The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland wrapped up yesterday with its usual ritual flourishes.  (We Presbyterians are good at doing that.  Part of the decently and in order thing.)  I have already commented on the highest profile items of business over the last week.  I’ll wrap up some of the lower profile news in this post and then add another with my commentary.  I’ve got three or four posts on other topics in the works as well which I am hoping to get finished up over this Memorial Day Holiday here in the USA.

In one of it’s first items of business the General Assembly changed its meeting dates from the current Saturday to Friday to Thursday to Tuesday or Wednesday.  The action was approved without debate.  So, in 2008 the GA will begin on Thursday May 15.

The Church of Scotland, like the PC(USA) and many of it’s Presbyteries and Synods, is in the process of reorganizing itself.  This year the Council of Assembly brought to the Assembly the reorganization plan for Communications, as well as items on the budget, and charity governance.  In the communications portion there was significant discussion about doing communications work in-house as opposed to contracting it out.  This is also where a question was raised about an official spokesperson, and the issue of Presbyterian Polity was discussed where no one person speaks for the church and the Assembly and Presbyteries are in a connectional relationship.  In a similar way there was significant concern, discussion, and confusion over charity governance as set down by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR, pronounced Oscar) and how that governmental agency’s regulations fit a Presbyterian system.  First, OSCR has accounting standards which must be met by churches, presbyteries and the national boards and councils.  Secondly, there is the issue of who are the trustees of the charity.  OSCR could require consolidated accounts for the whole Church of Scotland which would be contrary to our understanding of our connectional nature.  The Assembly was asked to help argue against this potential requirement.  Under general finance it was reported that the Kirk revenues were up both from increased giving and from investments and that the national assessment would be reduced by a total of £1M.  (Sounds like the PC(USA) per-capita.)

One of the more unique reports of the week was from the Church Hymnary Trustees.  Many churches have found the current words and melody fourth edition of the Church Hymnary to be too heavy.  The Trust reported that they are negotiating with the publisher to produce a lighter weight words only edition.  There was an addendum to have the Trust implement a “trade-in” program so churches could swap their heavier hymnals for new ones but the Principle Clerk reminded the Assembly that the Trust is an independent body and not accountable to the Church of Scotland.  The addendum was revised to invite the trade-in program but the revised addendum failed.  In his closing remarks on Friday the Lord High Commissioner, with some humor, referred back to this issue by asking just how heavy the hymnals were since the Queen would be using one soon.

Besides the Same-sex relationships report, there was also an interesting debate within the Mission and Discipleship Report related to church publications when a commissioner requested that the Assembly instruct the editor of the church’s publication to publish a previously rejected article about the results of a survey.  At the end of the debate the Assembly voted to keep the editorial independence of the publication and did not approve the request to publish the article.  However, the debate did bring to the front some sore nerves or sour grapes about previous editorial decisions of the magazine editors.  A motion was made from the floor to add a section requesting the Council look at promoting sexual abstinence training, or as the motion worded it “saved sex.” In one of the more humerus discussions the wording was bounced around and whether it might apply to a theological doctrine.  At the Deputy Clerk’s suggestion the wording was changed to “promoting the concept of saved sex” but after additional discussion the mover withdrew the motion for this new section.

One other interesting part of the report from the Mission and Discipleship Council was concerning a National Children’s Assembly in the fall.  This event would be for 10 to 12 year olds but the children would be traveling to the event alone.  Significant concern was expressed about the success and advisability of the event and whether children should represent Presbyteries in pairs or chaperons should be added for travel.  We will see what the planning committee does.

One item which I did not comment on previously about the Report of the Council of Ministries, and one of the reasons the “Visions” document within the report was only acknowledged, was the suggestion of a “locally ordained minister.”  This position would replace the Readership position and would provide for a church to ordain a minister for service in that church only.  According to the Church of Scotland’s “Guide To Ministry” web page the Readership has similar to the PC(USA) the Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP) in several respects.  Both the Reader and CLP are set apart by the Presbytery to serve in situations where a regular Minister of Word and Sacrament is not available or practical. The proposed Locally Ordained Minister would be set apart by a church and Presbytery oversight and connection is not yet clear.

Finally, a few notes on the Lord High Commissioner’s comments at the Assembly.  The summary from the Kirk web site indicates that in the opening session HRH Prince Andrew included comments about the 300th anniversary of the union of the Scottish and English parliaments and affirmed the relationship.  With the new Scottish First Minister present Andrew went on to comment on how the recent electoral win by his Scottish National Party has “shaken the timbers” of this relationship.  (In my experience with these Assemblies this is the most political a Lord High Commissioner has gotten.)

The Lord High Commissioner’s closing comments on Friday evening were less weighty and contained a reasonable amount of humor.  He opened, in response to the Moderator’s invitation to speak, by saying he had a few brief comments, “but since she asked…” and he continued with the customary speech about his activities that week.  He also made the comment that he could “spread his wings further” than most Lord High Commissioners and travel further afield in Scotland.  I could not tell if this was intended as justification of his air travel reputation or self-effacing humor.  It is interesting to note that Andrew mixed his two roles during this Assembly, making some visits as the Lord High Commissioner, while sometimes acting as the Duke of York, Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.  (For some details you can see the Court Circular from the TimesOnLine.)  However, the Moderator did thank him at the closing for introducing himself as the Lord High Commissioners while visiting Kirk projects and thereby raising the profile of the Kirk.