Our friends in the north

Some thoughts on a recent visit to the Shetlands Isles.

Garthspool Evangelical Church, situated 100miles north of the Scottish mainland, is the most northerly FIEC Church in the UK. Originally founded in 1914, as an outreach to the fishing community around Lerwick harbour, it will celebrate its centenary this September. Over the years it has been a centre of Gospel witness on the island to locals, workers and holiday-makers alike.

In recent years, along with many other churches on the islands, numbers have declined and it’s been increasingly hard to sustain many of the previous ministries. The church administrator is Margaret Fraser who organises speakers and chairmen from around the Island and further afield. It is a church with good relations with Christians around Shetland and is something of a hub for bringing folks together. Its 8pm Sunday evening meeting means that it can be a gathering point for Christians with an appetite for some extra Bible teaching and to hear speakers often from outside Shetland.

The bigger picture church-wise on Shetland is of a number of small fellowships of various types (Brethren, UF, Baptist, Independent etc). Due the scattered and rural nature of the island population these are often inevitably small and operate on very limited resources. Lerwick with a population of 7000 (the largest town by far) has 13 different churches! It does beg the question though of whether such a large number of small churches relative to the population is sustainable and indeed sensible for longer term Gospel witness.

Encouragingly it was great to meet Christians from different churches and hear of ongoing School’s Work around the islands, the annual Shetland Youth Camp that brings together over 200 young people and an initiative to host some ‘9 Marks’ training later in the year.

The challenges are many but chief among them is reaching the population afresh with the Gospel – this includes the many temporary workers brought to the islands by the oil and gas industry (Lerwick Harbour is dominated by huge floating accommodation blocks brought in to house them). It is here especially that a church like Garthspool has real potential – it is strategically placed on the main road along the harbour front, it is committed to the Gospel and, as noted, has been able to be something of a ‘rallying point’ for evangelicals over the years. It’s involvement with FIEC and its links with a number of Missionary Workers demonstrate a vision bigger than just ‘maintenance’.

The long flat topped buildings are
floating accommodation blocks. 

The prayer of the Garthspool congregation is for new and committed members to take the work forward. There is also a real opportunity for the right leader, able to draw Christians together under the Word, to help revitalise the church to again be a thriving centre for reaching the community around it – the reason it was founded in the first place.