The origins of this Modernist post-War church stretch back to 1843, when the Rev Henry Moncreiff and a third of the congregation of the Old Parish Church of East Kilbride left the Church of Scotland, as part of a nationwide movement that became known as the Disruption, to create the Free Church of Scotland.

Initially the new congregation worshipped in a wooden barn, before they built a small church for themselves on Maxwell Drive in East Kilbride. In 1900, the congregation became part of the United Free Church and in 1929, it reunited with the Church of Scotland and the building’s name was changed to Moncreiff Parish Church, to avoid confusion with the Old Parish Kirk. In 1955, when its minister moved to another post, the local presbytery issued an ultimatum that no new minister would be appointed unless the congregation moved and established a new parish church in the emerging New Town planned neighbourhood of Calderwood.

They congregation accepted the challenge and a site was selected, with work beginning on the new building in July 1958. The new church was funded primarily by the Church of Scotland National Church Extension Committee and formally dedicated by the Rev William Steven on the 18 Sept 1959. A local Baptist congregation then took on the congregation’s former kirk and still use it to this day.

Designed by the architectural firm of Ross, Doak & Whitelaw, the new “hall church” was given a dual-purpose from its very foundation – as a provider of space for weekly worship and daily community activities. The wholly Modernist building is steel framed, with an unusual W-shaped roof, pitched at 30 and 60 degrees. The external walls were primarily lined in calcined flint, with whinstone walling used in the forecourt to highlight the main entrance to the kirk.

Inside, the walls were plastered or lined with cedar pine boarding and the flooring in polished maple or quarry tiles. In the sanctuary, a communion table was placed at one end, in a shallow chancel, and a performance stage at the other. The interior is lit by large steel-framed windows, filled with clear glass, except in the chancel and platform gables, where arrow-head shaped windows were originally filled amber and blue-tinted glass respectively. Completing the Modernist picture, the pulpit, communion table and lectern were constructed of oak with white polyurethane panels, which contrasted with mahogany flooring of the raised chancel.