Mr. A.D. Bowie: a lay heretic, 1897

Mr. A. Douglas Bowie was precentor (lay singing leader) in Kirkcudbright Free Church when he was accused of having also been a member of the charismatic Catholic Apostolic Church (wiki) for the previous thirteen years. As a consequence his minister, Rev Marshall, dismissed him from his role in June 1897. I guess the minister was new.

The substantive allegation, insofar as it was articulated, was of holding beliefs of one church which were incompatible with the beliefs, and therefore membership, of the Free Church. The driving accusation was deceit.

But Marshall acted outwith the proper procedure. He asked the Kirk-Session (the church council and a court in its own right) that he might deal with his organist and they had assented. By doing so they abrogated their duty as a court, and denied Bowie the chance of both a more public hearing and the opportunity to appeal. 

Bowie petitioned the Presbytery which effectively acted as a court of review notwithstanding the absence of a lower court. They discussed the matter over four hours on Tuesday 13 July, beginning with the question of whether they had jurisdiction. They decided they had. (I would question the procedural justice in allowing Marshall to take a full part in the debate before then appearing as witness in the hearing.)

The Presbytery heard from witnesses. Mr Bowie said that he had been a member of churches in Ayr and Kirkcudbright and in both ministers had known of his connection to the Catholic Apostolic Church and had made no objection. He had been asked to become precentor and had accepted "making no secret and no boast of his church connection."  

Rev Marshall insistently argued that Bowie had not been a 'real' member of the church because he had been on the roll "deceitfully": post hoc, ergo proptor hoc. 

The Presbytery debated and then ducked the issue. They remitted the matter back to the kirk session, presumably to start again, but this time regularly.

Mr Bowie does not seem to have suffered from his ordeal. He resigned from the Presbyterians and was promptly appointed as organist at St Cuthbert's Episcopal Church, Kirkcudbright (Aberdeen Press and Journal, Tuesday 20 July 1897, p.7 col. 6). Presumably the Episcopalians prized music over doctrine.

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Kirkudbright Parish Church, and Episcopal Church present day websites.