Welcome to my penultimate sabbatical blog written on Shetland. There will be one more written to reflect on this whole journey, written probably on Sunday. I have lots in my head to ponder, let alone thinking about returning to work!
I've just driven back to Lerwick from Unst via Yell in horrendous fog. It is a two and a half hour journey including two ferries. This morning I hit the rush hour and it was interesting to watch people whose daily work includes ferry travel as the norm. There were some very big lorries on the Unst to Yell ferry with me at 9.45 and a long queue. On Sunday night at 9pm coming back to Unst from Yell I was the only one on the ferry.
So, my last few days here have been sharing with the folk of the North Isles, Yell and Unst. I moved from Lerwick to Haroldswick on Saturday. I stayed in a very strange place called Saxa Vord - which used to be the naval base which spied on Russia in the Cold War. I stayed in what would have been a naval family house and ate in the officers mess. As the fog swirled on Sunday and this morning, it felt quite an odd place to be. There was no mobile phone signal unless you had the phone in a certain place on the bedside table and didn't move it! Or went to a bus stop to talk... How we rely on our phones!
I was really glad to share in three lovely acts of worship on Sunday. In the morning, I joined the congregation of St John's in Baltasound to receive from the wonderful David Cooper, who featured in the Island Parish programme. He was fantastic, holding everyone's attention with a long but highly entertaining yet very deep sermon on the Good Samaritan, and not a note of paper. We went from Origen's allegory of the parable, to Martin Luther King, to Gladstone on the Armenian refugee crisis in Victorian times to his thoughts on the food banks and the referendum! There were about 40 there, including Sister Mary Martin who also featured on the programme who has built and lives in her own hermitage. It was a delight to receive good quality worship. We also sang some deep theology from the wonderful Church Hymnary 4 hymn book which is a lovely book I should dip into more.
On Sunday afternoon, I led worship in the most northerly church in Britain at Haroldswick.
We had had a debate over what time to have the service in the week, and concluded 3pm would be best as they could get an organist then. I arrived to find the organist wasn't coming as she had a cough. So, we had to improvise. I got them to choose their favourite hymns instead of what I had picked, and they sang them unaccompanied in parts which was very moving. We had a very deep time of worship together. The congregation included four people on holiday and the afternoon is one of my highlights of being here. I felt very honoured to lead worship as far north as Methodism gets in the Connexion. It was good to read the Conference statement about national life in that context. I also noticed several pictures and artefacts there from the most southern church in Britain on Jersey and I sent a picture to the Superintendent minister there.
Then I had fun! I was due on Yell on Sunday evening to speak at a Christian Aid service which the local folk were leading themselves. I got the ferry from Unst in quite bad fog, crossed onto Yell, and the fog became very bad indeed. I drove very slowly and eventually after about 45 minutes of careful driving found the chapel. I'd been there en route north the day before for their Christian Aid tea - see picture above- an amazing spread - but fog makes certainties very uncertain and I wasn't sure I would see the chapel in the murk. But I got there and we had perhaps the liveliest time of worship in my five weeks here. The service was led by the local congregation, including a singing group and a really enthusiastic organist called Beattie who played from a tonic sol fa music book. They sang hymns out of Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos - a book I've not used since Markyate Sisterhood as a lay worker every Thursday! I preached on the need to be interconnected and the challenge to be community and was well received. I was told I must come back and to keep in touch. Another huge amount of food followed. But I left quite quickly as the fog looked like it was worsening.
I got over to Unst then I have never driven through worse fog ever and arrived back very shaken... I guess people who live here adapt to sudden changes in the weather. As I thought about how I felt on Sunday night, I wonder what winter is like here and how people cope. I guess they just cope!
I have enjoyed while being on Unst eating in the Final Checkout - an amazing cafe come community shop where the whole island seems to gather and catch up. I paid my bill on Sunday lunchtime, I was in a shirt and tie. The man said "you're the man whose come to take the service at the Methodist, aren't you?!" The only non local about, I guess! There is a clear deep reliance on one another in a small community. Unst felt very isolated to me, perhaps too isolated for me despite my love of rural work. It was an education to visit the community centre and look at the posters - Avril does hair there on a Thursday etc!
With little mobile phone signal, no computer, no television, and no newspapers I could find, Unst also felt cut off from the rest of the world, even the Shetland mainland. I arrived yesterday at the Heritage Centre. I had had BBC Radio Scotland on in the car. They were discussing the Tory party leadership contest and who might win it. I told them we have a new Prime Minister! The whole political scene has changed beyond recognition while I have been on these islands, hardly reported here. The local paper is more interested in what liner is in port this week....
I am now waiting to continue my journey tonight as the boat for Aberdeen leaves at 7pm. It is very foggy and very windy so it might be fun. I am trying to get my head round the fact I am leaving these beautiful and peace filled islands in a few hours, who have made me so welcome, blessed me beyond measure, and have a place in my heart now. I will come back one day...
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