Congregants of Trinity Church Aberdeen are hoping to be using their newly restored church building by the end of this year.
Five and a half years after purchasing Queen Street Church, a redundant Church of Scotland building in Aberdeen’s city centre, the ambitious renovation project is in its third and final phase.
The church bought the building, which dates back to 1904 and is the largest Church of Scotland building in Aberdeen, in September 2018.
Although it had fallen into disuse, Trinity, which had been looking for a permanent home for several years, saw an opportunity.
“The sheer size of the building had so much potential,” said Trinity Minister, David Gibson, also noting the “tremendous need” in an area of the city where Queen Street Church sits.
Sinclair Ferguson, who is a preaching associate at Trinity Church, described unused church buildings as a “living parable” of what has happened to the Church in Scotland.
“It has fallen into decay. It’s like a ruined castle,” he said. “It is in desperate need of resurrection to take place.”
Ferguson described Trinity, however, as a bright light. “I am very, very hopeful because they have their eyes set on the resurrection of an old building that will serve the gospel well in Aberdeen and be a real lighthouse throughout the country,” he said.
But the renovation project hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. The interruption of the Covid-19 pandemic means the project has taken twice as long and has been twice as costly as originally anticipated.
