Congregationalism in Scotland

Congregational Union
There was an attempt by Cromwell to grow Congregationalism in Scotland over the 8 years of Occupation. But it was not until late 18th century that the churches grew, under the labours of the Haldane brothers. When the brothers took on Baptist principles from 1808 Baptists received great benefit from the work of the Haldanes as well.
James and Robert Haldane were committed to itinerant ministry in Scotland from 1797. They were descendants of the Gleneagles family. Robert was in the navy and then spent some time studying from home in Airthrey Stirling. James was involved in the East India company. After reading about the Baptist Mission in India Robert was inspired to use his time and resources to missionary service. James had been successful with John Campbell in setting up Sunday Schools in the west.
In 1797 after James discovered his preaching ability he embarked on a exhibition to the North of Scotland and Orkney.
During the next year they sold Airthrey for £46,000 and decided to devote their time to spread the gospel. They did not hesitate to criticise any defective teaching from parish ministers. This provoked the church and the assembly to pass an act in 1799 restricting the preaching to ministers.
Having trained 200 lay workers and set up churches the running costs amounted to £70,000 after 11 years. At one point the Haldanes as supporters of the British and Foreign Bible Society (now known as The Bible Society of England and Wales) stopped supporting it because they were issuing bibles with the Apocrypha in it.
Greville Ewing (1767-1841) born and educated in Edinburgh after education at Edinburgh university began as Assistant Minister in lady Glenorchy Chapel (Church of Scotland but not under its jurisdiction). Like the Haldanes he was moved to mission work. In 1802 the Haldanes and Ewing split under a differing opinion as to apostolic leadership. Whilst the Haldanes withdrew support for the Bible Society regarding its unconstitutional printing of the Apocrypha, Ewing worked behind the scenes to obtain the society's policy reversal.
On 1 of April 2000 the Scottish Congregational Union joined the United Reformed Church making a UK denomination.

Other roots of the Scottish church

Berean Church- John Barclay 1734 1798

John Barclay of Fettercairn was from the Church of Scotland and leader of a small connection Congregational in principle in 1772. It was not great in the national context but, it is worthy to mention that in Perth the gathering, Berean Church based on Acts 17 "Mortgaged their meeting place to supply the want of the poor". Churches were also present in Crieff, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose and Brechin.

Today in the USA there are Berean Churches both of Presbyterian and Baptist practice.


Morisonian Church

James Morison of Kilmarnock was a minister of the United Secession Church who made a mark for himself while the country was steeped in Calvinistic theology preaching atonement that was universal. He became more and more Arminian. On trips to America he was warmly welcomed for his new stance against Calvinism. In the church case against him by the USC it transpired that his thoughts and teaching were based on his old professors John Brown and Robert Balmer who tried to protect him. Deposed of his charge in 1842 the 1840,s saw the shaping of his theology against the Calvin stance.
Abstinence from alcohol was one of his rules.
His theology had an effect not only in the USC but also Independents A few similar churches banded together . One such Church was ministered by his father Robert Morison. These churches took the name of the Evangelical Union and with in 50 years there existed 100 churches. Francis Johnstone followed his theology as did William Landels who became a prominent Baptist succeeding Johnstone in Cupar.
The three "universals" for Morison were:
The Universal...
Love of God
atonement
work of the Holy Spirit.
With no specific connection to Erskine, Irving or Macleod Campbell, Morison was an early Revivalist!

Check your machine for readiness for Vista!?

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By Christmas you will be sick of hearing about Vista. If you want to check your machine for readiness then Microsoft have a tool to download and check your machine.
Click to go straight to Microsoft.

Acolytes ...bring them back?

Again and again throughout history we see that practice has been distorted or lost e.g. It is ironic that in a Presbyterian or non Presbyterian Independent circle we hear frequently of Bishops, Presbyters, Elders and even Deaconesses, yet in the Church of AD250 below this level of authority there were Sub-Deacons, Acolytes, Exorcists, Readers and Janitors! (I am not aware of many current Acolytes in the Presbyterian or Independent circles, are you?) Acolyte

How many Acolytes in your church?

Simple question to all those knowledgeable people out there...
How many Acolytes in your church?

Modern approach to Church

In an age after the post-modern era the structure and communication of the Church to the unchurch, to be effective, requires a total re-think. This is particularly hard for the Highland Presbyterian churches who work from a dated template that in some quarters has lost its relevance. Activities to the unchurch that worked say even 20 years ago will not work these days. While the message must stay the same, and there was a danger in the 1970's that the method change messed up the message (not a problem now) the presentation must be appropriate to the audience and age. In a culture of switches, electronic media, i pods and downloads, there is a clear need for a professional presentation to the masses that engages them before they even enter a church building.
When the large PLC market a new brand or product hours and hours of getting there message across and the need for the product goes before the product launch. The hype for X-box 360 started before a box had been created.
I would suggest that today the norm should be power point presentations to support the preaching and words for all praise on visual screens.

Golspie gardens...2000 Biblical

2000 Biblical Garden
A couple of weeks ago we headed to Golspie and had a look around the Biblical Garden. I came across plants I had never seen before. Some strange plants and herbs.




September is well upon us and the garden will now start its downward trend as plants start the hibernating for the winter.

The seasons, certainly in my mind, help to change the outlook visually. The bright spring the colourful summer the golden "fall".
I wonder how many actually visit the 2000 Biblical Garden in Golspie. Is Golspie still a village /town that could expand? It has a golf course a shore line a promenade.




I seem to be drawn to old tractors for some reason. There are so many in the north in all corners. Rogart has its fair share of heritage vehicles.

Duff continued 2

The Church of Scotland's first appointed missionary to India was Alexander Duff (1806-1878). Born in Moulin in Perthshire his academic career was at St Andrews. He carried off the top honour for Greek Latin. Logic and moral philosophy. He also gained the essay prize for best translation into Latin of Plato "” Apology to Socrates". He was indeed a excellent scholar. He was indebted to the encouragement of Dr Thomas Chalmers who took up the post of professor of moral philosophy in 1823. It was Chalmers, the most prominent evangelical in Scotland who later became a national leader that inspired Duff in to the mission and its work in the church. It was Doctor Ferrie of St Andrews who proposed Duff as the first missionary of the Church of Scotland in Calcutta. Duff felt at this time in 1829 ready to be sent to India. Before departing for India he was married to Anne Scott Drysdale (July 1829) and ordained on the 12 August of that year. Next month Duff and his new wife boarded the Lady Holland at Leith for London and on route the trials started with a ship wreck off Cape Town with no loss of life. They continued later on the Moira which also had difficulties after a cyclone, which left them all having to wade, to shore through the undignified mud of India.
At a little over 24 and two narrow escapes not to mention the many dangerous escapes as a youth Duff was obviously being preserved to carry out the mission work. Duff the educationalist went on to attract the attention of many including the governor of the East India company and indeed Gladstone. He was the founder of the University of Calcutta. It is unfortunate that his efforts on education and mission have been neglected in the last 100 years. He had several travels back to Scotland and it is noted that in1839 he raised the foreign giving for mission from £1200 to £ 7,538.
On one return to Scotland Duff found himself on the middle of the debate that would grow into the Disruption. In early 1843 he was still silent on how he would act in respect to his loyalty to the mission, church and conscience. He in due time sided with the Free Church and was instrumental in raising the first endowment and to become the first professor of the Free Church College Edinburgh of Mission and Education.
In 1871 Lord Shaftesbury wrote to Duff asking if his name could be added to the list of vice-presidents of the Bible society. Duff was highly honoured and accepted. His life had been a life of many seasons in Scotland in India, married and widowed early. He also advocated the mission work outside of Scotland.
It is unfortunate that Alexander Duffs contribution to the church, abroad has not been greatly recognised. At his death the tributes showed what a godly man he was- Gladstone acknowledged his intelligence energy devotion and spirituality and likened him to William Carey.

Dingwall Baptist Church

Dingwall Baptist Church ...well their building to be accurate!
A Non-Presbyterian Evangelical Church in the Highlands.

Mission for Scotland from Scotland ... the start

Scotland's mission awareness started in 1790 but was developed greatly during the 19th century. That century was dominated by the Westminster Confession and its emphasis on the doctrine of election by the Moderates. It was the preaching of the evangelicals towards conversions that accelerated mission. As far away as New Zealand and the American Indians people heard of the God who had provided Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. There was also a need to tackle the Paganism in the African and Indian countries. When Missionary Societies were formed during this period they initially got a poor reception in Scotland.

In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed and in 1805 the Glasgow Bible Society followed in 1807 by Port Glasgow and Greenock. It was in 1809 that the Scottish Bible Society was formed by founding Church of Scotland ministers in Edinburgh. During that same year the Edinburgh Bible Society was instigated by minority churches. Missionary Society work was focussed in countries less hostile like Jamaica. Workers were paid little living expenses and encouraged to stay “single to save on costs!
It is only as we look back from our perspective that we see Britain's enthusiasm in mission and concern for the lost and its contradiction in encouraging slavery. Many names go down in history as forerunners in the spreading of the Gospel abroad, Livingstone, Slesser, Moffat, Mitchell, Savalle, and Duff. Duff requires specific mention.

Alexander Duff

Steve Irwin gone ....!

Sorry to hear of Steve's death. The man who wrestled with crocks is ironically killed by a fish. What he did have was tenacity for life, took plenty of risks.....but was extremely safety minded.

Burgh /Anti-burgh

Burgh /Anti-burgh
In 1745 the seceders started to debate whether the burgess oath might be legitimate.
The oath was an acknowledgement of the true religion professed with in its realm. By 1747 they had split into burgh (for the oath) and anti-burgher. The anti burghers took the burghers to the church bar, and when they were never turning up they were in turn deposed and ex-communicated. In 1795 a large problem came to a head over subscription to the Westminster Confession.

Westminster Confession
While most independent churches would avoid confessions, creeds or formal documents as to the basis for constituting a church within the Church of Scotland and future Presbyterian splits leaders over the years struggled with the need of a defending statement that would stand the test of time and accommodate modern change yet not dilute the basis of the church and the truth. An "Athenian Creed" was offered by John Witherspoon to stop the easy-going way of the moderates in the church. This document had a feel of Deism and this may have annoyed the moderates (Deism- God created the earth but does not intervene in the course of nature and human affairs.), especially when Deism does not recognise miracles. The moderates were unable to write a distinct theology because they were bound by the Westminster confession (They could not publicly denounce it).

In 1766 Alexander Ferguson of Kilwinning in a "Scots magazine" article maintained that no church had a right to impose a detailed confession except in so far as it could be justified by scripture. Subscription to the confession therefore, at that time, must be made not that it is absolutely true but only in as far as it is scriptural.

Ferguson was making steps for a more liberal theology but with important grounded Christian doctrine. This was a step more spiritual than parliament had anticipated. It had enacted the confession only for a test of Presbyterian conformity. Twenty years later Dr William Gill took the process further by using fresh language to highlight doctrine in "A practical essay on the death of Christ".

The outcome was a polarisation of Moderates on the one hand teaching tolerance and good conduct as needful more than precise theology- all this as the age of Enlightenment dawned.
The rest supported by David Hume who saw the Moderates theology as weak and dependent on miracles. Hume was from a classical education and relied on those classics as his basis for thought. Although brought up in the same geographical area of Edinburgh as Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, Hume, was from a different outlook of intellect no miracles and of the world of new thought. In his “Treatise of Human Nature” he set out a philosophy -which ends up at a dead end, in as much as he had no positive conclusion apart from nothing really changes.

Auchterarder creed
At a time when the church was suspicious of the Westminster confession, most likely concerning the thought that this confession might contain heretical thoughts, members of the presbytery of Auchterarder, created a question and answer system for a new student of the ministry. The statement put to him was " It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin, in order to our coming of Christ, and instating us in covenant with God." The probationary young student failed to see that what was meant, in disguise was Christ died to save sinful men. The student appealed to the Assembly who upheld his case condemning the presbytery for its "Auchterarder creed" which evidently caused confusion.