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Many Free Presbyterians will be shocked to learn that Rev David DiCanio has been ‘deposed from the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America for the sin of contumacy.’ The sin he is charged with is a ‘stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority.’

Below is a statement which my son, Rev Andy Foster, read to his congregation in Penticton in response to the decision of the Presbytery of FPCNA, which we have also included.

I am most happy to be in total agreement with what my son says and to follow his lead and that of Rev Stephen Hamilton, both of whom have been to the fore in opposing the utter folly of the leadership of the FPCNA in this matter. This decision is the result of a ‘pandering’ by leaders of the FPCNA to the demands of some prominent ministers here in the Ulster Presbytery.

The exposure by Rev DiCanio of the use of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ within some of our congregations here in Ulster, in the video he sent out, referred to by Rev Andy Foster in his statement, stirred the ire of the ministers and those involved in this sin.

However, the FPCNA has in its statement on worship a clear denunciation of CCW music. The relevant portion is quoted in Rev Andy Foster’s statement below.

The Ulster Presbytery, being in union with the FPCNA, is in agreement with that position on this worldly and unscriptural form of worship.

Yet prominent members of our Ulster Presbytery sided with the users of CCM within our congregations and ‘secretly’ demanded that the FPCNA act against Rev David DiCanio.

The result of that pressure has been the unscriptural and unjust dismissal of a man of God who has faithfully laboured to establish a thriving missionary witness in Liberia on the contrived basis that he refused to repent of that which in essence is but his obedience to God’s Word.

His ‘sin’ is denouncing that which is considered a sin in the stated standards of the Free Presbyterian Church in a fashion displeasing to his accusers. (more…)

The following report appeared in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’, Friday 6th December.

In it, the ‘Christian Institute’ indicates the dangers that will arise from the legislation which the Alliance Party deputy leader, Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday. 

Tennyson professes openly that he is a sodomite!

Here is the report by Philip Bradfield.

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Alliance Party proposals to criminalise conversion therapy could see parents jailed for up to seven years “when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation” a Christian charity has warned.

Anyone convicted is also liable to a fine of up to £5,000.

Alliance Deputy leader Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday, saying he was frustrated by delays at Stormont and Westminster to outlaw the practice.

Mr Tennyson proposes two new criminal offences – engaging in conversion practice and removing a person from NI for conversion practice.

He proposes that convictions must m eet four tests;- provision of a service; intent to change someone’s orientation or gender identity; targeted at an individual; harm must be caused.

The only defence would be that the accused’s conduct “was reasonable in the circumstances”.

Anyone convicted would face up to seven years in jail and / or a fine of up to £5000.

See his proposals in full HERE

But James Kennedy, NI Policy Officer with the Christian Institute, now says the Scottish Government gave up on similar legislation this year due to risk of legal challenge, asking Westminster to legislate instead.

He said Alliance has published a flow chart for the bill almost identical to Scottish proposals.

Mr Kennedy said: “Thankfully, abusive practices are already outlawed in Northern Ireland. Christians oppose verbal and physical abuse.”

He added: “Mr Tennyson has copied the threshold from the Scottish plans. The broad definition of ‘harm’ would mean a parent could be prosecuted when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation. Even saying ‘you might regret it’ could be seen as causing fear and thus be illegal. (more…)

“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it,” Luke 13:18-19.

I will never forget brother Jordan Khan preaching on the above brief parable in Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church back in 1970. Brother Khan was a visitor to Ulster from India and preached in various congregations of our denomination. He “was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” I recall his telling us that his father was a prayer partner to ‘Praying Hyde’, John Nelson Hyde (November 9, 1865 – February 17, 1912) an American missionary who preached in the Punjab state in India.

Jordan Khan’s exposition was an early warning of what, some 30-40 years later began to take place within the Free Presbyterian Church.

Please note from this parable:

I. THE TRUE WORK OF GOD HAS VERY SMALL AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS!

“Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed.”

1. The greatest period of blessing and expansion in this New Testament age began with a small group of men and women meeting in prayer. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren,” Acts 1:13-14. We are told that earlier when they gathered in this same room: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,” John 20:19.

The early days of the apostolic church were indeed days of humble and trembling beginnings.

They were days of clinging to the Lord for mercy and help in the face of the opposition of men stirred up by the devil.

2. Some are still alive within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church who will recall the early days in the 1950s when the opposition of our ecumenical opponents was most vicious. I wonder how many know that a godly founding member of Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church was assaulted and beaten by an ecumenical Presbyterian minister and some of his henchmen?

This spirit was still very much alive in the 1960s. My late wife, Ann, a graduate from Queen’s University, Belfast, was unable to obtain a teaching position because she was a Free Presbyterian. Often times, once it was known that she was a Free Presbyterian, the interview was abruptly ended. (more…)