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Maxwell Mearns Castle Parish Church is
a modern progressive church with an evangelical outlook. Our
roots go back to 1884 when the original Maxwell Church was
founded, it was located in Pollok Street on the
south side of Glasgow and in 1970 it had to be closed to
make way for the Kingston Bridge, part of the M8 motorway
crossing the river Clyde.
The congregation were
"transported" to Newton Mearns where, for a few months, they
held services in the local Kirkhill Primary School until a
suitable location was found for the new Church.
After much
searching, Mearns Castle (built in 1449 AD) was restored to
be used as a church.
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Services in the Castle began in June 1970 under the
leadership of the Rev William Arbuckle. A nucleus of members
from the old Maxwell were joined by a growing number of
local people and soon the available seats were all filled by
adults with children on laps. The church hall was a modified site-hut in the unsurfaced,
muddy car park. There we held Sunday Schools, Castle Groups,
Ceilidhs, parties and sales. Sometimes it was very cold but
the fellowship was warm.
Each week we surveyed the progress "over the cliff" as the
new church and halls block took shape, but the Castle had a
special atmosphere and wonderful acoustics. It is a pity we
were unable to maintain the Castle to be used occasionally.
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Following the retirement of Rev W. Arbuckle, we were joined
in 1984 by Rev. Sandy Roger as minister. Sandy was minister
until 1993 when he left to become Prison Chaplain for
Scotland. Shortly afterwards we were joined by our current
minister Rev. David Cameron.
Maxwell Mearns Castle members are actively involved in
Christian activities including Prison Ministry, Scripture
Union, Spring Harvest, Summer Missions, missionary work and
Bible translation.
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