About half the congregation of Stornoway’s High Church are quitting the Church of Scotland in protest over its decision to allow gay ministers.
The entire kirk session of elders has resigned while an estimated 200 members and adherents are expected to follow.
Worshippers are forming their own new congregation, presently being called the Stornoway High Fellowship.
The distinction of being called a fellowship rather than a church highlights their desire to come under the wing of a Presbyterian form of church government.
Christopher Martin, the former session clerk at Stornoway High and spokesman for the new congregation said: “Everyone is very sad at having to leave.”
He added: “This has been going on for so long and people feel there is no option but to leave friends and the building in which they worship in for many years.”
Worshippers felt the “time has come for them to go.”
He said the split was a “very peaceful move and with no animosity.”
The departing members opposes permitting gay ministers to freely preach. The row has been ticking away since when Rev Scott Rennie was appointed to an Aberdeen congregation in 2009.
From this weekend the breakaway congregation will gather in the Stornoway Primary School.
An interim “leadership group” has been established as an overall management committee which could take on the main functions of a kirk session.
Over the coming weeks, different preachers will fill-
Ultimately, it plans to join an existing Scottish Presbyterian church but wishes to continue as a single body of worshippers.
As a congregation cannot resign as a corporate group -
However, in a recent official ballot, some 236 communicant members and adherents of Stornoway High Church voted to split.
Some 103 people voted to remain while 121 worshippers did not respond to the formal consultation.
