Who are we?
A Short History
Anderson Church on Stonefield Road (Manse behind)
'Disruption' & Free Kirk
The Disruption and Anderson Free Church
The 19th century saw many tensions
within the Church of Scotland. Much of these tensions were concerned with
the 'call' of a minister to a charge (church): should it be the land owner
or the congregation itself. This came to a head in 1843 when about one
third of the ministers left it and formed the ‘Free Church of
Scotland’. The minister of Blantyre at the time was the Rev. James
Anderson and he broke away with many of his people and formed a branch of
the Free Church in the town. A church was built at once simply called
‘Blantyre Free Church’. In 1846, the church was burned down. Their new
church was built in 1872 on Stonefield Road. It was built of light grey
sandstone in shape of the cross (as seen from photo). In 1900 it became
‘Blantyre United Free Church’. In 1929, it went into the union to
reform the Church of Scotland and was renamed ‘Anderson Church of
Scotland’, after its first minister, Rev. James Anderson. A hall was
built next to it in 1939.