AINSLIE Walton suggests that members of St George's Tron are unaware of the facts concerning a congregational loan (Letters, October 19).
I am a member of St George's Tron, and to the contrary, we are fully aware of the facts.
The facts are: the church building on Buchanan Street belonging to the Church of Scotland has been significantly refurbished and improved through a £3.1m building project financed by the current congregation, who have already provided some £2.6 million in cash; a loan for £750,000 with interest at a commercial rate of 5% a year was made by the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland to help us fund the improvement of their own asset; this loan is not due for repayment until 2015; at the time of the secession of the congregation in June 2012, all instalments that had been requested by the General Trustees to date were paid; £0.5m of the loan, made in respect of work done to the Church of Scotland's own building, remains outstanding; St George's Tron office bearers will not be able to meet future instalments, since members of the congregation can hardly be expected to provide still further finance for a building the Church of Scotland has now chosen to evict the congregation from.
Mr Walton talks of generosity, and suggests that the Presbytery of Glasgow tries to be generous to everyone. St George's Tron has seen no evidence of this generosity. Instead, amid many misrepresentations about the actions of the leadership of St George's Tron, the Presbytery of Glasgow has voted to evict the congregation from the church building in Buchanan Street, depriving it of a place to worship and of the base for the many ministries it has within the city centre of Glasgow, and to evict the minister and his family from the manse. All efforts to discuss an amicable settlement to the current dispute and ensure a peaceful resolution for all concerned, including repayment of the loan, have been rebuffed at all stages by the Church of Scotland.
Perhaps the Church of Scotland is intending to let some time pass following the eviction of the congregation, and then look to sell the building to a commercial concern. If so, the generosity of the city fathers of Glasgow who built the church in 1808, and the generosity of the congregation who paid for its redevelopment very recently, would be shamefully exploited.
Sir David McNee,
Port Glasgow.
LIKE many another, both within and beyond the Church of Scotland, it's been with much grief that as something of a helpless but deeply concerned bystander I have watched the unfolding impasse between the congregation of St George's Tron and the Church of Scotland.
What seems perplexing and unfortunate is the way in which, whatever the reasons, the two parties seem to have been boxed into a scenario which neither surely wants.
The report of the presbytery's special committee speaks eloquently of the crying need in the city centre for precisely the sort of vibrant gospel ministry which has been exercised to such good effect over long decades by this congregation; recognises the strategic location which the premises of St George's Tron afford for such a ministry, and insists on the importance of "building on the tradition of conservative evangelical preaching and compassionate service to the city centre".
Is not that exactly what those who have felt constrained to leave the denomination also want?
It seems strange, therefore, and altogether regrettable for those with the cause of Christ at heart, that the practical effect of the presbytery's decision is to prevent the one congregation already best placed to fulfil such a ministry from doing so, simply because, it would seem, it can no longer see its way in all conscience to ministering within the Church of Scotland.
Plainly there are many complex matters which require to be resolved. Can a way not still be found to resolve this impasse, which will show on all parts that the cause of the gospel is bigger by far than any single church or congregation?
Jeremy Middleton,
Davidson's Mains Parish Church,
1 Quality Street,
Edinburgh.
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