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Hymn quit minster looks for new pulpit        16/2/11

 

 

 

 

 

Uist-born Rev Kenneth Stewart is seeking a new spiritual home after he quitting the Free Church over the controversy to introduce hymns and music into worship services.

 

His resignation has been accepted by the Free Presbytery of Glasgow and Argyll. An interim-moderator is being appointed and his Dowanvale charge will be 'preached vacant' on Sunday.

 

Mr Stewart is convinced the hymns introduction forces Free Church pastors to break their ordination vows.

 

In his resignation letter to parishioners he says: “”It was an unconfessional and unconstitutional change.

 

Rev Kenneth Stewart who preached at Dowanvale Free in the Westend of Glasgow for the last ten years plans to move to a rival denomination.

 

Mr Stewart said he had made “no headway” of which church he would now seek but pointed out there was the choice of the Free Presbyterian,  Associated (APC) United Free and the Reformed Free.

 

Observers wonder if he would also consider the Continuing which acrimoniously split from the Free Church over ten years ago though that chasm may be too far to cross.

 

He may also face some opposition in the Free Presbyterian ranks while, given his reason for departing, he is unlikely to be happy leading the organ accompanied hymn singing worship in the Church of Scotland.

 

He says he cannot continue in the Free Church saying it abandoned its historic tradition of unaccompanied psalm singing.

 

Mr Stewart, who hails from Grimsay in North Uist, feels it is undesirable to create a break-away denomination.

 

With an excess already “there is nothing to be gained by a further breach in the ranks,” he says.

 

He had considering trying to reverse the change from within the denomination but “it has become clear to me that the church is either unwilling or unable to deal with this situation in a way which will restore the integrity and discipline of the church and preserve its own constitutional base intact.

 

“This is a recipe for further deterioration which I suspect will not take too long to appear.”

 

The 47-year-old warned that “every attempt to unify Presbyterians, by relaxing our constitution to accommodate those who have fallen out of sympathy with it, is bound to create division even amongst those who wish to adhere to that constitution itself.”

 

Mr Stewart has been in the pulpit at Dowanvale in the Hebridean quarter of the city for about a decade.

 

Many Highland and Island exiles make up the congregation and their numbers are swelled by Skye and Western Isles students during university terms.

 

He was formerly a minister on Lewis and in Scalpay.

 

In November, Mr Stewart took a two week leave of absence to examine his conscience and contemplate if he should continue after a unique Plenary Assembly decided to  break the Free Church of Scotland’s 100-year-old tradition of instrument-free, psalm-only singing.