St. Andrew's Scots Church, sometimes known as the Church of Scotland, is a 19th-century church in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The church was built to the neo-gothic design of Maltese architect

Giuseppe Bonavia Giuseppe Bonavia (1821 – 2 September 1885) was a Maltese draughtsman and architect who was mainly active in the second half of the 19th century. Born in Valletta, he was initially a clerk of works with the Royal Engineers, before becoming the H ...

. It is still an active church today, as a joint congregation of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

, as part of the

Presbytery of Europe The International Presbytery (officially, the Presbytery of International Charges) covers the Church of Scotland's congregations in continental Europe, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. Until 2016 it was called the Presbytery of Europe. In October 2014 ...

, and the British Methodist Church South-East District.

History

Casa Torrensi

The site was previously occupied by Casa Torrensi, built during the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

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 church

The site was bought by Reverend John Keeling in 1824 in order to build the first non-Catholic church in Malta. It is the first Neo-Gothic building on the Maltese islands. 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

. Wiseley was minister of St Andrew's and Presbyterian Chaplain to the Forces in Malta from 1854 to 1914. The current minister is Rev. Beata Thane from Church of Scotland. Previous Ministers were Rev. Kim Hurst from the Methodist Church, Rev. Doug McRoberts, a Church of Scotland minister, who succeeded Methodist Rev David Morris, who in 2002 had followed Rev Colin Westmarland (from 1975 onwards) who had been the first minister not to be a UK military chaplain.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Andrew's Scots Church, Malta 1824 establishments in Malta Religious organizations established in 1824 Church of Scotland churches Methodist church buildings in Europe Buildings and structures in Valletta Presbyterian churches in Europe Gothic Revival church buildings in Malta

History

Casa Torrensi

The church

Further reading

See also

References

External links