AS a senior minister of an evangelical congregation based in the west end of Glasgow I have been following the situation at St George's Tron, with a growing sense of unease ("Minister told to quit manse", The Herald, October 15, and Letters, October 15, 16, 17 & 18).
If the Presbytery of Glasgow and the Church of Scotland headquarters at 121 George Street, Edinburgh, have their way, a powerful witness to the love of Jesus Christ will be lost in the heart of our city. A thriving church and a gifted minister will be evicted from the property they and their forebears built up. That one group of Christians would even consider doing this to another is unbelievable.
All concerned should take a look at 1 Corinthians 6, where lawsuits between believers is ruled out. But perhaps this situation reveals how far the Kirk is distancing itself from its biblical roots.
I do not believe any conservative evangelical would have the effrontery to head up the remnant or transplant that the presbytery envisages. More likely, a tiny congregation will stumble along for a few years before the building becomes a nightclub. A better solution would be to make a financial arrangement with the people of the Tron (for they are the church), so that monies owed are repaid and witness is maintained.
Christian people are called to offer grace, and grace is something that is not deserved. Whatever the rights and wrongs of how things have been done, surely it would be better to extend some grace, attempt some mediation and allow the Gospel of Jesus to flourish in our city? Or is this a warning shot across the bows of other congregations that might take similar action after the General Assembly 2013?
The people of the Tron have many friends around the world. They, and I, will be praying for gracious restraint and a peaceful outcome to this mess.
David McCarthy,
Rector of St Silas Episcopal Church,
69 Park Road,
Glasgow.
SOME think the Presbytery of Glasgow should be generous with the independent congregation of St George's Tron and let them use the building which belongs to the Church of Scotland.
But there is another issue which is often ignored. Thousands of loyal members of the Kirk have given money to support the work of the church in every part of the country and beyond. Nearly £1 million of this money has been lent to St George's Tron when it was part of the national church, and so far it has not been repaid. How do the generous and faithful donors feel about this? Is this where they intended their offering to end up?
I certainly do not want my small share of these loans to be written off. I want it to be used to support churches up and down Scotland that need a loan to repair their roof or develop Christian outreach in their area. So long as the breakaway church does not repay its debts and keeps a building which belongs to someone else, many other congregations are suffering.
I suspect a good many members of St George's Tron independent church do not understand this and will feel very uncomfortable when, or if, the full facts are set before them.
The Presbytery of Glasgow has the difficult task of trying to be generous to everyone.
Ainslie Walton (retired minister),
501 Shields Road,
Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article