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Western Isles

Religion in the Western Isles

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of religion in the Western Isles, which are sharply divided - though with little enmity - between the Catholic southern isles of Barra and South Uist, and the Protestant islands of North Uist, Harris and Lewis. Most conflicts arise from the very considerable power the ministers of the Protestant Church, or Kirk, wield in secular life in the north, where the creed of Sabbatarianism is very strong. Here, Sunday is the Lord's Day, and virtually the whole community (irrespective of their degree of piety) stops work - all shops close, all pubs close, all garages close and there's no public transport and, perhaps most famously of all, even the swings in the children's playgrounds are padlocked.

The other main area of division is, paradoxically, within the Protestant Church itself. Scotland is unusual in that the national church, the Church of Scotland, is presbyterian (ruled by the ministers and elders of the church) rather than episcopal (ruled by bishops). At the time of the main split in the Presbyterian Church - the so-called 1843 Disruption - a third of its ministers left the Church of Scotland, protesting at the law which allowed landlords to impose ministers against parishioners' wishes, and formed the breakaway Free Church of Scotland. Since those days there has been a gradual reconciliation although, in 1893, there was another break, when a minority of the Free Church became the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland; meanwhile, others slowly made their way back to the Church of Scotland. To confuse matters further, both the Free Church and the Free Presbyterians are referred to as "Wee Frees". In recent years, there have been still more schisms within the Wee Frees: in 1988 the Free Presbyterian Church split over a minister, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who attended a Requiem Mass during a Catholic funeral of a friend - he and his supporters went on to form the break-away Associated Presbyterian Churches. More recently still, the Free Church split over the "heresies" of Professor Donald MacLeod, one of its more liberal members, who writes a regular column in the West Highland Free Press. A minority within the church have now formed the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), accompanied by the usual battles over church buildings and congregations.

The various brands and subdivisions of the Presbyterian Church may appear trivial to outsiders, but to the churchgoers of Lewis, Harris and North Uist (as well as much of Skye and Raasay) they are still keenly felt. In part, this is due to social and cultural reasons: Free Church elders helped organize resistance to the Clearances, and the Wee Frees have done the most to help preserve the Gaelic language. A Free Church service is a memorable experience, and in some villages it takes place every evening (and twice on Sundays): there's no set service or prayer book and no hymns; only Biblical readings, psalm singing and a fiery sermon all in Gaelic; the pulpit is the architectural focus of the church, not the altar, and communion is taken only on special occasions. If you want to attend one, the Free Church on Kenneth Street in Stornoway has reputedly the largest Sunday-evening congregation in the UK, of up to 1500 people.