Day of Humiliation and Prayer
The following motion was passed at the Meeting of Synod in May:— That in view of the low state of religion in the land, the Church observe the second Wednesday in December (13th December) as a day of prayer and confession of our backslidings, seeking a fulfilment of the promise, “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.”
Presbytery Meeting (D.V.)
- Southern: At Glasgow, on 21st November, at 6 p.m.
- Western: At Ullapool, on 9th November, at 7 p.m.
- Outer Isles: At Stornoway, on 5th December, at 11.30 a.m.
- Skye: At Portree, on 6th February 1979, at 11 a.m.
Appeal
The Deacons’ Court of the Barnoldswick Congregation feels that it is desirable that the congregation should have its own Church building rather than a rented hall. As the congregation is comparatively small in size, the Court decided to address an appeal to friends of the Church for financial help to this end. Any such help, which will be greatly appreciated, should be sent to the Congregational Treasurer, Mr C. Metcalf, 47 York Street, Barnoldswick, nr. Colne, Lancs. This appeal was endorsed by the Southern Presbytery at its meeting on September 12th, 1978.
A Protest
The Outer Isles Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, convened this day, Tuesday, 5th September 1978, deplore the visit of the Rev. Dr Brodie, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to the Mass celebrated in St Peter’s Square, Rome, in connection with the late Pope Paul’s inauguration to the Pontificate on Sabbath, 3rd September, 1978.
We view such a fraternal visit as a shameful and despicable affront to the martyrs who suffered excruciating tortures and awful deaths for refusing to acknowledge the arrogant claims of the Popacy and blasphemy of the Mass, which according to the Westminster Confession of Faith “is most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for the sins of the elect.” (ch. XXIV).
We protest against such treacherous fraternising with the apostate Church of Rome, inasmuch as they manifest not only a contempt of the solemn warnings of the Word of God given in Revelation ch. XVII (3-5), but also the oath taken by Her Majesty the Queen at her Coronation in terms of the Act of Security which established and confirmed the Protestant religion and Presbyterian church government to continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding generations, and that the aforesaid Protestant religion is contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith ratified by the Parliaments of both England and Scotland, and incorporated in the Act of Union.
We deny, reject and repudiate the blasphemous claim made for the Pope in the Council of Trent — which is “The Pope is immaculate, infallible and irresponsible to any earthly tribunal or power. He is judge of all, can be judged by none, kings, priests nor people. He is free from all laws, so that he cannot incur any sentence or penalty for any crime. He is all in all and above all, so that God and the Pope, the Vicar or God are one. Wherefore the Pope hath power to abrogate laws, to dispense all things in regard to marriage, usury, divorce, homicide and perjury. He hath all power in earth, purgatory, heaven and hell to bind, loose, command, permit, dispense, do and undo: therefore it is declared to stand for necessity of salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontif. All temporal power is his: dominion, jurisdiction, and government of the whole earth is his by divine right. All rulers of the earth are his subjects, and must submit to him. Infallibility in the spiritual order, are absolute sovereignty in the temporal, are synonymous and convertible terms.”