Financing Church Network Duplication: A Case Study of Free Greyfriars’, Edinburgh

This paper describes and analyses the financing arrangements underpinning the Free Church of Scotland's programme to build a duplicate national church network in the decade after the Disruption. In highlighting the important role of debt-funding, it throws new light on the church's early financial development, and the rapidity with which it was able to build over 700 new churches the length and breadth of Scotland during a period of economic adversity. Using the case of Free Greyfriars’, Edinburgh, it illustrates how, within a particular urban context, funds were raised to pay for the construction of a new church building, exploring how borrowing, and the consequent need to service and extinguish debt-finance, influenced this congregation's fundraising priorities and activities.