St Catharines

Located at the heart of Bo’ness, our small church meets every Sunday 11.30am and Wednesday 10.15am. Deaf loop, disabled access, Sunday school and crèche available.

It is believed that the first congregation was formed about 1864 by the Rev. L. McLachlan of St. Paul’s, Armadale. After a short time Christ Church, Falkirk and St. Mary’s Church, Dalmahoy took the mission in hand. From 1878 the mission was worked by Lay Readers with periodic visits from a clergyman.

In 1888 the Rev. J.G.T. Weir was licensed as Curate in Charge of Bo’ness Mission. At that time the population of the town was about 6,000. The Mission congregation consisted of 30 communicant members and a large number of adherents mostly people from England and Ireland employed by local industries such as the potteries, foundries or docks. By public subscription in 1889 the old Parish Church in Corbiehall was purchased and this served as the place of worship until its sale in 1919. For the next two years worship was held in the auditorium of the Town Hall.

The foundation stone of the present church was laid on 8th January, 1921. The building was dedicated on the 23rd December that year by the then Bishop of Edinburgh, The Right Reverend G.H.S. Walpole. St. Catharine’s was the mother church of St. Ninian’s, Blackness and St Mildred’s, (now St. Peter’s) Linlithgow. In 1979 St. Catharine’s was successfully linked to St. Mary’s, Grangemouth and this is the present situation.