Forgan Church 900th Anniversary

Newport-on-Tay Church of Scotland celebrated a very special milestone on Sunday 18th August. Newport was in the old parish of Forgan and 2024 is the 900th anniversary of a church in Forgan parish. To acknowledge and celebrate this anniversary an open-air service was held on Sunday in the kirkyard surrounding the old ruined Forgan Church.

The old church is situated at Kirkton on the back road to Tayport, and there has been a church on this site since 1124. The present-day ruins probably date back to the fourteenth century.

The old church was beautifully situated, but rather inconvenient, being at least a couple of miles from the scattering of cottages along the shore that made up the village in earlier times. By the mid-1800s the old church’s position was considered just too remote and in 1841 a new Forgan Church was opened, more conveniently sited on the Newport-Leuchars road. As Newport’s population increased in the late 1800s, a further church was built in the village, now Newport-on-Tay Church of Scotland.

The old Forgan Church and churchyard are carefully maintained by Fife Council and the service on Sunday took place in beautiful surroundings. It was blessed with a wonderfully sunny and warm morning, fairly unusual in this rather unpredictable summer. The service was led by Newport Church minister, Rev Dr Amos Chewachong. The congregation numbered between 50 and 60, ranging in age from 9 to 89, and arrived carrying picnic chairs! The hymns were unaccompanied, apart from by birdsong. They had been carefully chosen as ones well-known to previous generations, but also because most of them had been sung at the 800th and 850th Anniversary commemoration services.

The service was much enjoyed by all who attended, and the general feeling was that another 50 or 100 years should not pass before the event was repeated.