Livingstone, Lady Culross & the Kirk of Shotts revival

Yesterday marked the 349th anniversary of the death (in Rotterdam) of the Covenanter John Livingstone, who was minister in Stranraer from 1638-48. While he was here, ‘his ministry produced a great impression, and his communions were attended by crowds from Ireland’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). His diary is in Stranraer Museum.

Kirk of Shotts today

Livingstone is most well known, however, for a sermon he preached at the Kirk of Shotts Revival in June 1630. Livingstone records: ‘'The day in all my life wherein I found most of the presence of God in preaching was on a Monday after the communion in the churchyard of Shotts, June 21, 1630’. He then begins his account of what happened by telling us: ‘The night before I had been in company with some Christians who spent the night in prayer and conference’. One local minister later said that about 500 people were converted that day, and most of them proved to be genuine. This minister attributed what happened to the prayers of the people, saying ‘the night before being spent in prayer, the Monday’s work might be discerned as a convincing return of prayer.’

A flagstone in Edinburgh’s lawnmarket commemorating Lady Culross, unveiled in 2014

Stephen mentioned the above details in a recent sermon entitled ‘Praying for Revitalisation’. What is less well-known, however, is Livingstone’s account of the most memorable prayer preceding the communion. The prayer was by Lady Culross (Elizabeth Melville), the first woman in Scotland to have her writing published.

Livingstone’s record of what happened is preserved for us in Scottish Puritans (Banner of Truth, 2008), pp 346-7. It’s also on the Reformation Scotland website. Livingstone writes:

“At the communion in Shotts, in June 1630, when the night after the Sabbath was spent in prayer by a great many Christians in a large room, where her bed was; and in the morning all going apart for their private devotion, she went into the bed, and drew the curtains, that she might set herself to prayer. William Rigg of Athernie [sometimes spelt Ridge of Adderny] coming into the room, and hearing her have great motion upon her, although she spoke not out, he desired her to speak out, saying that there was none in the room but him and her woman, as at that time there was no other. She did so, and the door being opened, the room filled full. She continued in prayer, with wonderful assistance, for large three hours’ time.”

Lady Culross also penned the well-known encouragement to Rigg when he was imprisoned in Blackness Castle, that “the darkness of Blackness was not the blackness of darkness”. (p. 342).

Related Posts: John Livingstone Commemorated (2019)

Church lunches resume!

On 1st March 2020 we began what were planned to be church lunches on the first Lord’s Day of each month. Due to Covid, we hadn’t been able to hold them since, but with restrictions relaxing in Scotland we resumed them this past Lord’s Day. It was great to have fellowship together and take another step back to normal church life! (Sadly we didn’t get photos of everyone who was there).

God willing, September’s church lunch will be on 12th September when the GO Team are with us, but normally you can plan on there being a lunch on the first Sunday of the month. There will always be extra food for visitors and everyone is welcome!

Global Missions meeting

One of the joys of being part of the RP Church is that it is a global body with worldwide vision.

Last week, Stephen had the opportunity to discuss the subject of short-term missions (mission teams, individuals coming to serve in a congregation for a few months, etc) with representatives from the RP Churches in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and Ireland - in a meeting facilitated by the RP Global Alliance.

It was a fruitful discussion with like-minded brothers and we hope that we will see some practical fruit from it here in Stranraer in the not-too-distant future.

Related posts: A Global Church

New book brings inter-war Stranraer to life

One of the most interesting new books I’ve read recently is the historical novel June, by Helen May Williams. Williams, who formerly taught at Warwick University, has previously written extensively on twentieth-century poetry. June is in part based on her mother (June’s) handwritten memoirs, with Williams using a combination of local research and imagination to fill in the gaps.

June was born in Stranraer in 1922, and lived here until her mother remarried and they moved to England in 1936. The book finishes in 1939 with June being sent to Switzerland to learn French, before returning home with Europe on the verge of war. The vast majority of the book is set in Stranraer however, with the pages full of familiar street names and surnames. The High School, Academy, Ruddicot, Adami’s, Bonugli’s, Kinema, Gallowhill and the Glebe Cemetery – where June’s grandparents are buried – all feature.

Having had the privilege of meeting the author during a research visit in 2019, I can testify to her diligence in trying to fill in the gaps in her mother’s memoirs as accurately as possible, and she acknowledges her indebtedness to Stranraer and District Local History Trust and our local librarians. 

My own particular interest in Helen’s work stems from the fact that June’s grandfather was the Revd Wesley Allan Rodger, minister of my own congregation from 1896-1917. An unpublished family memoir of him notes that his family of nine children were the first to introduce mixed bathing in Stranraer, with others gradually following suit. The family remember ladies bathing boxes, with shafts for horses, which were drawn up on the shore. The Rodger girls were also remembered as the first ladies in Stranraer to be seen on bicycles. There are plenty of other historical titbits in the book, which gives a vivid eyewitness account of what it would have been to grow up as a young woman in Stranraer in the inter-war years.  

Although her grandfather died four years before she was born, June and her widowed mother lived with her grandmother, and Wesley Rodger’s memory was still fragrant in the town as June grew up.

He was particularly remembered for his generosity. On one occasion his wife had a shock when he had to confess that, having just received his quarter’s salary, he had given it to the milkman, who would otherwise have had to sell his horse and cart to pay some pressing debts. Although the Rodger family were never repaid, they had indefinite free milk!

In fact, whenever he went out, his wife would only allow him to take sixpence in his pocket, because she knew he would give away to needy parishioners whatever sum he carried with him at the time. When he died after a protracted illness, and she finally went to pay large outstanding bills at the butcher’s, grocer’s, etc., payment was generally refused, with words of gratitude to her husband.

Wesley Rodger was clearly a man of widely varied interests – contributing an article to the Encyclopaedia Britannica on snails, as well as being something of an Egyptologist who enjoyed deciphering hieroglyphs on monuments and papyri. Yet he was undoubtedly a man of the people, serving his largely farming flock with distinction and even appearing in court on a number of occasions to plead the cause of a parishioner.

I certainly found it challenging to read of someone doing the same job that I’m doing just over 100 years later and seeing the impact that he had on this town. And surely there’s a challenge for us all in terms of how people will remember us once we’re gone. As the Bible tells us, ‘the memory of the just is blessed’. (Proverbs 10:7).

I also found the book to be another reminder that though times change, human nature doesn’t. Although she was brought up a century ago, June shared many of the hopes, dreams and fears that we do. The memoir is also a cure for nostalgia for a simpler time. Although the book is beautifully written, some of it is hard to read, particularly when it details the abuse that June faced from members of her extended family. A simpler time it may have been, but the human heart was still ‘desperately sick’ (Jeremiah 17:9).

All in all, the book gives us a vivid picture of Stranraer as it once was and will be of interest to many Free Press readers.

The book is available to buy on Amazon, or direct from the publisher, Cinnamon Press.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 1st July 2021

NB: Copies of the book are available to purchase directly from the author for £10, including postage. Contact us for details.
For more info on Wesley Rodger, see our previous post.

New book features past Stranraer minister

Wesley Allan Rodger, who was the minister of our congregation from 1896-1917, features in a new book written by his great granddaughter, Helen May Williams.

June is a historical novel, in part based on the author’s mother June’s handwritten memoirs. June’s grandfather died before she was born, but his memory was still fragrant in the town as June grew up.

One anecdote from an unpublished family memoir which is drawn upon in the book highlights his generosity:

‘On one occasion his wife had a rude shock when he had to confess that, having just received his quarter’s salary, he had given it to the milkman, who would otherwise have had to sell his horse and cart and stock to pay some pressing debts. The Rodger family had indefinite free milk I believe, but the money was never repaid’. In fact, whenever he went out, his wife ‘would only allow him to take sixpence in his pocket, because she knew he would give away to needy parishioners whatever sum he carried with him at the time’. When he died after a protracted illness, and his wife finally went to pay large outstanding bills at the butcher’s, grocer’s, etc., ‘payment was generally refused, with words of gratitude to her husband. This was just one small token of the love and respect of the people he ministered to in Stranraer’.

The Rodger family (Wesley, Anne and their 9 children), pictured in the garden of the former Stranraer manse

His obituary in the RP Witness (Aug 1918) described him as follows: ‘a man of strong and deep evangelical convictions, of strikingly earnest speech and impressive pulpit manner, Mr Rodger exercised a powerful influence as a preacher. He never wearied telling the story of Redeeming Love, and he was never slack to embrace his opportunities. In social fellowship he excelled in geniality, and was ever brotherly and kind’.

Rev. Wesley Allan Rodger

His grave at the Glebe Cemetery, Stranraer

Session records from 1896 show that his initial salary was to be £150 per annum. The following extract, from a meeting of Session held in the manse in March 1917, records Rev. Rodger’s request to resign the pastorate due to health reasons.

The book can be purchased online from a number of different retailers, including the publisher, Cinnamon Press.

Helen meeting with Stephen and Margaret Clark as part of her research in March 2019