Tension rising in TT’s Church of Scotland

TENSION IS building over the appointment of local ministers to fill senior positions in the Church of Scotland in Trinidad. A matter in which a minister has accused the church of overlooking him for a position for which he alleges he has the credentials, is currently before the Kirk Session, the church’s local body of elders. The Church of Scotland in Trinidad held the policy of seeking foreign candidates from Scotland to fill positions of seniority. However, an elder of the Kirk Session said that that policy no longer exists and local ministers are being employed. The position of Senior Minister and Moderator of the Kirk Session has been a source of contention over the years. A source within the church revealed that suitably qualified ministers, have been bypassed for the post.

Sunday Newsday learnt that Trinidadian Rev J Frederick Coombs was “irreverently” dismissed from the post in 1998, by the governing body in Scotland. Following that event, Trinidadian Presbyterian Minister Rev Harold Sitahal filled the vacancy “with the view of merging the Presbyterian Church with the Church of Scotland in Trinidad.” Since his retirement in March 2003, the post of Senior Minister and Moderator of the Kirk Session has remained vacant. The post was advertised in the local media. Sunday Newsday was told one applicant for the post, Trinidadian Minister Rev Clifford Rawlings, who served as Parish Minister at the Arouca and Sangre Grande churches,  has been turned down. The Church of Scotland in Trinidad was founded in 1836. Four of its branches are located in Arouca (Barrow Memorial), Sangre Grande, Oxford Street, Port-of-Spain (St Ann’s) and Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain (Greyfriars).