The Free Church of Scotland in the Western Isles is under pressure, with vacancies in a third of the charges across the presbytery.

There are six vacancies out of 18 across the Western Isles Presbytery – an “unprecedented” amount not seen before “in living memory”, say church leaders.

However, the church insists there is no crisis or emergency and point to the recent induction of Rev Scott Macleod in Pairc as a real cause for celebration and hope.

To read more about Rev Macleod's induction, click here.

Pairc is one of the smallest congregations and the arrival of their new minister will hopefully give “encouragement” to the bigger congregations, some of which have been vacant for years.

Two ministers from the Western Isles Presbytery spoke to welovestornoway about the situation.

Rev Paul Murray from Kinloch is communications convener for the presbytery and Rev Andrew Coghill from Scalpay is the clerk.

Both ministers admitted the situation was challenging and were mainly due to a cluster of retirements with about four at once.

'Difficult'

Rev Murray said: “There’s always vacancies but it’s just they’ve all come at the same time. So that makes it kind of difficult logistically because there are more pulpits to cover every week.”

But he stressed: “The people are still there. The attendances in the last 10 years or so in most of these congregations haven’t really changed. So there is need for a provision but it is putting a strain on the presbytery just to have so many of them at the same time.

“It’s a concern but we do hope that the vacancies will be filled and we are quite hopeful. Most of these congregations – in fact I think all of them – are still quite strong. They do have the money to call a minister and the people. So we just hope that in time they will be filled.”

The level of vacancies has not been seen since the split in the church last century, when most ministers left for the United Free which became the Church of Scotland in 1929.

At that time, Rev Murray recalled, there were around 15 vacancies and it took “ages to fill them”, with Kinloch, for example, being vacant for around 11 years.

Looking to the current situation, Rev Murray said: “We had seven (vacancies) because Gravir has just been filled and I do think that is unprecedented in the last 100 years. I haven’t looked through the actual books but everybody in living memory says they’ve never seen it.”

Supply

But he stressed: “We’re not in an emergency situation and part of the reason we’re not is we’ve got a lot of these retired ministers – in fact all of them – are very willing to help provide supply. And so the pulpits are supplied every week.

“Also most of the ministers who have a charge have taken on a second charge as an interim moderator so they’re dealing with pastoral situations, funerals, weddings, that kind of thing.

“Also some of the retired ministers are helping out with that as well. And also there are ministers going through college, training, and there are other ministers who are quite attracted to taking up a post on the island.”

Last month’s induction in Pairc was “really positive”, he said, “because that was the smallest congregation of all”.

Given its size, Pairc could have been seen to be “the most unlikely to get a minister”. However, they did “and I think that’s given the rest of the congregations hope that they will get a minister as well.

“So I think there is enthusiasm.”

It was “not abnormal" for charges to remain vacant for a while – even several years – but Rev Murray admitted it was “kind of strange” for so many to have come at once.

“But we’re not panicking. It would be great if we could get more filled and I think we will. In the next year, year and a half, I think you will see that go down to at least three or four.”

There are vacancies for a congregational minister in Stornoway – although that has an assistant minister – plus Barvas, Shawbost, Callanish, Lochs and Garrabost.

The Free Church of Scotland has around 120 congregations and Rev Andrew Coghill suggested vacancies were an issue “across the denomination as a whole across the country”.

Stretched

He said: “Some other presbyteries are in similar or worse difficulties in terms of vacancies than just ourselves.” Until recently, Glasgow & Arygll was at 50 per cent vacancies and the Northern presbytery was “quite thinly stretched” too.

However, he confirmed it has “certainly been unusual in recent generations to have the proportion of vacancies that there are just now” in the Western Isles.

“I understand from those of more senior ministry that in the past there might have been one or two vacancies on the go at any one time but never this kind of proportion that I know of.”

Rev Coghill believes the dynamic may have changed within the church, where the Free Church is becoming fundamentally less ‘Lewis-centric’.

“Lewis was certainly a major factor in the Free Church of Scotland before and probably now it has spread more nationally and more widely. So it doesn’t have the same proportion of ministers coming from the island and returning to the island as once it did.”

Despite the pressure, hope endures.

Although they cannot be counted on to automatically return to fill island posts, there are students from the islands who are studying at Edinburgh Theological Seminary.

Also, Rev Coghill added: “We believe in a God who provides, so we do pray about it. We do seek to call ministers where we’re able to.

“Sometimes we call and they decline but that is the case across the country. People decline calls for various reasons. But all we can do is let each individual case carry on in faith and trust the Lord will provide in the fullness of time.”