Don't
you just love such romantically insane oxymoronic "church"
names? Raider Fan can succor intercommunion only if a "church"
has a name like this
First
Secession
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For
other uses, see Secession
(disambiguation).
Ebenezer
Erskine statue in the Old Town Cemetery, Stirling
The First
Secession was
an exodus of ministers and members from the Church
of Scotland in
1733. Those who took part formed the Associate
Presbytery and
later the United
Secession Church.
They were often referred to as seceders.
The
First Secession arose out of an Act of the General
Assembly of
1732, which was passed despite the disapproval of the large majority
of individual presbyteries.
This restricted to Heritors and Elders the
right of nominating Ministers to vacancies where the Patron had
not nominated within six months.[1] When Ebenezer
Erskine wished
to have his dissent recorded, it was found that a previous Act of
1730 had removed the right of recorded dissent,[2] and
so the protests of the dissenters were refused. In the following
October, Ebenezer
Erskine,
minister at Stirling,
and, at the time, Moderator of the Synod
of Stirling preached
a sermon referring to the act as unscriptural and unconstitutional.
Members of the synod objected,
and he was censured.[3] On
appeal, the censure was affirmed by the Assembly in May 1733,[4] but
Erskine refused to recant.[5] He
was joined in his protest by William Wilson (1690–1741), Alexander
Moncrieff (1695–1761) and James Fisher (1697–1775) (ministers
at Perth, Abernethy and Kinclaven respectively).
They were regarded by the Assembly as being in contempt. When they
still refused to recant, in November the protesting ministers were
suspended. They replied by protesting that they still adhered to the
principles of the Church, whilst at the same time seceding.
In
December 1733 they constituted themselves into a new presbytery. In
1734 they published their first testimony, with a statement of the
grounds of their secession, which made prominent reference to the
doctrinal laxity of previous General Assemblies. In 1736 they
proceeded to exercise judicial powers as a church court, published a
judicial testimony, and began to organize churches in various parts
of the country. Having been joined by four other ministers, including
the well-known Ralph
Erskine,
they appointed Wilson Professor of Divinity. For these acts
proceedings were again instituted against them in the General
Assembly, and they were in 1740 all deposed and ordered to be ejected
from their churches. Meanwhile, the membership of their 'Associate
Presbytery' steadily increased, until in 1745 there were forty-five
congregations, and it was reconstituted into an 'Associate Synod'.
A Second
Secession from the Church
of Scotland occurred in 1761, with Thomas
Gillespie and others. This was called the Presbytery
of Relief. This denomination later united with the United
Secession Church to
form the United
Presbyterian Church