United Free Church of Scotland - Union With The Church of Scotland

Union With The Church of Scotland

As its early days were preoccupied with the aftermath of union, so its later days were with the coming union with the Church of Scotland. The problem was the CofS's position as an established church conflicted with the Voluntaryism of the UFC. Discussions began in 1909, but were complex.

The main hurdles were overcome by two parliamentary statutes, firstly the Church of Scotland Act 1921, which recognised the CofS's independence in spiritual matters (a right asserted by its Articles Declaratory of 1919). The second was the Church of Scotland (Properties and Endowments) Act 1925, which transferred the secular endowment of the church to a new body called the General Trustees. These measures satisfied the majority of the UFC that the Church-state entanglement of the CofS, which had been the cause of the Disruption of 1843 had at last ended.

In 1929, the merger with the Church of Scotland largely reversed the Disruption of 1843 and reunited much of Scottish Presbyterianism. However, once more a relatively small minority stayed out of the union, and retained the name of U.F. Church.

Read more about this topic:  United Free Church Of Scotland

Famous quotes containing the words union, church and/or scotland:

    The admission of the States of Wyoming and Idaho to the Union are events full of interest and congratulation, not only to the people of those States now happily endowed with a full participation in our privileges and responsibilities, but to all our people. Another belt of States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)

    The church is precisely that against which Jesus preached—and against which he taught his disciples to fight.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Four and twenty at her back
    And they were a’ clad out in green;
    Tho the King of Scotland had been there
    The warst o’ them might hae been his Queen.

    On we lap and awa we rade
    Till we cam to yon bonny ha’
    Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gold
    And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.
    —Unknown. The Wee Wee Man (l. 21–28)