The Past and the Future 1: The Auld Kirk

Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)

Witness 1: St Andrew, who brought people to Jesus – Sermon 18/1/26

Witness 2: John Blackadder, who preached the word in season and out of season – All Age Talk 25/1/26

Witness 3: The people who founded the church of St Andrew in North Berwick.  ‘Make the most of every opportunity’ (Colossians 4:5).

What happens when a small community is swamped by outsiders arriving without warning or invitation?

Locals have a choice. They can barricade. They can put up physical barriers or simply make people feel unwanted. They can take steps to keep outsiders out and preserve what they have for themselves. Or they can welcome. They can be entrepreneurial and seize the opportunity.

900 years ago this was the choice the families who lived at North Berwick harbour faced. As more and more pilgrims wanted to go to St Andrew’s, North Berwick was the obvious place to cross the Forth. With 10,000 or more passing through each year it would have been easy for the handful of fishing families to have felt overwhelmed and become resentful.

They didn’t. They recognised they could not stop this change and they decided to treat it as an opportunity.  A hospitality industry quickly developed. Providing food and lodging for the pilgrims created jobs and generated income. North Berwick flourished. It’s why today it is a vibrant town rather than a quaint village. The church was very much part of this. People were going to worship at the shrine of St Andrews. Why not encourage them to pray on the journey? A church of St Andrew was built at the harbour. The stone porch in this picture is all that remains of that church. This church, though, was massive. It was bigger than the current St Andrew Blackadder building is. It went eastwards from the porch, on land long since washed away, almost to the edge of the paddling pool.

 

It’s size points to people who were fired up by faith and possibility. These were spiritual men and women who built a church with enough space so that everyone could worship Jesus. They were innovators and entrepreneurs.

This, the first church of St Andrew in North Berwick, speaks of a bold faith which was determined to seize an opportunity and respond positively to change. These traits keep popping up through the centuries in the church of St Andrew in North Berwick. These traits can help the congregation as a new chapter in its life begins.

 

Neil
Rev Dr Neil Dougall