• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
St Mary's Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney

St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Carden Place, Aberdeen

Pro-Cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney

  • Home
  • Worship
    • Services
    • Lunchtime Fellowship
  • About Us
    • People
    • Cathedral Church
    • History
    • Fundraising
  • Church Life
    • Get Involved
    • Groups
    • Sunday School
    • Youth Fellowship
  • Music
    • The Organs in St Mary’s
    • Choir in St Mary’s
  • What’s On
    • Social & Fundraising Calendar
    • Booking the church hall
    • Poem Competition 2021
    • Photograph Competition 2021
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • St Mary’s Magazine – Easter 2022
  • Contact
    • Email us

The Early Years

St Mary’s was founded by the Rev. Frederick George Lee, who was previously Rector of St John’s, Crown Terrace, Aberdeen, in 1863. He and his churchwardens at St John’s had a dispute which was based on Lee’s High Church affiliations, and Lee left, taking a large proportion of the poorer part of the congregation with him.

He set up a chapel, already dedicated to St. Mary, in an old Baptist church in Correction Wynd, and the congregation worshipped there until Lee bought land in the newly laid out Carden Place to build the present church.

He designed the church himself, helped by the architect Archibald Elliot, and opened it as a proprietary chapel on 30th March, 1864.


St Marys - 1864
St Marys Interior


Lee bankrupted himself with building work, and Bishop Thomas Suther, who had clashed with other High Church clergy, refused to consecrate the new church until the debt was cleared and Lee toned down the High Church decoration. Lee left for London, where he eventually converted to Roman Catholicism.

Trustees were appointed and Thomas Dove Dove was selected by the congregation as their next incumbent, and though he was never sanctioned by the Bishop, he did manage to persuade Bishop Suther to licence, but not to consecrate, the building on 3rd December 1865.

A series of incumbents followed, some High Church, some more moderate, often afflicted with ill health brought on by the Aberdeen weather, and the debt remained, sometimes worse, sometimes better. J.M. Danson in particular applied himself to clearing it, but moved away before his task was complete.


NEXT

St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Carden Place, Aberdeen AB10 1UN
Rector: Rev Canon Terry Taggart   |   Email: office@stmaryscardenplace.org.uk   |   Tel: 01224 561383

St Mary's Episcopal Church is a registered Charity in Scotland: Charity No SC014062   |   Copyright © 2022

  • Rotas