WHO WE ARE
Our Team
Thurso, Interim Moderator
Rev Jerry Taylor
email | ministerthursonorth.fc@gmail.com
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Howard Stone retired as our minister of the congregation at the end of August 2025. The congregation is therefore now vacant. The Northern Presbytery has appointed Rev Jerry Taylor to be interim moderator (“proxy minister”) to oversee the congregation. Because Castletown is not sufficiently strong to have another minister the Presbytery plans to unite it with Thurso and North Coast Free Church. In November 2025, congregational meetings took place which approved of the plan. This will ensure that morning worship services in the village on the Lord’s Day continue. (Howard and Christine are still living in the manse until they find a home of their own so, meantime, Howard is helping out by taking services.) The Thursday Gateway café will also continue.
Jerry is passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and risen and engaging all ages with the Bible. He has previously worked with the Bank of England and the Church of England, most recently spending 12 years ministering in a small town and rural village in the East Midlands. He enjoys reading spy novels, following Aston Villa FC and being beside the sea. Jerry is married to June, who was brought up in Shetland with Orkney family roots too, and they have three sons, Magnus, Erlend and Olaf.
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Our History
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The congregation of Castletown and Community Free Church, situated on the north coast of Caithness in the Highlands of Scotland, can trace its roots all the way back to the Disruption of 1843 and the formation of the Free Church.
The minister of Olrig parish at the time was Rev William Mackenzie who, at great personal cost, left the Church of Scotland, along with most of his congregation, to be part of the ‘Church of Scotland, Free’. Being no longer able to worship in the parish church (today a ruin in the old cemetery), the people themselves constructed a building at the west end of Castletown.
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William Mackenzie continued as minister until he was succeeded by his assistant, Rev Alexander Auld. In 1900, Mr Auld became the only remaining Free Church minister in Caithness, when the majority of his colleagues throughout the country entered a union to form the United Free Church of Scotland.
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The Free Church congregation continued to use the building they had erected until 1963 when, under the leadership of Rev Donald Mackenzie, a new building was opened, built on the site of the old Free Church school. (Donald Mackenzie was also responsible for re-establishing the Free Church congregation in Thurso in the 1970s.) The congregation has subsequently been served by Rev Robert Bray, Rev Grant Bell, and our present minister, Rev Howard Stone.
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In 1980, the Olrig charge was united with that of Watten and Bower, and weekly services were held in both Castletown and Watten. This continued until the Watten church was closed in 2009. Consequently, the congregation decided to change the name from ‘Olrig, Watten and Bower’ to ‘Castletown and Community Free Church’.