Last week, the "Dispatch" and "Herald" broke the news of a dramatic new twist in the long-running debate over the proposed union of Forfar East & Old Church with St. Margaret's, with a proposal going before the May meeting of Angus Presbytery to the effect that the idea be dropped.

Angus Presbytery met in Forfar on Tuesday evening and concurred with the view of the ministry and appraisal group that any attempt at union between Forfar East & Old and Forfar St. Margaret's should now be abandoned and that the presbytery plan for Angus should contain both congregations as independent congregations, with unrestricted calls, and with both sets of buildings classified as 'necessary' beyond the lifetime of the current presbytery plan.

The presbytery must now inform officials in Edinburgh of the decision but if, as seems likely, the move is ratified, it will close an acrimonious chapter in the history of the two churches.

Talks on a possible union of the churches go back over a decade, since the 1995 plan which "suggested a collegiate charge in the centre of Forfar."

When the talks between officers of both churches reached stalemate - a major stumbling block being which building should be retained as a place of worship - the matter eventually went to arbitration.

The decision that St. Margaret's be the preferred site to house a new unified congregation caused quite a stir throughout Forfar - with many fearing for the future of the Big Kirk.

Early this year, office-bearers and the congregations of both churches had the opportunity to vote on the basis for union - with St. Margaret's giving strong support to the proposals and the East & Old overwhelmingly rejecting them.

That led to a compromise proposal in a bid to chart a middle way through the 'impasse'.

This proposal would have retained the East & Old sanctuary for traditional Sunday worship, with all other East & Old ancillary accommodation disposed of, while also respecting the view of the arbiters that the St. Margaret's site be developed to provide the united congregation with "the kind of modern accommodation they would need for the bold vision of a missionary and community church they had arrived at", as well as the site for alternative forms of worship.

"Sadly, the proposal received opposition and a degree of hostility by one set of office-bearers, and lukewarm enthusiasm, at best, by the other," stated the ministry and appraisal group report which went before presbytery last Tuesday evening.

"We are of the view the current basis of union on the table does not provide the basis for a union of East & Old and St. Margaret's in any meaningful sense of the term.

"Having mediated and led consultations and negotiations over the past year it is our view that, to push through the current basis would be unwise."