An Ordinary Church Member

Christian biographies tend to focus on missionaries, ministers and others who have played prominent roles. A partial exception is the book Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by Don Carson. Carson is a prominent author and conference speaker – but his father wasn’t. Tom Carson was simply an ordinary minister who no-one would ever have heard of his more famous son hadn’t written his biography. 

Yet if a book entitled Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor is unusual, a book containing the memoirs of an ordinary church member probably doesn’t exist. (The exception might be if they end up being killed for their faith, like the Wigtown Martyrs. But what about folk who have served away for decades, died and been forgotten?), Being a missionary or minister doesn’t make anyone more valuable in God’s sight, and so surely it is right to also celebrate those who have played less upfront roles.

Given that background, I was delighted recently to be given an insight into the life of an ordinary church member from my own congregation who lived two hundred years ago.

The information came to light in January after Storm Isha blew the roof off a garage belonging to a descendant of John Milory (1770-1847). Milroy was an ancestor of the Scottish Rugby captain Eric Milory, who was killed in action during WWI. John himself however was simply, according to his obituary, ‘late tenant, Freugh, Stoneykirk’.

That obituary appeared in the Galloway Advertiser and Wigtownshire Free Press on 13th January, 1848. There is also a transcript of a letter which he wrote from ‘Clayhole, Stranraer’ to his daughter and son who had emigrated to Ontario.

His obituary described him as ‘a man distinguished for moral courage and decision, for sincerity, uprightness, generosity and a deep-rooted aversion to anything bad in principle, or mean or dishonourable in conduct’.

We also read that: ‘He was also distinguished for the strict observance of the duties or family instruction and worship, for the great interest he took in the weekly prayer meetings, and for the undeviating regularity of his attendance on the public ordinances of religion’.

Milroy may not have been called to ‘full time gospel work’ (a dubious phrase in itself), but he was an encourager and financial supporter of those who were. ‘By his private and public conduct he proved himself to be the warm and generous friend of the faithful ministers and missionaries of the church, and of the efficient maintenance and diffusion of the gospel at home and abroad’.

When he died, he had been a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Stranraer for around 60 years, and for the furtherance of its principles and interests ‘he made no small sacrifices’. In his surviving letter, written in 1847, he expressed concern that the congregation had only had a few members added in the previous six months.

 He was, however, encouraged that the congregation had reduced the debt owed on their new church building and manse from £920 to £280. His obituary noted that they day before his illness began had been devoted to a scheme he had organised to see the remaining debt paid off, to which he himself contributed £60.

He knew what it was to sacrificially support the spread of the gospel in his own community and farther afield.

In his letter of 5th June 1847, John Milroy told his children: ‘My days is near a close: I feel myself done’. Six months later he was dead, and is long forgotten even in the congregation to which he contributed so much.

The Christian does not live for adulation on earth. For a start, no matter how glowing our obituaries may be, we (and those closest to us!) know that we’re far from perfect. Our hope is not that our lives will have earned us God’s favour; I’m sure John Milroy would have been the first to testify of his reliance for salvation on Jesus Christ alone. The most we can do is simply what was our duty to do – we are ‘unworthy servants’ (Luke 17:10). And yet Jesus also promises that ‘your Father who sees in secret will reward you’ (Matt. 6:4).

I for one am thankful that God has brought to light the life of this, in one sense very ordinary, ‘Clayholer’. May his example be an encouragement and a challenge to many. It’s hard to overestimate the impact it would have on church and community if, by God’s grace, we had more people like John Milroy today.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 28th March 2024.

The Heroine of the Princess Victoria

January can be a grim month. Intimations cover shop windows, announcing death after death. In 2021, a Covid outbreak in Thorney Croft Care Home saw 14 residents die. And on the very last day of January 1953, the Princess Victoria sank, with the loss of 135 lives.

The tragic story is known only too well. The Victoria made slow progress up Loch Ryan that morning. Emerging from the Loch she met with a gale-force storm and thirty-foot waves. Captain Ferguson managed to get the vessel turned, but it was then smashed on the stern by powerful waves. The car deck doors were damaged beyond repair and water flooded the deck.

At 09:46, radio operator David Broadfoot transmitted a message saying: “"Vessel not under command. Urgent assistance of tugs required”. An SOS message was sent at 10:32. In the meantime, the captain seems to have concluded that he had no option but to resume his original course and head out into the storm for Ireland. Five miles from safety, with the engine room flooded and the ship badly listing, Broadfoot messaged at 13:15: “We are preparing to abandon ship”.

The weather conditions, as well as confusion about the Victoria’s location, severely hampered the rescue. Only the lifeboats on one side of the ship could be used, and tragically the one containing women and children was smashed against the sinking ship, meaning none survived.

As with similar disasters, there were some who emerged as heroes. Broadfoot was posthumously awarded the George Cross for staying at his post. The captains of the merchant vessels who came to assist were made members of the Order of the British Empire. Officers of the HMS Contest were awarded the George Medal for their bravery in entering the water to assist the survivors.  

One woman, whose story is not so well known, has been hailed as ‘the heroine of the Princess Victoria’. Her name was Nancy Bryson, and she was from my home county of Londonderry. She was a missionary in Kenya, and had come back to the UK with her husband and three children to visit relatives and speak at some meetings. In 2013, her daughter told the BBC: ‘She was one of the bravest women on board who whispered words of comfort to other passengers and led them in singing a hymn. She also tried to help a three year old child into one of the lifeboats but failed to do so, going under the water herself in the process’.

A poem written about her says: ‘God had her there on purpose’. That might seem a strange thing to say. There were those who were booked to be on the ship that fateful January day who ended up not sailing, due to illness or other reasons. Why would anyone think God had her on that ship on purpose?

The answer is because of what she was reported to be doing as the ship sank. The poem recounts ‘She spoke of Jesus and his love and all his power to save’. As a missionary, Nancy Bryson had given her life to tell people of the hope there is beyond this world. She probably imagined that her most important missionary work would be done in East Africa. It may well be that it was done on the Princess Victoria instead. ‘God had here there on purpose, upon the ship that day / To point the soul to Jesus, the true and living way’.

What a contrast she is to another woman on board that day. That secondly lady was seen walking around in a fur coat clutching bags. Someone told her to forget about them, but she replied: ‘This is all the money I have in the world’. She was later seen dead in the water, still tightly clutching those bags. Nancy Bryson, on the other hand, pointed people to true riches, which even death can’t take from us.

In his book on the disaster, Jack Hunter argued that the Victoria’s loss was due less to unseaworthiness than to an unsuccessful rescue operation. More modern ro-ro ships have sunk less than thirty minutes after water invaded their car decks; the Victoria stayed afloat for four hours.

Those four hours would have been agonising – and yet would also have given those on-board time to think about eternity. And in God’s providence there was someone there to point them to the one who endured the waves of God’s wrath so we could live forever.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 25th January 2024

The Princess Victoria: 70 years on

1953 saw the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the first documented ascent of Mount Everest (by Edmund Hillary) and the discovery of the DNA double helix. More significant than any of those for our own part of the world however was the loss of the Princess Victoria. Seventy years on, the horror of the deadliest UK maritime disaster since WWII has not lessened – nor have the stories of bravery been forgotten. A painting of the disaster by Norman Whitla, a minister I had the privilege of knowing, provides a vivid portrayal of the disaster. The painting shows lifeboat number four, containing women and children, about to be dashed against the side of the ship. As a result, only men survived the disaster. 135 perished, and only 44 survived. Those who lost their lives included the Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, the MP for North Down – and 23 people from Stranraer. Communities on both sides of the Irish sea were rocked by the events of that day – and have not forgotten them. A BBC programme made to mark the fortieth anniversary was entitled ‘Things don’t happen to boats like this’. And yet, tragically, they did.

So how do we reflect on this disaster seventy years on?  

Well surely we are right to remember and highlight the bravery of many on that day. As the 30,000-page report concluded, ‘If the Princess Victoria had been as staunch as those who manned her, then all would have been well and the disaster averted’. The bravery of the captains and crew of ships who responded to the Victoria’s SOS message – including those who dived into the water to help survivors – was also acknowledged by the awarding of medals.

No doubt many from that day down to ours have asked the question ‘Where was God on 31st January 1953’? Did Jesus not calm a storm when he was on earth? Leaving experienced fishermen – who had been terrified by the storm – even more scared to see it instantly cease when he spoke. Could he not have done it again?

It all brings to mind another January maritime disaster – the sinking of the HMY Iolaire at the entrance to Stornoway harbour on 1 January 1919. The Iolaire (Gaelic for Eagle) was bringing sailors who had fought in WWI home to the Isle of Lewis when she hit rocks and sank. At least 201 of the 283 on board perished – of whom 181 were islanders. Almost an entire generation of young men was lost.

The people of Lewis erected a memorial to the disaster in 1958. On it are the words of Psalm 77:19 in Gaelic – ‘Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen’. It was an acknowledgement that even in such a disaster, God was still sovereign. That even though his ways are often unseen to us, that doesn’t mean he is absent.

And surely we can say the same about the 31st of January 1953. The very fact that seventy years later we still remember it shows how valuable we consider human life to be. If, as we’re often told, human life is no different from animal life, why bother remembering? If life is really about the survival of the fittest, why do we believe that those who risked – or even gave – their lives to save others, did the morally right thing?

What is the greatest expression of love? It’s a question that evolution cannot answer.

But the Bible’s answer is: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends’.

Jesus Christ – the one who uttered those words – demonstrated exactly what that sort of love looked like by going to the cross. As Jesus hung on the cross, it looked like God was absent. Jesus himself cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

And yet while it looked for all the world like God was absent – as it did 70 years ago too – he was anything but. He was making a way for us to be reconciled to him.

In a sense we could say that humanity at its best was seen on 31st January 1953. In the bravery displayed and the selfless sacrifice shown. Humanity at its best reflects the image of our maker. And yet it still falls short of his glory.

But on the cross, the Son of God in his perfect, sinless humanity, gave his life that we might believe in him and live with him forever.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 26 January 2023

Congregational life in wartime

The beginning of a new year provides an opportunity to look back on the year that’s now past. Here’s a report from our own congregation written in early 1941, looking back at church life in the midst of World War II, with services taking place during black-outs and 20+ of the congregation’s young men serving in the armed forces, one of whom was a prisoner of war in Germany.

Consolidated Catalina Mk II of No. 240 Squadron RAF, Stranraer, March 1941 (Imperial War Museum)

Report of Session, 1940

The year 1940 has now closed and as a Session we would look back over our Church life in that year.

We would acknowledge first of all our deepest gratitude to Him who is our King and Head for his continued goodness to us. “The Lord of us hath mindful been.” [Psalm 115 v 12, Scottish Metrical Version]

The storm of war still surrounds us, and great damage has been done to many parts of our land, but God in His goodness has thus far spared us the destruction and sorrow that air-raids bring.

Naturally the war has affected our Church life to a considerable extent; over 20 of our young men are now serving with the Forces, one of them being a prisoner of war in Germany; the black-out has affected the attendances at evening meetings; and essential duties have called some of our people to Sabbath work. The requisitioning of our Hall has made the work of some of our organisations more difficult. But in spite of these difficulties the work of the Congregation has been carried on with a measure of success.

The Lord’s supper has been dispensed twice; and during the year eight new members were received into full Communion in the Church. The attendances at the Sabbath services have remained farily constant, and the evening service seems to be more suitable than the afternoon one. Session would appeal to those who are somewhat dilatory in their attendances to make a greater effort to come to the ordinances of God’s House.

During the year we have administered the ordinance of Baptism to two infants, while in the same period five of our members have been called to their reward. They were, Mr. Thomas Arthur, Mrs W. Murray, Mrs. John []ah, Mr. Andrew Hamilton, and Miss Jane []ay. To the relatives and friends in their bereavement we, as a Session, would extend our deepest sympathy.

The Prayer-meeting has continued and has been fairly well attended, and many have expressed the help they have received at these fellowship meetings.

The Sabbath-school too, has been carried on, and we are glad to know that the attendances have been improving during the year. The school has had to meet in the Church during the year because of the taking-over of the Hall.

It is with regret that we have to report that the C. Y. P. [Covenanter Young Peoples’] Society has not been able to continue its meetings owing to so many of its members being in the Forces, but we hope that when peace comes again that this Society will continue its fine work among the young people.

The W. M. A [Women's Missionary Association] held their regular meetings; while the ladies of the congregation have on several occasions sent parcels of comforts to the men who are on military service, and for these many letters of thanks have been received from the boys.

Our minister [Rev. J. Moffett Blair] has received the permission of Session and Presbytery to engage in Army Hut and Canteen work, and has has been engaged in this work for some time now as a voluntary worker in this area.

We must all realise more and more the need for faith and trust in God. He alone can support us in these troublous days. And if we look to Him to do great things for us, we must also be ready to consecrate ourselves to His service, and to show by our lives that he is our Saviour and our Lord.

For more information on Stranraer in WWII, see the book ‘Stranraer in World War II’ published by Stranraer & District Local History Trust (3rd edition, 2017).

40 years in Stranraer!

Last year marked 40 years since Rev. Gerald Milligan’s induction as minister in Stranraer. Due to coronavirus restrictions, we weren’t able to mark this anniversary at the time, but we were finally able to do so at a congregational meal held at Henry’s Bay House on 20th November.

At the close of the meal, our current minister, Rev. Stephen Steele, paid tribute to his predecessor for his work in the congregation and community (past and present). Gerald and Ruth were then presented with gifts and flowers to mark the occasion.

You can read the report in the local paper below: