At Tiree Baptist we look forward to welcoming visitors throughout the year, but especially in the summer months we look forward to welcoming visitors to the island.

We are not a building, we are a family, a community
who want to glorify God by enjoying him forever.
On Sundays we would normally have gathered together at Baugh at 11:00am,
but life in Jesus is more than simply a Sunday Gathering, it is a 24/7 adventure.

Out of the ashes…..

On Boxing Day morning 2025, we woke up to the news that our lovely wee church building at Baugh on the Isle of Tiree had burned down. It was a burnt out shell...nothing was left but four walls, the Tiree Baptist Church welcome sign and a very charred Bible. A sad sight indeed.

We were, and continue to be, encouraged by the many messages sent to us as a church family, with one Bible verse quoted several times - Haggai 2: 9. 

The open Bible, which had partially survived the fire, had been badly burned and soaked by the firehoses, but in an attempt to see if it was a salvageable relic, it was carefully turned to the first open-able, legible page...Haggai 2...God had a message for us!

‘The glory of this latter [a] temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace.’

We had already been confident that although the building was gone, our church family was going to be fine, since the church is the living and active body of Christ, not a building. The building had been our base, a spiritual home and a resource to be used for the glory of God and the furtherance of his kingdom, but we had been able to meet for worship in the community hall of An Talla as a temporary home.

Through this passage in Haggai, God was speaking directly to us, reassuring us that there would be a new place for us, where there would be greater evidence of God’s glory; a place of refuge, where all who entered would experience God’s peace...a peace that passes all understanding; a Shalom peace, bringing total wholeness and  well-being.

That is our vision as a church, for both the people of God and the building which houses us...that we would give greater glory to God and help others to experience wholeness, through the saving grace of Jesus.

We thought it was timely to provide you with an update as there has been a bit of activity in the last few weeks and months, of which you may have been aware.

With God's guidance, we’ve been working through how we  re-establish a sanctuary, where we can meet together to worship God, to grow as a church family and to bring hope to our community.

We have formed a working group of people with a variety of skills, to deliver our vision for the building.

We have held a number of very positive meetings with various experts including the Factor and different architects(we are now in a position to appoint the preferred one). We’ve also had structural engineers on site to establish whether any of the existing building can be used, going forward.

All of this takes time, reflection and careful consideration - we are mindful that whatever we do will be passed on to future generations.

We have received the settlement from the insurance company and, whilst this is welcomed, it is clear that our costs will be significantly more. We are going to be applying to various external organisations to explore what financial support may be granted to us.  

A number of individuals have also approached us desiring to make a financial contribution and we are so grateful for this generosity.  In an effort to keep these gifts all together, we’ve set up a ‘Just Giving’ page for anyone who wishes to contribute.

We are also very thankful to those who have offered to clear the debris from our building before winter sets in…if you see activity in Baugh in the next number of weeks,  that's what's going on! 

We are thankful for all the support we have received from our island community. We are very much part of this community and keeping you informed is important to us.  We aim to provide a quarterly update for you in An Tirisdeach, along with our church website and Facebook page, so that everyone has the accurate and up to date information.

When we have formal drawings and options from the architect, we intend to host open events for the community to join us, to enable us to share them with you and for you to give us your feedback, so please watch out for those dates and come along - you’ll be warmly welcomed!

We live in a world of constant change which some folks find exhilarating and others, overwhelming…Living on this beautiful island does not exempt us from change. Many of you will be going through this individually and collectively…we can relate! Our prayer is that we can embrace change and that God would walk through the times of change with us and lead us into something new, which will bring glory to his name and bless our whole community.  

In peace,

Rev. Ruth Kelso

You will find the church presence on Facebook and YouTube