The History of the Church in Mackay Country
By Reverend John Mann
Church Expansion
While the early 19th century is now known as the era of the clearances in the Mackay Country, it was also a time of expansion in the church. There was concern about the fact that many people in the Highlands lived a great distance from their parish church. Previously, there had been additional preaching stations in large parishes.
For example, in Durness, Murdo Macdonald was required to preach for four Sundays at the church at Balnakeil and the fifth at West Moine. Later in the 18th century, missionary ministers were appointed in outlying areas. For example, a missionary based at Eriboll was appointed “to serve the districts of West Moine, Melness, and Oldshores” (i.e. Kinlochbervie) and “a new mission church was built at Eriboll in 1804.” (Bangor-Jones) But now the situation led the government to fund the building of 32 new churches (with their own ministers) in remote Highland parishes.
Two of these were in North West Sutherland: Kinlochbervie, in the parish of Eddrachillis, and Strathy, in the parish of Farr. As the 18th century had seen two parishes become four, the 19th century saw two new ecclesiastical parishes added to the landscape to produce a total of six.
Innes View, Kinlochbervie Around 1960
Tom Mackay, Rev Petros Mzamo and Hannah Mackay. Rev Mzamo preached in the Free Presbyterian Church in Kinlochbervie. In 2005 he was still preaching in the Mbuma Mission, Zimbabwe..
Kindly donated by: Edward Morrison ED35A56
Circa 1987 - Fund raising walk for play park in Tongue- pram push from Melness Church to Tongue Hotel
Margaret Mackay (Aird); Frances Gunn; June Mackay; Jenny Runham; Carolyn Sutherland; Stephanie Mackay; Mona Brett-Pitt; Helen Keith; Angie Mackay; Terri McIntyre - white clown suit, (?); Carol Burr- red bandana (?)
Kindly donated by: Margaret Mackay TF10S
Centre: Rev Edwin Radasi. Left: Miss Maria Graham of Inverness, Headmistress of John Tallach School. Right: Miss Margaret Mackenzie, Laide, who became Mrs Macleod, wife of Rev K D Macleod, Leverburgh.
Rev Radasi preached for some years in the Free Presbyterian Church, Kinlochbervie, as a student in the 1940s, staying with the Morrisons at Late Inn. He married Mr & Mrs D Macleod, Inshegra, in the 1940s.
Kindly donated by: Rhoda Mackay ED14B61
The Disruption
However, an even bigger change in the ecclesiastical landscape was about to take place. For over 100 years, the Church of Scotland had a virtual monopoly on church life in the area. The Second Statistical Account for the parish of Tongue (written in 1841) states “There are no Dissenters, Seceders, Episcopalians or Roman Catholics in the parish.” Similar statements are found in the accounts for other parishes.
But in 1843, a large secession, known as the Disruption, took place, as people left the established church to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main cause of the disruption was the system of patronage, under which the people of the congregation did not have the right to choose their own minister. This was a long-standing grievance, but the situation came to a head when the civil courts of the land refused to allow the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to end the system - with the result that many people felt it was time to break free of the established church. Other issues were also came into play, particularly in the Highlands.
Ministers who were happy to live with patronage tended not to preach evangelically, and were often seen to care more about themselves than their flocks. The ministers that were militantly opposed to patronage tended to be staunchly evangelical. Attitudes of ministers toward the clearances probably also played a part. In Scotland as a whole, just over a third of the ministers and members left. In the Mackay Country, as in much of the Highlands, the proportion that came out was far higher - in some places only a handful of people were left in the Church of Scotland. There were now 12 congregations instead of 6 in the area.
In the late 19th century, there were enormous social changes in Scotland, and these had an impact in the church. These changes produced tensions, particularly in the Free Church. In 1892, the Free Church passed a measure (the Declaratory Act) designed to permit a greater breadth of theological outlook within the denomination.
Left: Rev John Tallach (Minister at Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Kinlochbervie 1970-1980), Mrs Tallach (his mother) and Rev S Fraser Tallach (Minister at Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Kinlochbervie 1980-1989).
Kindly donated by: Rhoda Mackay ED14B54