Page 8 TARRED AND FEATHERED 26 YEARS AGO, NOW: -——Edinburgh Evening. News. Friday, nent 27, 1962 Grening Mews Mormons Plan to An Independent Newspaper — il i FRIDAY, April 27, 1962 ‘THE uild Morton: “Chomkh t in ‘Soaflandl: —their missionaries were tarred and feathered in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, in 1926—are making plans for a big drive in the city. The Mormons— correct name, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—are- seeking three or four sites in the Capital on which to * build new chapels, with extensions: to follow. 2 The Mormon campaigns in Scotland undoubtedly constitute:a tremendous challenge to the orthodox Christian Churches. Plans are. going ahead to build 24 care ls: during the next 18 months. ‘including Fife. : She. Seotland, Borders, and the West. Three big churches will: go up in Glasgow and Paisley at a cost of £155,000, and the funds, which are already available, have been. subscribed mostly by Mormons ° |, = ‘’. ca ea dent of the “Edinburgh a Mepmons. The Churches: outside Scotland. © According to Mr Bernard Brockbank, president of the Mormons’ - Seottish-Irish Mission, there are ‘57 Mormon congregations in Scotland,.with a membership of 8000. _ Tarred By. Seudieans. in Picardy number over x No. 2 Hillside Crescent : entrance to Edinburgh’s sole church. Mormon . of from Place. missionaries In America were 1926 who Men and a came set upon by students, and_ tarred and feathered. I learned of their eis from Mr Alexander Clark, Montgomery Street, Edinburgh. the 3i-year-old president SOEs. Eve Edinburgh branch, An architect, Myr Clark is a convert from the Church of Scotland, and has been. a member of the Mormon Churchfor the past four years. Matters _ By ‘ KIRKER’ “Our rapidly , There has been aq Mormon Church in Edinburgh since the early part of this: century at least, and the original mission hall was : the Church has grown here,’ he told me, progress overwhelmed become more we have us. made We stabilised hope in -very “and has to the next few years. “We are not particularly. con-— cerned with numbers, nor are we interested in what church our converts come from, if any. We take our faith to everyone.” Mr Clark said that the Edinburgh branch have extended so rapidly that there are now seven branches —at Hillside Crescent, Sighthill, Gilmerton, Pilton, Musselburgh, Bonnyrigg. and Newtongrange. Six. young missionaries—five American and one Irish—do. most of the evangelism. Rapid Advance A warning note has been sounded by several Church of Scotland ministers, and writing in “Life and Work, * the Rev. Dobe Thomson states that at the present rate of advance they will overtake the Methodists in a few months’ time, and the Baptists and Congregationalists a little later. “This is: what the Scottish Churches are faced by today; not a flash-in-the-pan burst of missionary interest and activity, but a carefully thought-out and adequately-financed plan of. penetra- tion, settlement, and consolidation.”