Glas, John

(1695–1773)

   Denomination Founder.

   Glas was the son of the minister of Auchtermuchty, Fife, Scotland, and was educated at the University of St Andrews. He himself was ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland and served the parish of Tealing in 1719. In 1730, however, he was deposed from his pulpit because he refused to accept that the Church should be controlled by the secular powers. These views were expressed in his Testimony of the King of Martyrs concerning his Kingdom. With his son-in-law, Robert sandeman, he founded a series of new congregations. Members of the new sect were known as Glasites or Sandemanians and the movement eventually spread from Scotland to Yorkshire, London and the United States of America. Glas taught that creeds and catechisms should be abandoned and that the Bible should be the only spiritual guide. This he interpreted very literally and the Glasites were known for their customs of washing each other’s feet and for their revival of the agape, or common religious meal.

   H. Escott, A History of Scottish Congregationalism (1960).