Methodism in Victorian Shetland

Methodism arrived in Shetland in the 1820s, growing until 1866 and remaining relatively strong. It suffered from the handicaps of geography, the weather, poverty and the dictates of the fishing industry. Lay leadership was hard to find, ministers were overburdened, other denominations provided competition and emigration deprived the Methodist movement of talent. On the other hand, patronage, the work of James Loutit and the doctrines and institutions of Methodism provided advantages. Education and temperance drew in the young, the movement fitted into Shetland life and most fundamentally the Evangelical impulse and episodes of revival brought growth. Shetland Methodism became something exceptional: by far the most successful branch of the denomination in Scotland.