‘Co-operation without Incorporation’: Dissenting Relations after the Disruption

Despite the Free Church’s scathing criticism of the perceived failures of voluntaryism, the immediate aftermath of the Disruption witnessed a thawing of relations between Scotland’s dissenting Presbyterians after the acrimony of the Voluntary Controversy. This chapter will assess the policy of ‘co-operation of incorporation’ that developed as Scotland’s dissenting churches grew closer after 1843. Inspired by the 1843 Bicentenary of the Westminster Assembly, and recognising the shared principles and ecclesiology of Scotland’s various non-established Presbyterian denominations, ‘co-operation without incorporation’ suggested a loose and ambiguous dissenting coalition, deemed necessary to tackle Scotland’s social and moral ills, while also challenging the hegemony of the National Church, the shared enemy for Scottish dissenters. This chapter assesses the often fraught means through which this policy was enacted, including pulpit sharing, meetings, and co-operation in the formation of the major pan-Protestant organisation of the period, the Evangelical Alliance. Though it provoked a mixed reaction from members of both churches, the desire to enact real and lasting union between evangelicals through the early days of the Evangelical Alliance would influence ‘the age of unions’ that followed within Scottish dissent.