The first Evangelical Union Church in Falkirk was the Bank Street congregation of the Rev Alexander Rutherford, 1843-1847. This congregation had its origins in Erskine Church, Falkirk. In 1843, there was a split in Erskine Church over the Morrisonian doctrine and the majority of the Erskine congregation left with the Rev A C Rutherford to form an independent congregation. The congregation first occupied the original congregational church building in Bank Street which had been used by the Baptists but they soon built a new church in Bank Street and initially took the name Falkirk Congregational Church. However, the congregation soon entered the Evangelical Union and Rev A C Rutherford became Secretary of the Evangelical Union by 1845. This congregation split in 1847. This was because Rutherford also started a congregation in Greenock so the Falkirk congregation called the Rev A Duncanson as junior pastor with Rutherford still remaining senior pastor. The two ministers disagreed on church government and discipline and split the congregation. Rutherford's faction remained in the Evangelical Union Church and Rutherford himself became minister at Dundee Evangelical Union Church and later Buckhaven United Presbyterian Church. Duncanson's faction The Evangelical Union congregation (Rutherford's) met in a building in Cistern Lane. They called the Rev Henry Mitchell in 1850 and then Rev Gilbert McCallum in 1853. When McCallum left in 1856 the congregation was closed. There was an attempt to revive the congregation as an Evangelical Union mission charge from 1857-1859 but the congregation closed again. Duncanson's congregation, still meeting in Bank St, left the Evangelical Union and was unattached to any denomination until Duncanson emigrated to America in 1852, at which point the congregation became part of the Congregational Church. When the Congregational Church and the Evangelical Union united in 1897 the Bank Street congregation chose to enter the United Presbyterian Church instead and became St James UP Church.