Sunday & Monday

Sunday, our "Sabbath Day" was spent as a day of rest and worship. We joined the Reformed PResbyterian Church in Airdrie for prayer meeting & worship, followed by a hot luncheon of roast beef, potatoes, vegetables, bread, etc... a very filling delicious meal and time spent with the youth and pastor & family. The afternoon was spent walking in a beautiful natural setting filled with daffodils and wooded areas, as well as an old cemetary (very common in this country... often dating back to the 1600's). We returned to church for "tea", a lighter meal before evening worship. Just before worshp was a psalm sing - the Reformed Presbyterian Church only sings the Psalms, and sing them acapella, so it's important to be somewhat familiar with them so it goes smoothly. The Psalter was interesting - the pages split in two horizontally, so we could flip to one tune at the top, and a Psalm (words) on the bottom that fit the meter. (Actually the other way around... Psalm and then tune & meter to match it.) A great message, and his sermons are actually available on the internet - the Pastor's name is Andrew Quigley... you can probably find the church's website and listen to some of his sermons. He's an Irishman who has come to live here and help the Scottish church, which has greatly diminished in numbers ove rthe years, with currently four churches in the country. (Doubled from a few years back.)

Today (Monday) we toured Covenanter sites in the country... even if we had been told where they were, and how to find them, I doubt we could have. We often had to park and walk across a field... one of them down a steep hill to an area by a brook where an 18-year-old farmer was sitting when Dragoons came down the trail, saw him reading (a Bible) and shot him on the spot. His sweetheart from a neighboring farm heard the shot (she was on her way to meet him for lunch) and ran over. A dragoon threatened her with his sword, she grabbed it from him, unseating him, and only escaped murder herself because his fellow-soldiers laughed at him being bested by a girl. We've heard numerous stories of murders on sight (no arrest or trial) for possessing a Bible, or being suspected of being a Covenanter.

What was a Covenanter? In the 1600's (I'm forgetting the year) many signed the Solemn League and Covenant that declared Jesus to be the King with authority over how he was to be worshipped, not the King. The Scottish Presbyterians wanted religious freedom, not to be told to worship in the Anglican Church (similar to the Roman Catholic church, but with the king as head) but to be able to worship as Scripture directed. For this belief that was deeply held, many paid with their lives. They were cruelly persecuted by Dragoons, betrayed by neighbors and relatives, and often promised freedom and then betrayed.

Hope to write more later.