Church Extension Report

The Free Church of Scotland has two multicultural ministries in Glasgow. Rev Duncan Peters works in Asian Outreach among the settled Asian communities, and Rev Finlay MacKenzie heads up Service to Overseas Students (SOS), a ministry for the large overseas communities of students attending the Glasgow Universities.

Duncan Peters is ably assisted by his wife Christine who was born in rural India where her father, Dr Donald MacDonald, was surgeon in a Christian Hospital. Duncan is well respected amongst the Asian communities including the Muslim community, as he conducts interfaith dialogues. The multicultural services he leads in Govanhill are well attended by people of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim backgrounds.

Finlay MacKenzie and his wife Christine offer help to international students and asylum seekers through friendship, hospitality and limited financial support. They also encourage overseas Christians to follow Christ while living in Scotland without compromising with the prevailing standards of Western culture, and to be actively involved in good Church fellowships. In addition, their goal is to introduce other students to Christian faith, and if they come to faith in Christ while here, to equip them to persevere in their faith when they return home. Mr MacKenzie is also Free Church Chaplain to Strathclyde University.

The Committee also oversees church planting. At present the Church is supporting three widely diverse new congregations. In Cobham in Surrey (a church plant from the long time Free Church presence in London), Rev David Miller ministers to a growing multicultural church with a large South African section. In St Andrews, Rev Alasdair I Macleod heads up a team establishing a church with a large student component, but seeking to establish a stronger base in the local community. In South Uist and Benbecula, the church continues to grow under Rev Iain MacAskill’s ministry, serving the community through a Road to Recovery alcoholism ministry and youth work.

New projects are also being presented to the Assembly for approval. A church plant in Dunfermline, led by Rev Chris McCune of the Presbyterian Church of America, under the auspices of Kirkcaldy Free Church, has reached the stage where permission is being asked to call a minister. In Kingussie, a small congregation which has been through difficult times, is being presented for Redevelopment status. Mr Angus MacDonald, the resident lay preacher, and a joiner by trade, is retiring after overseeing the building of an new church and manse complex. The new Church is known as Badenoch Free Church and seeks to serve a wide area of Strathspey.