Imagine if going to church didn’t involve driving or walking … but a boat trip. This was, and possibly sometimes still is, normal in island communities around the world. Soundyngs has just tracked down some material from an interesting community-led project on the music associated with these journeys in Lewis.
In Presbyterian communities, where communion is only celebrated a few times a year, gathering the congregation for this occasion brings together people whose houses and crofts might be widely scattered on sea lochs and coasts that look like a fractal geometry diagram. Travelling by sea was the most convenient method to converge on the church.
These celebrations of communion were quite festive. Congregational meals might be shared after the service, and as the boats departed, psalms were sung so that people heard each other’s voices ringing across the waters, reaffirming a faith community experience.
A community project was started in 2010, and is ongoing, aiming to curate memories of this phenomenon. See Further Reading for the website and social media – mostly in Gaelic but there are English summaries for the linguistically limited.
A short film also exists of memories of psalm-boat singing.
With thanks to Frances Wilkins, whose research is widening awareness of this and other faith-singing practices.
Further Reading
- Psalmboat Project Website
- Psalmboat Project Facebook page
- Psalmboat Film: ‘A’sireadh Bata nan Salm‘
- Frances Wilkins, “Tobar An Dualchais and the Gaelic Sacred Soundscape”, Blog entry 1 November 2020 (Tobar an Dualchais/Kist of Riches), accessed 16 Feb 2024