Findochty

I’ve just had the privilege of spending the past week in the Moray fishing village of Findochty (somewhat strangely pronounced ‘Finnechty’). Together with the neighbouring village of Portknockie, this is a special place our family enjoys spending time in - not least because we’re convinced that Linda’s Fish Bar in nearby Cullen has the best fish and chips in the North East of Scotland! Laura, Elspeth, Joel, Esther and Sasha were with me for the weekend (and we did have fish and chips), and then I stayed on for five days of solitude and study.

It’s special quality for me is heightened by an event in 1859 that transformed the life of what was then a practically godless fishing village of less than 500 people, deeply immersed in the folklore and superstitions of the fisherfolk. Clues to this event remain in two active Brethren Assemblies, a Methodist Church, a Salvation Army hall as well as the prominent Church of Scotland in what even today is a village with a population of just 1106. 

153 years ago, this village was one of those deeply touched by the North East Revival, which had begun in a children’s prayer meeting in Aberdeen. That winter, with the fishermen confined to shore, over a few short weeks and months, except for a handful of people, every member of the fishing community that made up the village, was said to have come to living faith in Jesus Christ. 

This no thoughtful, ordered, and organised event, but a tumultuous and breathtakingly chaotic time of ecstatic utterances, miraculous happenings, all night informal gatherings in homes and the local school for prayer and preaching, leading to dramatic conversions of even the most seemingly hard-bitten reprobates, though it was largely disapproved of and viewed with great suspicion for the most part by the official churches and clergy. 

Nevertheless, God at work powerfully in the life of the community as a whole. For many, many decades, perhaps even the best part of a century the life of this village and indeed large stretches of this Moray coastline was transformed by the events of those few weeks. Only over recent decades as the fishing community has broken down, have the memories and impact of those times really faded.

So as I have been spending this week reading, studying, praying and writing in the small Baptist Union of Scotland cottage at the harbour side; as well as walking, and running along the nearby coastline, I’ve a sense even yet, of being on holy ground. Thinking about this event reminds me how central community has been in the past to the great works of God in revival and mission, and why I feel it’s so important today for church to continue be at the forefront of gathering people in community. And there’s a little part of me that can’t help but wonder how I as a Pastor might respond to such holy disorder being unleashed in the community I’m part of!