When the dioceses of Glasgow and Galloway were combined in 1837, Michael Russell, the then incumbent of Leith became the first bishop of the combined see. Initially there were only three or four congregations in the south west of Scotland.[1]
Until the establishment of St Mary's Church in Great Western Road as the cathedral of the diocese, the bishops were also incumbents of individual congregations - Michael Russell at Leith, Walter Trower at St Mary's Church in Glasgow and William Wilson at Ayr.
The episcopate of William Harrison was specially notable for the exceptional expansion of the church in the south west of Scotland.
Bishop Rawcliffe was already a bishop when he came to the diocese having previously been consecrated at the first Bishop of the New Hebrides in the Church of the Province of Melanesia between 1974 and 1980.
Bishops of the united diocese
First bishop's plaque in the chancel of St Mary's Cathedral
The bishops of the combined See of Glasgow and Galloway[2][3] are listed on two plaques on the south wall of the chancel in St Mary's Cathedral. As the first plaque was filled recording the episcopate of Bishop Rawcliffe, a second plaque was installed following the enthronement of Bishop Taylor.
A gallery of portraits of the past bishops is displayed in the sacristy corridor in the cathedral.
