North Harris Free Church is a Registered Scottish Charity SC045814. We are part of the Free Church of Scotland.
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About Us
Our Church
North Harris Free Church, on the Isle of Harris, was formed as a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland in 2014. On Sunday we typically have 100-120 people at morning worship and 70 in the evening.
We acknowledge our biblical mandate to ‘go and make disciples’ and within our community we offer many opportunities to reach and nurture people with the gospel – read more here.
The church is led by the minister and ten ruling elders supported by seven deacons.
Rev David Macleod
Minister, North Harris Free Church
Our Community
North Harris is a community of approximately 1000 people comprising the communities from Seilebost in the west and Leac a’ Li in the east all the way to the border with Lewis. These communities are all rural crofting townships with the village of Tarbert acting as the commercial and transport hub of the island with a ferry service to Uig, Skye.
The main sources of employment are Fish Farming, Harris Tweed Industry, Tourism and the newly built Isle of Harris Distillery.
As a popular tourist destination visitor numbers during the summer months are significant and we warmly welcome many of them to our services.
Our Church in the Community
The Church is on earth to glorify God through the preaching of the Word and to act as ‘salt and light’ in a world that is in darkness without the light of Christ. In North Harris:
- We seek to be a church at the heart of the community, whose identity is in Christ, where we see and meet the needs of the community, through living out the gospel.
- We seek to be a church that is composed of all groups within our community.
- We seek to be a church that is fully informed of the needs of the world and that supports the worldwide church through praying, giving, and sending those called to spread the gospel in other lands and to un-reached people groups.
Our Mission and Vision
Our vision for North Harris Free Church is:
A gospel-centred, prayer-focussed church, seeking to make and develop disciples who will model Christ, acting as salt and light within the local community and beyond.
The Mission of North Harris Free Church is:
- To ensure that the preaching of the good news of Christ is central to the ministry of the congregation and that prayer underpins everything that is done.
- To ensure that we remain dependent on God and focussed on walking according to His will and purpose for us, as a congregation of His people.
- To recognise the importance of our calling as disciples of Christ to go and make disciples. This gives us the twin points of focus:
- Reaching out with the gospel to the local community
- Developing and supporting those who leave home and family for the sake of the furtherance of Christ’s Kingdom both at home and abroad
- To commit to training our young people within our Sunday School and Youth Fellowship to grow in the knowledge of the Lord, that they may know truly what it is to ‘remember their creator in the days of their youth’.
Our Denomination
North Harris Free Church is a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland. It is a Presbyterian congregation, one of 19 congregations that make up the Presbytery of the Western Isles. This Presbytery is in turn part of a number of Presbyteries representing the whole of Scotland allied to a number of other congregations beyond the Scottish Border.
Further details about the Free Church of Scotland can be found via the link below.