CUP RETURNED

On August 24 the new Free Church of Scotland formally opened its new building in Fortrose, near Inverness. At the event a presentation was made by Fortrose and Rosemarkie Church of Scotland, with permission of the General Trustees, of a Communion Cup engraved ‘Free Church Fortrose 1843’.

The cup was made for the Free Church of Scotland congregation in Fortrose who had left the Church of Scotland in the Disruption of 1843. It stayed with the congregation as it became a United Free Church in 1900, and subsequently rejoined the Church of Scotland following the reunion of 1929.

However, members of the Free Church who did not join in the 1900 union built their own building in Fortrose in 1910, and it is this building which has been replaced with the new church.

The Rev Dr Warren T Beattie, minister of Avoch linked with Fortrose and Rosemarkie Church of Scotland, (left), is seen presenting the cup to the Rev Sandy Sutherland, recently retired minister of Fortrose Free Church, returning it to what is probably its rightful home.