Website Website of the Church Status Active Opened 1857 | Country Malta Founded 1824 Phone +356 2141 5465 | |
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Architectural type Gothic Revival architecture Similar Church of St Mary Magdale, Church of St George - Valletta, Church of St James - Valletta, Church of Our Lady of Pilar - Vall, Christ the Redeemer Church | ||
St. Andrew's Scots Church, sometimes known as the Church of Scotland, is a 19th-century church in Valletta, Malta. The church was built to the neo-gothic design of Maltese architect Giuseppe Bonavia. It is still an active church today, as a joint congregation of the Church of Scotland, as part of the Presbytery of Europe, and the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
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History
The site was previously occupied by Casa Torrensi, built during the Order of St. John in the 17th-century, and carried the address number of 60. The site is located in the proximity of the Demandolx townhouses, of which two from three survived the war. The remaining two are today occupied by the Ministry of Finance. The site was bought by Reverend John Keeling in 1824 in order to build the first non-Catholic church in Malta. Initially the church was built for the Methodist community, only to be later acquired by the Church of Scotland and used by the Presbyterian community. Since the turn of the 20th-century it has a mixed congregation that includes presbyterians, methodists, other protestants/reformists and some Catholics. The church was built in 1857 by Reverend Dr. George Wisely. He ministered a small methodist congregation from the year it was built till 1896. It was the first neo-gothic church to be built in Malta, on the designs of Maltese architect Giuseppe Bonavia.
Description
The church buildings are situated in the centre of Valletta at 210 Old Bakery Street. The Sunday service (in English) is held at 10.30am. The building was formerly used solely by the Church of Scotland.
Dr Wiseley was minister of St Andrew's and Presbyterian Chaplain to the Forces in Malta from 1854 to 1914. The current minister is Rev. Kim Hurst from the Methodist Church. Previous Ministers were Rev Doug McRoberts, a Church of Scotland minister, who succeeded Methodist Rev David Morris, who in 2002 had followed Rev Colin Westmarland (minister from 1975 onwards) who was the first minister not to be a UK military chaplain.
The church buildings are also regularly used by a German-speaking Lutheran congregation, the Andreas Gemeinde.