Kirk splits in 1843
THE so-called disruption in the established Church of Scotland reverberated across the country including the Highlands.
Years of increasingly bitter conflict over the Church's relationship with the state came to a head in May with a mass walkout of ministers and elders from the General Assembly in Edinburgh to form the Free Church of Scotland.
It caused deep divisions, left ministers without homes and salaries and entire congregations found themselves without churches in which to worship.
The Inverness Courier, which carried a detailed report of the assembly proceedings, said the split was to be "deeply deplored by all friends of the Church".
"The Church must bestir itself – the aristocracy must not slumber on past security," it maintained in its leader. "A new era has commenced and under the divine blessing, the Church may yet surmount all its difficulties and continue to remote generations the inestimable advantages it has so long conferred on this moral and religious country."
