Origins of Industrial Mission in Scotland
Written in the 1990s, this chapter from 'Thank God it's Monday' by Donald Ross, a former National Organiser for SCIM (now known as Work Place Chaplaincy SCOTLAND - wpcSCOTLAND), gives some history of how our work came about.
THE current economic scene in Scotland in the last decade of the twentieth century, and the attempt of the Church to relate to it, bears little resemblance to the context in which Industrial Mission began in the early years of the Second World War.
At that time the Church of Scotland, through the work of its Home Board, was already attempting to minister to the needs of workers in specific situations. Forestry units from Newfoundland had arrived to undertake urgent work in Speyside, Perthshire and the South, and the Committee reported on the need for an active ministry among them. Church Sisters were appointed as supervisors in the Forestry Units, where girls were employed. They organised their leisure activities and tried to make up for the loss of family life. The Home Board in 1942, as a result of this work, was asked to appoint a Church Sister to act as a chaplain in a factory where a large number of girls were employed.
Work among fisherfolk had started before the War and visitation continued in fishing towns and villages around the coasts. Contact was maintained with girls in their own homes and with the families of men on War service. The Home Board, early in the War, in its reports to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, recognised that practically every man and woman not eligible for enlistment in His Majesty's forces, was working long hours, often at very hard work, and often seven days a week. Many who would worship regularly could not do so. 'It is,' said the report, 'the duty of the Church to go to the people if the people are not able to go to the Church ... The Church much seek to serve the spiritual needs of those who work in industry.'
The concern of the Home Board was very much to do with the decline of church-going, diminished interest in religion, loss of members, anti-church feeling and suspicion of organised religion. Though there was in industry a splendid nucleus of faithful Christians, for many the reality of God and the meaning of Christ in the world was missing. It was in its report to the 1942 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that its Home Board first recognised the need and the opportunity to undertake ministry and mission in industry. If any date therefore could be selected as the formal birth of industrial mission, this was it.
The Home Board reported that one of its members, the Revd William Bodin, had been appointed and set apart to organise the approach of the Church to men and women in industry. This was not a full-time appointment but he was appointed 'to promote and develop the work of relating the Church to industry and to arrange industrial chaplaincies'. He negotiated with companies, persuaded ministers to act as chaplains and built strong links with all kinds of industries and trade union organisations. This opened a period which continued for many years. During that period, the Church of Scotland's General Assembly heard of increasing numbers of chaplains appointed to firms throughout Scotland. By 1946, there were 230 local industrial chaplains and two years later the General Assembly learned that there were 25 industrial concerns 'awaiting the appointment of chaplains'.
In 1942 one minister, Ian Fraser, who had finished his studies at New College, Edinburgh, believed that he was being called to do something about the gap between industry and the Church. He was appointed by the Home Board as an industrial chaplain. He was already a member of the lona Community and took a job as a labourer in a paper-mill where he was recognised by the Church and the company as a 'labourer-pastor'. This preceded the later worker-priest movement in France or the start of industrial mission in Sheffield, where industrial mission began in England.
Ian Fraser, then and since, pressed the need for the Church no longer to think of industry as a foreign field. He was paid during this experiment by the Home Board. The fact that the stipend for a probationer at that time was the same as a labourer, helped him to identify with the other labourers. This experiment continued for two years, but although it had been a success it was not immediately followed up. Throughout Ian Fraser's later ministries in parishes, Scottish Churches' House and the World Council of Churches, he continued to explore outreach.
George Wilkie was another pioneer. When he finished his studies at New College, he worked for several years at the Canongate in Edinburgh as Organiser of the Young Christian Workers' League. George MacLeod (the founder of the lona Community) had seen the need for a youth organisation which would assist young people to make sense of life, not only in their leisure time but also in their work. While the organisation was based in Edinburgh, there were branches in other parts of the country including Glasgow, Greenock, Fife and Dumfries. George Wilkie's task was to develop and to expand the organisation.
Towards the end of his appointment George, who was a member of the Iona Community, discussed with a fellow member, the Revd Harry Whitley, the possibility of working directly within the shipyards of the lower reaches of the Clyde. Harry Whitley was already a part-time chaplain, and he arranged with Sir William Lithgow and the local shop stewards, for George to work as a minister within the industry. After being appointed by the Presbytery of Greenock, he began by meeting people at all levels. Soon he had established regular programmes of meetings and conferences for managers, trade unionists and Christians in industry, to discuss the nature of faith and work. This experiment lasted for some three years and George's own credibility and sincerity made that area a fertile place for later developments in industrial mission.
In 1946 the Home Board reported to the General Assembly its belief that 'the time is not far distant when the Church will require to consider seriously the advisability of setting apart ministers for this work [industrial mission] alone'. By 1947 ministers who had served as chaplains in the forces returned to their parishes and welcomed the concept of 'The Industrial Chaplaincies Scheme', as it was called, as presenting an opportunity to get closer to the life of their people and making for a more effective Christian ministry.
In 1948 the Home Board, having thanked William Bodin for the considerable success he had achieved as part-time Organiser, appointed William Maclntyre as full-time Organiser of industrial chaplaincies. His task was to consolidate the Industrial Chaplaincy Scheme and also to develop the church's work in an additional area, namely with the thousands of men involved in construction work for the hydro-electric industry who were mostly living in work camps. He, with others, drew up a clearer formulation of the aims and methods of industrial chaplains, and published a new quarterly magazine for people in industry called The Bridgehead.
In 1953 a new organisation was launched for laymen in industry. A national
conference was held under the auspices of the Home Board and 1400 people
from all grades and sectors o£ industry met in the Assembly Hall, Edinburgh.
It was unanimously resolved to form the Scottish Christian Industrial Order
(SCIO). The intention was to inaugurate branches in congregations and in
workplaces. It aimed 'to advance the knowledge and understanding of the
Christian faith and its practice; to further the best human relations in
industry on the basis of that faith; and to further the application of its
principles throughout industrial life and society'.
Quite soon there were 44 church branches. Work-based groups, however, proved
more difficult to establish. In spite of the original enthusiasm, the whole
venture lasted only a few years. Some believed it would have had a better
chance if adequate support staff had been appointed. A further reason was
that Christians then, as now, found it very difficult to link faith and
work.
To this day there are people who believe the Church lost a good opportunity in not pursuing SCIO. One man especially, Dr Willie Robertson, who acted as the voluntary secretary of SCIO, speaks of those who, like himself, 'clung to the rigging' for a while. He was a professional engineer, one of the instigators of the Scottish Council Development and Industry and later its Director and Executive Vice President. He was also a life-time supporter and helpful critic of industrial mission and, indeed, progenitor of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland.
In the early 60s, there was much talk of 'the bulge' of young people leaving school at 15 years of age and making the transition to work. This became a concern for the ecumenical Church and Industry Committee which has oversight of industrial mission in Scotland. It produced a number of publications for apprentices and other young people and for those engaged in industrial training. A further range of publications of this period dealt with Modern Man and Industrial Relations, The Christian in Industry and The Church Member and the Trade Unions,
In 1961 the Home Board agreed to the appointment of a full-time industrial chaplain to work in the shipyards in Port Glasgow and Greenock. The ideal man for the job was Cameron Wallace. He was then minister at Thornlie Church, Wishaw and already a part-time industrial chaplain. He underwent a training course given at that time to industrial executives and then spent long hours with the thousands of men in the immense shipyard industry on the lower reaches of the Clyde. The local presbytery wisely decided to establish a Church and Industry Committee to guide the work: the first such, at presbytery level, in the Church of Scotland.
In October 1962 Willie Maclntyre - after 13 years as Organiser - was inducted to the parish of Tighnabruich. In December George Wilkie, who was now parish minister at St Martin's, Port Glasgow, was appointed to succeed him. Industrial mission, as we have already noted, was in George's blood, having already worked as Organiser of the Christian Workers' League and as a minister in industry, before spending twelve years in the church extension charge of St Martin's.
George quickly devised an appropriate strategy for industrial mission using a selected areas policy. He marked out six industrial areas within which the church should engage in its mission with people at work. Groups, mining courses, conferences for young managers, conferences on over-time and church-based conferences soon developed. During these years there was a steady development from individual pastoral work by chaplains, to the wider work covered by the term 'industrial mission'. Industrial mission was defined as:
The approach of the whole Church in any area to the industrial community within the bounds. It is the building of a relationship between Church and industry through which the truths and insights of the Christian faith may be brought to industry and to the people within it. It is a two-way process in which the Church by being more aware of the fact of industrial life may be pressed to discover the richness of its message to many people in industrial society.
By 1965 the need for full-time chaplains in others of the key selected
areas - including North Lanarkshire, Dundee, Falkirk/Grangemouth, and the
Glasgow conurbation - was recognised. A year later Sandy Ryrie was appointed
by the Home Board and inducted by the Presbytery of Hamilton as industrial
chaplain in North Lanarkshire with specific reference to the vast steel
industry. He began by working as a labourer for four weeks, going through
the shifts and gaining some personal impressions of working conditions.
Soon he had developed a programme of discussion groups. It was also at this
period that the Churches' Industrial Council was formed. Leading industrialists,
trade unionists, academics and others met several times a year to give guidance
to the Church's work in industry. The Council continued with considerable
value and success for some twenty years. In 1967 I was appointed by the
Home Board and inducted by the Presbytery of Glasgow as the full-time Industrial
Chaplain in the Glasgow area.