The Scottish Highlands - Donald E Meek

How is the one gospel related to the many cultures of the world? This question, debated within the ecumenical movement from the outset, is the force of the World Council of Churches' 1996 world conference on mission and evangelism. In these short pamphlets, edited by Christopher Duraisingh, Christians from a diversity of cultural contexts describe and reflect on what it has meant for the gospel to be proclaimed and lived out within the setting of their own culture, thus pointing to both the richness and challenges of this encounter. Early missionaries saw the Highlands and islands of northern Scotland as a 'wintry region' inhabited by 'wild and uncivilized Scots' who needed to be subdued by the preaching of the gospel and the suppression of Gaelic language and culture. Yet from the 19th century on, Protestant churches in the Highlands embraced Gaelic as a medium of spiritual communication and forged a strong bond between language and a distinctive evangelical spirituality. How can these churches face the growing decline and rejection of this culture -- so much of which is of their own making -- in the changing world of today?