Kiltearn Free Church of Scotland, Evanton.

OUR CHURCH
Earliest records indicate that "Evanton" derives its name from the Scottish Gaelic "Ewan's Town" and the scenic little village off the Cromarty Firth just north of Inverness has had that derived name ever since.

Ecclesiastically, in 1843 the Rev Duncan Campbell and almost the entire congregation of Kiltearn aligned with the Disruption "Church of Scotland Free". This was a struggle about religeous freedom.

In 1900 the Rev Murdoch MacQueen remained out of the unbiblical Union and continued as the minister of Kiltearn until his death in 1912. He was Moderator of the 1904 Free Church Assembly.

Currently the Church building is located on the corner of Chapel Road and Livera Street, Evanton, and may be found by turning off the Main Road and up Chapel road at the local village shop. The Church is easily noticeable on the left, and parking is readily available.
The Manse is located on Glenglass Road, (the "Black Rock Caravan site" marks the turn-off for "Glenglass, Assynt" with the Manse 200 yards on the right hand side).

Minister:- Rev. James Frew MA, Dip. Theol.
Manse:- Free Church Manse, Glenglass Road, Evanton, Ross-shire, IV16 9YN. Tel: 01349 830236.
Session Clerk:- Mr Alasdair Bauld, Heather Cottage, Invergordon, 0134 985 3148.
Clerk to Deacons Court:- Mr Alasdair Bauld, Heather Cottage, Invergordon, IV180LF.
Congregational Treasurer:- Mr Andrew Allan, 'Ardhmor', 43 Obsdale Road, Alness.
Sabbath School Superintendent:- Mr Hector MacLeod, Peffery Rd, Dingwall, IV
Sabbath School:- The Sabbath School goes in also at 11:20am.
Midweek Meetings:- Prayer Meeting, Wednesday 7.30 pm.
Services:- 12.00 noon and 6.30 pm with a pre-service prayer meeting at 6:10 pm.
Communions:- 3rd Sunday in March, 4th in June and Last in November

"Kiltearn Free Church" therefore is a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland [continuing] bearing witness to the love and grace of God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The congregation is a 'reformed' and 'presbyterian' congregation believing that the Bible is the 'word of God' the only rule of faith and life.

More detailed History of the "Church of Scotland Free"
The Free Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian Church adhering in its worship and doctrine to the position adopted by the Church of Scotland at the reformation. Its divergence from the Church of Scotland dates from the Disruption of 1843 when, under the leadership of Dr Thomas Chalmers, the Evangelical Party in the Church of Scotland as by Law Established, withdrew from the Establishment to form the Church of Scotland, Free

Disruption
The immediate cause of the Disruption was the insistence by the civil courts that the Established Church had to ordain men to the parish ministry irrespective of their acceptability to the parishioners. The Evangelical Party regarded this as an intolerable interference in the spiritual liberties of the church and so they withdrew from the Established Church to form the Free Church. The Disruption was not intended to be a disruption or division of the Church. Rather it was to be a severing of the link that bound the Church to the State. However, since the Church was not of one mind regarding the proposed action, the Church itself was split. The Established Church remained and the Free Church, claiming to be the same Church as that which it had left, a church adhering to the same Confession of Faith, loyal to the same principles and differing only inasmuch as in the discharge of its spiritual function it was to be subservient to no other authority than the will of God as understood by the collective mind of the Church, came into being.

Declension
The Established Church and the Free Church were not the only Presbyterian Churches in nineteenth century Scotland. In the eighteenth century there had been more than one secession from the Church of Scotland giving rise to the formation of several groupings with distinctive confessional standpoints. In the late nineteenth century a movement to unite the splintered Presbyterian Churches in Scotland was begun. Not surprisingly, given the different, not to say opposing, nature of the confessional formularies of the various churches, union was found to be possible only on the basis of compromise - an agreement to adopt a confession of faith sufficiently vague and elastic as to allow those holding different views to subscribe it with good conscience. When the Free Church was confronted with this dilemma, a minority took the view that the doctrines which were being treated as open questions were to vital to the faith that the duty of Christian unity had to yield to the higher duty of fidelity to the truth. The consequence was that when the great majority of the Free Church entered the Union of 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland (and in 1929 to reunite with the Church of Scotland) a small minority elected to continue the Free Church of Scotland. The adherents of this 'constitutionalist' party, as it was termed, were to be found mainly, although not exclusively, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Today the Free Church of Scotland, although much reduced in size, maintains in continuity with the Church of 1843 the system of doctrine and the form of worship adopted by the Church of Scotland at the Reformation. The singing of the Scottish Metrical Psalms unaccompanied by instrumental music is, perhaps, the most distinctive feature of its liturgy, but the chief emphasis of its worship is still to be found in the centrality of the pulpit and the proclamation of a free and sovereign salvation.