The Reformed Presbyterian Synod

One presbytery for the whole Church

Hutchison writes: “It was not till 1807 that the first proposal was made to divide the Presbytery, and constitute a Synod.” Its jurisdiction “extended over the whole southern portion of Scotland, and included congregations as far apart as Edinburgh on the one side and Stranraer on the other.” Ministers could not attend meetings held far from home, and business had been left to committees, or to the ministers assisting at a communion “say at Stirling or at Quarrelwood, to constitute a pro re nata [called for the occasion] meeting”.¹

Couper, who had the use of the Synod’s records, puts it briefly: “Up to 1810 one Presbytery sufficed for the whole Church, but in that year congregations were divided into three Presbyteries, and the whole was formed into a Synod.”²

Three presbyteries

Hutchison writes: “The project of dividing the Presbytery was discussed for two or three years, and was harmoniously carried into effect in 1810. It was agreed that the division should be into three Presbyteries, to be called Eastern, Northern, and Southern, and the first meeting of the Synod was fixed to be held in Glasgow on the 1st of May, 1811. A similar step was taken about the same time by the sister Presbyteries in Ireland and America.”³

The names of the presbyteries vary in the sources. Couper places Laurieston, “on the formation of the Synod in 1811”, in “the North-eastern Presbytery”, and the Synod’s minute of May 1821, as Hutchison quotes it, names an Eastern, a Southern and a Western Presbytery.⁴

Hutchison counts the Church at this time: “The one united congregation had now been divided into eighteen charges, besides preaching stations, with thirteen ministers; and, having a Theological Hall of its own, the Church was placed on an equal footing with the other denominations in the land.” There were congregations in Perth and Dundee, and one in Lorn, in the West Highlands, which “continued to exist till the Union in 1876.” Keddie gives the same count, from Hutchison.⁵

The first Synod, Glasgow, May 1811

Hutchison opens his chapter on the Synod: “The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland held its first meeting in Glasgow, in May, 1811, and continued to meet regularly once a year, and occasionally twice a year, either in Glasgow or in Edinburgh, during the next sixty-five years. The first sederunt [sitting] consisted of thirteen ministers and ten elders; two of the former, Rev. Messrs Grieve and Fairley, were without charges.” Keddie also dates the Synod to 1811.⁶

Couper’s list of Moderators, drawn from the Synod’s records, begins: “May 1811 John M’Millan III.”⁷

Among the first Synod’s business was a paper on the young people of the Church. In March 1810 the Presbytery had appointed “the Revs. John Cowan and Andrew Symington each to draw up a plan of conduct to be pursued by Sessions [the minister and elders of each congregation] and parents”. Hutchison quotes the first Synod’s minute: “The Court proceed to inquire respecting an appointment laid upon two members at the last general meeting of the Presbytery at Douglas, to prepare some Memorial concerning the Church’s duty in seeing that baptismal obligations be laid upon children, and young people brought forward to a regular standing in the Church. A Memorial was produced and read. After observations from members, the Synod appoint that copies of said Memorial be transmitted and circulated among the Presbyteries and Sessions to report their sentiments at next meeting.”⁸

In 1813, by a minute of 5 May that Hutchison also quotes, the Memorial was “finally remanded to the different Sessions, requesting them to furnish themselves with copies of it, and to apply its principles in that extent and manner which they shall judge most for edification.”⁹