The Rev. George Gilfillan was a gifted orator, poet, and preacher who won the hearts of the people of Dundee with his tireless devotion to the working class and his belief that people could unite for the purposes of God’s Kingdom despite their theological differences.

(FOLLOWING TEXT ADAPTED FROM THE GMCC CENTENARY PROGRAMME)

George Gilfillan was a true son of the manse—his father was minister at Comrie and his mother was the daughter of a Crieff minister. The eleventh of a family of twelve children, he was only 13 when his father died.

The same year he started his studies in Glasgow and continued studying in Edinburgh, where he was licensed in 1835 at the age of 22. Early in 1836 he was called to the School Wynd charge in Dundee, where he was to continue to serve until his death.

He married Margaret Valentine, the daughter of a farmer and factor in the Mearns. A devoted wife, much loved by the congregation, she was a great influence in controlling Gilfillan’s often impetuous opinions and actions.

Gilfillan was a familiar figure in the streets, tall and spare, his hair streaming behind as he strode along, his stick under his arm. Soon he became a great favourite of the working people.

The breadth of his Christianity attracted many to his preaching who felt no interest in religious sects or theological systems.

Dundee folk liked to get “Muster Gilfillan” or “oor George” to marry them. He had a night of the week set aside for marriage ceremonies at the manse in Paradise Road, which quickly became known as “Paradise.” Sometimes twelve or even twenty couples were married there in the course of an evening and people would gather to watch the couples arriving and departing.

When he spoke on public questions George Gilfillan did so fearlessly. Opposition to the Corn Laws, the anti-slavery campaign, Garibaldi’s fight for the freedom of Italy—these were just a few of the controversies into which he flung himself whole-heartedly and often heatedly.

His ministry was not always peaceful. Although zealous in the cause of liberal and progressive thought, he never approached the church courts with any overture in favour of the reforms he advocated.

He opposed the ultra-sabbatarian views of those who tried to stop Sunday travelling and even Sunday walks. He longed to see Christianity liberated from the bondage of mere tradition, that it might adapt itself to the wants of every nation, of every age.

Twice his writings were on the subject of complaint to the Presbytery. In 1870 he came before the Presbytery on the ground of alleged heresy. But Gilfillan did not defend himself with the zeal expected and the Presbytery took no action. He continued, however, to stimulate reform within a church that adhered to ideas that would now appear inflexible and austere. Everything that made God appear harsh and implacable, he recoiled from as perilous to the Christian faith. It is difficult nowadays to realise how startling some of his utterances seemed to the people a century ago and what boldness was required in the man who dared to make them.

He was in the full tide of his work, preaching, lecturing, and writing in 1878. His interest in theological reform had never been so strong. But on Sunday, August 11, he had preached his last sermon. He took ill and died on a visit to his nephew two days later.

On the 17th of August 1878 fifty thousand people lined the streets of Dundee for George Gilfillan’s funeral. A procession two miles long wound its way to the hilltop grave in Balgay Cemetery. Work stopped in the factories as men and women swarmed into the narrow tenement-lined streets and sought vantage points to await the cortege. Hundreds of carriages carried Members of Parliament, councillors and other notables in frock coats and tall hats. Behind the coaches came the more humble folk of the city, including the members of George Gilfillan’s own congregation in School Wynd.

It was an impressive end to a man who had spent his life in the advancement of an enlightened and progressive Christianity. But it was not only an end, but a beginning, too. For soon his followers were to set up an independent congregation, with his name perpetuated in the Gilfillan Memorial Church. Nearly 150 years later the church in Whitehall Crescent continues to propagate the Christian faith with the broad and tolerant principles of George Gilfillan.