the future of the church.

They will culminate with a re-dedication service tomorrow at 11am.