IT is not unreasonable to have formed the view that the seeds of a possible further secession from the Church of Scotland have been sown ("Minister told to quit manse", The Herald, November 15, and Letters, November 15 & 16).

Secession from the Church of Scotland is not, of course, a new concept. It has been going on from the mid-18th century and attained its greatest impact at the time of the Disruption in 1843 when one-third of the congregations and 40% of the serving ministers left the established Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The divisive issue then was of a different nature: the question of patronage. There were those who believed that to allow patronage to continue would be to subject the church to the dictates and whims of the aristocracy and landed proprietors. The issue regretfully found its way into the courts and litigation ensued in the Court of Session and the House of Lords. Such a course is now likely to ensue in the dispute between the Church of Scotland and the Presbytery of Glasgow on the one hand and St George's Tron on the other.

Today the burning issue within the Church of Scotland is not about how appointments are made to the ministry. It is the question of same-sex relationships and how they are to be addressed by that church. In May 2011 the General Assembly appointed a Theological Commission to report back to the Assembly at its 2013 meeting on the various matters requiring decisions by the church in relation to that question. The church maintains that it is proceeding in a reasoned and measured fashion toward reaching conclusions. Others, within and outwith the church, maintain that the church has been tardy in bringing the matter to a conclusion and that the process has been allowed to go on for too long.

Life has not been standing still in the meantime and ministers have left the Church of Scotland and congregations have been giving consideration to departure from the church. The St George's Tron Church has taken the matter further and is being faced with the uncertainty and costs associated with litigation. The future for the Church of Scotland is unclear and the possibility of yet another Disruption 170 years or so after the first of that name cannot be ruled out.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.

IT is a mystery to me that a whole congregation should wish to leave the national church when options remain open to it.

It is also very painful to think of St George's Tron at such odds with its presbytery. I will be one of thousands who were helped in their Christian walk by what they heard in that fine building.

My experience of presbytery life suggests to me that the Presbytery of Glasgow will have gone the extra mile to avoid such a collision. It is ironic that William Scott (Letters, October 16) should underline the fact that the people of St George's have taken such a drastic decision over "one difference of opinion".

Are they unaware that a committee of the Church of Scotland has still to pronounce on the future of homosexual ministry? And if that committee's report is not acceptable to them, they can start the fightback by gathering support to use the Barrier Act? This allows presbyteries to potentially overturn a decision made by the General Assembly. So what's the hurry?

Alasdair Sutherland,

2 Quarry Park,

East KIlbride.

JAMES Findlay objects to the principle that those who secede from the Church of Scotland should be entitled to its "valuable real estate", such as St George's Tron in Glasgow (Letters, October 16) He suggests instead that dissenters who object to the position of their institutional church should be expected to finance their own buildings. I couldn't agree more.

However, wouldn't following this argument to its logical conclusion require the return of pre-Reformation buildings to the Catholic Church?

I imagine there would be great enthusiasm for the re-acquisition of Saint Mungo's and Saint Magnus cathedrals, Paisley and Dunfermline abbeys, and many others.

The present dilemma illustrates perfectly one of the fundamental practical defects of Protestantism: that the rejection of recognised authority in the church as a divine body instituted by Christ does not lead to the elimination of authority, but rather to a multiplicity of rival and competing authorities.

Chris McLaughlin,

71b Braidpark Drive,

Giffnock.