Free Church rebellion as ministers defy closure
MEMBERS of the Fr e e Presbyterian Church of Scotland yesterday flouted the ban on communal worship – holding at least one service in defiance of Covid laws.
Gatherings i n churches are forbidden during the lockdown in favour of online broadcasts in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. But yesterday one service went ahead in Edinburgh as church leaders lobbied Nicola Sturgeon to relax the rules to allow worship to resume.
The service began at 11am in the Free Presbyterian Church in the city’s Gilmore Place. Although the door to the church appeared closed, a handful of worshippers could be seen entering just before 11am.
A man at the door, wearing a blue facemask, welcomed the congregation. Hand sanitisers and wipes could be seen on a table in the vestibule.
The man asked those entering: ‘Are you here to worship with us?’ He confirmed that the church was short of its full congregation. He said masks were being worn and worshippers were social- distancing as every effort was being made to comply with guidelines.
One elderly member of the congregation said there were a dozen people in the congregation, wearing masks and keeping considerable distance f rom one another.
The woman, in her 80s, added: ‘ I’m l ooking to the Lord to protect me. We must be wise. It’s a big church and everyone was miles apart.’
Our reporter was denied access to the 90-minute service and invited instead to contact the minister, the Rev David Campbell, by phone today, as yesterday was the Sabbath and kept only for worship.
Following the service, the same man said Mr Campbell had left the building.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘ We received a report on Sunday, January 10, of a potential breach of Scottish Government regulations at a church premises in Gilmore Place, Edinburgh. Officers attended and no one was within.
‘Our approach throughout this pandemic has been to engage with the public, explain the restrictions in place, encourage compliance and, as a last resort, use enforcement.’
In an open letter to the First Minister, leaders of the Free Presbyterian Church said they f eel ‘duty- bound to protest against this decision’ to ban church gatherings.
It said: ‘Since March 2020, we have taken all necessary steps to protect public health on the advice of the civil authorities.
‘But we do not concede that the First Minister, or any other civil ruler, has an absolute authority to prohibit all attendance on the public worship of God, nor any jurisdiction or authoritative control over the regulation of the affairs of Christ’s church.
‘We therefore cannot co-operate with such regulations without very clear evidence being provided that our public worship assemblies are an immediate danger to public health.’
The letter added: ‘We respectfully ask why has no specific information been provided to the Christian church in Scotland, identifying the dangers supposed to be i nvolved in attending public worship?
‘At the very l east, this is required so that preventative action can be taken, and public worship s af el y conducted forthwith.’
The letter was signed by the Rev David Campbell of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotl and, Edinburgh, and other church leaders.
They also pointed out that church worship is allowed to continue during lockdown south of the Border.
‘Everyone was miles apart’