Dear Sirs,
The Skye Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, convened this 16th day of October, 1990, wish to convey to you, our deep and prayerful interest in your contentions against needless and further secularisation of the sanctity of the Lord’s Day by Caledonian MacBrayne. The moral, social, traditional and psychological arguments already used, possess their own validity, but apparently these have fallen on deaf ears. Revenue rather than righteousness is the decisive over-ruling consideration and criterion. That apart, there are two dominant factors that indicate the utter injustice of the proposal to run a Sabbath ferry from Tarbert to Uig. There is firstly, a definite abuse of power, in the attempt to foist this menace upon the local communities involved. If anything is calculated to foster bad relations between the parties concerned, and to generate grief, strife and ill-will, it is this kind of high handed action. How can Mr Colin Paterson even suggest that he respects the convictions of the people of Skye and Harris? Secondly, and more disturbing still, is the violation of the law of God under whose jurisdiction we all are. The Church and the world may change the interpretation of the Divine Law, but the Law itself, and its moral obligations never alter. The sanctity of the Lord’s Day is one of the pillars of our Christian heritage and society. We are already reaping what we have sown, to our great impoverishment and loss, but the day of final reckoning is yet to come.
Oppression will never pay, so let the Harris Transport Action Group fight on, and all who sympathise with them, in the strength of the Lord.
“To them who have no might he increaseth strength.” Isaiah 40: 29.
On behalf of the Presbytery
Yours sincerely
Fraser Macdonald