30 May 2012
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[5] Erskine College and Theological Seminary: Handmaid of the Erskine Foundation
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The 2012 General Assembly (GA) meeting of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) was held the week of 21 May 2012 at the Liberton Kirk (Church of Scotland), Kirkgate, Liberton, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Among the GA business considered was a report from the Committee on Public Questions, Religion & Morals on the question of religious establishment, which opened by quoting remarks on the establishment principle written in 1978 by G.N.M. Collins, a former Professor of Church History & Church Principles at the Free Church College, which stated:
This Principle continues to be a vital part of our Free Church testimony. It was not in disagreement with it that the Evangelical Party who formed the Free Church in 1843 left the Establishment, but, ironically enough, in defence of it. For they held that the body retaining the name of the Church of Scotland had departed from the historic position of that Church by conceding to the civil power, in the Patronage controversy which precipitated the Disruption, a jurisdiction which belongs alone to the spiritual power, and that was guaranteed to the Church by the Revolution Settlement in 1690.
The committee report then noted that the Claim, Declaration, and Protest of 1842 expounds this matter at length.
The report concluded with a Proposed Deliverance including the following statements:
3. The General Assembly reaffirm their belief in the establishment principle, namely that church and state are both divine institutions which though separate from each other are nevertheless required by God to work together in the interests of His kingdom;
4. The General Assembly reaffirm their belief that while the chief rôle of the state is to restrain sin in society civil governors, in carrying out their functions, should aim at the promotion of religion, specifically the Christian religion revealed in the Bible and in our land established by law;
5. The General Assembly reaffirm their belief that the church is to honour the persons of civil governors, to obey their lawful commands according to the Word of God and to pray for them, that they may submit themselves to Jesus Christ and be nursing-fathers to His church;
6. The General Assembly urge the courts of our Church, our ministers and our people to persevere in their witness against same sex marriage and to continue in prayer that proposals by government at Holyrood and Westminster to legalise such an abomination will not succeed;
7. The General Assembly commend to the prayers of the Church our nation’s present religious and moral state. In particular they call upon the congregations of our Church to observe a day of humiliation and prayer on Saturday 1st December or the closest convenient date and encourage other Christians throughout our country to do likewise.
Additionally, a report from the Special Committee on Psalmody was considered that began with a passage from The Psalms of Holy Scripture, the Only Songs of Zion by Donald McLaren that stated:
Those that worship God in truth, tremble at his word. He not only requires them to present, but directs them to where they will find, the appointed offerings of praise, pure and acceptable. They follow his directions. They go to the broad, bright field of revelation. Directly before them, when they enter it, they behold, as it were in the centre of the field, a garden enclosed, and over its gates, Praise…..Its fruit is for the throne of God, and they that gather it may eat it and praise the Lord. Various, pleasant, and good, is its fruit – so good that angels would be pleased to gather it, and so abundant that all the angels of heaven and all the redeemed from amongst men, would not be able, by their gathering, to make it less. Its trees of life, beautiful as well as fruitful, were pruned when planted of old, by the hand of God, and it needs not the hand of man to prune it again, or to plant more. This is the appointed, perfect Paradise of praise, for the church on earth, from which we may get a good view of all the wondrous works of God, and especially a good view of the sufferings of and glories of Christ, and by the light of that glory, a good view of the Paradise of praise and bliss, prepared in heaven for the redeemed. Here let us stray and keep all these things in view, and praise the Lord.
The committee report made the following statements:
3. God’s inspired and inerrant Word is perfect. It has nothing to put right and it requires nothing to be added to it.
4. God has given this portion of His Word to His people that they may sing these words to His praise and at the same time be comforted, taught, humbled and encouraged.
5. God sent His Son to seek and to save the lost, and to lead them by his going before them in all things. Christ used this manual of praise exclusively and never did He add or remove one jot or title from their number when He sung them and led the disciples in singing them.
6. God led the psalmists and their songs of redemption are full of Christ, and His sufferings, His glory, His shepherding, His ushering in of His saved ones at last into heaven run through them from start to finish.
7. God requires us to sing them as our “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” as we worship Him, our Creator and Saviour. As we sing them – in private, in home or in public – they search the love of our hearts and lives, due by us to God.
The Proposed Deliverance in the committee report included the following statement:
6. The General Assembly reaffirm their commitment to the exclusive use of inspired materials of praise in the public worship of God as also the avoidance of musical accompaniment in praise, as being consistent with Scripture and the Standards of the Church; they commend all efforts to promote this biblical view of worship, and encourage all to an enthusiastic, thoughtful and melodious singing praising of God from the heart as an effective apologetic for the use of unaccompanied exclusive Psalm singing in worship;
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+ Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Rev. John MacLeod, Free Church Manse, Portmahomack, Ross-shire, Scotland, principalclerk@fccontinuing.org
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722
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The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) (FCSC) in 2000 split from the Free Church of Scotland (FCS) after the majority of the FCS ministers refused to pursue church discipline against an FCS minister alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct.
After several years of contention between the two bodies over the ownership of churches and manses now used by the FCSC, in 2011 a decision rejecting the FCSC claim to church and manse ownership was made by a three judge panel and both sides were urged to resolve their differences outside the courtroom. In the court decision, it was ruled that the only basis on which the FCSC could have a legal claim to the churches and manses in question was if the FCS had departed from their fundamental principles.
With the 2011 FCS decision to abandon exclusive unaccompanied psalmody for worship music and now allow hymns and instrumental accompaniment, the FCSC contends that the FCS has now departed from their fundamental principles, and will be using this argument in present and upcoming court proceedings regarding churches and manses. The FCSC 2012 General Assembly report of the Legal Advice & Property Committee states:
For the last twelve years our Church has sought to maintain a principled stand for the testimony of the Free Church of Scotland in the face of much opposition. This is particularly true in the property sector where aggressive efforts have been pursued by the residual Free Church of Scotland to deprive us of the buildings and assets we claim we are entitled to as rightful heirs of the Disruption Fathers. We were led to hope that a successful appeal against the determination of Lord Uist in the Broadford Case would give room for a fair negotiated settlement of title. This hope was dashed when the Inner House of the Court of Session upheld the determination of Lord Uist. This determination weakened our defence of other properties, in particular the Partick properties which are disputed in a case due to be heard in the Court of Session in October. Our claim to be the rightful successors of the Free Church of Scotland is based on our adhering to its Fundamental Principles. This we claim in the face of, we believe, a departure from these on the part of the residual church. The principles we inherited from the Scottish Church of the Reformation are principally purity of doctrine, purity of discipline and purity of worship. This last has come to the fore on account of the 2010 Plenary Assembly of the residual Free Church of Scotland at which previous Acts of Assembly were rescinded which upheld the Regulative Principle of worship. The effect of this decision is to now permit the use of instruments to accompany the praise and to allow the use of non-inspired materials of praise. It was argued in the Committee that this new position disqualified the residual body from the right to sue for Free Church properties on the grounds that they were no longer the body which held to the fundamental principles as historically maintained hitherto in the Free Church of Scotland. This argument has now been brought into the local negotiations in the Partick Case.
The Proposed Deliverance in the committee report contains several statements commending sympathy, prayer, and encouragement to seek wise counsel to FCSC congregations that have lost or face losing churches and manses to the legal proceedings of the FCS plaintiffs.
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+ The Scotsman, Barclay House, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, Scotland, 131-620-8620
+ Free Church of Scotland, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LS, 0131-226-5286, Fax: 0131-220-0597, catherine@freechurchofscotland.org.uk
+ Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Rev. John MacLeod, Free Church Manse, Portmahomack, Ross-shire, Scotland, principalclerk@fccontinuing.org
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A 25 May 2012 The Scotsman article by Craig Brown titled “General Assembly: Two Ministers Defect To Take Up Posts in Free Church” reports that at the 2012 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (CoS) meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 24 May 2012 announced that former CoS ministers the Rev. Ivor MacDonald and the Rev. Andrew Coghill have been admitted to the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland .
A Free Church of Scotland (FCS) statement said that the two ministers left the CoS following the CoS decision to induct practicing homosexual ministers ordained before 2009, which the FCS characterizes as “a move which they and others believe shows that the Church of Scotland has walked away from the Bible”.
The two ministers were welcomed into the FCS on 24 May 2012 at the 2012 FCS General Assembly meeting at St. Columba’s Free Church on Castle Terrace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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+ The Scotsman, Barclay House, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, Scotland, 131-620-8620
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722
+ Free Church of Scotland, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LS, 0131-226-5286, Fax: 0131-220-0597, catherine@freechurchofscotland.org.uk
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Wes White of the Johannes Weslianus blog reported 27 May 2012 that the upcoming 40th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America will include a seminar entitled, “The PCA Creation Study Committee a Dozen Years Later: What Does Science Say Now?” presented by Drs. Gregg Davidson and Ken Wolgemuth, lecturers for Solid Rock Lectures, an organization that does workshops on how to reconcile evolution and an old earth with the Bible. Dr. Davidson is also the author of When Faith and Science Collide: A Biblical Approach to Evaluating Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Age of the Earth (Malius Press, 2009).
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+ Johannes Weslianus, Comments
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
+ Solid Rock Lectures, Contact Page
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[5] Erskine College and Theological Seminary: Handmaid of the Erskine Foundation
As the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) is preparing to meet 5-7 June 2012 for the ARP Synod’s 2012 meeting, Erskine College and Theological Seminary (ECTS) is expecting to receive their annual support from the ARP Synod of around US$600,000, which represents twenty-five percent of the ARP Synod’s annual budget. In the latest edition (59) of the ARPTalk Blog, titled “Erskine: Handmaiden of the EC Foundation,” editor the Rev. Dr. Chuck Wilson is asking the teaching elder and ruling elder delegates to the 2012 ARP Synod meeting that before the ARP Synod votes to give another $600,000 to ECTS, to take a close look be taken at the continuing rebellion against God and against the ARP Synod by ECTS through its relationship with the Erskine College Foundation [www.ecfoundation.net]. Dr. Wilson writes:
Here on the verge of the meeting of the General Synod of the ARP Church, are we watching as Erskine College and Seminary becomes the handmaiden of the EC Foundation? The Erskine administration and board (EBOT) are declaring the independence of Erskine from the ARP Church, threatening retaliations from [the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools], and sending reports to General Synod that are poorly crafted attempts at dissimulation, obfuscation, disinformation, and slight-of-hand. Concurrently, the administration and EBOT are cozying up to the EC Foundation that in the last two years, unlike the General Synod that has given over [US]$1,000,000 of tithes and offerings of the church of God to Erskine, has discouraged gifts to Erskine and openly siphoned money away from Erskine in order to pay the attorneys’ fees of those EBOT members and Erskine Seminary professors who have taken the ARP Church to civil court. Why are we in the ARP Church continuing to send nearly [US]$600,000 (a full fourth of Synod’s budget), to an “independent” college and seminary that not only disdains our generosity but scorns our theological beliefs and has become the consort of the EC Foundation?
Dr. Wilson reviews in detail a set of suggestions sent by the EC Foundation to the Erskine Alumni Board and then concludes:
Well, we at ARPTalk have a plan. Give Erskine to the EC Foundation and those who have made Erskine such a loathsome caricature of a “Christian College.” People like Mr. Bill Lesesne spent long careers at Erskine living off the money of the ARP Church. They are like leeches that have enriched themselves off the blood of the ARP Church. They have not been servants of the ARP Church. They have been hirelings who have lived off the church. And along the way, they did little or nothing to advance the cause of Erskine. When Mr. Lesesne began his career at Erskine the student body was about 550 and Anderson University and North Greenville University were small junior colleges. Today, Erskine has about 550 students (and a seminary on life support) while Anderson University and North Greenville University count their students in the thousands. And, by the way, they honor their denomination and have trustee removal “for cause” clauses in their bylaws/charters that Synod requested of Erskine. Also, they affirm inerrancy and do not have problems finding qualified professors.
It is a travesty that President Norman countenanced Bill Lesesne, the President of the EC Foundation, at the Erskine graduation! Well, what else was he going to do? Dr. Norman and the EBOT are now the equivalent of handmaiden and consort to the EC Foundation.
Brothers and sisters in the ARP Church, why do we continue to hang on to and fund this uncomely and God-dishonoring canker? No wonder the ARP Church is not experiencing the blessing of God!
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+ ARPTalk Blog, 864-882-6337, wilson6114@bellsouth.net
+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1 Cleveland Street Suite 110, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729
+ Erskine College and Theological Seminary, 2 Washington Street, Due West, South Carolina 29639, 864-379-2131, 864-379-2167, norman@erskine.edu
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A 24 May 2012 Budapest Times article titled “Swiss and Hungarian Churches Unite to Help Prostitutes” reports that the Reformed Church in Hungary and Reformed Churches in Switzerland have united to protect underage prostitutes working in Switzerland, where prostitution is legal beginning at age sixteen.
Claudia Bandixen , president of the Reformed Cantonal Church of Argovia, Switzerland and István Szabó Bogárdi, bishop of the Reformed Church in Hungary Diocese along the river Danube have signed a cooperation agreement to provide education and prevention services to the young women.
One out of four prostitutes in Switzerland is Hungarian. The majority of the prostitutes are Roma, also known as Gypsies.
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+ Budapest Times, 1037 Budapest, Kunigunda útja 18., Hungary, 36-1-453-0752, editor@budapesttimes.hu
+ Reformed Church in Hungary, MRE Zsinata1146 Budapest, Abonyi u. 21., Hungary, 30-3361-666, info@reformatus.hu
+ Reformed Churches in Switzerland, Post Office Box 8026, Zurich, Switzerland, 044-299-33, Contact Page
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