Free Church Continuing drop appeal

The Free Church Continuing have decided to drop their appeal against Lady Paton's judgement in their case against the Free Church of Scotland. Last year Lady Paton dismissed the FCC action and awarded costs to the Free Church of Scotland. The FCC appealed against that decision, but they have now dropped their appeal, on the grounds that they do not have the funds to proceed with it.

The FCC had been claiming the entire assets of the Free Church because they believed that their split from that denomination in January 2000 had been justified. The FCC were led by a small group of ministers who believed that the Church had not handled properly complaints against one of the Church's professors in the Free Church College, Edinburgh.

The FCC are also putting forward proposals to the Free Church for the resolution of difficulties over local church properties - church and manse buildings.

Free Church spokesman, Rev Alex J MacDonald, said, "We are pleased that the Free Church Continuing have dropped their appeal. We are thankful that the vast majority of the Church's resources are no longer under legal threat and can go on being used for the work of Christ. We hope that local difficulties may be speedily resolved, but recognise that this may be hard to achieve."

It is understood that the FCC proposals will be discussed before the end of the month.