THE STORY OF ABBEY CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, NORTH BERWICK
A REVISED VERSION OF A BOOKLET PUBLISHED
BY
E.S.P. HEAVENOR, M.A., B.D., Ph.D.
First published in 1963 and revised and up-dated in 1993
Page Three
Under the ministry of the Rev. William Calvert, B.A., (1858-1886) crucial forward steps were taken. A fine Manse was built at a cost of £657. It was obvious, however, that the major task demanded by a developing Church was the building of a new Church. As far back as 1850 it was clear that this could not be indefinitely delayed. Overcrowding and bad ventilation, especially in the summer season, could not be ignored. But financial facts were anything but promising. When Mr Calvert came to Abbey he inherited a debt of about £300. The annual income was only about £200 and the expenditure very little short of that.
The building of the present Church is a wonderful story of faith. A full account is given in the Minutes of the Congregational Soiree, held to celebrate the extinction of the debt on 17th December 1872. It includes many of Mr Calvert’s own words. For years there was a growing longing for a new Church but ‘it was always dismissed with a hopeless shake of the head as though it would be utter folly to entertain it.’ Mr Benjamin Hall Blyth, a noted Edinburgh civil engineer was God’s messenger to guide this longing into profitable channels. In 1865 he offered financial help from his brother and he, provided Abbey members would ‘move in the matter.’ But like canny Scots they would not make a decision before they had ‘fully counted the cost.’ Mr Calvert had his own personal misgivings. He had recently recovered from an illness which had brought him to the ‘mouth of the grave’, and had left him ‘enfeebled for life.’ And so his leaders and he felt ‘compelled to remain inactive...with the most painful reluctance’ not knowing if the generous offer would ever be repeated. But the following year it was repeated. Mr Blyth requested a special meeting of Managers. He spoke with the urgency of a man who knew the hand of death was upon him, and who was still more conscious that the hand of God rested upon him in the challenge he was presenting to the Managers. He offered £450, stating that it was likely that it would be the ‘last time he would have it in his power to make it.’ The words were barely out of his mouth when ‘he fell from his chair and was carried home only to die.’ The Blyth Memorial in the vestibule is a moving reminder of Abbey’s debt to a strong and consecrated Christian personality. The words are fitting: ‘Erected in gratitude to the memory of Benjamin Hall Blyth Esq., C.E., Edinburgh, in many ways a true friend of this congregation, and who generous aid in the closing act of his life, decided the movement which led to the building of this Church. ‘His works yet praise him in the gates.’ Born 14th July, 1819, died 21st August, 1866.’ It is hardly surprising that the Abbey leaders felt constrained to answer a challenge which spoke to something very deep within their hearts. The wheels of organisation began to turn. Mr Calvert prepared a circular along with subscription cards. In May 1847 a Congregational Meeting considered two plans of the new Church, one with a tower and a spire, the second without a spire. The latter was accepted.
October 1867 saw a beginning of the work. The foundation stone was laid on 13th January 1868 by Mr Peter Whitecross, assisted by three of the oldest male members of the congregation. We have a full and interesting account of the proceedings in the Managers’ Minute Book. A small platform had been erected for Mr Calvert, Mr McMorland of the Established Church and Mr Shewan of Blackadder. After a few verses of Psalm 118, Mr Calvert offered a brief prayer and spoke a few words. Mr Peter Whitecross, the oldest member of the congregation, then spread the mortar over the under portion of the stone. A cavity had been prepared in the stone for the reception of a hermetically sealed jar, containing the following documents - the appeal for aid towards the erection of the new Church; a copy of the 1868 Communion Roll; a list of the Building Committee; a list of contractors; a circular on behalf of the proposed Bazaar with the names of the ladies who had agreed to assist; the Caledonian Mercury of 22nd August 1866, containing an account of Mr Blyth’s death; a map of Scotland showing the Caledonian Railway and its branches, by Benjamin and Edward Blyth; Register of the County of Haddington, 1868; copies of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, Scotsman, Daily Review and Haddington Courier; current Laws of the Realm, presented by Mr J R Whitecross; drawing of the North Berwick United Presbyterian Church; and designs for Churches, manses and schools (as approved by the Free Church Committee) by an Edinburgh architect. This is evidently not an exhaustive list, for there is a reference to ‘other interesting documents.’ One is a shade mystified at the range of documents. It must have been a very large jar. The upper stone was then lowered into its place, and a libation of oil and wine was poured over the stone. Mr Whitecross expressed the hope that the building, like Solomon’s temple, would be filled with the glory of the Lord. Three hearty cheers followed. Mr Calvert then delivered an address. The benediction by Mr McMorland rounded off a historic occasion. The church was opened on 24th August 1868. The contractors must have worked with a will to be able to achieve such an opening date.
It is always easier to order a Church to be built than to raise the necessary funds to meet the cost. What a magnificent story of determination and sacrifice lies behind this success story! The Church cost £3,100, a massive sum for a relatively small congregation to raise. One searches in vain for a precise statement of the membership. In 1886 it is recorded that there were 210 on the roll. That probably gives us a fair idea of the number who had to toil up the steep financial hill. The old Church was sold for £560. The bazaar of August 1868 realised the fine figure of £560 net. Clearly the women were not interested in the prestige value of having their names in a jar within the foundation stone, but they were vitally interested in making a significant contribution to the living Church reared upon that foundation stone. Four years later after the building of the Church the debt stood at something between £700-£800. By this stage some people were feeling that they had earned a breather. In Mr Calvert’s own graphic words: ‘Many counselled leisure; some even spoke of leaving it to another generation to pay.’ How very human! But that was not Mr Calvert’s logic. ‘I willingly put away all thought of immediate personal advantage in order that this debt might be wiped away as speedily as possible.’ His enthusiasm inspired others to sweep it away. £50 was obtained from the Ferguson Bequest on the condition that Abbey would raise a further £100, a condition which was gladly accepted and swiftly achieved.