Home > United Free Church of Scotland
United Free Church of Scotland, a religious organization, representing the union made in 1900 between the Free Church of Scotland (except a dissentient section who separated off and retained the name of Free Church) and the United Presbyterian Church.The first moderator was Dr Rainy. The Free Church brought into the union 1077 congregations, the United Presbyterians 599; the revenue of the former amounted to £706,546, of the latter to £361,743. The missionaries of both churches joined the union, and the United Church was then equipped with missions in various parts of India, in Manchuria, in Africa (Lovedale, Livingstonia, etc.), in Melanesia and in the West Indies. The formula which was adopted allowed for development of doctrine, the candidate stating that he believes in the doctrine of this Church, set forth in the Confession of Faith, the Church being thus set above the confession. The Church has three divinity halls, at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, served by seventeen professors and five lecturers.
The minority of the Free Church who had refused to join the union lost no time in testing the legality of the act of the majority in entering it. Their summons, dated December 14, 1900, claimed that in uniting with the United Presbyterian Church, which did not hold the principles of the Free Church, the majority had forfeited the right to the property of the Free Church, which must be judged to belong to the minority who remained faithful to the principles of the Free Church and were that Church. In the Scottish courts the case was decided in favor of the union by Lord Low on August 9, 1901, and by the second division of the Court of Session on July 4July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. Events 993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized. 1054 A supernova is observed by the Chinese and Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For severa, 1902Events January-April January 28 The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie. France, Loisy's L'evangile et l'Eglise which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis February 11 Police beat up universal suffrage, it being held in both trials that the old Free Church had a right within limits to change its views and to do by its Assembly what had been done. The proceedings before the House of LordsThis article is about the British House of Lords. See also the historical Irish House of Lords. The House of Lords is a component of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also includes the Sovereign and the British House of Commons. The House of Lor on appeal were protracted by the death of one of the judges, which involved the necessity of a second hearing, and it was not till August 1Some entries on this page have been duplicates from June 28. The correct dates for such events need to be determined. August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. Events 527 Justinian I, 19041904 is a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). Events January 7 The distress signal " CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by " SOS. February 7 A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 that the verdict was pronounced. By a majority of five to two the House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of SessionThe Court of Session is the supreme civil court in Scotland. It is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal and sits exclusively in Parliament House in Edinburgh. The Sheriff Court is the other Scottish civil court; this sits locally. Although, allowed the appeal, and found the minority entitled to the funds and property of the Free Church. It was held that the majority of an independent church, adopting new standards of doctrine and ceasing to hold essential or fundamental doctrines of the church, forfeit the right to the property, which remains with the minority holding the church's original doctrine; also that the establishment principle was a fundamental doctrine of the Free Church, and that by entering a union on terms leaving that doctrine an open question, the majority had violated the conditions on which the property of the Free Church was held. On the plea that by the Declaratory Act of 1892Events January 1 Ellis Island begins accepting immigrants to the United States. January 14 Death of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Next in line is his younger b the Free Church had abandoned its doctrinal position, argument was heard, but the House of Lords did not decide.
Few legal decisions have occasioned so great consternation or such serious practical difficulties. At first sight it deprived the Free Church section of the United Church of all its material goods--churches, manses, colleges and missions, even of the provision for the old age of the clergy. It appeared to divert large amounts of church property from the uses for which it had been provided, and to hand it over to a body with which the United Church was deeply out of sympathy and which could have little prospect of making effective use of it. A conference held in September between representatives of the United Free and of the (now distinct) Free Church, in order to come to some working arrangement in view of the decision, found that no basis for such an agreement could be arrived at. Nothing remained but to invoke the intervention of parliament to put an end to an impossible situation. A convocation of ministers and elders of the United Free Church, held on December 15December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining. Events 687 St. Sergius I becomes Pope 1702 Forty-seven ronin, formerly in the service of Asano Naganori, assault the household of Kira Y, decided that the union should go on, and resolved to take every lawful means of appealing to the nation and to parliament to rescue the funds and buildings of the Church for the sacred purposes for which they had been provided. The Free Church could not refuse to consent to this, and in December a commission was appointed, consisting of Lord Elgin, Lord Kinnear and Sir Ralph Anstruther, to inquire into matters connected with the two churches, while the question of interim possession was referred to Sir John Cheyne, as commissioner, for inquiry and action. The commission sat in public, and after hearing evidence on both sides, issued their report in April 1905. They reported that the state of feeling on one side and on the other had made their work difficult. They had concluded however that the Free Church was unable in many respects to carry out the purposes of the trusts, which, under: the verdict of the House of Lords, was a condition of their holding the property, and that there was a case for parliamentary interference. They recommended that an executive commission should be set up by act of parliament, in which the whole property of the Free Church, as at the date of the union, should be vested, and which should allocate it to the United Free Church, where the Free Church was unable to carry out the trust purposes. The commission was to entertain suggestions which might be made to them for friendly arrangements.
The Churches (Scotland) Act, which gave effect to these recommendations, was passed on August 11, 1905. It contained a clause (No. 5) providing for the relaxation of subscription in the Established Church, parliament thus interesting itself in the affairs of all Presbyterian churches. The commissioners were those on whose report the act was formed, with the addition of two others. In October 1906 the commission intimated that the Assembly Hall, with the New College Buildings rind the High Church, were to be the property of the United Free Church, the Free Church receiving the offices in Edinburgh, and a tenement to be converted into a college, while the library was to be vested in the United Free Church, but open to members of both churches. After having occupied class-rooms in the university for two sessions, and held an assembly (1905) in another hail, the United Free Church in 1906 again occupied in its own right the historic buildings of the Free Church. All the foreign missions and all the continental stations were adjudged to the United Free Church. The allocation of churches and manses was a slow business, but in 1908 over 100 churches had been assigned to the Free Church. Some of the dispossessed United Free Church congregations, most of them in the Highlands, found shelter for a time in the parish churches; but it was early decided that in spite of the objection against the erection of more church buildings in districts where many were now standing empty, 60 new churches and manses should at once be built at a cost of about £150,000.
