William Gibson Sloan

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William Gibson Sloan at the age of 73.

William Gibson Sloan (born September 4, 1838 in Dalry , Ayrshire , Scotland , † September 4, 1914 in Tórshavn , Faroe Islands) was an evangelist and revival preacher in Scotland , Orkney , Shetland and the Faroe Islands .

Life

William Gibson Sloan grew up in a weaving family . His parents were Nathanael and Elizabeth Sloane (also spelled Sloan ). The mother was born Orr.

Beginnings

The young William Sloan took up the job of a self-employed grocer and became involved very early in the abstinence movement , which brought him into contact with Christians of various backgrounds. Sloan, who at that time was still a member of the Scottish State Church , felt a particular closeness to the Brethren movement ( Plymouth Brethren ) , which was formed around 1830 . Like them, he attached little importance to external ecclesiastical organization. At the center of her ecclesiology and his later written ecclesiology was the community of those who simply assemble as brothers and sisters "in the name of Jesus", understand the Bible in its basic text as the revealed word of God ( verbal inspiration ) and on the guidance of the Holy Spirit trust. The expectation of the rapture of the “true church of Jesus” and the associated return of Jesus also played a major role in the teaching of the Brethren movement. However, while the Brethren movement placed its teaching emphasis on “gathering the believers from all churches and communities” and “ sanctifying them ”, Sloan also emphasized the need for revival and evangelism among people who are distant from the church and who are distant from the faith. As a 23-year-old, he started revival meetings in his birthplace Dalry and the surrounding area. These meetings took place in private apartments and houses instead and were kitchen meetings ( kitchen meetings ) called.

As a revival minister in the Shetland and Orkney Islands

Inspired by the evangelist Samuel Dodds from Belfast , Sloan gave up his job as a grocer and was hired as a colporteur by the Book and Tract Society of Scotland . In this capacity he visited the Shetland and Orkney Islands in 1863. In a large-scale operation, he temporarily converted halls, schools and living rooms into places of preaching and carried out revival meetings there with great success. At the same time, ministers Edward Stack and Collin Campbell were serving in this region . During this period, Sloan's personal Bible study led him to understand that infant baptism was against the New Testament . He therefore sought contact with the Baptist congregation in Lerwick and was baptized there in May 1864, but without becoming a member of the Baptist Church.

As a church planter in the Faroe Islands

During his successful career in the Scottish northern islands Sloan received reports on the ecclesial situation on the holding of the Danish kingdom located Faroe Islands . Special mention was made of the widespread alcohol dependence of the islanders and their broken relationship with the Sunday sanctification . Sloan applied to his employer for a six-week vacation and first traveled to the islands in 1865 - with moderate success. Back on the Shetland Islands, he joined the "Plymouth Brethren". Further visits to the North Atlantic archipelago followed. In 1879 Sloan moved to Tórshavn .

From the Faroese capital, Sloan began organizing awakening and evangelistic meetings in all places and settlements on the islands. For his sermons he first used the English language and a short time later also the Danish language through his translator and collaborator A. McDonald . In doing so, he soon came into conflict with the Lutheran state church . His criticism of her hierarchy , her frozen liturgy and the child baptism she practiced did not go without a hostile reaction from the state church , whose pastors were also the registrars. Nevertheless, Sloan managed to build a meeting house in Tórshavn in the year of his final arrival in the Faroe Islands, which served the Faroese Brethren movement he founded as a place of worship and at the same time as the home of the first Faroese Sunday school . The Faroese language was used more and more in sermons, lectures and in Sunday school lessons - in contrast to the state church, which preferred the Danish language.

The first baptism of believers took place in the Faroe Islands on October 31, 1881 . Sloan's wife was among those baptized.

After the founding of the Tórshavner Brethren Congregation, William Sloan visited all inhabited islands and settlement areas in the Faroe Islands. While only 30 Faroese felt they belonged to the Brethren movement around 1901, their number grew so rapidly in the following years that Christian assemblies of Sloan style were set up even in remote Faroese settlement areas. As early as 1911, the Brethren in the Faroe Islands had around 200 baptized members. Under the influence of Victor Danielsen , the religious community grew steadily. Today around 10% of the Faroese population are members of the Brothers' movement ( Brøðrasamkoma ; children and friends not counted).

William Sloan campaigned for the official reintroduction of the Faroese language while he was working in the Faroe Islands. His youngest son Andrew, who died in 1996 at the age of 100, continued his work.

family

William Sloan married Elsebeth (called: Elsba ) Isaksen í Geil on October 11, 1881 in Glasgow, who was born on January 21, 1867 . William and Elsba Sloan had six children: Poul (* 1882), Betty (* 1887), Archibald (* 1890), Cathrine (* 1892), Anna Elisabeth (* 1895) and Andrew (* 1896). Sloan's wife died on June 4, 1939.

Appreciation

The Faroese government erected a monument to William Gibson Sloan in Tórshavn. The Tórshavn Brethren Congregation House is also known as Sloans sal .

Fonts (selection)

  • Baptismal Regeneration and New Birth , 1882
  • The Government of Tongue , in: The Witness , 3rd year (1893/94)
  • Song 229 in: The Believers Hymn Book
  • Song 411 and 1019 in: Songbók Guds Fólks

literature

personal data
SURNAME Sloan, William Gibson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Evangelist and revival preacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Dalry , Ayrshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH September 4, 1914
Place of death Tórshavn , Faroe Islands