St Andrew's Cathedral (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

: Cathair-eaglais Naomh Anndra), or the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, is a

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

of the

Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church (; ) is a Christian denomination in Scotland. Scotland's third largest church, the Scottish Episcopal Church has 303 local congregations. It is also an Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, ecclesiastical provi ...

situated in the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

city of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. It is the see of the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, who is the

Ordinary Ordinary or The Ordinary often refer to: Music * ''Ordinary'' (EP) (2015), by South Korean group Beast * ''Ordinary'' (album) (2011), by Every Little Thing * "Ordinary" (Alex Warren song) (2025) * "Ordinary" (Two Door Cinema Club song) (2016 ...

of the

Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney The Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney is one of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Created in 1865, the diocese covers the historic county of Aberdeenshire, and the Orkney and Shetland island groups. It shares with the Roman Ca ...

. It is a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

History

The church opened in 1817 as ''St Andrew's Chapel'' and was raised to cathedral status in 1914. The original building was designed in the

perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

style by architect

Archibald Simpson Archibald Simpson (4 May 1790 – 23 March 1847) was a Scottish architect, who along with his rival John Smith, is regarded as having fashioned the character of Aberdeen as "The Granite City".Simpson, William Douglas, (1947) ''The Archibald ...

, one of Simpson's many commissions in the city. While three sides of the cathedral were built out of the local

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, for which Aberdeen is famous, the facade of the structure, facing King Street, Aberdeen, was built from

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

for economical reasons despite Simpson's opposition. The cathedral comprised nave and flanking aisles with sandstone ashlar to the King Street elevation and snecked granite rubble to the rear. The chancel was added by

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...

, 1880 and the porch by

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, Order of the British Empire, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scotland, Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, f ...

in 1911. Aberdeen is where the first bishop of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

Samuel Seabury Samuel Seabury (November 30, 1729February 25, 1796) was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He was a leading Loyalis ...

was ordained in 1784. Seabury was consecrated bishop by

Robert Kilgour Robert Kilgour (1714–1790) was a Scottish clergyman who served in the Scottish Episcopal Church as Bishop of Aberdeen from 1768 to 1786 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1782 to 1788. He was an outspoken supporter of the Jacobi ...

Bishop of Aberdeen The Bishop of Aberdeen (originally Bishop of Mortlach, in Latin Murthlacum) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Aberdeen, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics, whose first recorded bishop is an early 12th-century cleric named Nech ...

and

Primus of Scotland Primus (Latin, 'first') may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Primus (DC Comics), a character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics * Primus (Marvel Comics), a character appearing in comic books published by M ...

;

Arthur Petrie Arthur Petrie (died 19 April 1787) was the 37th bishop of the Diocese of Ross and Moray of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was one of the three bishops to consecrate Samuel Seabury, an American Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relati ...

, Bishop of Ross and Moray; and

John Skinner John Skinner may refer to: Politicians * John Skinner (MP for Maldon), 1391–1393, MP for Maldon 1391 and 1393 * John Skinner (fl.1395-99), MP for Reigate 1395, 1397 and 1399 * John Skinner (fl.1414-20), MP for Reigate 1414, 1415 and 1420 *John Sk ...

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Aberdeen. The consecration took place in "an upper room" of the house of Skinner, then leader of the St Andrew's congregation, approximately 500 metres from the present cathedral. The approximate site of the house is marked by a polished granite tablet on the wall of

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has been the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. The building was constructed for and is on long-term lease fr ...

. During the 1930s, the cathedral was renovated to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Seabury's consecration. There had been a plan to build an elaborate, cruciform cathedral with central tower, commemorating Bishop Seabury's consecration on the site currently occupied by

Aberdeen City Council Aberdeen City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Aberdeen City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Aberdeen was formerly governed by a municipal corporation, corporat ...

's headquarters. This was to have been a gift of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, however, the Wall Street crash halted this plan. Instead, the existing church was enlarged and embellished by

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect, one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishm ...

. In 1938, the US ambassador Joseph Kennedy, accompanied by his 21-year-old son

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

, opened an extension. Comper's decorative scheme is largely intact; it includes a vaulted ceiling with decorative panels depicting the arms of the then 48 US states and local families. The chancel has a large gold-painted

baldachino A baldachin, or baldaquin (from ), is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in c ...

and carved oak screen. Until the late 1970s and early 1980s, the cathedral was

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

in tradition. In 1982, the cathedral provost, Donald Howard, declared in a sermon the cathedral would remove the large crucifix and four of the six candles on the high altar for Lent so that the altar could be free-standing to permit a 'westward' celebration of the Eucharist, celebrant facing the congregation rather than back to the people. Worship has since become more "broad" in nature, whilst retaining the dignity of cathedral worship.

Temporary closure

In April 2020, church officials said that financial difficulties could mean that the cathedral might not re-open after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2020, Bishop

Anne Dyer Anne Catherine Dyer (born February 1957) is a British Anglican bishop, and previously an academic administrator. In 2018, she became Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Subject to a report process, with a recommenda ...

and the Cathedral Trustees and Chapter announced that the cathedral would close temporarily from September 2020, because of problems with the fabric of the building. The congregation continued to gather for worship online. The cathedral reopened for worship on Sunday, 5 December 2021, with an inaugural service of Advent Carols. The congregation continues to gather for worship on Sundays at 10.45am and on Thursdays at 10am.

List of provosts

* Andrew Jaffray * James Milne * 1735–1774:

William Smith William, Willie, Will, Bill, or Billy Smith may refer to: Academics * William Smith (Master of Clare College, Cambridge) (1556–1615), English academic * William Smith (antiquary) (c. 1653–1735), English antiquary and historian of University C ...

* William Skinner * Stephen Allen * John Ryde * Thomas Suther * Henry Ley Greaves * 1882–1909: Myers Danson * 1910–1912:

William Perry William Perry may refer to: Business * William H. Perry (businessman) (1832–1906), American businessman and entrepreneur * William Perry (Queensland businessman) (1835–1891), businessman and politician in Queensland, Australia Politics an ...

* 1914–1932:

Henry Erskine Hill Henry Erskine Hill (10 March 1864 – 22 April 1939) was an Anglican priest and author. Erskine was born on 10 March 1864, educated at the University of Edinburgh; and ordained in 1888. After curacies in Edinburgh and Glasgow he was Rector of ...

* 1932–1955:

Gordon Kinnell Gordon Jack Kinnell Associateship of King's College, AKC (2 May 1892 – 18 November 1971) was an Anglican priest, most notably Provost (religion), Provost of St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen from 1932 until 1955. Kinnell was born in Ipswich, Suf ...

* 1955–1965:

Paddy Shannon William Patrick Shannon (9 December 1909 – 1995) was an Anglican priest, most notably Provost of St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen from 1955 until 1965. Shannon was born in Glasgow in 1909, educated at the University of Glasgow and Edinburg ...

* 1965–1978: Arthur Hodgkinson * 1978–1991: Donald Howard * 1991–2002: David Wightman * 2003–2015: Richard Kilgour * 2015–present: Isaac Poobalan

Organ and organists

The cathedral, which has a splendid acoustic, houses one of the finest three manual pipe organs in Scotland. The organ by Bruce of Edinburgh (1818) was rebuilt and enlarged by

Hill, Norman & Beard William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Limited (commonly known as Hill, Norman and Beard) were a major pipe organ manufacturer originally based in Norfolk. History They were founded in 1916 by the merger of Norman and Beard and William Hill & Son ...

. The cathedral has been served by a number of distinguished organists and masters of the choristers including: *George Trash *John Cullen *Richard Galloway *Frederick ("Bill") Fea *David McGinnigle *Geoffrey Pearce 1978 – 1983 (afterwards organist of

Bridlington Priory Priory Church of St Mary, Bridlington, , commonly known as Bridlington Priory Church is a parish church in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in the Diocese of York. It is on the site of an Augustinians, Augustinian priory founded i ...

) and Selby Abbey *Professor Andrew Morrisson 1983 – 2020 *Christopher Cromar 2020–2021

Cathedral canons

*Revd Canon Captain Gerry Bowyer *Revd Canon Neil Brice *Revd Canon Vittoria Hancock *Revd Canon Jeremy Paisey *Revd Canon John Walker

References

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