RECONCILIATION.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 September 1929, Page 8

RECONCILIATION.

REUNION OF SCOTTISH CHURCHES TO BE FITTINGLY CELE. BRATED.

(By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright.) (Australian Press Assn, and San.) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.l LONDON, Sept. 5.

Elaborate preparations arc being, made in Edinburgh for the celebration of the union of the Church of Scotland and the’ United Free Church, Theproceedings will last from September 30th to October sth, when thousand? of Scots from all parts of Britain and hundreds from the United States and the Dominions will witness a ceremony marking the end of the great disruption of 1853, when 470 ministers seceded from the Established Church and founded the Free Church.

The Free Church of Scotland became a .separate religious body in 1843, whew, by the Disruption, 396 ministers and professors withdrew from the Established Church of Scotland, the number afterwards increasing to 474. The ultimate cause of secession was the intrusion of the State in ecclesiastical matters, (‘specially in the appointmentof ministers, patronage having been revived in 1712, while right of rejection was in 1838 refused by the Court of Session and the House of Lords: civil courts had also power to reverse •judgments and censures of ecclesiastical courts, to interfere with or prevent services, and generally to coerce them in many ways. The immediate cause of the secession was the refusal of theCommons to redress any grievances of the Scottish Church in 1843. At the following Assembly, the protesting party retired, and, marching to Taafield Hall,. Edinburgh, held there the first Assembly of the Free Church, under Dr. Chalmers as Moderator. On May 23rd, the Act of Separation was signed, by which all benefices were surrendered. The doctrines and constitution of the Established Church were retained, except regarding State control, spiritual, independence being asserted.

The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland consisted of a section of ministers, office-bearers, members and adherents who seceded from the Prc« Church on the passing of tin* Declaratory Act of 1892, in which the Churck •declared what doctrines in the Confession of Faith were to be regarded as essential. The Act was merely explanatory, not obligatory.

The body existing under the name of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland from 1847 to 1900 was formed by the union of the Secession and Belief Churches, the immediate cause of the formation of the Secession Church being the restoration of the law of patronage, and of the Relief Church the declaration of the right of congregations to choose their own ministers.

A union was effected between theUnited Presbyterians and the majority of the Free Church in 1900, and thenceforward this was known as the United Free Church, The minority,, who did not join the union, retained the name of Free Church, and raised an action claiming the whole funds and property of the Free Church of Scotland. The, Scottish Courts decided in favour of the United Free Church, but the decision was reversed, by the Mouse of Lords, and the property and funds of the Free Churck section of the United' Church passed to the minority, who became known as the legal Free Church. After further legislation, church property was allocated between the two bodies. The small Church retained the old Presbyterian doctrines in their original form, and had some two hundred congregations, chiefly in the Highlands.

A movement, for the reunion of the United .Free with the Established ('lunch has been in progress in recent years, and lias now been consummated.