I meant to post this nice snippet in December. On Christmas Eve 1908, a large gathering of local people attended the midnight service at St Joseph’s Church on Glasgow Road, Blantyre. Not so unremarkable in itself, as that service was usually always well attended. However, whilst the service was frequented by many of Blantyre’s Roman Catholics, what made headlines that year was the fact that so many of the other folk attending were also Protestants.
Christmas Eve continued the trend in those early years of the 1900’s, which also saw many of Blantyre’s non Catholic community attend the Christmas Service, to be closer to God and to marvel at the beautiful decor of what was then, a relatively new church. The beautiful service which brought so many people together from different faiths was conducted by the Rev Dr Hackett who took time to acknowledge that the spirit of Christmas and community had indeed, crossed divides and brought so many people together.
St Joseph’s is pictured in this era.
Gosh Paul, that would have been a real turn around. thanks for posting, I happened to go onto St Josephs website and was able for the first time to see inside the gorgeous sanctuary and hear a service! that was awesome I loved hearing our Scottish lilt in service to God.