Evocative time travels in old country church’s time capsule

On that day it will be exactly 200 years since Pettigo’s Presbyterian Church was built and dedicated, in the little town bisected by both the Termon River and the border between Donegal and Fermanagh.

Long-time church members Noel and Eva, along with other folk from the congregation, have collected hundreds of photographs and stories spanning 75 years of church life, compiled in a 75-minute DVD entitled ‘Precious Memories of Pettigo Presbyterian Church’.

“We’re celebrating and commemorating the talents and service of church members from bygone days,” Eva explained.

There are seasonal church events at Christmas, Easter and Harvest and a vast array of pictures taken at numerous congregational gatherings and clubs.

In the part of the village officially called Tullyhommon, on the Fermanagh side of the border, the church was officially opened on June 6, 1852.

But Presbyterianism in the area boasts a long history going back to the 1700s, when there was a much older church in the nearby townland of Kilmore.

The time capsule is a small, wooden casket containing a DVD, a USB pen (memory stick) and last week Eva and Noel told us about some of the church members who are mentioned therein along with their photographs, like former church organist Gladys Bishop from the 1950s, Sam Gibson, the church’s Clerk of Session in the 1950s and RUC Sergeant James Rodgers BEM from the 1980s.

There are many more names and faces from days of yore, and from more recently, that will be unlocked and revealed by whoever the minister of the church is on June 6, 2052.

Rev Thomas Barry was minister of the church from the mid-1940s until the mid-1950s.

“He was a real scholar,” Eva Baxter reminisced, “but a wee bit absent minded. He once drove home from a Sunday Service in someone else’s car!”

Eva’s late sister, Mrs Louise Thompson (née Aiken) was the congregation’s first ever lady elder. Louise wrote and published a history of the church called ‘The Meeting House and the Big Bush’ - a title which very aptly summarises its vital place in the community, with an evergreen tree at its ever-welcoming porch.

As well as being an elder, Mrs Thompson was Church Treasurer, a vital responsibility which suited her well as she was a senior bank official!

“She was very faithful, but forthright too,” her smiling sister explained. “She was once in charge of flower arranging for the Harvest Festival,” Eva recounted, “and amongst the usual flowers, vegetables and farm produce someone put some oranges. ‘What have oranges got to do with Pettigo?’ asked Louise!”

Pointing to a photograph from the 1980s of a man in an RUC uniform Eva said reflectively, “Sergeant Rodgers was a legend.”

Sergeant Rodgers BEM, a church elder from Donegal “was known throughout the country” Eva added.

He was evidently an extremely sensitive policeman, not prone to over reacting.

“For instance, if he was telling a lad off for doing something wrong,” Eva recounted, “he’d say ‘I’ll go and see your father’ rather than issuing a summons.”

When the capsule is opened on the bicentenary, the congregation of 2052 will be able to look back on the church’s 150th anniversary, shown in an old newspaper photograph of former Elders Wilfred Steele, Louise Thompson and John Aiken.

There’s a delightful photo of the Sunday School Nativity Play in 2010. “Mary and Joseph’s donkey had wheels” Eva revealed!

The Women’s Association are celebrating 40 years in action since the mid-1950s, there’s an ‘Old Thyme Religion’ hymn-singing service in 2015 and a photo of the Charity Fashion Show held on behalf of Tear Fund in 2006.

With everyone in vintage clothes from as far back as the 1700s and the Master of Ceremonies dressed in Pettigo’s original Station Master’s uniform, the show raised over £7,000.

A glamorous quartet of models, all members of the church, are smiling for the camera.

Show business is a tenuous profession and when 2052 comes around it’s highly unlikely that anybody will know much about The Two Ronnies, but members of Pettigo Presbyterian Church will be very well aware of The Two Alans!

The Old Thyme Religion hymn-singing service in 2015 was led by two of the church’s elders, Alan Atchison and Alan Moore, the former impersonating the famous American Evangelical preacher Dwight Lyman Moody and the latter appearing as American gospel singer and composer Ira David Sankey.

The comedy duo, and hundreds more photographs and stories are on the DVD in the locked time capsule, in the church safe.

The key has been disposed of, so when Pettigo Presbyterian Church’s minister tries to open it in front of the congregation in just over half a century, he or she will need a screwdriver or a hacksaw, or some kind of futuristic ray gun might do the job!

Meanwhile, email Roamer if you’d like the DVD and I’ll put you in contact with the Baxters.