Free Church minister quits

Well-known Free Church minister Rev Kenneth Stewart is quitting the Free Church over the controversy to introduce hymns and music into worship services.

Rev Stewart - a fierce critic of the hymn-singing move - has resigned his post as a minister and would also sever his links with the denomination.

Crucially, the North Uist-raised preacher is not expected to lead a split in the church nor encourage his congregation to follow him though he will highlight his own reasons for going.

He is expected to seek a new home as a pastor in another Scottish Presbyterian church.

His actual departure date has not been revealed.

Glasgow Presbytery has established a panel to oversee a reflection process and allow him a neutral opportunity to withdraw his resignation. However, Mr Stewart appears to have made his mind up.

Formerly at Stornoway and Scalpay and, for almost the past ten years or so, at Dowanvale Free in Glasgow, the 47-year-old feels his position as minister is untenable given the determination of so many in the church to drive ahead the contentious change.

Mr Stewart believes the dramatic swing is unconstitutional and breaks his ordination vows.

He feels the church is abandoning its constitutional heritage and, with little chance of its reversal, it leaves him with no option but to depart.

He also feels the manner of the radical vote breaches church law and went against the advice of the Assembly Clerks.

In November, Mr Stewart took a two week leave of absence to examine his conscience and contemplate if he should continue after a unique Plenary Assembly decided to break the Free Church of Scotland’s 100-year-old tradition of instrument-free, psalm-only singing.

In the seminal change, its governing body voted by a narrow majority of just 14 to permit individual congregations choose to move away from its strict tradition of singing only unaccompanied psalms.

Mr Stewart returned to the pulpit intending to challenge the General Assembly over the issue at its May gathering.

But on Tuesday he informed the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow and Argyll that he was to quit.

Some 200 ministers and elders voted 98 to 84 in favour at the historic forum in Edinburgh three months ago - the first since the denomination was created in 1843 when it split from the Church of Scotland.

In an unusual move, over 30 members at the session, including Mr Stewart, insisted on recording their dissent from the decision.

The minister is a very popular capable pastor in Glasgow Highland circles. In addition to the resident Glasgow and settled Gaelic community, many young students from Skye and the Western Isles attend services at Dowanvale while studying in the city.

His congregation worships in the former Partick Highland on Dowanhill Street, not far off Byres Road and surrounded by traditional tenement flats, many occupied by an exiled Hebridean population.

Rev Stewart comes from Grimsay, North Uist. His wife Anna is from Lewis. The 47-year-old has served in Free Church pulpits in Scalpay, Canada and Stornoway before ministering at Dowanvale for the past decade.

Minister quits Free Church over hymns row 2/2/11