Press Release

It is with a sense of great sadness and disappointment that the Free Church of Scotland has received the response of the Free Church Continuing (FCC) to the recent mediation between the two bodies. The FCC has rejected the agreement worked out between representatives of the two Churches with the help of John Sturrock QC of Core Mediation. Mediation was entered into in an attempt to find an alternative to the action the FCC has raised in the Court of Session against the Free Church.

Instead, the FCC Commission of Assembly has come back with a series of counter-proposals. These proposals include going to Court to determine whether the Free Church or the FCC is right in their understanding of the Constitution of the Free Church. As this is the nub of the Court case which they are pursuing against the Free Church of Scotland, the FCC are refusing to remove the threat of legal action and are therefore turning their backs on settling the matters under dispute by a process of discussion rather than by resorting to the Law.

The Free Church of Scotland profoundly regrets this decision of the FCC Commission and appeals to them to agree to the proposals submitted to them as a result of the mediation process, as a basis for withdrawing their Court action against the Free Church.

The agreement, worked out over 4 days of talks at Carberry Towers, included the proposal for the two Churches to recognise each other as separate Christian Churches. Consequently, the Free Church would recognise FCC ministers as ministers in good standing in a Christian Church, and as a result their ministers would no longer be regarded as suspended ministers.

The possibility of immediate reunion of the two Churches was ruled out because of the FCC’s insistence on “the right of continued protest” which the Free Church understands to mean the right of a dissentient minority to decide which issues are unconstitutional and to go on refusing to submit to decisions of Church courts and to go on campaigning until the majority agrees with them. But it was agreed that the two Churches could consult further on this issue.

It was also agreed that, although the Free Church could not give up title to its property, local arrangements would be encouraged whereby ministers of neither Church would be rendered homeless and whereby congregations of both Churches would have the use of suitable buildings.

14 September 2004

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Unless the FCC have a change of heart in the next few days, it looks certain that they are going to proceed with their Court case against us.

In spite of this discouraging news, congregations are urged to continue to conduct themselves in a Christian manner towards those with whom they disagree, and to pray without ceasing for an outcome that will be to the glory of the Lord Jesus and the advancement of His cause.