Senior Free Church minister quits over hymns row 31/8/11
► Rev Donald Macdonald’s resignation letter
A Lewis Free Church minister has quit the church in protest of the introduction of music and hymns into services.
Rev Donald Macdonald, who preached for decades at Carloway and is a past moderator
of the denomination, said he is thoroughly convinced that contentious policy to
drop the 100-
The Lewis man who has been a minister for 47 years is severing ecclesiastical connections with the Free and is joining the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland (RPCS) which now holds Sunday services at the Coulnagrein prayer house in Stornoway.
In November, some 200 ministers and elders voted 98 to 84 in favour of the new worship
policy at the rare historic Plenary Assembly in Edinburgh -
Mr Macdonald slammed the Western Isles Presbytery for “changing course” and “progressing the agenda for change.”
He stressed: “I feel that the Church, and especially my own Presbytery, now leave me no option but to resign from its ministry, notice of which I now, with great sadness and regret, submit, and do so without any sense of ‘violating any duty or committing any sin.’
In his resignation letter, Mr Macdonald said: “This has been the hardest decision
I have ever had to make and one that I never thought I would have to make -
“I have not come to my decision lightly or in haste. Neither am I motivated by a petulant and defiant spirit that cannot accept defeat: this matter is far too serious for such superficial and infantile reactions.
“I have come to this painful decision after much soul-
Mr Macdonald said the worship changes was “unscriptural.”
He said: “No new compelling biblical arguments have been produced in any of the debates.”
He believes the decision was “unconfessional and unconstitutional.”
Mr Macdonald criticises the new “sham” optional vows which is “supposed provision
for the relief of the conscience of any office-
He said: “That the Free Church for which our Fathers fought and suffered in the 1900s should come to such a sorry pass grieves me beyond words.
“I had hoped, along with many others, that this Presbytery would have taken a stand and hold the line but, sadly and unbelievably, this has proved to have been a vain hope.
“Not only has the Presbytery not withstood the onslaught, it has now headed the van
in progressing the agenda for change since it was the Overture from this Presbytery
that secured the approval of the Assembly for the supposed conscience-
“A wind of change has most certainly blown through this Presbytery in the past two years to such an extent that I can scarcely believe that it is the same Presbytery.
Though congregations can freely chose to shun hymns and musical instruments a large
number of parishioners strongly feel the church has broken church law and is abandoning
its constitutional heritage.
But Rev Kenneth Stewart, of North Uist and Glasgow, is now heading a brand new third congregation in the Hebridean area of Westend Glasgow. The church, the first new Scottish RP church plant in 140 years, was formalised on 22nd May.
A number of Lewis worshippers and elders have quitting the Free Church after its controversial introduction of hymns and music and are seeking to set up a Stornoway branch of a rival denomination.
A number of disaffected Free Church members have invited the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland (RPCS) to the island.