A ''REBEL'' minister will have to wait many months before he knows if he is to be thrown out of his rent-free home.
The Free Church of Scotland yesterday raised an action against the Rev Maurice Roberts in a bid to evict him from the manse in Abertarff Road, Inverness, as a bitter split among members
deepened.
Mr Roberts, 62, was sacked by the Free Church after he refused to withdraw alleged comments that the church's supreme court, the General Assembly, was guilty of ''wickedness and hypocrisy''.
Despite being suspended he has refused leave the two-storey Victorian villa where he lives rent free, and even though he has built himself a #150,000 bungalow nearby.
The legal action to recover the property was drafted by Free Church lawyers but was raised at Inverness Sheriff Court in the name of 11 local trustees who hold the title deeds to the building.
The action was raised on the ''summary roll'' which normally reaches the hearing of evidence and a decision comparatively quickly.
But Mr Roberts' solicitor Andrew Murchison was granted permission by Sheriff William Fulton to have the case transferred to the ordinary roll, despite objections from church solicitor David Sutherland.
Sheriff Fulton said he remitted the case to the ordinary roll ''due to the importance of the case and the difficulty of the case''. Both sides will now lodge claims and counter-claims at a series of court callings, the next being on May 5, and it could be into the autumn before evidence is heard unless a settlement can be reached beforehand.
The court action is the latest development in feuding within the church that has led to a breakaway group being formed called the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).
Cheshire-born Mr Roberts is a leading member of the more traditionalist breakaway church, and he was accused of criticising the Free Church General Assembly.
He and other rebel ministers claimed the established church had failed to carry out further investigations into allegations of wrongdoing and immorality against Prof Donald Macleod, principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh even though he had been cleared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 1996 of four assaults against women.
Mr Roberts, 62, had been a member of the Free Church for 43 years and an office bearer for 30. He preached in Ayr for 20 years and was minister at Greyfriars Church in Inverness until the split.
He has been turned away from Greyfriars and now preaches at a local school instead.
Mr Roberts said he could not comment as the court action had now started.
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