News
A history of the Church in Orkney
06/11/2009 11:52:00
by CATHERINE TURNBULL
THROUGH many centuries, Orkney's churches have been the theatre in which the great dramas of the county's history have been played out.
Jocelyn Rendall of Holland Farm, Papa Westray, has spent several
winters sifting through Kirk records in Kirkwall's archive uncovering
stories of sinners, saints, firebrands and powerful church leaders. The
result is a book of scholarship which charts the history of the Kirk in
Orkney from the first arrival of Christianity and reveals the social
pageant of the county and the islands' people.
"There is so much social history to be gleaned from the records as
everything that was said was recorded by the session's clerk," Jocelyn
told Orkney Today in her kitchen at Holland Farm. "It is a fantastic
record. An example is the long-standing row between the Traill laird
and the minister in Papay and there were so many other fascinating
stories to unravel. They are the stories of real people. It is like a
soap opera, an Orkney Eastenders, with plenty of gossip."
In a chapter entitled Sex and Sackcloth she reveals how John Brown who
made two women pregnant was sentenced to stand on the stool of
repentance at the Kirk door every Sunday for four weeks with the
heavily pregnant women on either side. Later Jocelyn found the bill for
repairing the stools after carrying the weight of the women.
"These records show the social implication of church discipline and how
the big people held power over the little people. I wanted to tell the
story of the little people which is all there to be discovered and is
so interesting," Jocelyn said.
Powerful people meted out their own discipline too outside of the
Kirk's punishment system. In the chapter Feuds and Formidable women,
there is the tale of Lady Melsetter who beat a minister with her riding
crop to bring him to her way of thinking.
The historical saga of the church is told chronologically starting with
the first missionaries and the hermits living on wind-blasted holms.
Drawing on the Orkneyinga Saga there is the story of the cathedral
built by the Norse earl Rognvald and the pilgrimage sites. During the
Reformation there were sweeping changes which affected everyone. "What
were people talking about? There is so little recorded dialogue until
the 18th century," said Jocelyn.
Politics and power rose as the churches went into schism and dissenting
churches were persecuted. "Like the rest of Scotland, people in Orkney
started thinking about social justice and leading campaigners for
reform emerged. In the 19th century many of the churches re-emerged and
new denominations evolved. In 1854 the Roman Catholic Church created
The North Pole Mission with a priest based in Wick who covered
Caithness, Orkney, Shetland, Faroe, Lapland, Iceland and the lands of
the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada."
The diverse places of worship range in scale and style from St Magnus
Cathedral to the Italian Chapel in the Nissan huts to 19th century
preaching barns and city kirks. Drawings and watercolours by Crispin
Worthington of Stromness illustrate the book along with photographs and
images from Kirkwall archive.
The final chapter examines where the church in Orkney is now. "I
believe the church's future is positive. We have strong parishes and
positive ministers here," said Jocelyn.
Jocelyn Rendall's previous books are: A Jar of Seed Corn: Portrait of
an Island Farm; Papay: A Guide to Places of Interest and History of St
Boniface Kirk, Papa Westray.
She has lived in Papa Westray for 20 years and was previously curator of the Mackintosh Collection at Glasgow School of Art.
Jocelyn Rendall. Steering the Stone Ships: The Story of Orkney Kirks and People. Saint Andrews Press. Edinburgh.