Free church of scotland

[weegie]

Im doing a project on the Free church of Scotland, is there anything anyone could tell me anything about them. I have been researching it extensivley and am ery excited about what ive found out. Definatly a organisation that did and is flying the flag for the highland and gealic traditions.

I would love any sort of information, feelings, or good work that the church has done..... just anything?? are you a member of the church if so i would love to talk to you, (just PM me)

waiting in response........ MARYANNE

[pinotnoir]

weegie, you may already know this but if not it may help satisfy some of your needs, John MacLeod has written extensively on religion in the Highlands, including having authored the books 'Banner in the West; a Spiritual History of Lewis and Harris', 'Highlanders; A History of the Gaels' and 'No Great Mischief If You Fall; Highland Experience'.

[pinetrees]

If you would like any information locally, feel free to contact Kenny Macleod, the Free Church minister in Thurso - tel. 01847 890322. You can also check out our website www.thursofreechuch.org

[Sporran]

Here's the correct link:

http://www.thursofreechurch.org/

The 'r' in church was omitted in the last one, so it doesn't work.

[pinetrees]

Thanks Sporran - sorry about that!

[weegie]

Thanks everyone so far for the help , I have already spoken to J Macleod and made use of some of his resources but any further help will be greatly appreciated .

[Whitewater]

Don't know too much about the free church, but it became very strong in Scotland during and after the Highland Clearances. It was the only church that protested about the clearances and supported the poor people who were chased from their land.

[Melancholy Man]

Don't know too much about the free church, but it became very strong in Scotland during and after the Highland Clearances. It was the only church that protested about the clearances and supported the poor people who were chased from their land.

Considering that its Disruptionn wasn't until 1843, that's quite a feat!

[davie]

I have nothing against the Free Church but to say that they are an organisation that "did and is flying the flag for the highland and gealic traditions" is stretching things just a little.

[Melancholy Man]

Yes, Davie, it's up there with the nonsense that the Scottish Episcopal Church is the "English Church", and not a Church in the Anglican Communion shorn of the weird proto-atheistic left-wing cult that the Church of England appears to favour (and which ordained the first bishop in the Episcopal Church of the Americas, Samuel Seaward, in 1784 'cos it didn't require a pledge of loyalty to the British monarch).

In 1995, the Church of Scotland which is/was the inheritor of Hanoverian Scotland had the audacity to turn it (and the Roman Catholic Church) away from Culloden commemorations 'cos these were "a Scottish matter".


Clearances were still going on well after 1843

They started before 1843 when the Free Church traces its formation to and when Whitewater explicitly said it was opposing the Clearances. I would also question his assertion that it was the *only* Church to do so (being charitable, I'd not question that it did). Finally, I'd love to see justification for reasonably drawn inference that this Disruption was inspired even tangentially by the "Clearances".

I put it in inverted commas as some of the romantic received wisdom spoken about them is that they were a formal policy and not an organic process which was being repeated across all the U.K. and Europe during the Industrial Revolution.

I object to the fascistic thought which portrays them as a uniquely iniquitous act perpetrated against a pre-lapsarian society at the behest of an auld enemy which continues to be used to sow dissention and grievance as much as two centuries later. This leads to this sort of comment:


For their role in the Cawnpore battles and the Indian Mutiny in general .the 78th won a regimental VC and 7 individual ones....pity some came home to find their families had been cleared from their landWhat a weird, topsy-turvey morality it is when involvement in the hideous repression of the Indian Mutiny (the "Devil's Wind" which it was called) and one of the foulest hours of British colonialism can be considered a badge of honour 150 years later. Then again, nationalism without any objective state repression is not a rational thing.

Likewise, many Gaelic Highlanders who left for a *variety* of reasons in the 18 and 19th Centuries went to what became or were the Southern States in America. Pity they disposed American Indians or bought up black slaves.