A Patronage Act (1712) resulted in appointments to Presbyterian congregations in Scotland being made by patrons. This right of congregations was inhibited, if not totally denied them. The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) was divided and with the withdrawal from it (November 1733) of Rev Ebenezer Erskine and others (Erskinites), a Secession Church came into being.
In time Secession ministers appeared in Ireland. An outstanding one was the Rev Dr Thomas Clark. He arrived from Scotland in 1749, having studied medicine as well as theology. For two years he was an itinerant evangelist for the Secession cause in Tyrone, Armagh, Down and Monaghan, before settling in 1751 as minister of Ballibay (sic), later to be known as Cahans.
Clark was energetic and intrepid and cut a dashing figure. He continued to speak broadest Scottish. Sometimes he was critical of clerics of the majority grouping of Presbyterian clergy, the general synod in terms believed to be "too sweeping".
In the course of a ministry calling forth high praise, he was imprisoned from January to April 1754. It was alleged by an envious neighbour that he held "treasonable principles". He was adjudged wrongfully imprisoned eventually.
Perhaps this experience and a general feeling of oppression led Clark and about 300 other emigrants in what is called the Cahan Exodus, to make the pilgrimage of Scotch-Irish to America. It was arranged for a boat to be at the Narrow Water, near Newry, from where they went via New York State to South Carolina where Clark ended life in 1792 as the minister of Long Caine Abbeville.
However, the Seceder tradition continued in Ireland, merging in the Presbyterian Church in 1840. Cahans congregation merged with First Ballybay/Derryvalley in 1972. Unused since then, the Cahans Church (of 1840) is in disrepair.
A cross-community Cahans Project Committee rightfully thinks that "an important heritage as a Seceder Congregation is here".
For purposes of restoring and preserving Cahans Church for future generations, the committee urgently needs €250,000. Donors may make cheques payable to Nixon Montgomery, treasurer, Cahans Project Committee, Carnaveagh, Latton, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
A book which will be interesting for Presbyterians, members of the Elim Pentecostal Church and journalists who may know the author, is Climbing Slemish, by Dennis Kennedy (Trafford Publishing).
After years in journalism abroad, Dr Kennedy was with The Irish Times for 17 years, until appointed European Commission representative for Northern Ireland.
While self and ancestry and life of family members through two world wars and troubles are paramount, allusions in a context of fundamentalist Protestantism are of great interest. WP Nicholson was a seaman turned evangelist, and his missions in the 1920s called thousands into the kingdom.
George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church in Monaghan, in 1915, makes an appearance, amid Tent Missions in and around such citadels of Presbyterianism as Buchna, Broughshane, Ballymena and Lisburn.
A really good read.