Bible Society

On the way between house and shops to get some food for tea. This is the Scottish Bible Society building in the old Wester Coates Church. It was converted into the Bible Society headquarters in the 1970s. A more suitable use of an old church perhaps than many of the other alternative uses that disused churches are put to. The church started life in the 1860s, a little before our house was built, as an offshoot of Free St Georges on Shandwick Place following the famous 'Disruption' in 1843 that I mentioned in my blip of David Octavius Hill's grave. It was the Roseburn Free Church until 1929 when the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland reunited. The Free Church, or at least most of it, had earlier joined with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900. Those that didn't join the new United Free Church continue as the Free Church to this day, known colloquially as the "Wee Free". The way that groups splinter and re-join is so fascinating, as it happens time and time again with religious and political groups. The scene from Life Of Brian comes to mind. "Splitters!"