History

St Stephen's and West, Potted History

The Church of St. Stephen is situated on the corner of Westfield Road and Dundee Road and was built in 1871. It was designed by Thomas S. Robertson, Architect, Dundee who was a founding member and the church was opened on the 26th November 1871. An ‘A’ Listed building it is cruciform in design with a four-stage tower and spire, which is situated at the North-East corner of the building. The nave is galleried with moulded gothic arches on round columns with finely sculpted foliate capitals The panelled galleries are supported on cast iron columns. There is a boarded collar braced roof.
The timber pulpit and Communion Table are under the crossing.

The East and West Galleries were added in 1875 and the North Gallery enlarged in 1877.
The chancel and organ chamber were built in 1880 during the time of Reverend James Cooper's time as Minister.
The Vestry was added at the South-East corner in 1874, which subsequently became the 'counting-house' when a new vestry was built in 1957.

The parish was disjoined from Broughty Ferry and Monifieth on 19th July 1875.

On the 8th November 1962 St Stephen's Church merged with Broughty Ferry West Church and became the present St Stephen's and West Church. The Broughty Ferry West Church had been formed out of the union of the Broughty Ferry West UF (United Free) and Broughty Ferry Union UF Church on the 10th May 1925. The Broughty Ferry West Church was originally at the corner of Church Street and Brook Street and was demolished in the 1960's and the Windsor Court Flats erected on the site.

The present Church building has some very fine stained glass windows designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris & Company between 1893 and 1915. The three large Chancel windows are of the 'Stoning of St. Stephen'. Most of the windows were the gift of Mr James J. Watson, Ballinard, a Dundee Spirit Merchant.

More information regarding the windows is included further on in the history of St.Stephens and West.
The first minister of St Stephen's was the Rev James Cooper M.A., The last, at the union of St Stephens with the West UF Church being Rev Ronald Scott Thomson MA.

Ministers of St Stephen's and St Stephen's and West from 1873.

1873 James Cooper                      First minister of Parish.Then to East Parish Aberdeen 1881

1881 James Leask                        From Aberdeen Rosemount .

1919 Douglas William Bruce         From Cadzow then to Buenos Aires 

1926 James Charles Conn            From Elgin

1947 Ronald Scott Thomson         From Huntly, Strathbogie

Union with Broughty Ferry West Church in 1962
First minister for he United charge of St Stephen's and West

1963 Gilbert Stuart Cameron   From Cambeltown Highland Church then to Nassau,Bahamas

1974 John Cameron                 Retired 2009

2009 James A. Roy                   Interim Moderator

2013 to present      Keith Hall

Broughty Ferry West Church

United with St. Stephen's Church in 1962.
The Broughty Ferry West Church which united with the St Stephen's Church was also the product of a union of two churches, that of Broughty Ferry West UF (United Free) Church and Broughty Ferry Union UF (United Free) Church on the 10th May 1925.
The West Church was retained as the place of worship for the united congregation and the Union Church was disposed of, the old building became a grain store and then demolished.

History of the Broughty Ferry Free, West Free, West United Free (UF) and Broughty Ferry UAS (United Associate Secession) Church. Union UP (United Presbyterian) Church united in 1925.

Broughty Ferry Free, West Free, West United Free (UF).

The minister of the 'quoad sacre' church of Broughty Ferry (St Aiden's), David Davidson, came out at the Disruption of 1843 along with many of his congregation. Sadly, Mr. Davidson was terminally ill and signed the protest on his deathbed. According to one unverified account, he was staying in Edinburgh and was able to observe the Disruption protest procession from his sick room. The seceders walked from St. Andrew's Church in George Street, where the General Assembly was meeting, down Hanover Street to Tanfield Hall at Canonmills, where the Free Church was constituted.

His assistant, when taking the last service in the Established Church, invited the congregation to meet for worship on the following Sunday in the Victoria Inn. Until a Church was ready services were held in a hall in Victoria Buildings, Gray Street.

The Foundation stone was laid in September 1843 and the Church in Brook Street was opened in March 1844. At the formal opening of the Church a snowstorm prevented the guest preachers from arriving and Mr. Lyon, the minister, conducted the ceremony. It later became the West Free with the opening of the East Free in 1862. A Manse was erected in 1849. The Church was enlarged in 1856 and again in 1890. The East Free and Monifieth South Free churches were offshoots from this congregation.

Broughty Ferry UAS (United Associate Secession) Church. Union UP (United Presbyterian) Church.

According to the Old Statistical Account, about the year 1792 the Burghers and Antiburghers each started a conventicle in the Monifieth area but they were thinly attended. Prior to the formation of a congregation at Broughty Ferry, secession families worshiped in Dundee, five miles from the village. On the 2nd May 1837, the Rev Matthew Fraser, minister of the Bell Street United Secession Church, reported to the Presbytery of Forfar that in April he had opened a place of worship at Broughty Ferry.
The building in which this group first met was the property of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, and was seated for 300. It stood on the site of what was later the YMCA gymnasium. Robert Haldane had erected it as an independent chapel and the embryo congregation was given the use of it without charge. They styled themselves "The dissenters of Broughty Ferry and Neighbourhood in connection with the United Secession Church". After a trial period they were given some financial assistance and formed into a congregation of the United Secession Church on 16th July 1838.

The first minister called was John Robb who was ordained on 21st May 1839. During his first year it was reported to the Home Mission Board that in summer the church was crowded, perhaps reflecting to the popularity of the village as a holiday venue, and that even in winter the attendance was 'excellent'. However ,there was dissension in the small congregation and, after two years in charge, Mr Robb demitted to 'lessen disunion'. An indiscretion alleged against Mr Robb was that he had attended the Established Church.
Following the induction of Duncan Ogilvie as minister steps were taken to erect a new place of worship in Fort Street. This was a period of expansion in Broughty Ferry. The new Church, seated for 400, was opened on 22nd September 1847. As this was the first church to be opened after the formation of the United Presbyterian Church in that year it was called 'UNION'. With the founding of what became Queen Street UP congregation, and a dispute in 1889 over a proposal to build a Church Hall, the congregation reduced from 328 in 1889 to 228 in 1894.

Broughty Ferry and the new parish of St. Stephen's

In the early 1870's the idea of forming a tramway between Dundee and Broughty Ferry was mooted but due to " burdensome conditions being imposed upon the promoters " the plans were shelved for over thirty years. It was around this time, in the mid-Victorian years of confidence and prosperity, that the need began to be felt for a new parish church for the west end of the Ferry.
A plan for a Victorian Church for the Ferry In 1869 was discussed and a group of wealthy and influential men from the west end of Broughty Ferry decided that the time had come to open a church to serve their area. The Parish Church, now known as St. Aidans, was manifestly too small to cope with the expanding population. The group included two or three merchants, a builder, a well-known East Coast architect, T. S. Robertson, and a forceful little lawyer from Westfield Road, J. P. Kyd. They held a public meeting, had themselves elected as a steering committee, and gained permission from the Presbytery to establish a " chapel of ease " — the technical term in these days for a church extension.

They hired the Public Hall for a year, employed a beadle, bought a Bible, a Psalm Book and a Preaching Gown, and then went out to find a missionary.
After some initial troubles, they managed to obtain the services of the Rev. Robert Scott from Glasgow. At this point they started to refer to themselves, rather prematurely, as the "West Established Church". They were men of considerable action and within six months they acquired the site for a church from the Countess of Home.
Robertson drew up elaborate plans for the new church — which had to be curtailed due to lack of finance. By the summer the tenders were in and work started in the autumn.

In the spring of 1871 Robertson advised them that the masonry work of the modified plans was almost complete, and they would have to decide whether to complete the spire or leave the shell called for in the revision. Money had been specially donated for the spire, so he was allowed to proceed. By autumn gas lighting had been installed, water laid into the building, and the grounds laid out in gardens. The building was ready for use by the winter. It had been a period of frenetic activity and Scott was exhausted. He could not face the prospect of the long negotiations involved in the upgrading of the ecclesiastical unit from a " chapel of ease " to a parish church. He left early in 1873 for the Parish of Craig.

In April 1873 the Rev. James Cooper, the assistant at Elgin, was appointed and the long battle over boundaries began. Finally in the autumn of 1874, the parish of Dundee and the parish of Broughty Ferry allowed the new church an area which included the West Ferry and most of the west end of Broughty Ferry: a district of some 1600 inhabitants. By this time the other major requirement for full status, an endowment, had been secured. This was a capital sum, the interest from which would provide a permanent minimum stipend. In addition to these activities, a vestry had been built, communion plate purchased, and plans drawn up for the two side galleries of the church. An initial petition was sent to the Presbytery of Dundee asking for full status and by the time the ecclesiastical procedures had run their course the galleries had been completed.
Finally on July 14th, 1875, the new parish church of St. Stephen's, Broughty Ferry, was established, and Cooper inducted as the first minister. The church had just over 500 communicant members of whom over one-third were domestic servants — a fact which gives some indication of the social structure of the Ferry. The church was run by two committees: the Kirk Session, made up of the elders, who had control of all ecclesiastical matters, and the Committee of Managers, an elected body who administered the finances and the fabric. The minister was chairman of the Kirk Session but had no position by right on the Committee of Managers. Normally this would be of no significance but during the period of construction it was a potential flash point. It was in fact here that the first signs of stress began to show.

Cooper was a man of tremendous energy and was keen to keep up momentum. From the very earliest days the church had a harmonium. This was rather avant-garde, and permission had to be gained from Presbytery. They had brought the harmonium from the Public Hall and installed it, along with the choir, in a tiny gallery over the entrance lobby at the north end of the church. Cooper proposed a comprehensive package deal in which an apse would be built on the southern end of the church with a pipe organ and organ chamber, and the tiny northern gallery would be enlarged and fitted-up to seat some eighty persons. He offered to finance this project with the proceeds of a huge bazaar which he would organise with the help of A. S. Rae, one of the more active members. The managers offered no objections so the bazaar went ahead realising the colossal sum, for those days, of £1320.

When the money was sent to the Managers they decided to build the north gallery, since the increase in seats would raise the money obtained from " seat-rents " and thus put the church on a sounder financial footing, but they refused to build the apse or the pipe organ. They decided instead to invest the rest of the money. When word reached them of this development, Cooper and Rae wrote to the Committee of Management a letter of considerable candour, whose chief effect was to precipitate the resignation of Kyd and several of his lieutenants. The remaining managers asked Cooper to withdraw the letter and replace it with something less abrasive. The minister's second effort said much the same things in slightly more flowery language. Kyd resigned! Cooper, however, did not have it all his own way. Robertson was still there. Cooper did manage to have Rae brought onto the committee to take over Kyd's former position as Secretary — the real position of power — but found himself forced to compromise over the plans. The pipe organ was acquired but the apse he had set his heart on was blocked by Robertson. The architect claimed that it was not possible to build an apse, that is a semi circular recess with an arched or domed roof. He could only construct a chancel. This was manifest nonsense as Cooper was only too well aware, but he faced a very delicate situation and a mass resignation was clearly on the cards.

Thus Robertson had his way and a chancel was built with all the acoustical problems which were to bedevil music in St. Stephen's for almost a century. A big three manual pipe organ was installed in the chancel and the alterations completed towards the close of 1880. At this stage Robertson and the rest of the dissidents resigned, but Cooper too had had enough. A few months later he left for the East Church in Aberdeen. From there he went into academic life finally becoming Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Glasgow University and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In spite of this his name never recurs on any of the St. Stephen's minutes until his death forty years later when an invitation from the East Church in Aberdeen to join with them in erecting a memorial to him was turned down.
The Vacancy Committee consisted of the men who had been involved in the conflict with Cooper. Kyd, Robertson were in such control that the election of Rae to the committee was blocked, even though he was Secretary to-the Board of Managers. The man they chose was not unnaturally somewhat of a contrast to the abrasive, energetic Cooper. They chose the quiet, retiring, intellectual, James Leask from Rosemount in Aberdeen. One hopes the founding fathers were satisfied with their choice for they certainly had enough time to ponder their decision. Leask was to minister in the parish for the next 37 years.

Within a year the old guard were back and Kyd was once more Secretary to the Committee of Management. Thereafter the building programme came to a halt for well over a decade. It was not till the mid-1890's that the hall was built, though the land had been acquired many years before. From then on, however, many improvements were made to the church, including the introduction of the magnificent stained glass windows. This coincided with the emergence of the second generation of Managers led by the redoubtable trio of Watson, Moncur and Ovenstone. They took over the reins of power after Kyd and Robertson lost out in what was to prove the last major rumpus in the history of St. Stephen's. Trouble had been brewing for years between the Managers and the Kirk Session. It was essentially a demarcation dispute, and the chosen battleground was the subject of church music.

From Cooper's earliest days the church had employed professional singers as well as the organist and choirmaster. Whose responsibility were they? The managers thought that since they paid them, they should have the right to hire and fire at will. The Kirk Session held that since they were part of the worship, they came under the sole jurisdiction of the Kirk Session under the moderatorship of the minister. A long series of less than friendly letters passed between the two bodies in which each delineated the other's powers in a generally unhelpful way. Finally after more than a decade of periodic squabbling it was Kyd who made the fatal tactical error. He taunted the Kirk Session, writing that: " If the Kirk Session want to raise money for the paid singers the Managers would gladly leave the whole matter to the Session." He was way out on a limb and the Session knew it.

The Managers had always rubber-stamped his actions in the past but they would never agree to giving away any control of the church finances. The Session called his bluff and his position became untenable. The Managers dissociated themselves from his remarks and he was forced to resign. The faithful Robertson resigned in sympathy and an epoch in the history of St. Stephen's came to an end.
The first stained glass window was introduced for fairly pragmatic reasons. In summer the sun streaming in through the huge chancel windows had been causing considerable distress to the congregation. Attempts had been made to overcome this problem with perforated zinc shields and later with blinds, both of which must have been truly lovely! In the mid-1890's the Managers finally decided to approach the stained glass firm of Morris and Company to obtain designs from Burne Jones.

They were submitted two designs: "The Crucifixion" and the" Stoning of St. Stephen". After considerable discussion they decided to choose the latter design. A year later J. J. Watson of Ballinard gave the first of his amazing series of contributions to the stained glass of the church. With the exception of the three windows in the east transept, which were given by the sons of J. P. Kyd in memory of their mother, all the windows were given by Watson over a period of twenty years. Even by the standards of that time, it was generosity on a very large scale. It also enabled an outstanding collection to be made of the work of Burne Jones. One is able to trace the maturing talent of one of the ablest stained glass artists of the period.
As the century drew to a close, a feature which had been prominent in the Kirk for centuries was also passing away. The stern, perhaps to our generation, the unacceptable face of Calvinism was epitomised by the autocratic Kirk Session. In the time of Cooper the Session still had considerable power in disciplinary cases involving wayward members. These generally involved the baptism of an illegitimate child. The mother, or the parents if they had subsequently married, were asked to appear before the Session, where they were " seriously admonished " and forbidden to communicate at the ensuing celebration of the Lord's Supper. After this the minister was allowed to baptise the child. As with everything else, Cooper entered into the spirit of the thing with considerable zest. He averaged around half-a-dozen cases a year but hit an all time high in 1877 when he went into double figures.

The outstanding disciplinary event in the history of St. Stephen's took place two years later when Cooper and the Kirk Session in great solemnity pronounced the sentence of "lesser excommunication" on one particularly incalcitrant member. It must have been a splendid occasion, but it was not repeated. Leask, who was a very shy man, was absolutely mortified with the whole business and tried early on to pass the buck to the Presbytery of Dundee. Unfortunately they would have none of it and he was told to get on with it. Thus over the years one reads of Leask occasionally advising the Session that he has baptised an illegitimate child and would like the matter rubber-stamped. But one strongly suspects that he only let them know in cases which had attracted considerable publicity and where he was left with no alternative. Certainly, by the turn of the century they had almost died out altogether.

An unusual exception occurred in the closing years when one of the Managers was found by the local constabulary somewhat the worse for wear. Unfortunately, his apprehension occurred on what is known as a " slow news day," and excited a fair degree of unkind comment. His resignation was demanded by the Session who later decided to take part in a series of Temperance Services. But the presence of J. J. Watson, chairman of one of the biggest wine and spirit merchants in Britain, cast a long shadow over any general enthusiasm for late Victorian " total abstinence " in St. Stephen's.
Little happened to disturb the tranquility of these pre-war years. Leask quietly carried on with his academic and pastoral career. He was an outstanding Greek scholar and in 1903 received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Aberdeen University. Of course external events did from time to time impinge on the life of the church. The Kirk Session felt compelled to send a deputation to complain about the running of tramcars into the Ferry on a Sunday, especially during the hours of worship. During the Suffragette troubles, the Managers had to deal with a letter from a Mrs Malcolm " complaining of the exclusion of female members of the Church from the electoral body in connection with appointments to the Committee of Management." They expressed " considerable sympathy " but felt they were in no position to alter the constitution of the church. The matter was soon overshadowed by the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. The First World War which shook Britain so rudely from her Victorian slumbers proved too much for Leask. He had been coasting quietly home, and the horror of the slaughter and heartbreak of those years was more than he could bear. He struggled on, but in the closing months of the War he finally gave in and retired. He was almost seventy and the years were starting to tell.

ith the departure of Leask we come to the end of the Victorian period of St. Stephen's. Within a few years all these great early figures would be dead. Kyd and Robertson were already away, Cooper and Rae would follow in 1922, and Leask and Watson the year after. They were all men of immense talent but in their personalities seeming already from another age, an age of extremes, of wealth and poverty, of leisure and drudgery, of success and failure. Society was changing and attitudes were no longer static. Gone was the image of the unapproachable minister, austere and slightly feared.

With the coming of the Rev. Douglas Bruce, ex-lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders, the face of the modern church begins to appear. The Modern St. Stephen's The Ministry of Douglas Bruce in the Ferry lasted a short six years but it witnessed a remarkable increase in the vigour of church life. It was especially noticeable in church attendances and the revival of the organisations. In more mundane matters such as fabric his youth and energy were also felt. The acquisition of a manse, mooted forty years before and shelved with so many other things after the departure of Cooper, was finally accomplished. After considering the house at 1 Balgillo Crescent, the Managers finally decided to buy the manse , then called "Linda" in Camperdown Street. In other aspects of church life changes were taking place. The question arose of individual cups being used at Communion instead of the traditional

" Common Cup ". The Kirk Session and Managers were in favour of a changeover but Bruce decided that the question should be put to the congregation and a vote taken. Individual cups were used as an experiment in the Spring Communion of 1924, and those present voted by ballot. The result was desperately close: 171 to 160 in favour with numerous abstentions. This confirmed the suspicions many of the elders and managers held that this new-found democracy should not be encouraged. The matter was dropped for some ten years at which time " individual cups " were quietly acquired and brought into use.

Like so many of his generation who had come back from the trenches, Bruce was restless. In September of 1924 he accepted an invitation from the Colonial Committee of the Kirk " to undertake a journey to Patagonia for the purpose of visiting some of the 18,000 settlers there existing without the benefits of church privileges.". He was given leave of absence of six months but on his return found he could not settle. Within the year he obtained an appointment to the Scots Kirk in Buenos Aires. He never returned to the parish ministry in Scotland.
As on all previous occasions the vacancy committee chose a man of radically different character. After the effervescent Bruce they chose the Rev. J. C. Conn, a shy, grave, academic from Elgin. The great event in the early years of his ministry was the final major union of the churches in Scotland. After the splits and disruptions of the late 18th and early 19th century, the Scottish Presbyterian denominations slowly came together during the early 20th century. The other churches in the land were not involved. The Catholic Church ministered largely to the Irish immigrant population who numbered around 25% of the total inhabitants of Scotland. The other denominations such as the English Anglicans, Methodists, and Congregationalists, or the Anglo-American Baptists and Unitarians, were merely tiny pockets of individuality. By the late 1920's the essentially Scottish congregations were mainly in two denominations: the Established Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland.

In 1929 they came together to form the present-day Church of Scotland. Prior to the Union, there had been two churches serving the West Broughty Ferry area: St. Luke's United Free and St. Stephen's Established. All over the country the two competing local churches either united or else split the parish between them as an interim solution. The latter procedure was adopted in the Ferry, but the two churches held united summer services for a great number of years.
Other changes took place as a result of the Union including a new model of constitution for the parish churches. In the case of St. Stephen’s, it meant that the Board of Managers was replaced by the Congregational Board — a change in name rather than function. There was in addition an upsurge in interest in religious music sparked of by the introduction of the revised edition of the Hymn Book. Drawn from two quite distinct traditions in church music, it was a fine combination of psalms and hymns old and new. The product of a wide musical taste it compared favourably in this respect with the latest edition which was already looking insular and dated. With the coming of the new hymn book, an attempt was made to improve the musical production in St. Stephen's. The acoustics of the chancel were simply dreadful. In this respect we can imagine what it might have been when we listen to the volume of the small organ placed in the apse of St. Luke's.

To try to improve matters an immensely powerful pipe organ was built in the chancel, the communion table moved to the very rear, and choir seats built out onto the altar. To enable this to be done, the pulpit had to be moved well to the right and here a major problem was encountered. St. Stephen's was built in instalments and the galleries were a later addition. It had been a considerable crush to fit them in and it made the siting of the pulpit critical. If it was to be moved as far right as was necessitated by the new plans, it would either have to be raised in height to retain the west gallery, thereby losing the west transept, or lowered with the alternative effect. After much soul searching in 1930 the latter solution was adopted and the whole of the west gallery was lost. It was beyond any question an error of judgement and seriously detracted from the amenity of the building as a place of worship.
The quality of the music was only marginally improved, and a lop-sided church was a high price to pay. But Conn's ministry in the Ferry was a happy and peaceful time. In 1935 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from St. Andrew's University. In the spring of 1939, he was given leave of absence to preach in the Scots Kirk in Nice — an astonishing piece of luck since such an opportunity would not recur for many a weary year. In fact, the only moment of tension in his time came just before the War when the Presbytery of Dundee tried to bring the Kirk Session into line.

It was the tradition in the Church of Scotland that the Kirk Session should organise elder's districts and regular visitation by elders. Cooper had not had time to organise this before he departed and his successors had never quite found an opportune moment to bring the matter up. When the Visitation Committee from the Presbytery of Dundee indicated that this should be done without delay, their instructions were met with a hostile silence. The Kirk Session of St. Stephen's was not in the habit of accepting instructions from anyone, far less the Presbytery of Dundee. They decided to ignore the uncouth outburst, but now the matter had been raised Conn fought hard on the issue and threw the weight of his office behind it. In a stormy Session meeting, however, he found himself isolated, and wisely did not put it to the vote, noting only his " keen disappointment ". A decade later the climate had changed and his successor, a noted diplomatist anyway, quietly steered the matter through. The united summer services took place as usual in 1939.

On the first Sunday back in St. Stephen's Conn announced at the end of the service that war had broken out in Europe. This time the civilian members of the congregation were to be much more seriously involved. Black outs started immediately and the evening service was replaced by an afternoon service at 3 p.m. in the winter months. Later attempts were made to hold evening services with St. Luke's and St. Aidans in the Regal Cinema but the congregation were not keen on moving around in the black-out. A wire mesh was erected over all the lower windows and the large chancel window. The church officer was given a long ladder and his presence requested at the church during air raids. The hall was requisitioned and special services for troops were held in the church conducted by their own padre. A canteen committee was set up and the church thus put onto a war footing.

Things were fairly quiet for the first year or so, however at the beginning of 1941 the hall was occupied by Polish soldiers and immediately started to exhibit strange and unexpected weaknesses. For example the iron gates at the rear of the hall suddenly fell off one night. They were repaired just in time to be torn of officially as part of the war effort, along with the rest of the railings. In fact the hall had a fairly bad war. On January 10th 1943 it was burned to the ground. The army had been using it to house stores and after rumours of pilfering on a scale breath taking even by the standards to which they had become accustomed, an inspection had been ordered for the next day. It was considered an " Act of God ". Whatever doubts Conn and the Kirk Session may have had, nothing is recorded in the minutes.

As the bitter war years dragged on, they had an increasingly damaging effect on Conn. He had always been a shy and sensitive man, and he was by then no longer young. The misery of these years with boys in their parishes being killed and maimed, and families under constant strain and privation, put many ministers under great emotional stress. Towards the end of the war the strain on Conn was starting to tell. In the autumn of 1945 he conducted the last major church business of his career: the question of eligibility of women for the Eldership of the Kirk. The Kirk Session was split up the middle but the congregation voted strongly against: 218 to 61.
In December his health finally broke down. After a long struggle to recover he had finally to admit defeat and resigned in May of the following year. Almost two decades had passed since the great Union and all over Scotland attempts were being made to rationalise the out-reach of the Kirk. The competitive nature of the church building in the 19th century meant that every parish in the land had at least two, and sometimes as many as five, Church of Scotland buildings serving the same area. It was dreadful misuse of funds, tying up men and money, but any attempt to form unions between the former competitors caused intense bitterness in almost every case. In practice it has proved virtually impossible to form unions while both congregations are still strong : it has seemed necessary that one or other of the congregations should be in sore straits, usually financial, before the Kirk has been allowed to rationalise her resources in an area.

Given this state of affairs, union with her old United Free sister church, St. Luke's, was hardly a viable proposition. Yet Broughty Ferry was grossly " over-churched " and the Presbytery was keen that some form of union take place. A union with another old U.F. church, Queen's Street, was mooted but problems over boundaries were found to be insurmountable. Finally Presbytery admitted defeat and in the spring of 1947 St. Stephen's was allowed to call the Rev. Ronald Scott Thomson from the Strathbogie Church in Huntly. Thomson was the most experienced minister to arrive at St. Stephen's, and proved a very wise choice. The long vacancy, the burned-out hall, the church grounds being used as a short-cut by the general public, the whole atmosphere seemed symptomatic of the times. All the war-time dreams were foundering on the harsh reality of post-war Europe.

With great spirit, however, Thomson and the men around him got things moving. The problems encountered in rebuilding the hall alone boggle the imagination, for it was a time when building materials were simply not available. But it was accomplished and in February 1951 the Moderator of the General Assembly opened the hall. The vitality of the congregation was also increasing throughout this period and in 1952 St. Stephen's sent out its first missionary, Miss Isobel Batchelor, who went to be a teacher in a mission station in Kenya. The later 1940's had been an uphill struggle but the '50's witnessed a long run of expansion and success. This can be measured both by the increase in the size of the congregation and the improvements to the life and fabric of the church. In January 1954 the parish magazine was started, in 1955 the beautiful red Pulpit Bible, still used, was given and a year later the railings around the church were restored by an anonymous member of the congregation. Similar nameless generosity provided the silver baptismal bowl and all the carpets for the church. Finally in 1959 a new vestry was completed. As a result of this extension to the church the external east wall of the chancel became an internal wall. On this wall are four stained glass windows depicting Saint Cecilia by Burne - Jones and these are hidden behind the organ pipes. In the early 1960's it was decided to introduce an afternoon communion service which has proved popular over the years with those who feel uncomfortable in the large morning congregation.

Then suddenly, at the very height of his success and popularity, Thomson decided to accept a call from the small country charge of Culter. Having been wounded in the War and with new housing being built extensively in the parish, he felt the time had come to hand over to a younger man. This decision was met with very great regret by the congregation who had hoped he would be with them for the rest of his career. With the departure in the autumn of 1962 of the most universally liked of her ministers, the history of St. Stephen's as a single unit comes to an end. The union with the West Church, which had been Thomson's last wish, took place within a few months. The United Church the West Church dated back to the time of the Disruption in 1843 when over one third of the ministers and members of the Church of Scotland walked out to form the Free Kirk. In Broughty Ferry, the minister and a large part of the congregation left St. Aidans to form the West Church.

In the union of 1962, it was decided to use the St. Stephen's church and manse, though the West Church hall was retained. The two congregations merged with a remarkable lack of rancour, and it has proved one of the happiest of unions. The minister called to lead the united church was the Rev. Gilbert Stuart Cameron of Campbeltown. An Irish trained clergyman, he brought the largest-ever family to the St. Stephen's manse. At his induction he was preached in by his father the Rev. John Cameron. During his time the church had two very notable firsts. In 1966 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had decided that women elders would be permitted to attend the next Assembly as commissioners. Thus, it was in May of 1967 Mrs Janet Hayward of St. Stephen's and West was the first lady commissioner in the history of the Kirk. She shared this honour with two other ladies.

1969 the present communion table and chairs were placed when the platform was extended. The other outstanding event occurred in the summer of 1972 when the Rev. Stewart Lamont was the first minister to be specifically ordained into religious broadcasting. He had come up through the Sunday School, Bible Class and Youth Club of St. Stephen's and had been licensed in the church the year before. During his period of training, he was ably supported by Gilbert Cameron. His ordination marked a turning point in the attitude of the Kirk towards broadcasting. Before then it had generally been viewed as a scapegoat for such things as the eventual demise of evening services, which came to an end in St. Stephen's, as in so many other churches, during the '60's. His ordination marked the acceptance by the Kirk of the vital importance of this medium of communication.

There were several alterations to the church during this period, the most important of which concerned the organ. It was decided in 1969 to dispense with the big three manual Hillsden pipe organ and to buy an electric organ. This decision created the biggest controversy since the days of Cooper but discussion was cut short when a firm order was placed because of fears of rising prices. Thus the organ and the choir returned to the back gallery in much the same atmosphere as they had descended all these years before. But time is a great healer. The congregation were soon distracted by the arrival from the USA of the Rev. Bill Plonk. On exchange with G.S. Cameron for four months, the mercurial Virginian packed the church through the summer of 1972. In the autumn Gilbert Cameron and family returned but the western sun had entered his soul. A little over a year later, early in 1974 ,he was journeying back across the Atlantic to the charge of minister of St.Andrews Kirk in Nassau, Bahamas a post he held for 7 years.
His successor Dr. John Urquhart Cameron, not related, came in 1974 from Glasgow where he had been assistant minister in Wellington. Thus St. Stephen's ended her first one hundred years as she had started it, with a minister in his first charge.

Not long after coming to St. Stephens and West the church celebrated its centenary in 1975. At the centenary dinner were the two previous ministers Rev.G.S.Cameron and also the Rev.R.S Thomson along with Rev.Dr.John Cameron and Rev. Stewart Lamont.
The retirement of the Rev.Dr.John Cameron in 2009 opened the door for further discussions regarding the union of churches in Broughty Ferry, a matter that was always on the table for discussion when churches became vacant. After discussion with Presbytery the appointment of the Rev. Jim Roy as Interim Moderator was made and services continued at St.Stephens and West under his stewardship and guidance for the next 4 years.
During this period discussions were held with St. Marys church in Dundee regarding a linked charge with both churches sharing the services of the present minister the Rev.Keith F.Hall. Although in 2012 the preference of Presbytery was for St.Stephens and West to be part of the union of churches in Broughty Ferry the linked charge was seen as the best solution to the continuation of the ministry at St.Stephens and West and meeting the needs of the congregation.

This resulted in the linkage being formally approved and a service of linkage with St. Marys was held on the 27th.June 2013. This linkage is still in place, works extremely well and will hopefully continue for a number of years.
A notable incident at the church occurred on the 27th.May 2010 when the church spire was hit by a direct lightning strike. The buildings spire took the full force of the strike and the structure was all but destroyed with roof tiles, timber and masonry raining to earth. The spire was rebuilt and continues to be an important landmark for Broughty Ferry.
In 2022 the church also recognised 50 years of service by Alec Perry our organist whose first service was Easter Sunday 1972. During that period the tradition of excellent music at St. Stephens and West has been maintained and continues under Alec’s direction.

The stained glass windows at St Stephens and West

Designed by Sir Edward Burne Jones and made by William Morris and Company between 1893 and 1915. They were gifted to the Church by Mr. J. J. Watson, Ballinard, who was a Dundee Spirit Merchant.
We always knew that our church windows were something special - and now no less a person than Nic Peters, a leading expert on the work of Edward Burne-Jones, has singled out St Stephen's & West as housing the largest collection of stained-glass masterpieces by this Victorian artist and designer.

Alerted by a colleague in Dundee, Nic, an art historian based in Antwerp, made the journey to Broughty Ferry in March 2017 where he was given a tour of our art treasures by Session Clerk Ron McPherson and Roll-Keeper Alan Justice. Nic spent almost two hours studying and photographing the windows, and the results are contained in an article that was written for the magazine of the William Morris Society.
He details an astonishing 45 windows, the lion's share by Burne-Jones, with the remainder attributed to artists associated with Morris stained glass.
A few years ago the Tate Britain museum held a major exhibition of Burne-Jones’ work, featuring 150 examples from across his four- decade career, including oil paintings, embroidery and tapestries as well as stained glass. Look around you next time you are in the kirk - you’re viewing world class works of art.

The designs of the windows in the church were all by Sir Edward Burne Jones and were reproduced in stained glass by the Morris Company of Merlon Abbey in Surrey, which was founded by William Morris, a lifelong friend of the artist. It is a unique collection which spans over twenty years of their most productive period of collaboration. One is thereby enabled to trace the development of their art. The subjects chosen embody very fully the teaching of the Scriptures from the Fall of Man to the Atonement on the Cross and beyond.

The Church being dedicated to the protomartyr, St. Stephen, the principal windows are devoted to a design illustrating his martyrdom. Note should also be taken of the windows in the North Gallery opposite. Acquired at the height of the Suffragette troubles when Scottish churches were targets for female arsonists and unrest was already brewing in the congregation, the window was filled with representations of illustrious women of the Bible. If it was an attempt at amelioration it failed for the Committee of Management had later to deal with a demand for equal voting rights for women in congregational matters.

The principal window in the chancel was donated by "a few gentlemen connected with the church" in the summer of 1893. Three years later the sons of J. P. Kyd gave three windows in the east transept in memory of their mother. Apart from that, the remaining windows were financed by J. J. Watson of Ballinard. They are :—

 1894 The windows of the east aisle

1895 The windows of the west aisle

1902 The windows on either side of the pulpit

 1906 Three windows in the west transept

1912 The windows in the north gallery

1914 The windows in the side galleries and the openings from the roof lights

1915 The remaining windows in the transepts completed.

The History of St Stephens Church 1875-1975 (PDF Booklet)