Time capsule found buried in ruins of burned out church

A demolition crew tasked with clearing away the burnt-out remains of St Mungo's Church in Cumbernauld discovered the metal canister containing coins and newspapers from the time after being told about it by a parishioner.

They discovered it had been placed in the lower structure of the landmark building when the foundation stone was laid in November 1964.

The B-listed church building and halls, designed in the 1960s by architect Alan Reiach, went up in flames on 2 August this year. The emergency services described it as “wilful fire raising”. The fire quickly took hold and the building could not be saved.

The foundation stone was laid by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's representative General Sir Richard O'Connor, who served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that year.

Morag Rusk, session clerk of Cumbernauld Trinity Church and the former session clerk of St Mungo's before the union, explained how the time capsule was found.

"I had a copy of the ‘Order of Service from the ‘Laying of Foundation Stone' service from Saturday, 7 November 1964 in my house, kept by my mum," she said. "But I did not realise there was a time capsule buried in the foundations.

"I also received a phone call from a member of the congregation about it because she also had a copy of the order of service from her parents. It stated that ‘a canister containing records and coins shall be laid in the foundations' and she said she was hoping it could be found.

"So I asked the demolition team to look out for it and amazingly they actually found it in the rubble and handed it over to us."

Mrs Rusk said: "We opened the canister at the Cafe Church a few weeks ago and the contents were tightly packed, it is such a wonderful and unexpected find.

"Despite losing the building in such bad circumstances, the site has now been cleared and the congregation is feeling positive about the future as discussions about the possibility of building a new modern church building on the site are underway.”

She added: "The talks with the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland and the local authority are in the early stages and will continue in the new year."

The 6 November 1964 edition of The Cumbernauld News, which was also contained in the time capsule, reported that the stone would be laid the following day and a copy dated 16 October 1964 published a notice about the death of the serving minister of St Mungo's Church.

Reverend Simon Roy MacKintosh, who was heavily involved in the plans to build a distinctive place of worship in one of Scotland's new towns, tragically died just five days before.

No-one was injured when the building was set on fire, however police have been unable to identifysuspects to date and no-one has been charged.