by people from St. Andrews. Atterwards the ‘balance or tive sniiiings was

divided between David Malcolm and Mrs Pearson, St. Andrews for extra trouble

they had in cleaning the church and washing the cups’. In 1899 the Estab-

lished church in Strathkinness bought a new organ for £25. In 1904 the Free

Church also decided to buy an organ. They bought one from Martyr’s Church

in St. Andrews at a cost of £37.10.0. The platform which had to be built

for it cost £37.15.0 and in addition they paid for organ lessons for Mr.

Davidson, the precentor. These must not have been too successful as a few

months later a deputation visited Mr. Davidson to explain to him that his

salary would be stopped at the end of the year. (While waiting for

Mr. Davidson to learn how to play the organ they had been paying for an

organist.) They said they wished ‘him to continue as Leader of Praise without

a salary until he feels himself efficient to play the organ’. The organist was

asked to accept a reduction in salary so Mr. Davidson’s lessons might continue.

Although agreeing at first she soon sent in her resignation.

While the church in Strathkinness was involved with internal problems an

important change had taken place in the church nationally. In 1900 the Free

Church had joined the United Presbyterian Church to form the United Free

Church. In 1904 a judgement of the House of Lords, in a case brought by

those who had not joined (the ‘Wee Frees’), claiming they were the rightful

Free Church, as they said those who had joined had given way on fundamental

beliefs, seemed to give the ‘Wee Frees’ the right to all property and funds of

the Free Church. At a congregational meeting held to discuss the position

of Strathkinness a resolution was unanimously carried ‘That this meeting of

the Congregation at Strathkinness deplores the judgement of the House of

Lords and declares its allegiance to the United Free Church’. The effect of

this decision was a weakening of the Free Church generally, and it helped to

pave the way for eventual re-union with the Established Church. In

Strathkinness, as this decision coincided with internal difficulties, it accele-

rated the loss of members to the Established Church.

The state of the church in Strathkinness had caused it to be reduced to a

Preaching Station and after Mr. Henry’s departure the Kirk Session appealed

to the Free Church General Assembly to become a fully sanctioned charge

again. Their first request was refused but after the Rev. James Turner was

appointed minister in 1908 another appeal with a plea ‘to avoid the waning of

the zeal of the people’ was more successful and the church was restored to full

status. One of the conditions for remaining a fully sanctioned church was a

contribution of £80 a year to the Central Fund of the Free Church General

Assembly.

There was an ‘Induction Soiree’ when Mr. Turner became minister and

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