THE STORY OF ABBEY CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, NORTH BERWICK
A REVISED VERSION OF A BOOKLET PUBLISHED
BY
E.S.P. HEAVENOR, M.A., B.D., Ph.D.
First published in 1963 and revised and up-dated in 1993
Page Two
Perhaps the main impression that would be left on the mind of anyone who studies our Church record would be that the Seceders took very seriously the Reformation stress that discipline must be one of the Characteristics of a true Church, side by side with the preaching of the Word and the practice of the Sacraments. All members were expected to walk worthily of their Christian profession. If they did not, the Session took swift and severe steps. The overwhelming bulk of Session Minutes deals with discipline cases. Moral offenders were brought before the Session for rebuke and counsel. One man was rebuked by the Minister because he did not return home until 1.00 a.m. on Sunday, after dancing all Saturday evening. Drunkenness also occasioned frequent reprimand. Matrimonial problems were handled. A man who refused to live with his wife was debarred from Church ordinances. But the Elders were not only the judges; they were also the judged. It was clearly realised that there must be no suggestion of a blot on an Elder’s name. We read of a man refusing the Eldership because his brother and he were at law with each other. The Session considered the case and concluded that ‘the brother only was culpable’. The innocent brother, accordingly, was examined along with the other candidates for the Eldership. He had passed the test of Character and now he had to pass the doctrinal test. It is clear from such a case that the early Session was not merely an ecclesiastical court. On occasion it almost assumed the role of a civil court. The civil action was prejudged by the ecclesiastical court. The Minister had also the ‘walk softly’ as the Scripture puts it. He could not afford to ignore the opinions or traditions of the believing fellowship. In 1826 Mr Brown felt it necessary to have a Congregational Meeting called under the Chairmanship of another Minister. He had a communication read to the effect that he now found it quite impossible to commit his sermons to memory. He, therefore, sought permission to use notes in the pulpit. Quite obviously this practice was frowned upon. Fortunately for Mr Brown the meeting unanimously agreed to his request. He was held in high esteem by his people, as the memorial in the Church vestibule eloquently testifies.
But the memorising of sermons was not Mr Brown’s only headache. His Church had acute financial problems. Abbey Treasurers in these days must have been very worried men. There are several references to the ‘depression of the times’. The small congregation obviously found it very difficult to keep its financial head above water. By 1818 a debt of £118 shows itself in the records - a serious figure when it is noted that the annual income was sometimes not as much as that! Income mainly came from donations and seat rents, which sometimes were higher than donations. There are frequent references to seat rents in the Minutes of Managers and Collectors (who were responsible for the ingathering of the seat rents). Seat rents were paid for people who could not afford to do so, from a special collection. The possession of a seat was looked upon as a great privilege. This appears clearly from the fact that the annual salary of the Church Officer as late as 1858 was £4.10s. With free seats for his wife and himself. In these days self-support was difficult or even impossible. When the first meetinghouse was built in 1778 we know that £20 was borrowed from Rev. John Brown of Haddington. The loan was made a donation by his widow in 1819. The congregation needed such generous friends. In 1808 Abbey sent a petition to the Synod for aid to assist the congregation in finishing the Manse. When the cause had been established in 1782, a small cottage was bought to serve as a Manse on the site of the present Manse. One can only surmise that the 1808 reference is to some reconstruction which was considered necessary. Mr Brown’s salary felt the influence of the ‘depression of the times’. It was pruned from £118 to £100. A year later it was decided to ask Broughton Place, Edinburgh, to assist with £30 of Mr Brown’s salary, which Abbey could not meet at the time. In 1838 a Minute appears with a most serious ring: ‘...in future Mr Brown be allowed no fixed stipend.’ The whole of the Church income was to be paid over to him after the deduction of necessary expenses. ‘They feel much to come to this resolution but they see no other way in which the Congregation can exist otherwise,’ says the Minute. Three years after this Mr. Brown’s salary sank to a record low level of £78.
The financial position had been aggravated by the decision of the Congregation to build a new meetinghouse. This remarkable decision was proof positive that Mr Brown and his band of workers were in no danger of defeatism. The language of the mind, with finance as its controlling feature cried, ‘Halt!’ The language of the soul said, ‘Forward!’ On 1829 a request for aid towards erecting a new meetinghouse was transmitted to the Synod and to various congregations, including Broughton Place. 1831 saw the start of the work. On 21st February 1832 a Committee was appointed to receive the key of the new Church from the contractors. Strangely enough there is no record of the date of the opening of the Church, although on 6th February 1832 there was request to the Minister to secure a Minister for the opening of the new Church ‘on an early date.’ The new Church cost £569 and that left the formidable debt of £347, which bore heavily on congregational finance. Rev. George Brown died in 1843 and was succeeded by Rev. John Dyer (1844-1857). Mr Brown’s Memorial in the Church vestibule reads as follows: ‘The Memorial of the Reverend George Brown, Minister of the United Associate Congregation, North Berwick, is placed here by his people and friends, to record his personal worth and pastoral fidelity, and to express their esteem, gratitude and sorrow. He was an Israelite indeed - a good Minister of Jesus Christ - an example of the believers’ – ‘By the grace of God he was what he was.’ Born April 18th 1786, ordained April 14th, 1807, died April 24th 1848.’
At this stage it is necessary to insert a reference to denominational history into our local Church history. In 1820 an internal quarrel in the ranks of the Seceders was happily resolved in the formation of the United Secession Synod, with some 280 congregations under its supervision. The Burghers (Associate Synod) had clashed with the Anti-Burghers (General Associate Synod). The Anti-Burghers maintained that no true Seceder could take the oath required of burgesses in certain cities, whereby they acknowledged the true religion preached in the land and supported by the law. The Burghers saw no inconsistency about this. Abbey was in the Burgher stream of the Secession. There is a most felicitous reference to the 1820 Union in the Minutes for 1819, which breathes a spirit which ought to show itself in union deliberations in every generation. The friends of union must ‘engage in this excellent work with the Book of God, that test of truth in the right hand,’ with their standard books (i.e. the Westminster Confession, the Scots Confession, etc.) in the left hand, ‘with an earnest and warm and persevering uplifting of head and soul to the Father of Lights and God of Love.’ Not content with this general reference, it was decided to send a petition to the Associate Synod ‘to take the subject of a union with their Anti-Burgher Brethren into their early consideration’. In 1847 the United Secession Church united with the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church. The Relief Presbytery had been constituted in 1761 ‘for Christians oppressed in Church privileges.’ Patronage was again responsible for this fragmentation of the Church. The Relief leaders were thoroughly evangelical but they tended to be more tolerant than the Secession leaders, especially in their attitude to the Established Church. Discipline was not so severe in their Church, and they had a doctrine of free and open Communion.