Church celebrates its Scottish links

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By Tamara Fudge | Sunday, August 27, 2006 11:26 PM CDT | () comments

Photos by Nick Loomis/QUAD-CITY TIMES Elliott McDonald of Davenport tells the congregation at First Presbyterian Church the history and significance of the tartans, or plaid fabrics, that mark the different Scottish clans during the annual Celtic worship service Sunday afternoon. The service coincides each year with the Celtic Highland Games held at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds.

Tome Ogilvy of Springfield, left, and Chick Thomson of Silvis, Ill., originally from Glasgow, Scotland, admire the replica of the Kildalton High Cross outside First Presbyterian Church in Davenport after a Celtic worship service Sunday. The original Kildalton Cross is located on the Isle of Islay in Scotland.

The neighborhood surrounding Davenport’s First Presbyterian Church was filled with music for the third annual Celtic worship services Sunday morning.

“We purposefully paired this with the weekend for the Highland Celtic games,” said Elder Linda Meadors, who claims some Scottish lowlands ancestry.

“Presbyterians have our roots in the seven Celtic nations,” she said. Indeed, John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian church, was Scottish.

The local connection is personal, too.

“A couple of years ago,

church member Ann Barker visited the Isle of Islay (pronounced Eye-lah) to go birding,” organist Ruth E. Baker said. “She happened upon the Round Church in Bowmore, part of the Church of Scotland.”

A friendship formed, and a dozen members from First Presbyterian visited here in July 2001.

“The events of 9/11 brought to our attention the ongoing way we should be understanding each other,” Elder Judy Hawthorne said. “We’re learning more about our church’s Celtic heritage and how it was transported to this side of the Atlantic.”

A group of eight traveled there again last year. They also visited Londonderry, “a very Protestant community in Northern Ireland,” Meadors said. “We went to the Carlyle Road Presbyterian Church, which was founded the same year as our congregation.”

There, the Catholic tour guide sang together with the Americans and the church’s choir, a monumental event for that community. “It was the very first time a Catholic did so at this church,” Meadors said. “It was two nations and two faiths.”

Music for Sunday’s special service was provided in part by visiting bagpiper Tom Ogilvy, pipe major for the St. Andrew’s Society of Central Illinois Pipes and Drums in Springfield, Ill. Beth Ogilvy performed a Scottish highland dance, and additional music was provided by the Barley House Band, a local Celtic ensemble.

Greetings from the sister churches were read, including a poem and prayer from the Round Church and a letter from Carlyle Road Presbyterian. Some of the service was provided by Angela Stather from the Round Church. As representatives of the Scottish-American Society, Elliott McDonald dedicated and blessed tartans, and Julie Jensen McDonald and Charles Thomson also participated as leaders. Various Celtic melodies were chosen for the day’s hymns.

The downstairs hall held a small exhibit, including maps and photos. Church member Bill Hawthorne displayed three of his oil paintings depicting the Kildalton cross, a Scottish castle and an ancient ruin.

The outside service was held appropriately in front of the full-sized oak replica of that Kildalton High Cross created by church member Don Hultgren two years ago. The original was carved out of a single piece of gray-green epidiorite about 800 AD and is the only surviving complete Celtic high cross in Scotland.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.