PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY
www.puritans.net/news/
10/15/07
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE
FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SCOTLAND IN NORTH AMERICA
By Parnell McCarter
Note to Reader: This article will be revised and added to as
time permits and more information becomes available.
By
1892 the old Free Church of Scotland represented the merger of three successive
waves of secessionists from the Church of Scotland, who professed adherence to
the original Westminster Standards as adopted by the Church of Scotland in
1647, but did not believe they could remain in the Church of Scotland of their
day while remaining true to their profession.
These included the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland
(historically known as Cameronians), the Original
Secession Church
(which had seceded more than a century previous under the leadership of
Ebenezer Erskine), and the secessionists of the
Disruption of 1843 (who had seceded under the leadership of Dr. Thomas
Chalmers). These had all come together
in the Free Church. But in 1892 the Free
Church, following the example of the United Presbyterian Church and the Church
of Scotland, passed a Declaratory Act relaxing the standard of subscription to
the confession, with the result that a small number of congregations and even
fewer ministers, mostly in the Highlands of Scotland, severed their connection
with the Free Church and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
(FPCS). As Dr. James Lachlan MacLeod
notes in his book The Second Disruption, the circumstances of the formation of the FPCS as a separate
denomination helped establish its distinctive identity: “As creeds and
confessions have become less popular with many denominations, and as the
Westminster Confession of Faith in particular has come to be seen as outdated
and obsolete, the Free Presbyterian has clung resolutely to every single aspect
of that controversial document…While most Churches that subscribed to the
Westminster Confession have changed their terms of subscription or abandoned
them altogether in the past hundred years, the Free Presbyterians have
not. On the contrary, they have gripped it with unfaltering strength and
held it high as a symbol of their identity. Continuity on this issue has
been one of the Free Presbyterians’ most unshakeable emblems, and that has also
contributed to their distinctive identity.”
This stand is necessary, for our glorification of Jesus Christ calls us
as a people to serve Him in truth as well as in spirit (John 4:24), and Christ’s church on earth should
stand as a pillar of truth (I Timothy 3:15).
Even
as the early Christian church spread as Christians scattered from Jerusalem,
even so the FPCS spread to other nations as its members emigrated from Scotland. Especially Canada,
Australia, and New
Zealand benefited from this migration. In addition, some Scottish Presbyterians and
their descendants in other churches in Canada
joined with the FPCS in the decades following its formation in 1893, attracted
by the FPCS’s faithfulness to the historic Biblical
Presbyterian standards. Canada
had a significant population of Presbyterians of Scottish descent to draw
from. As pointed out at http://www.epctoronto.org/History/History.html
, “by the providence of God, the Free Church of Scotland, as the predominant
form of Presbyterian Christianity in mid-nineteenth century Canada, had a profound
impact on Toronto and what became Ontario. But in 1875 the four branches of
Presbyterianism in Canada
joined together. Thereafter, although the Free Church heritage continued to
manifest itself, the Free Church as a distinct body ceased in Canada.”
A number of such like-minded Presbyterians of Scottish descent in Canada
were open to joining with the FPCS in Canada
in the early twentieth century.
FPCS
congregations formed in these ways in such far-flung Canadian locations as Toronto
(Ontario), Chesley
(Ontario), and Vancouver
(British Columbia). Accordingly, the FPCS presence in Canada
owing to Scottish Presbyterian emigrants and their descendants became
considerable in the early twentieth century (at least relative to their current
numeric presence). Here is an insight
that can be gleaned from http://www.presbyterianreformed.org/ourhistory.php
about the situation present in those times:
“The congregation in the village
of Chesley, Ontario owed much to the efforts of Adam Scott Elliott, who was
born at Hawick in the Scottish Lowlands in 1807, and
came to Canada with his father at the age of ten. They were among the
families brought over by a British government eager to settle loyalists in
southern Ontario, as a buffer against American encroachment in the period
after the War of 1812. The Elliotts resided at Perth, Ontario, where already in 1827 Elliott's father was protesting the
introduction of uninspired hymns alongside the Psalms in the worship of the
local Presbyterian church. In 1858 Elliott purchased
two hundred acres where Chesley now stands, and
established a saw mill and a grist mill on the North Saugeen River. His family and other families of Scottish descent were
visited frequently by Reformed Presbyterian ministers. In 1873 Rev. Thomas
Hannah organized a congregation of the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at
nearby Williamsford, where Elliott was then living.
The congregation and its families relocated to Chesley,
and Elliott served as an elder. At Chesley in 1880,
Elliott reprinted the classic critique of Isaac Watts' hymns: An Essay on
Psalmody, by William Romaine, eighteenth-century leader of the Evangelical
party in the Church of England. In the years that followed, the Chesley congregation changed its affiliation in order to
find pastoral care. The present church building in Chesley
was constructed in 1904. In 1912 the congregation was received into the Free
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and called a minister from Scotland to be their pastor. Already in 1901 several groups of
Presbyterians in the nearby Ontario communities of Lochalsh, Kincardine, East Williams and Brucefield,
petitioned the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to be recognized as a part
of the mission field under its care and jurisdiction. By 1918 the congregations
at Chesley and the other villages had come to operate
under one kirk session, and were known as the Ontario congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.”
Far to the west in Vancouver,
circumstances were encouraging as well for the FPCS, as recorded at http://www.apcvan.com/cong.htm :
“In 1916 Rev. Donald Beaton
was invited by a small group of families to come to the West Coast and conduct
services. In answer to this request Vancouver
was visited and the following year a petition was sent to the Synod [of the
FPCS – PM] requesting that Scotland
would oversee the spiritual needs of of the adherents
here. In 1922 a church building was raised and the Vancouver congregation
was sustained by lay missionary, Mr. Donald Matheson (1922-1928), and Ruling
Elder, Hugh MacKay, until the congregation received their first settled
minister, Rev. Dr. MacDonald.”
Down in the USA,
circumstances were not as propitious for the FPCS. Some Scots who grew up in the FPCS emigrated
from Scotland
to the USA, but
these tended not to remain in the FPCS in their adulthood. Two examples are Dr. John Murray and Dr.
James Lachlan MacLeod. Again turning to
the website http://www.presbyterianreformed.org/ourhistory.php
, we learn this about Dr. John Murray:
“During his years in Scotland one of those who responded warmly to his preaching in the Highlands was
a young Free Presbyterian named John Murray. Murray went to Princeton Seminary in 1924 to study theology. In
preaching visits to Canada during his student days the friendship with Matheson
continued to grow. Both men were eventually caught up in a controversy within
the Free Presbyterian Church, when its Synod determined that use of public
transport on the Lord's Day for the purpose of attending worship services was
grounds for debarring church members from the sacraments. The result was that by
1931 the Synod had broken its ties with Matheson and the Free Presbyterian
Church of Ontario. And when Murray
completed his studies at Princeton and returned to Scotland, he found that the door to ordination in the Free
Presbyterian Church was closed to him, because his views coincided with
Matheson's. In these circumstances Murray accepted a call to teach at Princeton,
soon became an instructor at Westminster Theological Seminary, and in 1937 was
ordained to the gospel ministry in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.”
Dr. James Lachlan MacLeod grew up the son of a minister in
the FPCS, did his Ph.D. thesis on `The
origins of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland' (Edinburgh Ph.D. thesis,
1993) containing much the material for his book The Second Disruption: The
Origins of the Free Presbyterian Church of 1893, and currently teaches in the Department of
History at the University of Evansville in the USA (see the website http://faculty.evansville.edu/jm224/
). But he never joined the FPCS as a
communicant member, and now has no affiliation with the FPCS. So as a result of the smaller
numeric migration to the USA, as well as the fact that those that did move to
the USA did not remain in the FPCS, combined with factors to be discussed later
in this article of why Americans even of more reformed conviction have been
reluctant to join with the FPCS, the USA for many years lacked any FPCS
presence.
Nevertheless, the FPCS had an indirect effect for good in the
USA, even
through those that did not remain in the FPCS.
For instance, though departing in some important respects to a full
adherence in the original Westminster Standards (see article at http://www.puritans.net/news/johnmurray101607.htm
), Dr. John Murray for the most part remained a strong advocate for these
standards in an American context where even most Presbyterians were largely
ignorant of many of the old standards.
This was true with respect to exclusive psalmody in public worship, sabbatarianism, and opposition to holy day (e.g.,
Christmas) observance. And Dr. James
Lachlan MacLeod has provided us with some helpful histories of the FPCS, as
explained at http://www.puritans.net/bookreviewseconddisruption.htm
and http://www.puritans.net/news/fpcs050707.htm
. In addition, publications of the FPCS,
especially its re-printing of the Westminster Confession of Faith, have had
considerable influence in the USA.
Back in Canada,
where the FPCS had congregations, the FPCS faced its own set of challenges,
especially in the Sabbath public transport controversy and the Lord Mackay
controversy. The Sabbath public
transport controversy involved Rev. William Matheson, a mentor and friend of
Dr. John Murray. Here is how http://www.presbyterianreformed.org/ourhistory.php
recounts the history:
“The pastorate
of William Matheson in this far-flung congregation commenced in 1919. Matheson was a native of Lochalsh, Ontario, but went to Scotland to train for the ministry, under the auspices of the Free
Presbyterian Church. During his years in Scotland one of those who responded warmly to his preaching in the Highlands was
a young Free Presbyterian named John Murray. Murray went to Princeton Seminary in 1924 to study theology. In
preaching visits to Canada during his student days the friendship with Matheson
continued to grow. Both men were eventually caught up in a controversy within
the Free Presbyterian Church, when its Synod determined that use of public
transport on the Lord's Day for the purpose of attending worship services was
grounds for debarring church members from the sacraments. The result was that
by 1931 the Synod had broken its ties with Matheson and the Free Presbyterian
Church of Ontario... William Matheson ministered to the Chesley
and Lochalsh congregations, and to extensions
elsewhere in Bruce, Huron and Elgin counties, Ontario, until his death in 1957. Murray traveled to Chesley to conduct
Matheson's funeral, and to pay tribute to him as his dearest friend. Murray continued to preach at Chesley
and Lochalsh from time to time until his retirement
from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1968. Writing after a communion season
at Lochalsh, Murray said, “I think I feel most at
home here and at Chesley of all the places I visit.”
There had been some consideration that upon leaving the seminary, Murray might take a pastorate in the newly-formed Presbyterian Reformed Church, but the
infirmity of his aged sisters at the home place necessitated his return to Ross-shire, Scotland.”
This Sabbath public transport controversy involving Rev.
William Matheson is described in more detail at http://www.puritans.net/news/sabbathpublictransport042605.htm
. As stated there, “it was the Biblical duty of Matheson and Murray to agree
with the FPCS synod in this case. However, they refused on both allegedly
Biblical and constitutional grounds. Unless the FPCS synod would have
been willing to reverse its decision that patronization on the Sabbath of
public transportation which is being employed in systematic disregard of the
Sabbath is wrong, the FPCS synod had no alternative but to enforce the
ecclesiastical separation with Matheson and Murray. Not to have acted, or
to act in such a way as to imply this was a new term of communion, would have
been tantamount to agreeing with Matheson and Murray. We should be clear
that the inception of the ecclesiastical separation occurred when Matheson and
Murray publicly pronounced a position contrary to the doctrine of scripture and
the WCF [Westminster Confession of Faith], thus tying the hands of the FPCS
synod to either compromise religiously or act as the FPCS synod did.”
But this setback was not the end
of the story for the FPCS in Chesley,
Ontario. As pointed out at http://www.puritans.net/news/thoughtexperiment121306.htm
, “decades later this same congregation in Chesley
became part of the Presbyterian Reformed denomination. It so happened
that a gentleman that was part of that Presbyterian Reformed congregation
(named Mr. Gerrit Schuit),
came to a realization of the congregation’s past history, and he came to agree
with the position of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and not of his
own Presbyterian Reformed denomination. When he approached the Free
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, it did not simply turn him away and tell him
to stay joined with the best local congregation in his area. Rather, it
allowed him to pursue the course of his conscience and join with the Free
Presbyterian Church of Scotland.” Mr. Schuit was of Dutch reformed heritage. Having grown up in the Netherlands,
following World War II he came to the USA,
but later moved to Canada
and joined with the Presbyterian Reformed congregation in Chesley, Ontario. However, after realizing the schismatic error
of the Presbyterian Reformed denomination, he would in time join with the
FPCS. And a number of his Dutch
relations would join him. Thus was born
in the Lord’s providence a new manifestation of the FPCS in Chesley.
Over in Toronto,
at about this same time, another congregation was added to the FPCS. Here is how its history is recounted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Park_Presbyterian_Church
:
“…The church was constituted in 1881 when a group left Cookes Presbyterian Church (1851-1983) on Queen Street and created the Presbyterian Church Defense Association. Among the reasons given for their action was
the introduction into the church's worship of instrumental music and hymns of
human composition. Later that year, they organized the Carlton Street
Presbyterian Church. In 1886 the church left the Presbyterian Church in Canada and
allied itself with a Reformed Presbyterian presbytery
based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Henceforth, it called itself the First
Reformed Presbyterian Church, Carlton
Street, the name engraved on the silver communion pitcher and
chalices that the congregation still uses.
The most significant of the early pastors was Samuel Dempster,
who was born in Belfast,
Ireland in 1869. Dempster was ordained in 1897, never married,
and served the church until his death in 1922. Before Dempster died at the close of a twenty-five year ministry,
the Reformed Presbytery of Pittsburgh and Ontario had
ceased to exist, and the Toronto
church was on its own. Beginning in 1910 the church was
known as the Bloor East Presbyterian Church, because of
its location on Toronto's vital
thoroughfare, Bloor Street. In 1965 it joined another traditional Presbyterian congregation in Chesley, Ontario in forming the Presbyterian Reformed Church, which
would later expand to include churches in the United
States and England
as well. Much of the credit for this union fell to John Murray, the well-known professor at Westminster Theological Seminary
in Philadelphia.
He composed the proposals leading to the union, and also the constitution which
served as the basis of union. In 1969 the congregation left their premises in the business
district, and relocated to the current location on Victoria Park Avenue, north of Sheppard
Avenue. In 1974, however, the
church was again without a pastor, and decided to join the Free Presbyterian Church of
Scotland, in part so it could be connected to a larger body with a more
ample supply of seminary-trained ministerial candidates…”
So by the 1980s there was a North American Presbytery of the
FPCS with three congregations: one in Chesley, one in
Toronto, and one in Vancouver.
At that time there were two FPCS ministers: one in Toronto
and one in Vancouver. In Vancouver
specifically, Rev.
Douglas B. Beattie was called to be minister in 1975. These North American congregations enjoyed
regular visits by deputations from the FPCS back in the United
Kingdom.
Representative of such deputations is this one described at http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/magazines/fpm/2000/May/article3.php
: “On two occasions he [Rev. Lachlan MacLeod – PM] was sent, as a Church deputy,
to the Chesley and Toronto
congregations in Canada,
and also accompanied Rev. A. McPherson on a visitation to the Vancouver
congregation.”
But the Lord continued to pare according to His own
sovereign designs. One such paring
occurred with the observation by a relative of Mr. Gerrit
Schuit that a ruling elder in the Toronto
congregation was privately observing Christmas.
This elder left the FPCS, after the situation was addressed by the
church. And an even greater paring came
in 1989 with the Lord Mackay controversy.
This controversy is documented at http://www.puritans.net/news/lordmackaycase081505.htm
. As noted there, “the Lord Mackay case
in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (FPCS) precipitated the departure
from the FPCS of a large segment of the church, and the formation of the
Associated Presbyterian Church (APC). As we read at http://www.apchurches.org.uk/reviews/change_in_reaction_to_continuity.htm : "It was the first of those "distinctives"
which received the most attention in 1989 particularly because the disciplining
of Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the then Lord
Chancellor, attracted so much media interest. He was suspended from the
eldership of the Free Presbyterian Church for attending, but not participating
in, the funeral service of a Roman Catholic colleague. The censure of Lord
Mackay was, however, only one of many issues…" Lord Mackay chose to follow a path of not
fleeing the idolatrous Mass, and the spiritual dullness of a considerable
number in the church blinded them to the danger of this error, resulting in
schism. This split took with it the Toronto
congregation and its minister, and most of the Vancouver
congregation, along with its minister Rev. Douglas Beattie, which joined with
the Associated Presbyterian Churches (APC). These APC congregations struggled, such that
by 2007 the Toronto APC congregation disbanded and quit holding services
altogether, and the Vancouver APC congregation was without a minister. And yet another paring from the FPCS occurred
when certain inappropriate behavior of a FPCS minister called to Chesley led to his deposal and departure from the
FPCS. While another departed the church
to follow his adulterous lusts.
By the 1990s this left in the North American FPCS only the Chesley congregation and the remnant Vancouver
congregation, and no minister for either.
Mr. John MacLeod, an emigrant from Scotland,
persevered to preserve the remnant Vancouver
congregation. Since the Chesley congregation
primarily consisted of people of Dutch reformed heritage, Mr. John MacLeod
represented the last of the Scottish heritage still in the FPCS in North
America. With such a
limited contingent, North America could no longer
support its own presbytery in the FPCS, so North America
came within the Southern Presbytery of the FPCS. The Southern Presbytery also included England
and the lowlands of Scotland,
with congregations in such places as London
(England), Glasgow,
and Edinburgh.
The next chapter in our history of the FPCS in North
America brings us back to the USA,
where things were to take a surprising turn, starting in the 1990s. Various and
sundry obstacles seem to have discouraged outreach of the FPCS in the USA in
previous times, and still present challenges to this current day, even among
those of more reformed Christian conviction.
For one, independency is strongly rooted in the American psyche and in
American ecclesiology. New England
Puritanism was characterized from its early years in the 17th
century by a quasi-congregationalist form of church
government. And the dissolution of the
Old Side Presbyterian denomination in the 18th century seemed to
bury historic Scottish Presbyterianism in America
in favor of a distinctively American version of Presbyterianism which is
quasi-independent in character. Full subscriptionism to a confession and
strong synodical rule run counter to the American
ecclesiastical fabric. In
addition, since the USA
was arguably the first nation in human history to reject church establishment
in its very constitution, the Establishment Principle espoused in the original
Westminster Standards runs counter to the American political fabric. And various ethical strictures of the FPCS-
including strict sabbatarianism (see article at http://www.puritans.net/news/sabbath032207.htm
), prohibition on worldly entertainments such as found in movies and
stage-plays (see article at http://www.puritans.net/news/moviesfpcs051607.htm
), and attire regulations (see article at http://www.puritans.net/news/attireregulations101607.htm
)- run counter to the modern American cultural fabric. But such obstacles seemingly became less
formidable as the twentieth century was drawing to a close. By the end of the twentieth century God had
allowed Americans to take their shibboleths to more of their logical
conclusion, so as to make their true ill conceived nature more evident.
So despite the obstacles, the close of the twentieth century
saw the formation of the first congregation of the FPCS in the USA
in its history, in the Houston, Texas
area . In the
1990s the Hembd family of Indiana
joined with the FPCS congregation in Chesley, and
also some folks from Texas joined
the FPCS. Two articles in the FP
Magazine from 1998 help further explain the circumstances.
At http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/Magazines/fpm/1998/February/article11.php
we read:
“Church Deputy's Visit to North America
IT was late in the evening of Wednesday,
29 October 1997 when my wife and I arrived at Toronto
Airport, to be met by Mr Gerrit Schuit,
with whom we drove the familiar journey to Chesley. Travelling through just a tiny part of the vastness that is
the land of Canada,
it is remarkable that the Lord should have so favoured
the small rural town of Chesley
with gospel ordinances in their Scriptural purity, as they are maintained still
in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The sovereignty of divine grace
lies behind it all.
Early the next afternoon, we set out for the first of five visits to an even
smaller place on the Canadian map, called Mount
Elgin, two and a half hours' drive
south of Chesley. We went there to hold a service of
divine worship after the form of our Church with a group of Dutch extraction,
numbering more than 30 souls. Our own first contact was four years ago when we
met Mr and Mrs Jan de Wit
in Gerrit Schuit's home.
But last April Rev. Neil Ross was the first of our ministers to visit Mount
Elgin and preach to them. For a
number of years they have been meeting on Sabbaths and weekdays, holding divine
service and reading quality sermons in the Dutch language. Often these are
translations of the great Scottish divines like Thomas Boston and Ralph Erskine. For a long time they have been looking for a
reformed denomination that believes and preaches the same gospel that they find
in those old sermons. Before the preaching service that first Thursday evening,
Mr Gerrit Schuit and I had a most encouraging meeting with eight of
the men, to discuss the procedure by which a closer relationship between them
and our Church might be developed.
The service that first evening was attended by about 25 people. Over the
next four weeks, four more services were held, with attendances nearer to 45.
We also had the opportunity to meet a number of the families in their own
homes. We would like to record our heartfelt thanks for the warm welcome and
hospitality that we enjoyed among our Mount
Elgin friends. We were glad that a
number from the Chesley congregation, as well as
others, made the journey to Mount Elgin
to attend the services. It was an encouragement to us to find a people that
value the same gospel of free and sovereign grace as ourselves.
The Chesley services began on Friday 31 October,
with the prayer meeting. How good it was to be back among these dear friends,
young and old and middle-aged, around the ordinances of God's house. "I
was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the
house of the Lord" (Psalm 122:1). Four more prayer meetings were held in Chesley during November. The services of public worship on
three Sabbaths were also conducted. On the second of these Sabbaths the Lord's
death was remembered in the way He appointed Himself, and the usual services of
the communion season were held. Several Mount
Elgin people attended some
services. We look to the Lord to bless His Word and sacrament among the Chesley people. He alone can give the increase to our
planting and watering. In a day when many throughout Christendom are sliding
back from holding all the counsel of God, may the testimony of the Chesley congregation to the whole truth as it is in Jesus
Christ be blessed indeed. Again we enjoyed the warmth of Chesley
hospitality, arriving to a well-stocked and very comfortable manse, and
visiting many a welcoming home. Their evident need is for a pastor. Meanwhile
we commend them to the care of the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
On Thursday, 13 November we flew south to Houston,
Texas, in the United
States of America. We were met by Mr and Mrs James Moline, in whose
home we were very kindly entertained for the duration of our visit. For over a
year, we had been in contact with them, by electronic mail and telephone. They
began to meet with a few other interested souls each Lord's Day for worship,
using taped sermons of our ministers. More and more they had come to value the distinctives of our witness, and they applied to the Dominions
and Overseas Committee to send a deputy to them. Three services of public
worship were held, again according to standard Free Presbyterian practice, one
on a Friday evening and two on the Sabbath, in a town called Brookshire, west
of the city of Houston. We were encouraged that between 35 and 40 attended on
each occasion. This included a group of 18 souls who for a number of years had
been meeting for worship on their own, reading sermons of John Owen and other
worthies, and seeking to follow the old paths and the good way in the midst of
a worldly and depraved generation. They had travelled
more than 80 miles to attend the worship services. Since our visit, a combined
group of between 25 and 30 have been meeting every Lord's Day, again travelling substantial distances, conducting worship in
conformity with our own way, and using Free Presbyterian taped sermons. Such is
the interest among them in the stand of our Church that during December five of
the men came to London for a brief
visit. They can hardly believe that at the end of the twentieth century there
really is a denomination holding fast to the things that are most surely
believed among us.
During our denomination's history, Free Presbyterian services have been held
at various places in the USA,
but a congregation with regular ordinances has never been established. It is
still early days in Texas, and
"except the Lord build the house, they labour in
vain that build it" (Psalm 127:1). Nevertheless, we cannot help but be
much encouraged with these recent developments. With very little ecclesiastical
help, these people have come to positions in many areas so like our own. But
then, the Lord has promised His Church: "all thy children shall be taught
of the Lord" (Isaiah 54:13). The Macedonian cry sounds out: "Come
over . . . and help us" (Acts 16:9).
We look to the Head of the church to sustain and prosper His cause in Chesley, and also to open the doors of gospel opportunity
in Mount Elgin
and in Texas in such a way that
no man could shut them.
In Toronto we visited a retired
minister, Rev. Fesenko. This gentleman, who was born
in 1900, had translated the Westminster Confession of Faith into the Ukrainian
language, the basis of which our Church is using in Eastern Europe,
in particular in Odessa. Rev. Fesenko had studied under Professor J. Gresham Machen at Princeton in the 1920s. It
was whilst at Princeton that he translated the
Confession, realising as he told us that it was an
unsurpassed summary of the Reformed Faith.
(Rev.) Keith M. Watkins”
And at http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/Magazines/fpm/1998/August/article8.php
we read:
“THE Rev. J. MacLeod has returned from Canada
after spending three Sabbaths supplying the Chesley
congregation. The Rev. K. Watkins will
supply the Chesley congregation for the first two
Sabbaths in August, God willing. It is intended that the Lord's Supper will be
dispensed in the congregation on the second Sabbath of August. Thereafter, for
two Sabbaths, Mr Watkins will conduct services for
the group of people in Texas who
have expressed a keen interest in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and
three of whom are communicants connected with the Chesley
congregation.”
This group of people in Texas
would go on to form a congregation of the FPCS.
And this Texas
congregation of the FPCS would experience both additions and subtractions over
time. The Houston
work has sent two ministerial candidates for theological training, and one of
them (Rev. Lyle Smith) is now a minister in the FPCS.
In the early twenty first century three FPCS congregations
in North America – in Chesley,
Vancouver, and Houston – remain in the Southern Presbytery of the FPCS. Since at one time there was only one minister
in the Southern Presbytery (before Rev. Roderick MacLeod went to serve in
Glasgow, and Rev. John MacLeod to serve in London), the Southern Presbytery
drafted the assistance of Rev. Neil Ross and Rev. Hutton to help them
out. Rev. Hutton was at that time appointed moderator of the Chesley session, and Rev. Neil Ross as moderator of the Houston
session. In 2007 Rev. Roderick MacLeod
was moderator of the Chesley session.
Of course, North America encompasses
not only Canada
and the USA,
but also Mexico. On its surface it would appear that the
people of Mexico
have yet to be touched by the FPCS. It
is undoubtedly the case that Latin America has long been enslaved by the errors
of Rome, which probably explains in large measure why South America is the only
continent in the world without so much as one congregation of the FPCS (not
including Antarctica), along with Latin America in general. Nevertheless, the FPCS in North
America has in point of fact touched even the people of Mexico,
for a number of the people in the congregation in Texas
are at least in part of Mexican and Native American descent. We can look forward in hope to a day when
they will be joined by many others.
In late 2006 the FPCS in North America
suffered the loss of one of its elder statesmen, in the passing away of Mr. Gerrit Schuit. The great sinfulness of man yet the glorious
righteousness of Jesus Christ and available in Jesus Christ had often been on
his lips during his days on this earth.
He reminded the rest of us that our focus must always be on the praise
and glorification of the Triune God.
The Lord is continuing to add to the FPCS in North America
others, even ones with little or no reformed Christian background, while many
of reformed and Presbyterian background in North America apostatize from the
Protestant Christian faith altogether.
“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.”