News
Latest news & articles
Last week, the fitting of new windows in our 200-year old church building began. From 16th-20th September a GO Relief team (organised by the Irish RP Church) will be coming to do some follow-up work, and as much other work to the church and manse as they are able.
There is still time to sign up for the team - just email the address at the end of the video above.
The 2024 Olympics in Paris have a significance for Scottish sport that not many have noticed. Exactly one hundred years ago, the last time the Olympics were held Paris, Scottish runner Eric Liddell won gold in an event he hadn’t trained for. The moving story was immortalised by the film Chariots of Fire. Last month, the University of Edinburgh awarded the ‘Flying Scotsman’ a posthumous honorary doctorate, accepted on his behalf by his daughter.
In the words of a recent article in the Guardian, it’s a story which ‘provides a curious challenge for a secular age’. Liddell – born in China to Scottish missionary parents – came to Scotland at the age of 5. He excelled in sport at school and university. As a student at the University of Edinburgh, he broke the Scottish records for the 100 and 200 yards, and set a new record for the inter-universities 440 yards. His electrifying pace also earned him seven rugby caps for Scotland as a winger.
When the Paris Olympics came round in 1924 Liddell was selected to run the 100 and 200 metres in Paris. However he withdrew from the 100 metres on religious grounds when it was revealed that the heats were going to be held on a Sunday. For Christians, Sunday is ‘the Lord’s Day’ (Revelation 1:10), which we believe we are bound by God’s pattern of creation, as well as the Fourth Commandment, to ‘keep holy’ (Exodus 20:8). The British Olympic Committee put huge pressure on Liddell to run in what is the showpiece event of the Olympics, but he stood firm. Rather than compete, Eric spent the day preaching in the Scots Kirk in Paris.
When the 200 metre race came around, Eric ran and wan bronze. Ahead of the 400 metres, the team masseur gave him a note. When Eric opened it at the stadium he found words taken from the Biblical book of 1st Samuel: ‘He who honours me, I will honour’. Liddell’s plan was to ‘run the first 200 metres as hard as I could, and then, with God’s help, run the second 200 metres even harder’. That’s exactly what he did - winning gold in a world record time of 47.6 seconds.
One hundred years on, Liddell continues to be an inspiration to those who have found their sporting aspirations and Christian faith coming into conflict. Growing up I knew various people who gave up the chance to play rugby, hockey or athletics at international level because of trials, training camps or games which took place on Sundays. In the face of the often conflicting advice they have received, Liddell’s example - along with the Bible verse he was given - helped give them the motivation to stand firm.
In the film Chariots of Fire, the dramatised Liddell says: “When I run I feel God’s pleasure”. Although that line was made up for the film, it’s probably a fairly accurate description of how Liddell felt. What Liddell did say however was: “God made me for China.” That was the land his parents had felt called to as missionaries, it was where he had spent the first five years of his life – and as a young boy Liddell simply considered himself to be Chinese.
A week after he won gold he graduated from university and enrolled at Bible college. The following summer he took part in his last athletics meeting in Scotland, winning the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association titles in the 100, 220, and 440 yards, before leaving for Tientsin, China.
In 1934 he married Florence, a Canadian nurse. They had three daughters but he never met the youngest: when civil war broke out and then the Japanese invaded in 1941, Liddell sent his pregnant wife and young children to safety. He stayed, working as a missionary in war-torn Siaochang. In 1943, he and his missionary colleagues were interned by the Japanese in a camp in Weihsien. He died there in 1945. In words which close out Chariots of Fire: ‘Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned’.
It is indeed a story which provides a curious challenge for a secular age – as well as those who share Liddell’s faith. It’s the story of a man who gave up not simply one race, but a life of comfort and fame. What was it that led him to do it? The answer is that he had found something greater than gold.
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 8th August 2024
If you knock on my door this month, the chances are that an American will open it. (And if you see my car being driven by someone who looks like they’ve never driven in the UK before…that’s why!). The reason is something known as a “Pulpit swap”. For the month of July an American pastor will be preaching in Stranraer – and I’ll be preaching in his church near Kansas City. We’ve each brought our families with us, and swapped cars as well as houses and pulpits.
Although the church denomination in which I minister is small in Scotland, it is the mother church of congregations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, France, Spain, Japan, India, Pakistan, Sudan, the Gambia – and another country which is never mentioned in print because of security concerns. In the last couple of years in Stranraer we’ve had visiting preachers from Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the US and Japan. A few weeks ago, we heard from a man who spent twenty years ministering in France. As part of this current trip, our family also had the opportunity to attend the RP International Conference (normally held every four years; this was the first for eight due to Covid). We joined around 1600 other delegates and had opportunities to hear updates from some of the countries mentioned above. I also had the opportunity to speak to around 200 people about needs and opportunities here in Scotland.
Pictured with the widow of an American pastor who did two 'stated supply' periods in my home congregation in Ireland when we were without a pastor
Such global interaction is nothing new. In 1789 Rev. James Reid, pastor for the whole region of Wigtownshire and beyond, travelled to America, visited and organised Covenanter congregations from New York down to South Carolina, before returning home to Scotland almost a year later. He brought with him an invitation for either himself or any of his fellow ministers to move permanently. (They all declined!). In the next century, Stoneykirk man William Milroy became the first Scottish Reformed Presbyterian minister to train for the ministry in North America. He studied at the university of Toronto, before being ‘licensed’ by the RP Presbytery of Pittsburgh in 1861, immediately returning home to become minister of Penpont, near Dumfries.
What are the benefits of such interactions? There are too many to name – but they go beyond simply experiencing (and having our children experience) different places and cultures. One of the things that I’ve found most striking about meeting Christians from around the world is how much we have in common. That has been the case in Sri Lanka (where I preached in 2014 with an interpreter translating into Tamil), the States, and everywhere in between. The last book of the Bible pictures those in heaven as ‘a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages’ (Revelation 7:9). Such interactions are a reminder of where we’re heading. (This also applies across history. Two of the Biblical interpreters that I turn to most often in my study in Stranraer are a fourth century North African (Saint Augustine), and a sixteenth century Frenchman (John Calvin)).
Another pastor's widow - with ministry experience in the RPCS and RPCNA
I would go as far as to argue that Christianity is a global movement in a way other religions aren’t: it has no holy land to which one must make pilgrimages, no holy language that the most devout must learn. The history of the spread of Christianity also refutes the vague notion many have that some church council at some point in the past added or removed stuff from the Bible. From the very beginning, Christianity was spreading and the Scriptures were being translated into the languages of the people they reached. Even if there had been a desire to change the message, there was no opportunity to do so.
Another benefit from such interactions is a reminder that there is more going on around the world than we realise. The decline of Christianity in Scotland has been well publicised. Taking a big picture view reminds us that that’s not the case everywhere.
So – if you happen to bump into the American family in question – that’s a bit of the background as to why they’re here. I’m sure they will receive a warm welcome in Stranraer. And if you want to hear a familiar message preached in an unfamiliar accent, they would be delighted to see you at church. Despite various outward differences, the message is the same around the world. It is a message that transcends time and cultural differences – because it is about “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 7:8).
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 11th July 2024.
On 18th May we had a joint church outing to Wigtown with some of our friends from Dumfries Free Church.
After arriving in sunny Wigtown we visited the grave of the Two Margarets, who were martyred in Wigtown 339 years ago the previous week. Stephen told the story of their deaths, which continued as we moved down to the Martyrs’ Stake. Our time there included singing a couple of psalms, including the verses of Psalm 25 which Margaret Wilson sang just before she died.
After this we headed to Wigtown Baptist Church where we ate our packed lunch, and then organised some games for the children on the grass outside. It was a great day of fellowship!
