Lochgilphead Free Church

On the lochside street, there is the imposing stone Free Church. Inside, it is very lovely, with a warm light from its large windows and pale peach-coloured walls.

I attended services here for the 3 Sundays I stayed in Lochgilphead. My Campbell and MacIntyre ancestors were members and early supporters of this Church, as you can see by reading the Duncan McGilp letters on Knapdale People Website.

The Free Church is similar to the Orthodox Jewish Synagogue in that it maintains that its members must not work on the Sabbath. The 20th Century has been one of secularism, and the large numbers of people who built the Free Church after 1843 have dwindled. However, as the Rev. Morrison, pastor in Lochgilphead, noted in one of his sermons, the Christian church has lasted some 2,000 years, and continues to do so through thick and thin.

One of the debates current in the Free Church is whether to include pianos or organs as accompaniments for the songs. I was astonished and impressed by the people who led the singing during the service. Another factoid: the Free Church is not 'teetotaler', but - of course - does not encourage drunkeness either.

I am glad I attended this church, and probably, if I lived in Scotland, would be a member of the Free Church. Most of Canada's Presbyterians have become United Church, and (in my opinion) lost a large part of its backbone in the process..

Edinburgh and the Great Disruption of 1843

The "Great Disruption" was another Scottish religious upheaval. It culminated half a century of evangelistic fervor and missionary itinerants throughout the Western Highlands, all mixed with dissatisfaction with the Presbyterian Church's connection with the Secular Government. This bust portrays one of the leaders of this movement, the Rev. Thomas Chalmers. I found it in the National Museum of Scotland.

Also in this Museum, in a different section, there is a statue of Hugh Miller, a mason, geologist and writer. I would not have found the latter, except for the help of a wonderful guide who became interested in my quest to find out about the Disruption. Miller was one of the most prominent signatories of the 'demission' (or separation) from the Established Church of Scotland.

Why all this interest in some remote theological quarrel? Well, because of this, one-third of the ministers left their manses and livings to found a new church, the Free Church, an exodus which certainly affected Knapdale. My Knapdale Campbell and MacIntyre ancestors were a part of this revolution, as were many other people in the area. Many of these people stopped baptizing their children in the Established Parish Church, and therefore never appear in the obvious baptism records.

I have a stack of pamphlets written by the various sides of this Disruption (the originals are part of the Guelph Scottish Collection.) It concerned every level of government in Scotland, as the Established Church was the central purveyor of what we now call 'social services.' Even the Duke of Argyll wrote an essay (I haven't read it yet, the Victorians tend to be prolix.) At my Knapdale Site, in the section, "Leaving Knapdale", there are several letters written by Knapdale members of the local Free Church to members who had already left Scotland for Canada.