Highland Theological College (HTC) in Dingwall, Scotland, launched its new Highland Church History Forum on 29–30 August with an inaugural conference, entitled ‘Seasons of Change and Times of Crisis’.
Most of the seven papers presented focussed on aspects of 19th-century Highland church life.
Over 80 people registered for the whole event, while the public lecture on the Monday evening drew an audience of 150. The speaker for that evening, Professor Donald Meek, spoke about the Baptist itinerant preacher Dugald Sinclair and particularly his preaching tour to the Highlands in 1810.
Other speakers included: Professor Marjory Harper of Aberdeen University, an expert on Scottish emigrant studies; Dr Elizabeth Ritchie of the Centre for History at the University of the Highlands and Islands; the Revd Dr John Ross, former moderator of the Free Church of Scotland; Andrew Jones, PhD student at New College, Edinburgh; and HTC’s own lecturers in Church History, the Revd Dr Bruce Ritchie – the driving force behind the conference – and the Revd Dr Nick Needham.
Professor Harper’s lecture on ‘Promised Lands: Emigration, Faith and Concepts of “Home” in the Scottish Diaspora’ and Dr Needham’s talk on ‘The Haldanes and the Highlands’ prepared the ground well for Professor Meek’s illustrated public lecture. Dr Ritchie lectured on ‘Family Worship: Evangelicalism at Home in the Clearance Era Highlands’. Dr Ross’s paper highlighted, amongst other things, the significant role women played in Highland evangelical-ism, despite patriarchal dominance in both society and church at the time.
The Conference was intended as a launching point for a more regular Highland Church History Forum which is hoped will meet several times over each winter.
