On Thursday 20 January 2000 an historic event took place in the history of the Church in Scotland. It followed a pattern that almost exactly mirrored events of 100 years ago. In October 1900 twenty-six ministers refused on principle to join the union of the United Presbyterian Church and Free Church of Scotland and claimed to be the true heirs of the Disruption Free Church of 1843. In 1904 they won recognition as the true Free Church of Scotland in a court case over rights to property by an appeal to the House of Lords.

At the dawn of the 21st century the Free Church of Scotland, numbering about 100 active ministers and 120 pastoral charges, witnessed an exodus of 22 of her ministers from the Commission of the General Assembly meeting in the Assembly Hall at the top of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The General Assembly is the ruling body of the Church and meets annually in May. In the interval between Assemblies matters can be dealt with by a Commission of the Assembly.

The walkout accompanied by the spontaneous singing of Psalm 46 ('God is our refuge and our strength') by supporters excluded from the meeting of the Commission, occurred because the men had been suspended from the exercise of their ministry. This suspension by the Commission they regarded as unlawful and so declined to accept the authority of the Church court. The action was the culmination of a succession of what were seen as unconstitutional actions carried out by a voting majority in the General Assembly over several years. The offence for which the men were suspended was their failure to obey a directive of the Commission of Assembly to break all connection with the Free Church Defence Association.

This Association (known as the FCDA) had been formed in 1997 in the aftermath of the situation in the Free Church following

1. The refusal of the General Assembly in 1995 to proceed to a judicial trial of Professor Donald Macleod on charges of alleged immorality;
2. The acquittal in the Sheriff Court of Professor Macleod of charges made against him by five young women, with the defence and the Sheriff alleging that they had lied, and that certain ministers had conspired to get them to do this;
3. Statements made and actions taken by ministers of the Free Church which were seen as undermining the doctrine and practice enshrined in the constitution.

The 1995 General Assembly had banned all further discussion of the Professor Macleod issue and anyone who raised it was liable to censure. Such 'censure' was passed in 1997 on the Rev Professor H M Cartwright, the Rev Angus Smith and Dr Murdoch Murchison. The first two of these men both left later to join the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. When some men concluded that the case they represented would not be heard in the courts of the Church they came together in 1997 (as their forefathers had done in 1870 and 1898) to form the Free Church Defence Association. The constitution of the Association was identical with that of the Free Church of Scotland. Because of the uncompromising approach of the FCDA to the problems in the Church, the Commission of Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland called upon it to disband, failing which, action would be taken against its office-bearers.

The FCDA refused to disband and in December 1999 the Commission of Assembly charged 32 ministers with contumacy (deliberate defiance of a church court). The men defended themselves by maintaining that they were duty bound by solemn ordination vows to God and to the Free Church of Scotland to uphold the constitution of the historic Free Church. They could not in conscience obey the instructions of a court which they felt was acting in violation of the Word of God and the constitution of the Free Church of Scotland. 'All Synods or Councils since the Apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as an help in both' (Westminster Confession xxxi, 4). 'God alone is Lord of the conscience.'(WC xx, 2)

It was significant that contrary to previous practice of having these matters judged in open court the proceedings against the ministers in Edinburgh on 19th and 20th January 2000 were held behind closed doors. In spite of pleas to the effect that the Commission had no powers to discipline 32 of her ministers (a fact acknowledged by the Clerk of Assembly) and that the charges made against them were not relevant, the Commission boldly proceeded to suspend them (with the concession that they would be suspended on full pay until the May 2000 Assembly when their case would be tried). The ministers felt that they could not give up their pulpits and their freedom to preach the gospel. They could not therefore in good conscience accept the decision.

The ministers and elders who departed from the Assembly Hall adjourned to meet in the historic Magdalen Chapel, closely associated with the Reformation in Scotland in 1560. They signed a Declaration of Reconstitution and conducted business as the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). They appointed as their Moderator the Rev John Angus Gillies, minister of the Partick Highland congregation, Glasgow. Mr Gillies, asked at a press conference as to how people would be able to decide which of the two bodies was the true Free Church, replied 'the one that retains the soul of the Free Church'.

The reason that only 22 out of the original 32 ministers walked out was that some had been unable to appear at the Commission because of illness and other reasons. Since then the number of ministers adhering to the re-constituted Free Church of Scotland has risen to 36. This represents a quarter of the ministers of the Church.