Island Spirituality Island Spirituality SPIRITUAL VALUES OF LEWIS AND HARRIS This book explores spirituality through the lens of Lewis and Harris – the pre-Reformation “temples”, Reformation theology, A colonisation, clearances and evangelisation under the last of the LA S Mackenzies of Seaforth. Perhaps controversially and certainly TAIR unconventionally, Dr McIntosh concludes that island religion, M for all its struggled history and theological tensions, expresses a C profound inner spirituality. It reveals itself in kindness that gives I NTO backbone to the community. It leads towards an ardent desire for God. It is the island’s greatest export to a wider world. sh Front: Loch an Teine (The Loch of Fire) Lewis-Harris border Back: Teampall Eòin (St John the Baptist’s Chapel), Bragar £ .01 00 A LA S TAIR M C I NTO sh Island Spirituality Spiritual Values of Lewis and Harris Alastair McIntosh The Islands Book Trust Published in 2013 by The Islands Book Trust www.theislandsbooktrust.com Copyright remains with the named author. Other than brief extracts for the purpose of review, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher and copyright owner. This book may not be lent, hired out, resold or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publishers. © The Islands Book Trust 2013 ISBN: 978-1-907443-45-9 Text © Alastair McIntosh Web page for this book with supporting material: www.alastairmcintosh.com/islandspirituality.htm We are grateful to the Frances Camfield Trust for its support in the production of this volume The Islands Book Trust, Ravenspoint Centre, Kershader, South Lochs, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9QA. Tel: 01851 880737 Typeset by Erica Schwarz (www.schwarz-editorial.co.uk) Cover design by Raspberry Creative Type Printed and bound by Martins the Printers, Berwick upon Tweed All royalties from this publication go back into the Islands Book Trust To the Auld Lichts, and much aulder lichts, and for a’ that an’ a’ that, to lichts coming yet it was God who sent us here, one said closing his eyes no, said another, it was the island that was sent by God to find us Kenneth Steven A Song among the Stones With kind permission, Polygon, 2012 Alastair McIntosh (b. 1955), author of Soil and Soul, was educated at Leurbost J.S. School and the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. He holds honorary fellowships at the Centre for Human Ecology, the University of Glasgow and Edinburgh University’s (New College) School of Divinity. A Quaker with Presbyterian roots, he often broadcasts Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland, and has spoken at the World Council of Churches and the Holy Trinity Sergyev Monastery in Russia. Contents Foreword vi Introduction vii Chapter 1: A Spiritual Place and People 1 Chapter 2: Conflict, Calvinism and Constitution 19 Chapter 3: Land, Gospel and the Hooded Lassie 41 Chapter 4: The Miann – Our Island’s Greatest Export 71 Endnotes 89 Bibliography 150 Index 167 v Foreword This publication is based on a most interesting and well-received talk given by Alastair McIntosh to the Book Trust in October 2012. He is well-known as an author and broadcaster on subjects such as religion, land reform, and community development. I am very pleased that we are able to publish this extended version of the lecture for a wider audience. This has been assisted by a grant of £500 from the Francis Camfield Trust, which supports work “engaged in witnessing to Christian and Quaker testimonies.” Alastair covers a lot of ground – from 16th century Calvinist theology in Scotland to the Clearances, the coming of evangelical Presbyterianism to Lewis, second sight, and today’s materialistic world. His views about history and religion, informed by a Lewis upbringing, an international perspective, and considerable original research, are in some respects controversial. We are publishing them not because we necessarily agree with all of them, but because we believe this will help to promote discussion about island history and culture – one of the Book Trust’s key objectives. Bringing together people from different backgrounds to share their thoughts and learn from each other is an important part of all our activities. I hope that, whatever your own perspective, you will be interested and stimulated by this book. As Alastair recognises, further research is needed on many of the topics addressed. If the views put forward help, in Alastair’s phrase, to “open windows” rather than “close doors”, we will be delighted. John Randall Chairman, the Islands Book Trust June 2013 vi Introduction Sit down on a hillock by a river near any village on Harris or Lewis, survey what is all around, and it is the history of the world that flows by. That was precisely what I did in May 2009 when I walked for twelve days from Rodel in the south of Harris to Ness at the Butt of Lewis. My stations along the way were the teampallan or pre-Reformation “temples”, the healing or if we dare suggest, “holy” wells, and the prehistoric bothain or “beehive” dwellings out on the moors. Most of this will be told in a forthcoming book, the working title for which is Poacher’s Pilgrimage, because I carried a fishing rod, and was forced to cross the Grimersta. But much of what came out from my subsequent research was highly specific to island interests and sadly, no good for international readership. Imagine my pleasure then, when John Randall and his committee invited me to give a lecture to the Islands Book Trust in which I could present this material, and have it published in this expanded version. The spoken version was called The Island’s Greatest Export and was delivered to some forty people at An Lanntair in Stornoway on 2nd October 2012. In this context I have chosen to speak of “the island” as the single land mass that comprises Lewis and Harris. Chapter 1 starts by exploring the island’s spirituality as reflected in its sites of ancient veneration. Chapter 2 moves to Dutch and Westminster Calvinism, exploring how the Reformation washed upon our island shores. Chapter 3 looks at how evangelical religion came to Lewis in the 1820s amidst military conscription and clearances, and especially at the role of Lady Hood Mackenzie. vii island spirituality Chapter 4 celebrates the island’s deep spirituality that runs beneath historical vicissitudes, and what it offers us today. So much material of possible interest to readers came up during my research that I have made extensive use of endnotes so that it would not go to waste. However, since many of these are tangential, I recommend that most might best be read later rather than side-by-side with the main text in order to avoid a disjointed reading experience. I am also aware of the high potential for errors in a work of this nature and if readers would be so kind as to notify me of any that they might identify ([email protected]), I will place corrections in an erratum on my website. For commenting on this manuscript I thank Catherine MacKinven of the Knapdale MacKinvens, David Thomson, retired trawlerman of Morayshire, Professor Michael Northcott of New College and the Rev John Harvey of the Iona Community. I also felt the influence of Marie MacLeod (née MacDonald) of 11 Upper Bayble, who would have taken me much more to task but for her early passing some years ago. John Randall, Alayne Barton and their colleagues at the Islands Book Trust have been kind and patient. A thank-you also to Jennifer McCarry at the Centre for Human Ecology in Govan for proof-reading and to Mary Roslin and Christine Davis for serving as referees to the Francis Camfield Trust. My dear wife, Vérène Nicolas, has been most forbearing; describing her life while I was writing this as “like being married to Calvin!” Preparing and expanding this lecture has been difficult. I have tried to open windows and not to close doors, but if I have caused offence through errors, ignorance or bad judgement, or from deficits of empathy and spiritual groundedness within myself, then please, as the man himself would have put it, “be accommodating.” Alastair McIntosh Govan, Glasgow June 2013 viii 1 A Spiritual Place and People The Universe and Being I shall start with some introductory remarks about such loaded terms as God, spirituality and the religious life. We live in a world where many of our problems – war, poverty and environmental degradation – can ultimately be traced to a loss of soul. But how can soul be called back? How can meaning be infused back into the world if we prefer to doubt the very existence of a spiritual underpinning to reality? How, when even love itself, or the beauty of music or of nature, or of an act of human kindness, get routinely explained away as chemical secretions at the synapses of the brain? The Hebridean isles of Scotland are a good place from which to ask such questions. If you go outside on a clear night and look up, you see that you and this whole world are held in a much greater shimmering cosmological context. This poses a challenge to the nature of reality. Cold logic, on its own, would predict that there ought to be nothing. But amazingly, there is something. The universe is! And in this welter of being, I am and we are! If we now turn the telescope around and peer into our inner lives, we see that all of this is knowable only because we are conscious beings.