A New Church for Scotland?

John Ross, who is a prominent Free Church of Scotland Minister currently serving in South Africa recently wrote a very thoughtful essy posing the question of whether recent developments in the Kirk might herald a new church for Scotland. He argues that it might be time for a union between the 'Confessing Churches' congregations of Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland. Here is an extract of his essay....

"On Sunday morning, 24 May, a large number of Church of Scotland people awoke utterly perplexed by their Church’s decision the previous evening. The General Assembly, by a huge majority of 326 to 267, had taken an unprecedented, if not entirely unanticipated, decision to approve the Aberdeen Presbytery’s sustaining a call from the congregation of Queen’s Cross Church to Rev Scott Rennie, a 37 year old divorcee and father, who lives in an open homosexual relationship.

The following day the BBC website focused on the emotional upset suffered by Mr Rennie, running the headline “Gay minister ‘hurt’ by church row”, whilst the Scotsman reported “Gay minister humbled by Kirk’s backing.” Hurt or humbled, or both, and I would not want deny his emotions, nor minimise them, many others were also deeply wounded that night. The over 5,000 members of the Church of Scotland who had signed the on-line petition of the Fellowship of Confessing Churches were grieved to the core of their souls by what had transpired.

In its pre-assembly statement, the Fellowship of Confessing Churches made it very clear that, in its view, by inducting into its congregations those living in relationships other than heterosexual marriage, the Kirk would be crossing a Rubicon into a moral, spiritual and theological wasteland, thus positioning itself outside “the fellowship of orthodox, creedal Christianity worldwide.”

The issue now confronting all those good and godly Kirk ministers, elders and members who subscribed to the petition is simply this, how, for the glory of Christ and his cause in Scotland, can they remain where they are? Does not the logic of their own argument mean that their position within the Church has now become untenable?

Saturday’s decision is not, however, a sudden, erratic, departure from “orthodox, creedal Christianity,” to quote the Fellowship’s statement. It is but the latest staging post on a long road strewn with the debris of all that is valued by orthodox, confession Christians. For over a century confidence in the cardinal doctrines of the Faith has been eroded; denial of the Bible as itself the Word of God, attacks on the miraculous and supernatural, doubts about the Trinity, reservations over the resurrection, qualms over the twin eternal destinies of heaven and hell have all been voiced by Kirk ministers without fear of restraint. For some, the ordination of women elders and ministers was to be the final straw, but the camel’s back has proved to be remarkably strong and has not yet buckled. Now this latest Assembly decision is set to test once more the resilience of the evangelical conscience, and I fear it will prove to be a hardy old faculty, well up to the latest challenge. The reality is, time and again, evangelicals have complained about departures for orthodoxy, and have even mildly protested against them, but have concluded, in words I have heard repeated ad nauseum, that nothing but nothing would induce them to leave the Kirk. Well, we will see.

Even without this latest debacle, the moral and spiritual landscape of Scotland is as bleak as ever it has been. Does this mean all is lost? Is the spiritual decline of the Scottish church now terminal? Of what significance is it that the twentieth century was the first century since the Reformation without national religious revival? And is that a sign that the candlestick of Christian witness is being removed? Are we one of the last generations of Scottish Christians? Will it perhaps fall to our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren finally to turn out the lights, lock the doors and watch the dust settle on a derelict Church, abandoned both by God and man?

The scale of the challenge now confronting evangelical and Confessional Presbyterians calls for nothing less than the redrawing of the Christian map of Scotland. It calls for the creation of a new Presbyterian Church made up of the Free Church of Scotland and the confessional congregations of the Church of Scotland, along with all others who desire to be reunited in wholehearted commitment to Christ, Scripture and mission. Of course there will be difficulties to overcome. An obvious concern for some Presbyterian churches is worship, using as they do the metrical Psalms alone. But that is an issue they would do well to concede, rather than sacrifice the greater principles of confessional Christian unity and national mission.

I would like to think that a new confessional Presbyterian Church in Scotland is not a fantasy of imagination but a vision glimpsed with the eye of faith. There can be no doubt that the deplorably shattered and fragmented state of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland is contrary to God’s revealed will and Scripture’s unambiguous insistence on Christian unity.

We are all too prone to justify our separate denominational existence by an emotional attachment to our heritage and traditions, an attitude that leads us to disparage the Bible’s call to unity. May I remind you of something Professor John Murray once wrote?

Though the diversity which manifests itself in differentiating historical developments might appear to make ecclesiastical union inadvisable or even perilous in certain cases, yet the biblical evidence in support of union is so plain that any argument to the contrary, however plausible, must be false.

We must reject of the fractious tendencies inherent in our history and engage with other Christians in a movement towards Confessional unity, where the People of God work hand in hand to heal and reunite the fragments of a torn and disordered church.

A reunited Scottish Church would make possible Columba’s vision of Christ’s Good News being carried to a pagan nation and souls won to God. It could secure Knox’s desire for reformation enabling our nation to hear the Good News uncomplicated by aberrant theology, both liberal and fundamentalist. Such a Church would facilitate Melville’s dream of a nation united under the supreme but kind and gracious headship of Jesus Christ. How wonderful if a Church existed able to recover the Christ-like compassion for the marginalised and excluded that led Thomas Chalmers to care for the urban poor and inspired Thomas Guthrie to provide education, nutrition and career training for destitute children."

Let us pray that the current crisis within the Church of Scotland might give way to a greater unity among our Presbyterian brothers and sisters around orthodox biblical Christianity. Let us stand as one Church of Jesus Christ in Scotland today. John Ross's full article can be found here
http://johnstuartross.wordpress.com/redrawing-the-christian-map-of-scotland/

A New Day for Scotland?

This year will see a highly charged debate at the Church of Scotland General Assembly, with some of our brothers and sisters in Christ from Aberdeen Presbytery appearing at the assembly to appeal against the Presbytery’s decision to induct a man who has openly declared himself to be living in a homosexual partnership.

A group of gospel men have set up an organisation called, "Fellowship of Confessing Churches" which has published a "Confessing Churches Covenant" and have developed a statement in support of biblical othodoxy. The Statement which can be found at www.confessingchurch.org.uk It seeks to urge commissioners to support the Aberdeen protesters, and also to support a motion being brought from the Presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye, which seeks Assembly support for a clear endorsement of biblical sexual morality:

“That this Church shall not accept for training, ordain, admit, re-admit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the Church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of faithful marriage between a man and a woman”.

This could be a major development for gospel churches across Scotland. This is not just about the Church of Scotland, the same kind of drift can be seen in many churches and denominations across Scotland and it is time to take a stand. It is time for a 'Scotland Gospel Partnership' to emerge around the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must not care more for our denomination than we do for the cause of Christ in Scotland. It is time for Gospel churches to stand together for the cause of Christ.

Please support this movement by signing up to this statement, which can be found at www.confessingchurch.org.uk please also pray that God would be honoured and glorified at the forthcoming General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and that God would have mercy on our land.