Our Lady of Pochayiv and St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church () is situated on Dalmeny Street,

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. It is one of the few

Ukrainian Greek Catholic The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal '' sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. ...

parish churches in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is a church in the only

Eastern Catholic The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

eparchy in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, the

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London Ukrainian may refer or relate to: * Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe * Ukrainians, an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine * Demographics of Ukraine * Ukrainian culture, composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian peopl ...

. It is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Early history

The site was secured for use as a church by the United Presbyterian Church in March 1879, to serve the rapidly growing population in the new tenements around Leith Walk who were not well served by existing U.P. Churches.Cannon, James F., ''Dalmeny Street United Free Church, Leith: A Retrospect'', p.510, (William Blackwood: 1904) A temporary church hall was built in that year and a congregation established from existing U.P. members in the neighbourhood. It took until June 1881 to secure a minister, George B. Carr from the parish of

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

. The sandstone

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

building was built for the congregation and was opened on 6 October 1882 to a design adapted by Archibald Thomson from an original version by Sloan & Balderston in 1822. At this time, Dalmeny Street was known as Colston Street, after James Colston, Esq., the treasurer of the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh. With the merger of the United Presbyterian and the Free Church of Scotland in 1900, the Church passed to the

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; , ) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), majority of the 19th-cen ...

. The majority of the United Free Church merged with the established

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

in 1929, and Dalmeny Street followed after this. The Church was vacated by 1950, with the congregation merging with nearby

Pilrig Pilrig is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The name probably derives from the long field (rig) on which a peel tower (pil/peel) stood. There is evidence of a peel tower situated on an area of higher ground above the Water of ...

to form Pilrig and Dalmeny, now Pilrig St. Paul's.

As the Ukrainian Church

Ukrainian diaspora The Ukrainian diaspora comprises Ukrainians and their descendants who live outside Ukraine around the world, especially those who maintain some kind of connection to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national ide ...

community arrived in England, Scotland, and Wales after

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. It included former veterans of the SS Division Galicia, but also many other

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

civilian

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s who arrived from

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s in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

as part of the

European Voluntary Workers European Voluntary Workers (EVW) was the collective name given to continental Europeans invited by the British government to work in the UK in the immediate Post-World War II period, to help people who have become homeless during the war and to su ...

labour scheme. In 1950, ''

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'' newspaper reported there were approximately 1,500 Ukrainians living in Scotland, with 7–800 in Edinburgh alone. The first Ukrainian Catholic mission was opened in 1965 by Mitred Priest Mycola Matyczak.The Official Catholic Directory Anno Domini 1992, pp.533-534 The local Ukrainian community "in work and finance, supported the project, to transform the interior of the building into a beautiful Catholic church, with a large

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...

over the main altar." In 1983, in advance of the 1988 celebration of 1,000 years of Catholicism in Ukraine, the Church was refurbished,

Edinburgh Evening News The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by National World, whic ...

, 16 December 1983. including a new wooden belfry and steeple in an Eastern Catholic style and ornamental ironwork on the perimeter which includes the ''tryzub''

Coat of arms of Ukraine The coat of arms of Ukraine is a blue Escutcheon (heraldry), shield with a Gold (color), golden trident. It is colloquially known as the ''tryzub'' (, , ). The small coat of arms was officially adopted on 19 February 1992, while Constitution ...

. The congregation at this time was reported to number 700.

Early history

As the Ukrainian Church

References

Further reading