Thurso Free Church of Scotland

A few years ago we decided that it would be a good idea to put down some words to explain what we believe as a Church community. Hopefully these ideas will be generally understandable. If not, there are some explanations below:

1. To grow in grace and knowledge of the Christian faith.

2. To develop Christian unity through fellowship.

3. To reach out with the Gospel to those in our community.

4. To show concern for peoples' social needs.

5. To support the wider outreach of the Church.

( grace=the undeserved goodness of God; fellowship=meaningful social and spiritual interaction, the Gospel=the good news that Jesus saves us from our sins, outreach=spreading the Gospel throughout society).

An account of our history can either be very short or very long. The grouping that our Church belongs to can trace it's roots back to the Protestant Reformation of the 1500's,(when we left the Roman Catholic church) and in particular the Free Church of Scotland dates back to the Disruption of 1843(when we left the Church of Scotland).

This can all give the impression that we are a very negative group of people, however, we prefer to think that we have clear views on what we do and do not believe.

There has been a Free Church in Thurso on and off, ever since 1843, however our present congregation dates from the 1970's, when it was re-established by Rev.Donald Mackenzie of Castletown. 

If we have to use labels to describe ourselves we consider ourselves to be:

Presbyterian (believing in Church government by what the Bible calls, elders)

Reformed ( based on the principles of the Reformation)

Evangelical (committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ)

Well, we think that we really love the Bible and we try to let it shape what we do in our Church life.

So for example our services and buildings tend to be very plain and simple.

We only sing songs from the Bible i.e. the Psalms and we sing them unaccompanied. We also stand to pray and sit to sing - it's a tradition.

Most churches have their traditions, but the main thing for us is telling people about the good news of Jesus Christ and glorifying God in our lives.

This YouTube video gives a little idea of Psalm singing.