“The question is whether the present body claiming to be the Free Church of Scotland is identifiable with the Free Church of Scotland of 1843. There is a moderately strong argument that by their action the present body are no longer the same body they once were. There was a principle that underlay worship in the Scottish Church at the time of reformation, that it should be unaccompanied and using scriptural materials.”

The introduction of hymns and musical worship is threatening to fuel further disharmony and legal action between two of Scotland’s most traditionalist churches.

The Free Church of Scotland underwent an acrimonious schism in 2000 when a number of ministers and congregations left to form a new sect.

Since then, the staunchly Presbyterian [Free] church (FCS) and the Free Church Continuing (FCC) have been at loggerheads over the ownership of churches and manses.

Last year, three judges upheld a decision rejecting the claim made by the breakaway faction and urged both sides to resolve their differences and end their feud.

Lord Uist ruled the only basis on which the FCC could have a legal claim to property was if the Free Church had departed from their fundamental principles.

But now the FCC has claimed their rival’s decision to overturn a century-long ban on hymn-singing has stripped them of their legitimacy and opened up the possibility of a fresh legal challenge.

A report that was put before the FCC’s General Assembly in Edinburgh last week claimed the Free Church had abandoned its long-standing principles of “purity of doctrine, purity of discipline and purity of worship”.

The document states: “It was argued in the committee that this new position disqualified the residual body from the right to sue for Free Church properties on the grounds that they were no longer the body which held to the fundamental principles as historically maintained hitherto in the Free Church of Scotland.”

The argument is now expected to be raised in negotiations over control of a church in Partick, Glasgow, in a case which is due to be heard in the Court of Session in October.

It is understood that the ownership of around 20 churches and manses, from Skye, North Uist, Harris and Kiltearn in the islands and Highlands to Shettleston in the East End of Glasgow, are still being contested.

The FCC, which has around 30 congregations, has received donations and pledges of around £30,000 towards its legal costs.

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