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  • Writer's pictureDavid Gebbie

Streams of Water in the North (Part One)

Updated: Jun 3, 2022


The Presbyterian Reformed Church begins at the confluence of two streams. Usually, it is thought of as the coming together of two congregations, Chesley and Bloor Street, but that leaves Lochalsh out of the equation; and to leave out Lochalsh is to leave out much of what makes the PRC what it is. There is a third stream, a prior fork, the flow of which is at least as strong as the others.


This third stream has its origin in the 1844 Synod of the (Free) Presbyterian Church of Canada: the Canadian body in connection with the Free Church of Scotland. Because of that connection, it was popularly known as either the Free Church of Canada or the Free Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 1861, this Church joined with the United Presbyterian Church in Canada to form the Canada Presbyterian Church. And then, in 1875, the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, the Synod of the Maritime Provinces, the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland, and the Canada Presbyterian Church united to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada.


This third stream is made of those who remained out of these unions. They are the Revs Lachlan Macpherson of East Williams, John Ross of Brucefield, and Robert D. Mackay, together with those who adhered to them. Macpherson stayed out of the 1861 union. Ross and Mackay, although not happy with the terms of that union, did go in, but remained out in 1875. The issue at stake in 1861 was the Establishment Principle. In 1875, the issues were the Headship of Christ over the church and innovations in public worship.


The Free Church of Scotland held to the Establishment Principle and the United Presbyterians in Scotland were Voluntaries. The Canadians shared the principles of their parent bodies. So, someone had to give. In the terms of union, there was a positive statement to satisfy the Free Kirkers and in the preamble to the terms there was an equal and opposite exception allowed to satisfy the Seceders. The effective removal of the principle from the testimony of the Church was sufficient for Macpherson to be unable to enter the union at that time. He was persuaded to join later, but he was not destined to stay.


The defining Free Church principle was the Headship of Christ over His church. That principle was excluded from the 1875 terms of union as a condition of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland taking part. There was also included in the list of terms one which allowed congregations which used musical instruments and hymns prior to the union to continue their use. These were things with which Macpherson, Ross, and Mackay could not agree. So, they, along with their ruling elders, dissented and did not enter the union.


There is something remarkable about the separation of these men. It brought little or no rancour. In their interaction with their friends who went into the unions, nothing much seems to have changed. There was, however, a growing isolation as these relationships were dissolved by death, and a new generation of ministers who had no patience with denominational distinctives took the place of old friends.


From 1875 until their respective deaths in 1886 and 1887, Macpherson and Ross maintained their separate witness, preaching in Gaelic and English to scattered groups throughout Midwestern Ontario. For a time, they had the help of the Rev. Daniel Allan; and, after the death of Lachlan Macpherson, Robert Mackay took over the work at East Williams, where he laboured until about 1897. For a short time in the early 1890s, the East Williams congregation was associated with the Pittsburgh and Ontario Reformed Presbyterian Presbytery, a breakaway from the New Light Reformed Presbyterians led by the Rev. Nevin Woodside, however, before Mackay left at the age of 90, it was back in the old paths. After the death of John Ross, the other groups carried on without a regular ministry until George Forrest, Ross’s elder and one of the 1875 dissenters, contacted the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1896.


In 1893, events in Scotland opened the possibility of these groups finding an ecclesiastical home and ministerial supply. From the 1860s, the subject of union was in the minds of the Presbyterian denominations in Scotland as well as in Canada. The Free Church of Scotland and most of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland united in 1876. Inspired by this success, the talks between the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which foundered in the 1860s, were taken up again. As union plans developed, it became clear that the Free Church would have to slacken its commitment to the Westminster Confession of Faith. This was achieved when the Declaratory Act was passed in 1892. In protest, two ministers and several divinity students left the Free Church the following year and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.


Seeing an affinity between the experience of Macpherson and Ross and that of the Free Presbyterians, Forrest began a correspondence in 1896 which resulted in a 1901 petition from the Canadians for a minister to visit them for the following summer. Their request was granted, and the Free Presbyterian Synod sent out Rev. Neil Cameron, the first of many deputies to visit under the auspices of its Canadian Mission Committee. The deputies met with groups in Brucefield, Newton, East Williams, Lochalsh (Ashfield), North Line of Kincardine, and Egmondville (Seaforth). In 1912, the Associate Presbyterian Church congregation in Chesley petitioned to be received into the Synod and was accepted. All were united to form the Ontario Congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Their first minister was the Rev. Walter Scott who was with them from 1912 until his death four years later.


Although Gaelic is no longer the language of any PRC pulpit, these Highland immigrants with their Disruption Principles have left their mark on the denomination.

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