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300. ABERCHIRDER - St Marnan

Photographs taken by Jeff Lowndes

History

St Marnan's Church stands on the left at the top of quite a steep hill at the south end of Main Street. It is a small rectangular building with round headed windows. Consecrated in 1824 it was one of the first churches to be built in Banffshire since 1792. The building was encouraged by the Bishop of Moray, Bishop Jolly. Previous to that time the congregation had worshiped in a temporary Chapel at Dens of Mayen.

The Isla-Deveron Group of Episcopal Churches consists of three churches, Holy Trinity in Keith, Christ Church in Huntly and St Marnan in Aberchirder and are part of the United Diocese of Moray, Ross and Caithness within the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The group takes its name from the two rivers in the area, the Deveron which flows through Huntly and its tributary, the Isla which flows through Keith and joins the Deveron near Aberchirder.

The process whereby these three churches came together began in 1951 when Canon Walter Donald, who was Rector of Christ Church, Huntly was asked to take charge also of St Marnan's Aberchirder, when the incumbent there, Reverend Tom Hopkins, left. This arrangement continued very satisfactorily into the next incumbency of the Reverend Cyril Barnes who became Rector of Christ Church in 1967. In the mid-seventies, the Reverend Tom Gooding, Rector of Holy Trinity in Keith retired and, guided by the Rt. Revd. George Sessford, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness, Canon Cyril (as he had become) was invited by the Vestry of Holy Trinity, Keith to take on a third member of the Group.

History tells us that when Episcopalian worship was banned after the first Jacobite Rising in 1715 the Episcopalians took to the Ardmeallie woods to worship and estate workers were positioned to watch for the approach of the Redcoats.

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Bishop Mark presiding at St Marnan's, Aberchirder
assisted by Rev David Balfour and Jeff Lowndes (Reader)

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