Last Christmas for Glasgow minister as he prepares to say farewell

True to form Rev Galbraith says neither his last Christmas or last ever service on January 29 to mark Holocaust Memorial Day is about him, but the people who come to church and their needs.

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After more than 35 years in the ministry, Mr Galbraith has made a difference to the lives of his parishioners, the church’s ethos and as founder of Glasgow the Caring City charity has helped to build teams ready to respond to crises all over the world and right here at home.

Rev Neil Galbraith, minister of Cathcart Old Parish Church in Glasgow will retire from the ministry in February. Photograph by Colin Mearns.

“My last service will be on January 29 to mark Holocaust Memorial Day,” he said. “It’s a service I introduced here about 10 years ago when although we were doing a lot of interfaith work, there was a gap and it was right that we recognised that with the special service. With reports we hear today with antisemitism, I think it is still particularly relevant.

“It is important to me that it is my last service and as with the Christmas Day service, there are always issues which are bigger than me. People have asked if I wanted a celebration service, but for me there is always a bigger need. People come to church for comfort and for their needs.”

This year has been particularly tough for the Galbraith family as in April they lost their shining light. Mr Galbraith’s wife Margaret, known as Mags, died after a short illness. It was her intuition and inspiration that led both her husband and later the charity in certain directions.

As he packs up the south side manse and prepares to make way for his successor, Mr Galbraith recalled what finally led him into the ministry.

Ross Galbraith, operations director of Glasgow the Caring City, has recently returned from Poland

“It was 1980 and I had been made redundant from my job,” he added. “Mags and I were living in Greenock with you two young boys Ryan and Ross. I had always had an interest in the ministry and it was Mags who said you need to do something. I made the call to the Church of Scotland education department. It led to me enrolling at James Watt College to get the higher exams I needed to study theology at university.”

Mr Galbraith got a place at St Andrew’s University and travelled there every Monday morning.

“I remember trying to creep out of the house about 5am on a Monday to go back to St Andrew’s, but our youngest would hear me and would be saying ‘Daddy don’t leave.’ I remember it being tough, but I was able to transfer from second year and completed my degree closer to home at Glasgow University.”

He was ordained in 1986 and as a family they travelled to his first parish in Blawarthill, which Mr Galbraith describes as the greatest apprenticeship.

“We spent almost 10 years there. It was a wonderful congregation, but you learned a lot and quickly. You learned about what people needed and it wasn’t always from the ministry but practical help in even paying bills,” he added.

“I remember my last Christmas there and it was the late First Minister Donald Dewar who said to me that’s you finished here. I asked what he meant. He said that I couldn’t take the parish any further for them or myself. And he was right the following May, 1996, I started at Cathcart Old.”

Glasgow the Caring City has been helping Ukraine refugees for the past 10 months

It was through his role on the social responsibility committee for the presbytery of Glasgow that led to an opportunity, initially through Glasgow City Council, to work with Kosovan refugees who came to the city in the late 1990s. However, Mr Galbraith became more and more involved and began to realise that the aid response to the humanitarian crisis was required out there.

And so Glasgow the Caring City Charity was founded in 1999. As well as responding to those displaced in the Balkan crisis, they responded to an Iranian earthquake and to 9/11. This year the charity responded to help those fleeing Ukraine with operations manager Ross Galbraith having just returned from Poland.

“We didn’t do things the way other charities did but when 9/11 happened we got in touch with the New York police and fire departments directly to offer help,” Mr Galbraith added. “We never for a minute thought they would get back to us, but they did and said they needed counselling and social work assistance. It was Mags along with police officer Joanne Lancaster who were on a plane to Newark within 24 hours.

“They fed back to us that with 3000 lives lost there was at least 4000 kids affected and that’s how the New York Children's Project started. For five years we hosted children and their families. We became Glasgow’s aid agency and for the church there became a social responsibility ethos.”

Glasgow the Caring City has been helping Ukraine refugees for the past 10 months

During the past few years there has been the unprecedented challenge of steering the parish through Covid and Mr Galbraith presided over more than 100 funeral services including some which due to restrictions were just a mother and son being able to say goodbye.

He recognised that people would need to remember those lost to the pandemic and it is how he became involved in The Herald’s Covid Memorial campaign to create a place to remember. It led to a memorial in Pollok Country Park opening earlier this year.

“When I think back to that time, it was hard it was to tell people they could only have 10 people at a funeral and then it was raised to 30, yet people still needed the opportunity to grieve and heal. That’s why the memorial project was important,” he added.

One of the final duties which fell to Mr Galbraith came last weekend and was a very personal one for him. He baptised his two youngest grandchildren in Cathcart Old – an emotional moment for the family. And as he waves goodbye to his parish, Mr Galbraith will still have a busy schedule.

“I still have my chaplaincy role with Police Scotland and there will be more I can do with the charity although it has been in very safe hands of late. There will always be something to respond to.”