Scottish band The Proclaimers famously sang that they would “walk 500 miles” and indeed “walk 500 more”.
But Tim Scoular and his family have moved their lives more than 10,000 miles from Sydney to Scotland – all for the sake of sharing the gospel in Glasgow.
The Australian pastor is leading a new church, called East Glasgow Church, planted by St Silas Church, an Anglican evangelical church in the city’s West End.
“The East End, like the rest of Glasgow, is a fast-moving place,” said Scoular, who moved to the city with his wife Lauren and their two daughters a year ago.
In his early 20s, Scoular lived briefly in Dundee, where he began ministry as a church youth worker before returning to Sydney in 2014. Back on his home turf, Scoular became a youth pastor and completed his ministry training at Moore Theological College. Ten years later, he returned to Scotland as an ordained Anglican minister.
“I had a sense there was a massive need for more churches, for healthier churches,” said Scoular, reflecting on his early years in Scotland. The young pastor had been praying about ministry in Scotland and even told his future wife that life in Scotland “might be on the cards” when they met in 2014.
Meanwhile, St Silas was praying about planting another church in Glasgow. They connected in 2019, and the ball started rolling from there.
“The East End was where there was just disproportionate need,” Scoular said. In an area with 280,000 people, only a few churches were doing expository preaching and less than 0.5% of the region’s population was sitting in one of those churches on Sunday.
Based in Bridgeton, East’s reach includes up-and-coming areas as well as some of the most deprived localities in Scotland. “The gospel need is huge,” Scoular explained.
“Church planting has been something St Silas Church has talked and prayed about for a long time,” said Martin Ayers, Rector of St Silas. “The East of Glasgow is a fascinating area with longstanding communities, but also lots of new residential developments and new people moving into the area.”
“It’s now been a privilege – and a joy, despite the sadness – to send some of the most mature, mission-minded members of our church family to be part of the launch team to pioneer a healthy local church in Bridgeton, and I love Tim’s vision and prayer that through East Glasgow Church we would see all of the east mature in Christ.”
The church, which met for the first time in January, currently meets in the headquarters of Scripture Union Scotland.
