A BRIEF HISTORY

The ground on which Kirkliston Parish Church now stands has been the site of Christian Faith in Kirkliston going back to the year 1200 (for the existing church), and for centuries before that in other more primitive forms. In the 12th Century, the Parish of Kirkliston was called Liston, but in the late 13th Century, the church belonged to the Knights Templar, hence the ancient name of the place, Temple Liston.

The church was dedicated as the Church of Liston in 1244 by David de Bernham, Bishop of St. Andrews, and referenced as Kirkliston from around the 14th-15th centuries.

In 1560 the Church of Scotland, predominantly Calvinist and Presbyterian in outlook, separated from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.  John Knox, the well-known Calvinist was its founder.

1843 saw ‘The Disruption’ in Scotland when the Free Church of Scotland came into being following a schism within the Church of Scotland. That same year saw a congregation of the Free Church established in Kirkliston under Very Rev Dr James Chalmers Burns (1809-1892), who had until then been a Church of Scotland minister. Burns became Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church 1879/80, succeeding Rev Andrew Bonar, and was himself succeeded as Moderator in 1880 by Rev Thomas Main.

In 1900 the Free Church of Scotland moved for union with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to become the United Free Church of Scotland. The congregation of Kirkliston Free Church became Kirkliston United Free Church.

In 1929, the newer United Free Church was absorbed into the Church of Scotland. In Kirkliston, the two congregations remained divided between the Bathgate and West Lothian Presbyteries, the former UFC becoming known as Newliston Church. Newliston Church continued to meet in the Free Church building, while Kirkliston Parish Church met in the older building.

In 1941 the two congregations were united under the charge of the Rev William Maxwell, minister of Newliston Church at that time, to become one church known as Kirkliston Parish.