A seismic shift in 1840s Scotland stirred the ground for the 1925 Canadian Church Union. It’s a riveting story told by Don MacLeod.
This is an excerpt of a conversation between MacLeod and John Vaudry on the life of Charles Cowan, a layman, church leader, politician, businessman and dedicated Christian.
You can see a video of this conversation at the bottom of this article.
John Vaudry: I hope a lot of ministers are going to read this book, and elders and people in the pew, because A Kirk Disrupted: Charles Cowan MP and the Free Church of Scotland is a real education about our Presbyterian roots. Charles Cowan was one of your wife’s ancestors but there’s a lot more to it than that. He was a leading layman in the Free Church of Scotland.
Don Macleod: He’s important because of his connection with the disruption of the 18th of May 1843, which was probably one of the most significant events in recent Scottish history in the impact that it made on the whole country. And the fact that, out of the disruption, as it was called, of the Church of Scotland there came the Free Church. And it was powerfully influential not only in Scotland but right across the English speaking world and especially among those who are Reformed or Presbyterian. The Free Church was the impetus for the whole development of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
In 1902, under an import from the Free Church—by that time United Free Church—the Methodists and the Presbyterians met in Winnipeg and so they in turn led on to Church Union of 1925.
John Vaudry: Why did 500 people walk away from the Church of Scotland in 1843? What was so wrong there? What were they so upset about?
Don Macleod: The immediate issue was the spiritual independence of the kirk, and that churches had a right to call their own minister through the democratic process of hearing a minister and then calling him, and not having the imposition of a minister by a patron or by the state.
I think the resentment on the part of many of the people in Scotland [was] that English people were foisting their government and foisting even clergy on them, and that they didn’t really understand the unique situation. [The] religious situation in Scotland was a real cause for some nationalist commitment and furor and that was all part of the mix that happened in 1843.
And then of course we have the interesting situation where four years later Charles Cowan is approached to become a member of parliament.
He fought for the reputation of the Free Church in the House of Commons, defending the Free Church of Scotland against all of the penalties that had been directed against it. The repeal of the corn laws in 1846 meant that there was a lot of libertarianism in the revolution of 1848. It rocked the whole continent of Europe, this revolutionary fervour, and Charles Cowan was uniquely placed. And as a Christian in politics, he was very vocal and every year he would come directly to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland and talk about what he’d done in the houses of parliament the previous session. So it was a very strong presence. He was a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.
John Vaudry: What lessons could we learn from the Free Church or what message would it send to us today if those people could come back?
Don Macleod: Well, I think that number one, leadership, which is a great crisis in our denomination right now—young leadership. Strong leadership that is committed to the authority of scripture, that takes interest in sermons that are preached exegetically, that relates scripture to our needs. His diary accounts in the 1830s of each sermon spinning the text—whether the person kept to the text or not—that informed leadership. People that are prepared to give time.
I think [a] second thing would be the amazing level of commitment to his factory and his business and the employees that worked for him and the way in which he conducted himself as a Christian businessman. And that, I think, is a social conscience that we don’t see much today.
John Vaudry: Well, Don, I marvel at your energy and your dedication.
About John Vaudry
Rev. John Vaudry is minister at First, Pembroke, Ont. Rev. Dr. A. Donald MacLeod is research professor of church history at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Toronto.