Our church with two doors
I have lived on Islay for nearly 20 years. The early years were hard, with a three-year-old and then a baby, little money and a leaky, cold house. Unlike the churches I had known in England, Portnahaven Church was always warm. The pink interior made it feel warmer still.
Soon after I moved to Port Wemyss, I was told on good authority — by a church elder — that our church was unique in having two doors, built especially to accommodate the two villages. Those from Portnahaven entered through the left-hand door and those from Port Wemyss through the right.
I know now that the design is common to Telford’s Parliamentary Churches, and that the church was actually built before the village of Port Wemyss. So the story isn’t quite true by design. But over the years, it has certainly been true in practice.
One particularly stormy Christmas Eve, during the Carol Service, the Portnahaven door was out of action and we all had to enter through the Port Wemyss door.
Inside, somehow, the same division was observed. The congregation arranged themselves as usual, with each village keeping to its own side.
On one occasion, someone suggested to a latecomer that she sit on the Port Wemyss side to even up the numbers. She replied, “I will sit on my own side thank you very much.
There often weren’t many of us, and there only four children at the Christmas services, but that didn’t stop us putting on a nativity play. I have vivid memories of a church elder being pressed into service as one of the Three Kings, walking to the front of the church with her head tilted to one side as she tried to stop the very slippery scarf we had fashioned into a headdress from slipping off.
One year, the power went off just as the service began. We sang the carols unaccompanied, almost drowned out by the hail thundering against the large, south-facing windows. Somehow, it felt entirely appropriate.
I have attended a couple of weddings and, sadly, lots of funerals in Portnahaven Church over the last two decades, but it is the community that sticks in my mind.
I remember lovely Pauline coming to me after I had recently opened a café. She wanted to check which days I was open before choosing a different day to start ‘T in the Church’, so that it wouldn’t affect my business.
“Us incomers need to stick together,” she said.
She had been on Islay for 40 years.