Cross Denominational Mission
Part
of the Scottish Church seceded (divided) from the Church of Scotland in
the Disruption of 1843. It called itself the Free Church of Scotland. The
Free
Church was formed by Evangelicals who broke from the Church of
Scotland in protest against what they regarded as the state's
encroachment on the spiritual independence of the Church.
The first
task of the new 'Free' Church was to provide income for the initial 500
ministers and places of worship for the congregations. From 1843 this denomination hoped to be
the national church of the Scottish people, and set the
ambitious task of establishing a representation in every parish in Scotland
(except in the Highlands, where this proved difficult.) The church building programme produced 470 new
buildings within a year and over 700 by 1847. Manses and over 700
schools soon followed. This program was made possible by extraordinary
financial generosity, which came from the Evangelical awakening and the
wealth of the emerging middle class. The
Free Church created a
Sustentation Fund, the brainchild of the church's founder Thomas
Chalmers, congregations contributed to this according to their
means, and from this fund all
ministers received an 'equal dividend' and provided a modest
income for 583 ministers in 1843/4, and by 1900 was able to provide an
income for nearly 1200. This sharing and centralisation of resources
was
previously unknown within the Church of Scotland. However the Church of
Scotland later adopted this.The educated ministry was seen as important within the
Free Church, but because the Church of Scotland controlled the
divinity faculties of the universities, the Free Church had to set up its own colleges.
New College was opened in 1850. Christ's College and
Trinity College followed later. The first generation of professors were
enthusiastic proponents of Westminster Calvinism. This did not last long, as theologians such as Dr A. B. Bruce, Marcus Dods and
George Adam Smith began to teach a more liberal understanding of the
faith. 'Believing criticism' of the Bible was a central approach taught
by William Robertson Smith. Attempts were made between 1890 and
1895 to bring many of these professors to the bar of the Assembly on
charges of heresy, which failed, with only minor warnings
being issued.
In 1892 the Free Church, following the example of
the United Presbyterian Church and the Church of Scotland, passed a
Declaratory Act relaxing the standard of subscription to the
confession, with the result that a small number of congregations and
even fewer ministers (mostly in the Highlands) severed their connection
with the church and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
In
1900 the Free Church itself divided, with a portion of it joining the
United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The enlarged United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland later re-joined the Church of Scotland
in 1929! The remaining part is what is known as the Free Church of
Scotland today. It is Presbyterian and Calvinist.
Links
Free Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland