How the Free Church looks in 2023: Ministers in baseball caps, new churches and the hold of the ancient as Kate Forbes revives debate

At an old post office in a Dundee housing scheme, Sunday service is being delivered.

Rev Andy Robertson, 35, dressed in a baseball cap and a hoodie, is leading prayers at Charleston Community Church. The 35-year-old graduate in animation and computer arts is now a Free Church Minister and has returned from Edinburgh to live and work in the neighbourhood, which sits among the most-deprived 10 per cent in Scotland.

Addiction locked into the use of methadone, valium and crack cocaine is a big issue here, along with unemployment and mental health issues.

Charleston is one of the areas where the Free Church of Scotland has arrived in recent years. Five churches have opened in the past year alone – from the Highlands to the Borders – with a further 15 planned by 2030.

A woman praying in a church. Picture: Getty Images

Rev Robertson said: “A lot of people in Charleston are not going to go into the city centre to go into church and we shouldn’t expect that. People come in and see other folks that are like them. I think it encourages them, they think ‘maybe this has something to say to me’ and it is not just something that is middle class or removed.

“It doesn’t matter if we are in a cathedral or a post office. I’m just a daftie in a baseball cap. That would be my attire on a Sunday. I think if folk came in and saw me in a suit, they would think ‘this wasn’t a place for me’.”

Rev Robertson became immersed in Christianity towards the end of his degree when student life began to give way to "big questions” about his life and purpose.

He said: "I just started thinking of sort of big questions and wondering if maybe the world doesn’t exist just so I can have a good time.”

Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and candidate for SNP leadership, has been embattled over questions on how her membership of the Free Church would impact her voting intentions and policy direction. Picture: PA

After taking a course in Christianity, he said his world changed beyond measure. “Earth-shattering” is how he describes it.

“I understood what the bible calls grace, this undeserved favour from God and that there was this love, this transforming love. That was earth-shattering to me. I really want others to know this because it is so good,” he added.

The Free Church of Scotland, whose weekly followers add up to between 10,000 and 12,000 people, was set up following the 1843 Disruption of the Church of Scotland, when around 450 evangelical ministers walked out in protest at the state’s intrusion into church affairs.

As Kate Forbes MSP became embattled over how her beliefs as a Free Church member could impact her voting intentions and policy decisions, a debate surrounding faith and government – and where one begins and the other ends - has sorely revived.

Rev Ciarán Kelleher, minister of the Grace Church in Montrose, which is part of the Free Church of Scotland, said the church was growing its congregations as people sought "certainty and truth". PIC: Contributed.

Talk of the controversies has, however, been light in this part of Dundee, a city with the highest drug death rate in Scotland. One woman came into the church after trying to sell Rev Robertson her methadone script. Now, he says, while still struggling, she has developed a peace and hope and is “buzzing for Jesus” after being accepted without judgement.

He said: "Right now not many people have been speaking about Kate Forbes. I don’t know if that is because politics isn’t a huge talking point among the people here. They have struggles in their life, and that is more pressing. Or we might speak about their triumphs, if they have got a job or had a good week.”

In the Free Church, the Bible is king and the word of God. Parts of the Old Testament were written as far back as 1,200BC with the ancient texts believed, in their entirety, in 2023. As society evolves, often painfully, God's word never changes to those who believe. It is both timely and timeless.

Rev Robertson said he could – “of course” - understand why people were upset after Ms Forbes said she would have voted against gay marriage because of her faith, with the Bible stating marriage should be between one man and one woman.

Charleston in Dundee, a neighbourhood in the top 10 per cent most deprived in Scotland and where the Free Church of Scotland has recently set up. PIC: geograph.org/Val Vannet.

He said: “I never want anyone to be upset. I think that the bible’s sex ethic is different to our culture’s but there is so much that the Bible says about how we should live that all of us will struggle with. That is not to be used to condemn people.

"Nevertheless, the Bible’s sexual ethic is pretty clear on what it says, that sex should be between one man and one woman within a marriage.

"But our fundamental ethic in how we treat people is ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. That has to be the main way that we treat people as Christians but I wonder if we think that ‘love your neighbour’ means you have to agree with your neighbour.

"But I don’t think that is what love is. It’s about being willing to say ‘I have got this view, you have got this view’, we might disagree… but I still love you. I’d hope we could do that as a society.”

In the past year, the Free Church has “planted” churches in Tornagrain near Inverness , Helensburgh, Winchburgh and Galashiels with a renewed congregation meeting in the cinema in Montrose. A church is being formed for Edinburgh’s Spanish speaking community in Morningside with plans to go into new housing developments to the south of the capital, as well as Leith.

Rev Ciarán Kelleher, minister in Montrose, said the aim was to put “feet on the ground”, particularly in areas affected by long term unemployment and drug use.

Charleston Community Church in Dundee, one of the latest congregations to be built by the Free Church, which is based in an old post office. PIC: Contributed.

He added: “People are looking for truth, people are looking for purpose, people are looking for a stable hope and a new way of life. You had that word of the year last year: Permacrisis. I think a lot of people feel the world in flux, like it has gone out of control. People are looking for certainty. In the Post-Truth culture, people are looking for something that is real.”