This could hardly be a more appropriate Sunday story, with Argyll’s Colonsay-based publisher, House of Lochar, preparing to launch a publication on this topic around Easter-time 2013.
In 1812, Reverend Dugald Sinclair visited Colonsay as part of an evangelist missionary tour throughout Argyll.
He and his message were well-received and when he attempted to move on, the weather twice drove him back to the shores of the island.
He regarded this as a sign from above – although if the experiences of being serially driven back were as fearsome as they were like to have been, common sense may have played its part. The weather might have had him on the third attempt.
The Reverend Sinclair’s work lives on. To the present day there are Baptist congregations throughout Argyll, including those of Tiree, Mull, Colonsay, Islay, Dunoon, Oban and Lochgilphead, which owe their origins to his vigour and self-sacrifice.
The Baptist Church in Colonsay will celebrate its bicentenary this year, 2013, in the publication of a modest history, The Baptist Church in Colonsay 1812 – 2012 by John McNeill and Eleanor McNeill.
The surprise – and the fun – is that the two authors are a century apart.
John McNeill, writing in 1912, was the brother of Dr. Roger McNeill, the gifted epidemiologist and pioneer in preventative medicine.
Eleanor McNeill, writing today, is a leading member of the present-day community.
The Baptist Church in Colonsay 1812 – 2012 is to be published in a limited edition of 200 copies, one for each of the years of the church – a notion typical of the imagination of Kevin Byrne, the presiding genius of House of Lochar.
Advance subscriptions will be welcomed and the support of subscribers will be warnly acknowledged in the book itself.
The cost is £7.50 per copy, including postage within the UK. Copies can be reserved by:
- visiting the relevant Colonsay website page here
- or by phone at: 01951 200320
Any profit will go to Colonsay Baptist Church.
Congratulations to all involved .
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