They say we are leaving and have no right to property.
But that is just wishful thinking. We are the Free Church, and
love it, its doctrine, worship and discipline. We stand for it with
unashamed enthusiasm, to an extent that many in the majority Free Church
do not. We are the true spiritual descendants of the protesters of 1843
and the upholders of the valiant stand of 1900, far more than the majority
party. In a few short years if things continue as they are going, the
downward spiral in the Free Church will be plain to all. We are the
true Free Church and if they throw us out we will reconstitute ourselves
as such.
Stornoway Relief Free Church
Attendances have continued to increase with more than a hundred and
fifty people worshipping on the Lord's Day and some eighty folk attending
the midweek prayer-meeting. All who have preached there have expressed
their sense of God's presence. Those who have begun to attend have spoken
of the peace, blessedness and fellowship that they have enjoyed. The
congregation have been offered an attractive site on the outskirts of
Stornoway and hope to begin soon to build their own church. A prayer
meeting is also held weekly in Bragar Church, on the West Side of the
Island, and this may well become a separate congregation in due course.
Ness Relief Free Church
The Church here has again grown out of the desire of local people to
meet separately from the tyrannical majority Free Church which suspended
two of their oldest and most respected elders. These two men had committed
the "terrible crime" of going to hear the Rev Maurice Roberts preaching
the gospel. They meet in the Dell Community Hall and their numbers are
growing with some fifty to eighty attending on the Lord's Day.
Inverness
The Rev Maurice Roberts was suspended from the ministry for condemning
the hypocrisy and the wickedness that he had witnessed at this year's
General Assembly. He has continued to preach God's Word in Inverness
Royal Academy. Here some seventy to a hundred gather to listen to God's
Word each Sabbath. Those who worship there have stated that Mr Roberts
has preached with more liberty and blessing than for many years.
Aberdeen and Perth
Every Lord's Day services are held in Aberdeen at 11am and 6.30 pm and
on Wednesdays at 7.30pm. This group was formed after the unjust discipline
of the Rev Maurice Roberts and the other tyrannical moves by this year's
Assembly and its Commission. At present attendances are small but we
believe that in due course this congregation will grow. For further
information contact Mr and Mrs Murdo Mackinnon, Tel. 01358 722645. There
is also a small group meeting midweek in Perth. For further information
contact Mr and Mrs Alasdair Macleod, Tel. 01738 622942.
Shettleston
The Rev John Harding and his kirk-session were cited to appear before
the Glasgow Presbytery. They refused to appear because they demanded
that the Presbytery begin first to address the glaring breaches that
there have been of the Constitution of the Church. The Presbytery then
decided to suspend (indeed depose) the minister and elders. The Commission
of Assembly supported their action. The following Sabbath, the Rev John
Mackay, St Vincent Street, and five elders arrived to take over the
church and to preach it vacant. They were refused entry and instead
read some statement outside and then left. The Sabbath services proceeded
as normal.
Portree
Just previous to the December Commission a congregational meeting was
held in Portree so that the congregation would have an opportunity to
express whether they were prepared to stand with their minister should
the Commission suspend him from the ministry. Despite the bad weather
it was a well-attended meeting. Thirty eight members voted with the
minister and fourteen against. Since then several other members have
said that if they had been able to be at the meeting they would also
have voted with their minister. The adherents were divided equally.
Lochcarron
Here the minister, the Rev David P Murray, requested of the elders that
a congregational meeting be called to inform his congregation of the
background to his impending suspension, to give them an opportunity
to air their own views, to ask questions and to vote on whether or not
they would continue to support him when he is suspended on the 19th
of January. Both elders refused to allow such a meeting. This means
that when Mr Murray is suspended he will have to leave Lochcarron and
the congregation he dearly loves.
North Uist
A congregational meeting was held here and it was clear that the majority
of the members supported Mr Gracie in his stand for truth and justice.
In what appeared to be an effort to undermine this support, a meeting
was organised in North Uist under the auspices of the Western Synod,
with a panel of four Lewis ministers which included the Rev K Stewart,
Stornoway, a former member of the congregation. This meeting tried to
pretend that there was nothing seriously wrong with today's Free Church.
It was plain that the panel were not prepared to answer some awkward
questions. The evangelist, who comes from North Uist but was appointed
to work among the Roman Catholics of South Uist, has proved a destabilising
influence by moving the centre of his work northwards.
Rev Kenneth Smith
Mr Smith is a respected, retired Free Church minister. He has given
good service to the Lord and to our Church in several different congregations.
Recently, becoming increasingly unhappy with the way the majority Free
Church is behaving, he has attached himself to the Stornoway Relief
Free Church and has taken part in some of their meetings. The Lewis
Presbytery, angry at the support he has given to the Relief Church,
have cited him to appear before them. He wrote to the Presbytery to
say that he could not appear because of ill-health. He suffers from
Parkinson's Disease. One would have expected any reasonable presbytery
to have left it there, but not so the Lewis Presbytery. They display
amazing vindictiveness in the way they are pursuing a sick man. They
have written to him demanding that he appear before them at their next
Presbytery meeting.
Harris
The Rev Murdo A Macleod, minister of Harris and interim-moderator of
Scalpay, is being libelled by the Lewis Presbytery and is due to be
tried at their meeting on the 18th of January. They are angry that he
will not yield unquestioning submission to their demands. Earlier this
year he pointed out some inaccuracies in a statement that the Presbytery
required all ministers to read out to their congregations. He was prepared
to withdraw what he had said if the Presbytery would show him any error
in it. The Presbytery however would not consider the substance of what
he had said and simply required unthinking obedience. As he is a faithful
and hardworking minister, many are appalled at the treatment he is receiving
at the hands of his fellow-presbyters. It is sad to think of this young
man, his wife and babies, about to be put out on the street by ruthless
and unconstitutional actions of the Presbytery of Lewis. There is a
day of reckoning ahead for all those destroyers of the labourers whom
God has sent into His harvest fields.
Any comments or questions please E-Mail
me or Rev William Macleod
the Editor.
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