Struthers Memorial Church publishes its Report and Accounts annually and lists the churches it operates. We think the narrative in the most recent R&A could be misleading.
The claim is that there are 8 Scottish churches and 1 in England and 1 in Wales. This is a total of 10 congregations.
However a reasonable person might conclude there is a situation closer to 4 Scottish congregations (of any significant size) and 1 in Wales.
We can all believe what we like but here is our rationale.
The claim to being set up as a separate church, or of sufficient size to be a functionning church, raises questions in some cases:
The Edinburgh church has no building and maybe 2 or 3 attending.
The London (Aylesbury) Church appears to be one person who lives there, has no weekly scheduled services advertised and no building.
Gourock and Port Glasgow meet on a Sunday morning with very small congregations and combine with the Greenock congregation on Sunday evening.
The age of the leadership, the closure over the years of several other church plants close to Greenock and the financial pressures currently afflicting Struthers do not bode well for these very long established but tiny congregations.
Newmains is a building used for mid week outreach by people from Cumbernauld. It claims no separate congregation.
The Neath church in remote west Wales existed before it affiliated with Struthers and seems to be the only entity south of Hadrians Wall with a congregation reaching double figures.
The Scottish situation is that on a normal Sunday evening 3 buildings are empty (more some weeks)
4 churches remain though all much reduced:
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Greenock the historic lead church of the movement.
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Glasgow recently hammered by the schism over Mrs Speirs - though this damaged attendance in Greenock as well.
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Cumbernauld now becoming the lead church of SMC due to the ascendancy of Mrs Rutherford to overall charge.
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Falkirk which has had the same pastor for 55 years.
| Church | Current leader | Established | Attending | |
| Greenock | Mrs Grace Gault | 1955 |
30 |
Combine their meetings with Greenock on a Sunday evening |
| Gourock | Mr Hugh Gillchrist & Mr Alan Black | 1960s | 8-10 | |
|
Port Glasgow |
Mrs Joan Jewell | 1960’s | 8-10 | |
| Glasgow | Mrs Jennifer Offord | Late 1960s | 20-25 | |
| Cumbernauld | Mrs Diana Rutherford | Mid 1980s | 30-35 | |
| Falkirk | Miss Jennifer Jack | Late 1960s | 30 | |
| Edinburgh | Miss Effie Alexander | Early 1970s | 2-3 | |
| Aylesbury | Ms Pauline Anderson | Late 1970s | 1 | |
| Neath | Mr Gareth Watkins | Early 2000s | 20-25 | |
| If these figures are correct the total group membership/attendance is | 159 to 169 | |||
| In 2011 (the first time we looked at this) the figure was around 300 | ||||
| Churches which have closed | |
| Bridge of Weir | |
| Chelmsford | |
| East Kilbride | |
| Inverkip | |
| Larkfield | |
| Montrose | |
| Skelmorlie | |
| Wallyford | |
| Gorebridge | |
| Pudsey | |
| Shetland | |
| Tranent | |
|
So (as far as can be understood from public sources) in 2024 there are 7 Scottish congregations - 3 of which are tiny, 6 of which have a building and one of which has 2 buildings 1 Welsh congregation And - across all the branches - a total Sunday morning attendance of around 165 people In addition 12 branches have now either closed or disaffiliated |
There is no desire on our part to present any incorrect information. We do believe that there is a need for Struthers Memorial Church to be very honest and open about its size, and about the impact on growth of leadership decisions that have been made in the past, and particularly the last beleagured year. One result of this information being made available on this website has been a truer appreciation of the extent of SMC; and how many branches are either very small or have closed altogether. Another may be the chance for people to understand how hard the financial challenges for the few remaining contributors will be.
We do believe it is important that people understand the reality on the ground when Struthers preachers are talking about revival and projected radical growth in the Struthers churches. That has been a major part of Struthers preaching continually for over 40 years and the situation that has been arrived at is presented here.
If any one would like us to change a figure so we can reflect the situation on the ground more accurately then please e-mail us and we will gladly update the table. Church attendance numbers fluctuate so our membership estimates are given as a range for each.
If the organisation published its own official membership/attendance numbers our doing so would become unnecessary.