The Partick Free Church Continuing congregation has found a new home to worship in after losing a court battle to keep the Crow Road building in the Hebridean heartland of west end Glasgow.
From this Sunday, services will now be held within the Community Church on nearby Norby Road, Broomhill. However, the sermon at the first end of the day takes place at 1am because the resident congregation has its own service at 11am.
The Continuing occupied the Crow Road church since 2000 when about two thirds of the congregation broke away from the Free.
The smaller original Partick Free congregation moved into the Baptist Church next door but was successful in claming the property back after lengthy bitter legal fight which culminated with a ruling in its favour from the Court of Session last week. It earlier won back the manse
Both churches have many exiled Hebridean worshippers amongst the congregation.
Following the division in 2000, the Partick Free congregation has worshipped in the next door Baptist Church.
A Free Church Continuing (FCC) spokesman said: “The failure to reach an equitable
and God-honouring settlement in this instance is in contrast to what has taken place
among some other congregations affected by the division of 2000.
“Such a settlement seemed reasonable in the light of the fact that nearly two thirds of the original Partick congregation identified with the Continuing Church in the year 2000.”
He rejected any suggestion that the FCC was unwilling to “negotiate on the basis of offers” made by the Free.
He stated: “This is not the case, as has been made clear to the Partick Free Church of Scotland (FCS) minister and the FCS Board of Trustees. The legal action was raised in 2008 without any meaningful attempt by the FCS side to reach a settlement by negotiation.
“Subsequent attempts to prevent the matter being decided at law were unsuccessful because of the refusal of the FCS congregation to negotiate in a way, which recognised the needs of both congregations and the moral claim of the FCC congregation (the larger of the two parties in 2000) to a reasonable share of the property and funds.
“The demand was always made that the FCC drop from any defence at law. When the FCC dropped their defence, the most that the FCS side were prepared to concede was a half share of the funds in frozen bank accounts, equivalent to no more than 7%of the total value of congregational assets and property.
“It was this failure to negotiate in a true Christian spirit (unlike other congregations) that made it impossible for the FCC congregation to accept the arrangement in question.”
An ex-gratia payment of £50,000 now offered to the Free is on the “understanding
that this will not be used for their own congregational purposes but will be applied
to offset the legal defence costs incurred by the FCC denomination as a whole. This
was made clear to the other side's legal agents when the offer was accepted.”
The spokesman added: “It is an anomaly and a sadness to us in this whole matter that
the congregation which has now taken possession of the Partick Free Church building
is part of a denomination which in November 2010 adopted different principles and
practices from those that had been held by the post-1900 Free Church and which are
still maintained by the FCC and the congregation now ousted from the properties.”
Both congregations worshipped next door on Crow Road -