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After the Order
by Margaret Duggan
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ST VINCENT’S, in New Town, Edinburgh, has a strange history. Built 150 years ago by a curate, the Revd Richard Hibbs, because he had fallen out with his vicar, it was originally founded as an English Episcopal Chapel — Evangelical, and independent of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It then became the private property of the Historiographer Royal, who persuaded the congregation to join the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1882, and the church flourished until after the Second World War, when the numbers declined. In 1971, the church was bought by Lt. Col. Gayre, Baron of Lochore, a leading member of the Order of St Lazarus, who set up the Commandry of Lochore, of which he was the principal official. (The Order was founded during the Crusades, mainly to care for lepers. Its more recent history seems to consist of squabbles between Malta, France, Spain, and Col. Gayre.) |
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| St Vincent’s was transformed into a heraldic chapel, decorated with shields, flags, and banners. The present minister, Canon Rodney Grant (above, left), says the effect is “like having the Christmas decorations left up long after Christmas”. When Col. Gayre died, and his son, who disliked the Order, inherited the church, the Order left. Canon Grant was given charge of the surviving congregation in 1988, and it now numbers about 70 members. The Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Revd Brian Smith, came to celebrate the church’s 150th anniversary, and both clergy wore the set of vestments, with fiddleback chasuble, made for the 50th anniversary of Canon Grant’s ordination (above). Canon Grant is now 81, and is worrying about a successor. “I love this job, but I can’t go on for ever.” |
