It’s a way of life, says Wick St Fergus churchgoer… but closure is the ‘right thing’

Nanette Munro’s memories of attending St Fergus Church go back to her childhood during the latter part of World War II.

In years to come she would be married there. She served as a Sunday school teacher and was a member of the church choir.

After such a long association with the former Wick Old Parish Church, Mrs Munro (88) is saddened that it is about to close as a place of worship.

She is not surprised, though. She accepts that closure is “the right thing”, given the backdrop of high maintenance costs and dwindling numbers of worshippers affecting churches generally.

The final service at St Fergus will take place on Sunday, December 29. Two days later, on New Year’s Eve, it will close its doors as a church after 194 years of continuous use.

The St Fergus congregation will be moving to Pulteneytown Parish Church as part of the newly named East Caithness Church of Scotland.

The Church of Scotland reiterated this week that “hard decisions have had to be made” and that “the times of one minister/one church have gone”.

Mrs Munro was born in Wick in 1936 but was christened in Fraserburgh, where her parents came from. Her father, David Gall, was an elder of Wick Old Parish Church.

“My first memories are from when the war finished. Before that, I was too little,” she said.

“My mother had a lot to do with the kirk. These wifies used to bake and come down with baskets full. Rationing was on, but they made great feasts for any occasion in the church.

“I was just a wee lassie and the bairns were put in the front row. We were all there together.

“And the air force men that were here, they all came. A lot happened – it was a right go-ahead church.

“On a Sunday you always dressed up, and when you came home from the kirk on a Sunday you had to change right away.

“My father was an elder and we just had to go to the kirk on a Sunday and that was it.”

Mrs Munro and her late husband Norman were married in Wick Old Parish Church in 1960.

She worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland for many years and the couple spent about 20 years away from Wick, living in Edinburgh and Dundee.

Recalling her time as a Sunday school teacher, Mrs Munro said: “It went in age groups.

“I had the five-year-olds and the kirk was full when the kiddies were there. It was lovely.

“At my age, 88, I’ve had a lot of contact with that church. It’s a tradition, a way of life.”

Over the years, however, there has been a steady fall in numbers attending services.

“I’m not surprised it’s closing,” Mrs Munro said. “I don’t go very often now, but you go on a Sunday and 16 is their usual number – and you see what a size of a kirk that is.

“I find it very sad, but I really feel that it should close. There’s not enough people going. A person there, a person there, a person there… there’s no atmosphere.

“To keep it going and, say, 12 or 13 or 14 people going a week, there’s no way they can do it. So what’s happening, I think, is the right thing.”

She believes linking up with the Pulteneytown congregation is a sensible move.

“I hear so much good about this church [Pulteneytown],” Mrs Munro said. “They give a lot of help in the town.

“Even just one church, it’ll never be full or even half-full. Religion is dying out.

“But it is quite sad, because when the building was full it was lovely.”

At the end of October, Mrs Munro attended a joint service for the two congregations hosted by St Fergus.

“They came to us and our church went to them, so they interchanged,” she explained. “I missed one of them, but it made quite a difference when there were two lots together.

“The difference in the singing… I could have cried, because they were all singing their hearts out.

“I feel sad about it but I see that there has got to be change. And one Church of Scotland in the town is more than enough.

“Rather than churches all over the place with just a few people going, you’re better with a bigger congregation.”

Dunbeath and Watten churches are also closing.

As reported earlier this week, a Church of Scotland spokesman said: “Three church buildings will close as places of worship in Caithness over the last few weeks of this year.

“With falling numbers of worshippers, and expensive to maintain and run old church buildings, together with a shortage of ordained ministers, hard decisions have had to be made.

“A recent vote of the congregations affected was overwhelmingly in favour of the changes.

“Many people, while appreciating change was inevitable, are saddened at the loss of their place of worship, but the union is giving all the faithful an opportunity to review the old ways of doing things and find a new way of sharing our faith with our wider community.”

The spokesman confirmed that there is community interest in the St Fergus Church building.

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