Churches in discord over hymn singing

THE introduction of hymns and musical worship is threatening to fuel further disharmony and legal action between two of Scotland’s most traditionalist churches.

THE introduction of hymns and musical worship is threatening to fuel further disharmony and legal action between two of Scotland’s most traditionalist churches.

The Free Church of Scotland underwent an acrimonious schism in 2000 when a number of ministers and congregations left to form a new sect.

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Since then, the staunchly Presbyterian church and the Free Church Continuing (FCC) have been at loggerheads over the ownership of churches and manses.

Last year, three judges upheld a decision rejecting the claim made by the breakaway faction and urged both sides to resolve their differences and end their feud.

Lord Uist ruled the only basis on which the FCC could have a legal claim to property was if the Free Church had departed from their fundamental principles.

But now the FCC has claimed their rival’s decision to overturn a century-long ban on hymn-singing has stripped them of their legitimacy and opened up the possibility of a fresh legal challenge.

A report that was put before the FCC’s General Assembly in Edinburgh last week claimed the Free Church had abandoned its long-standing principles of “purity of doctrine, purity of discipline and purity of worship”.

The document states: “It was argued in the committee that this new position disqualified the residual body from the right to sue for Free Church properties on the grounds that they were no longer the body which held to the fundamental principles as historically maintained hitherto in the Free Church of Scotland.”

The argument is now expected to be raised in negotiations over control of a church in Partick, Glasgow, in a case which is due to be heard in the Court of Session in October.

It is understood that the ownership of around 20 churches and manses, from Skye, North Uist, Harris and Kiltearn in the islands and Highlands to Shettleston in the East End of Glasgow, are still being contested.

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The FCC, which has around 30 congregations, has received donations and pledges of around £30,000 towards its legal costs.

An insider in the breakaway church claimed the Free Church’s unwillingness to negotiate or compromise had led to the possibility of another court challenge being raised.

He said: “The question is whether the present body claiming to be the Free Church of Scotland is identifiable with the Free Church of Scotland of 1843.

“There is a moderately strong argument that by their action the present body are no longer the same body they once were.

“There was a principle that underlay worship in the Scottish Church at the time of reformation, that it should be unaccompanied and using scriptural materials.”

In 2010 the Free Church, which claims to have around 5,000 members and around 100 congregations, narrowly voted to relax its rules to allow hymn singing and the use of instruments in its churches in a bid to attract new worshippers.

The Church, nicknamed the Wee Frees, had traditionally sung psalms unaccompanied because many members believed they were singing scripture rather than a human composition.

However, the move generated an angry backlash from more conservative worshippers, and last year six of the Church’s former moderators placed an advert of protest in a newspaper.

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It claimed the Church’s values had been seriously eroded by the “illegal” decision to depart from its long-established form of worship and even warned that those responsible would be held to account “on the Day of Judgement”.

Last September, Rev Donald Macdonald, who had dedicated almost 50 years of service to the Church, including a year as moderator, announced he would be leaving the denomination in protest.

Announcing his departure, he said: “I have not come to my decision lightly or in haste. Neither am I motivated by a petulant and defiant spirit that cannot accept defeat: this matter is far too serious for such superficial and infantile reactions.”

Two other ministers, Rev Kenneth Stewart of Dowanvale Free Church in Glasgow and Rev David Karoon of Arran, resigned from the Church over the same issue.

In 2009, Lord Uist found in favour of the Free Church in the Court of Session over the ownership of the church and manse in Broadford on the Isle of Skye, where the minister Rev Allan MacIver was part of the breakaway group.

On his retiral in 2007, the Free Kirk sought to retake the property but were rebuffed by the new minister.

In August last year, the decision was upheld by a panel of three judges.

Last night the Free Church said it was unaware of any attempt to challenge its legitimacy over the introduction of hymns and musical instruments.