Mayfield Parish Church

Mayfield Church was established in 1875 as a Free Church congregation in the developing suburbs of Newington to serve the rapid movement of the population to this area. The congregation met in a classroom at Clare Hall School before securing the present site on Mayfield Road/West Mayfield.

When the church opened in 1879, it was neither embellished with stained-glass windows nor adorned with its famous spire; there was no electricity, and the church was lit by gas. It was not until the second ministry in the 1880s that attention turned to fully completing the church after the building debt had been cleared. Generous gifts from wealthy members were forthcoming, and the structure was soon completed with the spire, clock, and bell from Mr. Johnston Stewart in 1895. The organ, a two-manual H.S. Vincent instrument with twenty-three speaking stops, was the gift of Mr. Harry W. Smith, who defrayed the £1,000 purchase. The organ wassited in the apse, with an off-set console beneath the pulpit, and proved a fashionable addition to the church in 1895.

The services of the precentor were retained after the installation of the pipe organ; Mr. William Geoghegan, who had led praise since the inception of the congregation in 1875 and received a salary of £40, subsequently raised to £52, became engaged as Choir Master. When he retired in 1910, either by coincidence or perhaps by the saving of his salary, the organ was rebuilt that year, with one additional stop, by Arthur E. Catlin.

There were other gifts that soon followed the organ, such as the installation of stained-glass windows in the apse in 1900, but it was thereafter determined that the position of the organ in the apse detracted from the inherent beauty of the building; however, the organ would remain in the apse until the 1930s, when the fourth minister, Mr. J.K. Thomson, promoted a renovation of the church. He suggested that the organ be resited to provide an uninterrupted view of the apse and its stained-glass windows. The organ was rebuilt and moved by Arthur E. Ingram to a specially constructed chamber in the south transept in 1932. Ingram also provided a new console, which was sited beneath the Stuart Memorial, and thereby allowed the apse to be fully revealed. The focal point of the church had changed from one of proclamation and grandeur to that of peace and mediation.

In 1959, the nearby Fountainhall Road Parish Church closed: its congregation had never regained its former strength after losing the hinterland of its parish to the Reid Memorial Church, and the congregation duly amalgamated with Mayfield. As a profound act of this union, the best parts of the 1897 Eustace Ingram organ of Fountainhall Road Parish Church were dismantled and incorporated with the Mayfield organ to create a Choir (or third manual) in 1962. By all accounts, this work by Henry Hilsdon produced a fine instrument, and the Mayfield organ, now with thirty-four speaking stops over three manuals, greatly enhanced worship. Fountainhall Road Parish Church was demolished in 1975 to make way for the Newington Library.

Regrettably, the Hilsdon rebuild only gave ten years of service as a fire inflicted considerable destruction to the roof of Mayfield Parish Church in 1969. The actual fabric of the building escaped without serious damage, but many of the fine internal features, including the organ console, were inevitably lost.

The newly-refurbished church with Rushworth & Dreaper Organ (1970)

However, this meant some improvements could be secured as part of the reconstruction stratagem. One such considered improvement was the moving of the organ to the rear gallery. By doing this, not only could the transepts be opened up, but a prominent position in the gallery would better reveal the qualities of the organ, flooding the nave with sound rather than speaking across the congregation into the north transept. The organ was once again rebuilt and moved, this time by Rushworth & Dreaper, in 1970. Another new console was provided and placed in the gallery. With choir members also re-located to this celestial position, an angelic effect of music and singing floating over the congregation was achieved whilst maintaining the apse as the focal point of the building; nevertheless, the gallery proved less popular with choir members, who felt divorced from proceedings, being able to neither see nor be seen.

Despite these good intentions, by 1994, the organ required a substantial overhaul. It was determined unwise to spend significant sums of money due to its quality and technical shortcomings: the work in the 1970s had left the organ underpowered and its appearance was not considered becoming of Mayfield Parish Church. The organ of the recently-closed Salisbury Parish Church was available, but the united Session decided against moving the Salisbury organ: although robust in design, and having survived in a largely unaltered state, its parts were all towards the end of their life, and considerable renewal would have been necessary.

In its place, a three-manual Allen electronic organ was installed in the south transept in 1996. This left the organ of Salisbury Parish Church at the fate of its new owner, who chose to scrap it. By the end of 1996, both organs had been broken up, albeit for different reasons and by different people.

Two mutation ranks from the Mayfield organ endure at Corstorphine St. Anne’s Parish Church, having been added there by Ronald L. Smith in 1997.

After the removal of the pipe organ from Mayfield Parish Church, the gallery was restored to a spectator balcony, and both organist and choir returned to the front of the building. The choir is now happier to be back in the action.

Rushworth & Dreaper Organ Specification
Mayfield Parish Church (1979)

Pedal:
Resultant Bass - 32
Open Diapason -16
Violone - 16
Bourdon -16
Lieblich Bourdon - 16
Octave - 8
Bass Flute - 8
Trombone - 16

Choir:
Lieblich Bourdon - 16
Hohl Flute - 8
Dulciana - 8
Viol d’Orchestre - 8
Lieblich Flute - 4
Piccolo - 2
Clarinet - 8
Tremulant

Great:
Lieblich Bourdon - 16
Open Diapason - 16
Large Open Diapason - 8
Small Open Diapason - 8
Clarabella - 8
Harmonic Flute - 4
Principal - 4
Twelfth - 2
Fifteenth - 2
Trumpet - 8

Swell:
Violin Diapason - 8
Lieblich Gedact - 8
Viole de Gamba - 8
Voix Celeste - 8
Salicet - 4
Mixture - III
Double Horn - 16
Horn - 8
Oboe - 8
Tremulant

Couplers:
Swell to Great
Swell to Choir
Swell Octave to Great
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Swell Octave
Swell Suboctave to Great
Swell Suboctave
Choir to Great
Choir to Pedal
Choir Octave
Choir Suboctave
Swell Octave to Pedal


Accessories:
4 thumb pistons to Great
4 thumb pistons to Swell
3 thumb pistons to Choir
Thumb pistons for Sw-Pd, Gt-Pd, Sw-Gt
4 composition pedals to Pedal
4 additional composition pedals
Gt-Pd toe piston

Details:
Console type: Detached
Action: Electro-Pneumatic
Blower: Electric
Compass: 61/30

Written by:
Calum N. Gubby Organist, Liberton Kirk, February 2018

With the assistance of:
Alan Buchan, Curator, Scottish Historic Organs Trust
David Stewart, Author, Organs in Edinburgh

George McDougall, Former Member, Salisbury Parish Church
William Mearns, Church Manager, Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church

THE MAYFIELD SALISBURY WINDOWS
'Thy Story in Glass'

Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church is blessed with a very fine collection of stained glass windows. This beautifully illustrated book written by Dr Elizabeth Cumming, with a foreword by Mark Bambrough and design by Alan Victor, is now available. Copies can be obtained from the Church Office, price £5.00.

Photographs of many of the windows can be viewed in the Gallery on this website.

The Revd Dr John Ross (1842 – 1915) was born on 6th July 1842 on a farm in the parish of Chapelhill, Nigg in Easter Ross. The son of a tailor, he studied at the United Presbyterian Divinity Hall in Edinburgh 1865 – 1869. He was licensed in 1870. Though attracted to the Gaelic ministry, he accepted the call of the UP Church’s Foreign Mission Committee to serve in Manchuria. At the time of decision, a friend said to him, ‘Better to be a spark in China than a flame in the Highlands.’ Ross took the advice of his friend. Portree Parish Church, Isle of Skye, was his last parish in the Highlands.

Ross’s work involved itinerancy and the training of an indigenous evangelistic and pastoral ministry. Significantly, he held that Christian teaching did not conflict with Confucian (his first school provided free teaching, using only Chinese classics), asserted the existence of a monotheistic strand in ancient Chinese religion, denied that Chinese ancestral rites were idolatrous (while insisting that adjudication on traditional customs was the local church’s province) and believed Buddhist ascetics to be the most earnest seekers and, when converted, the most dynamic evangelists. Ross commented, ‘The role of the missionary was not to change customs but to renew the heart.’

In 1874, he saw the possibilities of Christian mission in the closed neighbouring land of Korea. Persuading Korean visitors to Manchuria to be his first teachers, he worked at the language, produced a primer in 1877 and a grammar in 1882. He directed the first Korean translation of the New Testament. Not permitted to travel into Korea himself, a Korean friend and Korean traders carried the Scriptures over the border. Ross chose to translate the Bible into the language of the common people rather than Chinese, which was the language of the educated and upper classes. It has been argued that Ross’s ‘decision to use only the language of the common people was the most important event in the entire history of the Korean Church.’ Produced at a time when no standard Korean grammar was available, the Ross translation ‘seems to have formed the basis of a new vernacular literature.’ Ross himself noted that, ‘the translation goes to the women of that country, and to the lowliest and illiterate poor, to speak to them plainly, in the language which all understand and employ in daily life, of the wondrous love of Him who is Saviour of the world.’

John Ross retired in 1910. He came to Edinburgh and became an Elder in Mayfield United Free Church (now Mayfield Salisbury). In addition to his translation of Scripture, Ross also wrote on East Asian history and culture: Chinese Foreign Policy (1877), History of Corea (1879), The Manchus (1880), The Boxers of Manchuria (1901), Mission Methods in Manchuria (1903), The Original Religion of China (1909) and the posthumous Origin of the Chinese People (1916). He received the DD from Glasgow University in 1894. Ross died in 1915 and is buried in Newington Cemetery. A plaque in his honour was unveiled in 2006 at this church. The service of dedication was attended by staff and students of New College, including several Korean postgraduates and their families.

South Korea has a population of 40 million and a Christian Church numbering over 12 million members. The dramatic growth of the Korean churches over the past one hundred years is directly linked to the spread of the Scriptures in the language of the people. John Ross was not permitted to enter Korea yet over 12 million Korean Christians know his name.

The John Ross Scholarship Fund provides a bursary for a Korean candidate undertaking postgraduate studies at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

Rethinking Mission March 2008 - John Ross and Bible Women in the early Protestant Mission of Northern Korea and Eastern China by Christine Sungjin Chang.

Directions to the Grave

If you want to find the grave of Revd Dr John Ross at Newington Cemetery, Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh. Directions from Mayfield Salisbury Church. Head east on West Mayfield towards Minto Street, cross the traffic light controlled junction to East Mayfield and carry on to the next traffic light controlled junction with Dalkeith Road. (0.3miles). Turn right and travel southeast for (0.2miles) and just past the junction of Prestonfield Avenue the gates to Newington Cemetery are found on the right (west side of Dalkeith Road). Once in the gates of the cemetery turn to the path on your left and follow this path for about 290 paces in a south easterly direction. At this point you will be opposite the dwelling number 295 Dalkeith Road (on the other side of the cemetery wall) Turn at right angles to the path and take approximately 20 paces (not on the path) to the south west. The gravestone will be facing the path you come to.

A map to guide you to his grave may be find here - files/JohnRossGraveLocationPlan.pdf

VISITING EDINBURGH?

In English

Are you Korean? Are you hoping to travel to the UK and visit Edinburgh? If you are and you are planning to seek out Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church where Revd Dr John Ross worshipped and was an elder, or visit his grave in Newington Cemetery, we hope you will contact us and tell us who you are and when you expect to be here. We would very much like to meet you, welcome you to one of our services, invite you to join us afterwards for fellowship, and talk with you about Dr Ross. Please therefore, before you come, email the Church Manager, William Mearns - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In Korean

당신은 한국인입니까? 당신은 영국에 와서 에든버러를 방문하기를 원하십니까? 만약 당신이 존 로스 목사님께서 예배를 드리시고 또한 그 곳에서 장로로 섬기셨던 Mayfield Salisbury Parish 교회 혹은 Newington 묘지를 한번 보시고 싶으시다면 우리들에게 연락을 주셔서 당신이 누구이고 언제 이 곳을 방문하시기를 원하시는가를 알려주기를 바랍니다. 우리는 당신을 만나기를 기대하고 우리가 드리는 예배와 예배 후에 있을 교제의 시간에 초대하여 존 로스 목사님에 대해 이야기를 나누고 싶습니다. 이에 당신이 이 곳에 오시기 전에 먼저 William Mearns목사(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).=

The Very Revd WILLIAM J. G. McDONALD MA BD DD
MODERATOR 1989

By the Revd Ralph C. M. Smith MA STM Edinburgh

The Moderator disapproves of this Year Book! Not at all that he is a judgemental sort of person. But he hates the fact that it prints the statistics of congregational income and membership; because these can encourage false assumptions about the nature of church ‘success’. Of course his own congregation, Mayfield in Edinburgh where he has ministered for thirty years, is revealed as being quite exceptionally ‘successful’ in these terms; and his innate modesty would eschew any suggestion that the credit for this should go to him.

The visitor to Mayfield is struck by several things, if he came early enough to find a seat.: the crowds of children and young people; the relaxed and warm welcome from office-bearers; and, as he returns over the weeks, he notes the conduct of worship is always fresh, often unexpected, yet always right and ungimmicky; and that the congregation is made up of folk of many different theological persuasions. The latter are held together because worship embodies the centralities without being needlessly divisive.

Such leadership comes, of course, from the top – from the man of rare fluency, perception and wit, allied to a self-effacing sensitivity to the needs of those around him. It is remarkable that Bill McDonald should have succeeded as Moderator the man whom he succeeded at Mayfield, James Whyte. (James had left for a University chair, Bill might have done the same.) Remarkably again, Bill had followed James Whyte as dux of Daniel Stewart’s College, his Edinburgh school. Later he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, and served in south-east Asia, obtaining there an understanding of Islam. On returning to Edinburgh he took a first in classics, followed by a BD with distinction, with post-graduate study with Jeremias in Germany.

Bill married Patricia Watson in 1952, a lady as lively and full of fun as himself. They have three of a family – Sheena, Roderick and Alison.

Bill shared his family’s enthusiasm for theatre and music. His preaching is an embodiment of the arts: an attempt not to explain the mysteries but to deepen them with a true sense of the numinous. His horizons are as wide as his taste in music – from Bruckner to Beiderbecke. And fresh air invigorates his relaxation – hill-walking and cycling around the parish (a practice developed long before it was ecologically fashionable, as witness the age of his bike!).

Bill has an effective ministry on radio also, thanks to a lively, informed mind, an arresting lightness of touch, and a generous spirituality.

Bill has served the Church in its big Committees and the Assembly Council. Now he takes very seriously the privilege and responsibility of representing the Church nationally and internationally. Afterwards he will return happily to the midst of the life and people of his parish.

Bill McDonald died on December 9, 2015. His Memorial Service, A Celebration of LIfe, took place at Mayfield Salisbury on January 8, 2016.