The resurrection of St Patrick�s church

THE banner of St Patrick's church, Anderston, bears an image of the saint ankle-deep in shamrocks. Over the decades, it has toured the world's great Christian pilgrimage sites and been held proudly aloft by people from Glasgow who believe in miracles. On this afternoon of Sunday, August 12, in a humble room in a run-down scheme, it hangs over the scene of another wonder - a religious community coming back from the dead.

A low, narrow, flat-roofed hall, The Hut forms part of a grey housing association complex. It is not easy to find, hidden behind a school, but above the roar of Argyle Street traffic it is just possible to detect the sound of singing. Inside, a congregation of around 80 are raising their voices in the hymn Hail Redeemer, accompanied by a portable Yamaha keyboard.

The Hut has been temporarily transformed into a church - St Pat's by proxy. The banner is pinned to one wall and a table draped in a white cloth serves as an altar from which Canon Robert Hill, the new parish priest, dispenses Holy Communion. The mood of this makeshift mass is palpably joyful. The congregation, a mix of older people and young families, joke and laugh afterwards, some of the men ducking outside for a cigarette. One exhales smoke with a chuckle and points out a very small man: "Ye wouldnae believe Mick here was six-foot-two before he jumped in the water at Lourdes." This kind of banter is rooted in relief. They know that this is the last time they will be here.

The next service will be held in St Patrick's itself, a five-minute walk away. It will be the first time that most parishioners have entered the church since it closed, abruptly, at the end of last September, when the body of 23-year-old Polish student Angelika Kluk was discovered beneath its floorboards.

In May, Peter Tobin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Tobin had arrived at St Patrick's the previous year, a homeless man drawn by the relief offered by the Loaves And Fishes charity which operated from the church. To hide a previous conviction for a violent sexual attack, he had used the name Pat McLaughlin and won the trust of the then priest Father Gerry Nugent, who gave him a key and put him to work as an odd-job man.

Nugent operated an open-door policy within the church, giving shelter to anyone in need, be they homeless, destitute, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or otherwise troubled. This lack of discrimination is regarded as having made the church vulnerable; like a voracious virus, Tobin identified and exploited weakness in his host.

During the trial, Father Nugent claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Kluk, who lived in a room of the chapel house. He also admitted to being an alcoholic. In February, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, asked for Father Nugent's resignation.

"The murder hit people really hard," says Eddie Hart, a regular at St Patrick's for all his 65 years. "Angelika was a girl everybody knew. You thought this couldn't happen in your community. Then the trial, with everything that came out, was traumatic. People felt badly let down."

St Patrick's will reopen formally next Sunday when Archbishop Conti presides over a mass. Before then there will be low-key services designed to help parishioners get used to being in the church and reflect on the events of the past year. The evening service this Wednesday will be built around prayers for the dead. The Archdiocese of Glasgow hope that Aneta Kluk, the murdered student's sister, will attend.

"Angelika's going to be the first person mentioned, so our first act will be to pray for her and her family," says Canon Hill. "Also, many local families feel one of the sadnesses of the past year is that relatives who died could not be buried from the church which was so much part of their lives. So it's a specific focus for Angelika but it's also for all those whose lives have come to an end in the past year."

Hill, a genial silver-haired 52-year-old, is obviously very intelligent but not wintry with it; he even makes a pretty good joke about how terrible nuns are at flitting. Appointed as the new priest in late May, he has since held four services in The Hut. They are a way of getting to know his parishioners and keeping them informed of the progress towards reopening.

Speaking to the congregation after Communion, he says: "With these evening prayers, the idea is to be very low-key. We want to keep the mood sombre. At the big mass on August 26, though, we want the place to be covered with flowers, and candles will be lit. By the time we get to the Gloria we're hoping to get the bells working again so everybody will get the message we're back in business."

This is what the people have been waiting to hear. Luisa Campbell, 43, a parishioner for three years, says: "It has been very strange while St Patrick's has been closed. It felt like everybody disappeared overnight and you never saw people from the parish. It was lonely and isolating, not knowing what's going on. During the investigation they couldn't tell us much."