Spiritual Foundation Of Early Otago

Chronicle (Levin), 15 March 1948, Page 8

Spiritual Foundation Of Early Otago

"I am prou'd of my country.j There is not another country uponj earth wher.e such a deed could be! done,'rexclaimed Lord Francis Jef-j frey when he heard the news of the disruption of the Church of; SCotland in 1843," said Rev. A. Sal-: mond, when continuing in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Levin, on Sunday, a series of sermons on the spiritual foun'dation of the settlement 'of Otago. - Mr. Salmond said that 400 ministers and a still iarger number of elders had Walked out of 'the assembly of the Church of Scotl'and and constituted the. Free Cliurch of Scotland. In so doing they had renounced the privileges, prestige and property which had been theirs as ministers of a Stateestablish'ed church. "The first moderator of the Free Church was Dr, Thomas Chalmers, whose name was brought to New Zealand 100 years ago and applied to the spot where the first 'two ships of ■ the Otago settlement cast anchor," continued Mr. Salmond. "Port Chalmers links the history and ideals of the Otago settlement to the struggles for religious freedom in the Church of Scotland. "The disruption of the Church in 1843 opened a perio'd of sacrifice and struggle for many church folk in Scotland — a period not untinged with bitterness — one outcome eof which was the rapid forwarding of the scheme to establish a Scots colony in New Zealand. The renunciation of legal right to manses, churches, schools and mission buildings meant that the Free Church had to face a tremendous task with nothing but high faith to • forward it. By 1847 the Free Church was raising three times as much for missionary and educational objects as the whole Church of Scotland had in 1843. "All but one of the foreign missionaries of the Church of Scotland of 1843 joined the Free Church, and were maintained in their posts by that church. Churches, manses, schools and school houses, teachers training colleges and the now famous New College, Edinburgh,were built and staffed, and the missionary spirit of the Free . Church reached out over the expanding British Empire. . "St. Andrew's Church, Wellington, established in 1840, was founded as a Church of Scotland congregation, but from 1850 onwai'd*, with the establishment of St. John's (Free Church) congregation, it.was largely Free Churchmen who1 laid the foundations of the Presbyterian Cliurch of New Zealand. Port Chalmers and various 'Chalmers' Churches throughout New Zealand give a reminder to New Zealand -of stirling days in the Church, of Scotland."