Link-up with Edinburgh University


The Assembly decided to accept the College Board proposal that the Free Church College be linked with Edinburgh University in order to achieve degree-awarding status. The Board felt that this would make our College much more attractive to private students and thus financially more viable. The Rev M J Roberts moved the following amendment against this: “The General Assembly postpone plans to finalise degree accreditation until such a time as the Church be in receipt of written confirmation that the University of Edinburgh will play no part whatsoever in the decision-making processes of the Free Church College”. Although this was not accepted we believe his speech and that of his seconder will be of interest to our readership.

The Rev Maurice Roberts
The purpose of this amendment is I think obvious. It reflects a concern felt, and of which I am aware, in our Church and on the part of many of its members. It is the fear that the changed situation in which our College may soon find itself may be one in which the absolute independence of the College would be lost. For 100 years our Free Church College has been independent of all formal connections with non-Free Church bodies, whether academic or ecclesiastical. The reasons why our fathers have been jealous of this independence are these:
  1. The extreme importance of the College as an institution in which the Gospel in all its fullness and purity may be taught to the Church’s future ministers.
  2. The existence of such a college as we have is very rare in our country and there is a reasonable fear that our College’s testimony might be weakened by this new association with this body. This liaison with the University would have serious implications for the Free Church as a whole, as well as for the College itself. The only way to reassure our people is by some such guarantee as my amendment envisages.
  3. Truth is fragile and vulnerable. If it should be that any institution not committed to our theology were to be given any influence in the decision-making processes of the College, the effect could only be to blunt the sharp edges of the Free Church’s testimony to the whole counsel of God as that is enshrined in our Confession of Faith. That is the very justifiable fear of some in our Church.
It is, of course, not inherently dangerous for a theological college to have degree-conferring powers, but it might be potentially dangerous if the larger institution (in this case New College) were to have some influence on the decision-making processes of our Free Church. If this were to happen it would surely pose a threat to the well-being of our Church as a whole.
It is for this and similar reasons that the policy of many theological colleges past and present has been never to have any link or connection with any institution which reflects a broad or a more liberal theology. Not without cause. History shows that colleges which have once been renowned for their orthodoxy may decline rapidly once they allow any influence from outside. Princeton Seminary in the United States would be a notorious case in point. Within a short time in the 1920s this famous seminary fell from orthodoxy into doctrinal confusion.
In proposing my amendment I am not ignorant of the fact that many safeguards have been built into the Minute of Agreement proposed between the Free Church College and the University of Edinburgh. Dr Ian MacIver as Chairman of the College Board has kindly drawn attention to these safeguards. For them one is deeply appreciative and grateful both to the Chairman and to the entire College Board. My motion, however, does reflect the concern felt by many in the Church that this process of validation is a move into the unknown and the unpredictable. So my amendment seeks – wisely and justifiably, I believe – to ensure that the Church does not enter into a relationship with the University without first having explicit written confirmation that the University will play no part whatsoever in the decision-making processes of the Free Church College.

The Rev William Macleod
The Rev William Macleod in seconding the amendment made the following points:
  1. The link-up with Edinburgh University will have no marked effect in the short term. However, it is very likely that in the next ten or fifteen years, modernistic liberalism will begin to permeate the College. A greater openness to modern theologies is being required. Our College is supposed to enter into dialogue with these. However Scripture recommends denunciation of false teachings rather than dialogue. It is amazing how quickly the great Free Church Colleges of the 1840s and 1850s descended into crass liberalism. It will be very difficult fearlessly to condemn the false teaching emanating out of New College if we are linked up to it.
  2. I notice from the Training of the Ministry Report that Free Church Principles and distinctives are not in future to be part of the core course (degree course). They will be treated as extras given to Free Church ministerial students just as Elocution and Psalmody were in the past. There is a general lack of enthusiasm for the distinctive teachings and practices of our Church. It does not help that we no longer have a Professor of Church History and Principles.
  3. The academic model is becoming paramount in preparing men for the ministry. Surely the spiritual and the practical are just as important and yet are in danger of being ignored and down-played in the quest for degrees. The Biblical model of ministerial training is an apprenticeship rather than the university.
  4. The whole process which led to the formation of the College Board was initiated as a result of a concern voiced by the late Rev Murdo A Macleod of Stornoway who asked the Assembly to examine the College to find out why it was that we were not producing better preachers. Surely it is obvious that the mere giving of a BTh. degree will not make a man into a better preacher.
  5. I believe that being distinctive and different rather than following other colleges and universities would attract more students to our College. Our College’s teaching should be Reformed, Biblical and richly experiential. We should concentrate on producing good preachers, pastors and evangelists rather than academics.


    Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the Editor.

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