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For
the row over the proposal by Caledonian-MacBrayne to
start operating Sunday ferry services to and from Tarbert
next summer is indeed difficult to understand for those
not brought up to believe in the sanctity of the Hebridean
Sabbath.
Thursday
in Tarbert, a fast day, was very like a Sabbath with
everything closed - shops, banks, businesses, bars and
restaurants were all shut as silence settled over the
Harris town and people began preparations for the Autumn
Communion. But there was no rest for the Rev Alex Murdo
MacLeod as he set out from his Free Kirk manse at Kinloch
for the island of Scalpay and the first of six services
he would help conduct over the weekend.
As
chairman of the Lewis and Harris branch of the Lord's
Day Observance Society, he has been at the centre of
the opposition to the CalMac proposals, and he admits
it can be difficult to bridge the gulf in understanding
which separates those brought up on Lewis and Harris
from most mainlanders. "It's a very emotive subject,"
he said.
"I
think it takes very little knowledge of this place to
realise that the regular sailing of Sunday ferries and
the disgorging of passengers, cars, lorries and vans
would be a terrible disruption to the community's life.
One cannot measure the degree or nature of that disruption,
except in so far as realising what the Lord's Day means
in this community. It takes many years on this island
to understand that.
Pausing,
and groping for words in an effort to cross the cultural
divide, he said: " The significance of the Lord's
Day here is in the spiritual plane and that is something
that is very difficult to put across to inquirers unless
they themselves are born again Christian people who
love the Lord's Day. The moral law of God requires us
to apply the Fourth Commandment as much as any other.
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