TheRelief Church (orPresbytery of Relief) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination founded in 1761.^[1] In 1847 it united with theUnited Secession Church to form theUnited Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In relation to the history of theChurch of Scotland it is known as theSecond Secession, relating to theFirst Secession of 1733.

The church was founded byThomas Gillespie, a former minister of theChurch of Scotland. He had been deposed by the General Assembly in 1752 after he refused to participate in inducting a minister to theInverkeithing parish since the parishioners opposed the appointment. Gillespie was joined byThomas Boston ofOxnam and Thomas Colier ofWestmoreland. They held the first meeting of the Presbytery of Relief atColinsburgh inFife in 1761. The name was chosen to mean relief from the patronage that was common in the Church of Scotland at the time.^[2]

The Relief body was liberal, welcoming independents, Episcopalians and other devout men to join them.^[2] In 1766, the distinguished ministerJames Baine resigned from his presbytery ofPaisley and joined the Relief Church. In his letter of resignation Baine asserted that his faith and belief in his former creed was unchanged, but he was resigning due to abuses of church power.^[3]

The number of congregations grew rapidly, and a Relief Synod was formed in 1773, which in 1847 had under its jurisdiction 136 congregations. The Relief Church issued no distinctive testimonies, and a certain breadth of view was shown in the formal declaration of their terms of communion, first made in 1773, which allowed occasional communion with those of the Episcopal and Independent persuasion.

In 1794, the Relief Church adopted as its hymn-bookPatrick Hutchison'sSacred Songs and Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, and it was Hutchison who established the first systematic definition of the Relief Church's beliefs.

A Relief theological hall was instituted in 1824. In 1847, a union was formed between all the congregations of the United Secession Church and 118 out of 136 of the Relief Churches, in what became the United Presbyterian Church.^[4]

• Religious organizations established in 1761
• 1761 establishments in Scotland
• 1847 disestablishments in Scotland
• Former Presbyterian denominations
• Church of Scotland
• Presbyterianism in the United Kingdom
• Presbyterian denominations in Scotland

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022