Category Archives: Church of Scotland

Further News And Comments On The Developing Controversy In The Church Of Scotland

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My thanks to the Rev. Ian Watson of Kirkmuirhill and his blog Kirkmuirhillrev which has been a great source of information in this controversy.  Also, my apologies for not realizing that two of the blog entries I cited in my first post were essentially identical, and the second was copied from Rev. Watson’s original.  I have added a clarification to that post.

Rev. Watson has a second post with some more information on the matter, pointing us to an article in The Sun.  In that article there is a quote from an unnamed worshiper who says [italics in the original]:

“What he does outside the church should be his business and nobody else’s.”

Now, I want to set aside the fact that this controversy is about sexual orientation and speak generally about this quote.  I also realize that I am taking this quote out of context, not that there was much in the original article.

What condition is the church in if we don’t care about people’s lives outside of church?  The quote seems to convey the modern attitude that religion is a private affair and how it interacts with our lives the other 6.75 days of the week is no business of anyone else.  I find this particularly ironic coming from a member of the Church of Scotland.  While the CofS has since adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith as a principle standard, regular readers of this blog know my affection for the notes of the Kirk (Church) in Chapter 18 of the Scots Confession (emphasis mine):

The notes of the true Kirk, therefore, we believe, confess, and avow to
be: first, the true preaching of the word of God, in which God has
revealed himself to us, as the writings of the prophets and apostles
declare; secondly, the right administration of the sacraments of Christ
Jesus, to which must be joined the word and promise of God to seal and
confirm them in our hearts; and lastly, ecclesiastical discipline
uprightly ministered, as God’s word prescribes, whereby vice is
repressed and virtue nourished.

The church is not about an hour on the Lord’s Day but it lays claim to our whole lives.  And the church is not just the kirk session keeping watch on us, although they have primary responsibility for ecclesiastical discipline, but the whole covenant community caring for each other.

OK, down off soap box.

Back to the specifics of this particular controversy:  The article in The Sun quotes the locum preacher at Queen’s Cross Church, The Rev. Mike Mair, as saying: “Queen’s Cross elected [The Rev.] Scott [Rennie],
with a trivial number — like ten out of 200 — voting against him.”

In addition, an article in The Courier provides a bit more background on Rev. Rennie (interesting to see the ties back to U.S. seminaries):

Mr Rennie was born and raised in Bucksburn in Aberdeen.

He served as assistant at Queen’s Cross church before winning the Scots Fellowship to study for a masters in sacred theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

He returned to the UK in 1999 when he was called to be minister at the [Brechin] cathedral.

He is on the Church of Scotland’s taskforce on human sexuality and is treasurer of OneKirk—a network of ministers and members of the Church of Scotland working for an inclusive, progressive church.

He is working towards a doctor of ministry degree at Aberdeen University and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania.

The information from Rev. Watson is that this call is being protested so we will see how it develops.  In addition, he adds that Forward Together, the evangelical network in the CofS, has not commented yet.

Update:  First, Forward Together has now issued a statement expressing their concern about the call of Rev. Rennie.  Second, thanks to Reformed Catholic for his comment below with information about the cooperative D.Min. program Mr. Rennie is in.

Controversy Over A Pastoral Call In The Church Of Scotland

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Within the last week a controversy has developed in the Church of Scotland over a minister who has received a call, with the presbytery concurrence, to an open pulpit in Aberdeen.

At its meeting on January 6 the Presbytery of Aberdeen, by a vote of 60-24, sustained the call of the Rev. Scott Rennie to the Queen’s Cross Church.  The controversy is that Rev. Rennie is an openly practicing homosexual in a public enough way that his call may be the first to be challenged because of his lifestyle.  (The Rev. Ian Watson, in his blog Kirkmuirhillrev states that Rev. Rennie is the first gay man to be called, while a news article from the Evening Telegraph quotes an unnamed CofS spokesperson that Rev. Rennie is not the first.)  It is expected, according to these sources, that some in the minority will challenge the appointment to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, possibly putting the call on hold for five months.  Two years ago the presbyteries of the Church of Scotland rejected the blessing of same-sex civil partnerships.  In his blog Coins for Change, Boris Delahoya describes a bit more about the process ahead.

[Correction:  I missed the fact that Ian Watson’s and Boris Delahoya’s blog entries are essentially identical (I did see that they were very similar).  In the comment below Rev. Watson clarifies that he is the original author of the material.]

There are a couple of interesting nuances to this story which I am not seeing dealt with in the press reports. The Press and Journal, states that the Rev. Rennie is/was married and has a daughter with his wife.  The first is the probable fact that his sexual practice was heterosexual at the time of his ordination.  Therefore, the ordination is not an issue but rather the call based upon his present lifestyle.  The second nuance is that the news story lists his marital status as “separated” not divorced.  Scottish terminology or law may be different than here in the states (please let me know if it is) but being engaged in a sexual relationship with someone other than your spouse before a divorce is finalized is generally not considered an appropriate lifestyle for an ordained officer of the church regardless of the orientation of the relationships.  (Although it seems to be sometimes overlooked if you are discreet about it.)  If the protest is filed it will be interesting to see if and how these details play into it.  Very little of the presbytery discussion has been reported so far.

In a related development, Adam Walker Cleaveland, on his blog pomomusings, recently posted on “The Bible & Homosexuality: Enough with the Bible Already,” which you can probably imagine from the title got a lot of comments, both on the blog and elsewhere.  Now there is a well written counter argument, whether or not it was intended as a direct response, by Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary.

The Rev. William Hewitt Selected Moderator Designate for Church of Scotland General Assembly (2009)

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This past Monday the nominating committee selected the Rev. William Hewitt, minister of Westburn Church, Greenock, as the Moderator Designate for the next General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Rev. Hewitt is a career pastor who was ordained in 1977 and served at Elderslie Kirk for sixteen years before his present call.  His resume is extensive with a lot of community involvement and chaplaincy as well as service to the wider church including serving as convener of presbytery and general assembly committees.  He has served as a Presbytery Moderator twice, first for Greenock Presbytery, and then as the first Moderator of the Greenock and Paisley Presbytery.

This Moderator selection is also distinctive not just for the individual selected, but for other connections in the Web 2.0 world.  Rev. Hewitt is a friend and colleague of Liz who writes the blog journalling.  Check out her brief comments on his selection.

But this year there is also some interesting discussion about the process:
Louis, who served on the selection committee but did not make the final meeting because of illness, asks “Does the Church of Scotland select the Moderator of its General Assembly fairly?”  While he considers Rev. Hewitt a worthy selection, he notes that the process favors those who have served on General Assembly committees and have received the wider visibility.  He suggests the process needs to be changed:

But what about the minister, for instance, who has served
in congregational ministry for 30-40 years, who has proved to be an
excellent pastor, who has faithfully preached God’s Word, who has
discipled many believers to spiritual maturity, who bears the scars of
long service and who has come through the lean years as well as the
fat?  What about such a minister?  Such a minister may not have
written books or articles or letters, may not have much of a record of
service in the central committees and councils of the Kirk, and as a
consequence, will not be sufficiently well-known to be nominated at
meetings of the Committee to Nominate the Moderator.  Our system needs
to be changed to give such ministers a better chance.  Their worth
would be inestimable in the pastoral visitation that is the most
important task of the Moderator once the General Assembly is done and
dusted.

Another interesting bit of commentary come from scotsman.com in their story headlined “Kirk stalwarts passed over for Moderator.”  The article is very brief and really does not develop this critique or add anything new, but the headline is interesting.

So, congratulations and best wishes to Rev. Hewitt and we look forward to hearing from you on the Moderators blog.  (And please consider doing the blog with RSS feed and comments.)

Taking Time To Be A Moderator

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The reality of taking time to be a Moderator of a Presbyterian governing body has been on my mind the last couple of weeks as I struggle to find the time to work on finishing up business items for next week’s Synod meeting and try to figure out how to juggle my professional and family schedule to make these church things happen.  (So if I have so much else to do why am I blogging?  Think of it as a brief diversion to help relax and focus the mind.)

But over the last few years I have been tracking the time and implications of being the moderator of the General Assembly.

With the GA season over and the GA cycle beginning anew this month it is first appropriate to congratulate and offer up our prayers for the Rev. Douglas MacKeddie, pastor of Maryburgh and Killearnan Free Church, who was named the Moderator designate of the Free Church of Scotland earlier this month.  Mr. MacKeddie is a second career minister who has served his current church his whole 26 year pastoral career.  There is a nice article from the Ross-shire Journal about Pastor MacKeddie.

In other news, the selection process for the Moderator designate of the Church of Scotland is now at a list of three nominees: The Reverend John P Chalmers is the Pastoral Adviser and Associate Secretary for Ministries Support and Development for the Church of Scotland. The Reverend William C Hewitt is the pastor of Westburn, Greenock. And finally an elder, an uncommon designate in the Church of Scotland, Professor Herbert A Kerrigan, Q.C., (professional profile, the “QC” is a lawyers’ professional status of “Queen’s Counsel“) who is an Elder and Reader at Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk in Edinburgh. ( I would also note that the Rev. Hewitt is a colleague and friend of Liz, the author of one of my favorite blogs journalling. )

As I hint at above, in some Presbyterian branches only ministers are selected as Moderator of a General Assembly under the polity of that branch.  In some branches, like the Church of Scotland, the position is open to either ministers or elders, but a minister is almost always chosen.  In most American branches elders are more frequently selected, and in the Presbyterian Church in America the position explicitly alternates between Teaching Elders (ministers) and Ruling Elders.

What is the role of the Moderator?  The first duty is to run the meeting but beyond that the Moderator becomes the representative and public face of that governing body for their term in office.  I have my own extensive discussion of what the Moderator is and for the PC(USA) Bruce Reyes-Chow and Byron Wade (Part 1, Part 2) have posted their own descriptions as well as Byron’s interesting post on what it takes to run the meeting.  Over at the Church of Scotland the Moderator Right Rev. David Lunan blogs his activities and travels and the church has posted his schedule.  And some of the denominations, like the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, have their own descriptions posted.

Being a Moderator, especially the Moderator of the General Assembly, takes time and requires travel. For the PC(USA) and the Church of Scotland the travel can be extensive.  Looking at the travel schedules for Bruce and Byron it is clear that there are significant demands.  For example, Bruce lists seven days of travel in September, eighteen in October, and eleven in November.  That’s about 36 days out of 90 or a bit over 1/3.  Back before he was elected Bruce said that his limit was to travel three out of every eight weeks so he is pretty close to that target, if you average over three months.  (For October alone he will be gone more than half the days.  And I should also say that this is his complete travel schedule and it may include other professional travel aside from the Moderator stuff.)

Now let me ask this question:  Do we demand too much from the PC(USA) Moderator of the GA, or at least too much for typical elders to be able to devote the time?  This came up in the election of the Moderator at this year’s GA when the candidates were asked how their churches will get along without them.  The three ministers all said that their sessions or boards had agreed to them not being around as much while the elder replied that “I don’t have a church” and that being retired he had the time for the position.  The reality of serving as the Moderator pretty much demands that you be involved in a church or ministry where the position is seen as part of your service to the church and you are given the flexibility to serve.  If you are an elder you pretty much need to be retired, self-employed, or involved in church ministry like Rick Ufford-Chase.  Just my presbytery and synod work has taxed my vacation, and the patience of my family and employer.  If Mr. Kerrigan is named the moderator designate of the Church of Scotland I will be interested to see how he balances professional and ecclesiastical demands.

Should we be concerned about elders being able to serve as Moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA)?  We claim that it is joint leadership of clergy and elders.  But for the record for the 218th GA there were three clergy and one elder running for Moderator, for the 217th there were four clergy, and for the 216th there was one elder and two clergy.  Back when the term of office was one year it was not really any better, there were three clergy for the 215th and the 214th and an even two clergy and two elders for the 213th.

Right off hand I’m not sure if this is a problem, but as an elder it does strike me as an imbalance in our system.  As I mentioned above, the PCA has a mechanism to enforce balance, but  I’m not sure that is the way to go.  I bring this up as something to think about and to keep in mind as we work within our polity.

National Youth Assembly 2008 — What Happened?

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It has been a bit over a month since the Church of Scotland‘s National Youth Assembly 2008 concluded on September 8, and there was some interesting news and reaction.

First, I want to mention the formal business of NYA2008, the debates, discussions and deliverances.  Yes, a formal report on the topics discussed was put together and you can view the deliverances on the NYA2008 wiki.  Four topics were discussed and I’ll briefly cover the recommendations of each, but check out the deliverances because this group of enthusiastic youth was talking about some serious stuff.

Healthy Relationships
This topic centered on mental health issues and the recommendations emphasize support and resources for those dealing with these issues.  And support is not just the formal variety, but trying to combat the stigma.  The recommendations include training, communications and awareness, not just for church workers but for all congregation members.  And it includes a recommendation to “Encourage the church to develop the role of Street Pastors in their work with the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.”

The Media
Recommendation 1: “Recommends that the Kirk explore and utilise appropriate technology to further the Gospel.”

Most of the other recommendations here encouraged the use of new technology and social media to reach out and further the work of the kirk.  But two of the recommendations were specifically relational:

4.
Endeavour to relate with others on line in an authentic way, mindful
that Christ calls us to love one another as we are loved.

7.Will
try to implement a weekly Sabbath from technology to ensure that
personal relationships continue to have their proper place at the heart
of the Kirk’s ministry and witness.

So #7 tells us that the church can not be 100% virtual; there should be personal contact.

Sustainable Living
This one started at home:

1.
The National Youth Assembly would like to consider how to develop ideas
of eco-consciousness within the running of the NYA. For example,
reducing mailings, enhancing transport links, encouraging car sharing
and providing buses.

This topic had the longest list of recommendations, fifteen total with one having extra bullet points, and most of them being the regular list of ways to be better stewards of the environment.  The list included global climate change and the NYA said this:

5.
The Youth Assembly affirms that action needs to be multi-faceted, even
though there is no conclusive proof of anthropogenic climate change, we
would regard the responsible attitude to be to continue current
measures and use revenue raised by taxation in humanitarian aid.

Future Church
So what does this group of youth of Scotland think about the church?

1.
The future church should be a 24/7 church, modelling itself on the
wider world which is increasingly operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.

2.
The church should be identified as a community that discusses and
studies, rather than a community that listens. This should involve
shorter sermons, times of reflection and discussion within worship.

There are ten recommendations in this group and they are interesting and call the kirk to model the early church.  Everyone in the church is called to exhibit and work for Jesus Christ.  Barriers are to be broken down, including between social groups and sharing between financially well off churches and those that are struggling.  And small churches still have an important part in the work of the kirk and encourages pooling of resources to keep them operating.

As I said above, read through this page if you want to know what this group of youth of the church are thinking today.

Lest you think this was all work and no play, I would suggest you have a look at the photographs on the flickr site.  In those 767 photos you will see a lot of serious discussion, but you will also see a lot of less serious moments as well.  One of the “highlights” of the NYA2008 was when it made the top of the Twitter trending list.  In fact, Twitter got so popular during one of the debates that the screen at the front showing the Twitter comments got switched off so it did not distract from the debate.  And if you want a chronological rundown of the proceedings you can check out the official NYA2008 blog.

For individual reaction there are several bloggers who commented on the event.  In particular, there is Stewart Cutler who not only covered NYA2008 on his own blog but was responsible for much of the content on the official blog, flickr pool, and wiki.  The official blog has a sidebar with some of the other NYA2008 bloggers you can check out, but Shuna at “I am a Rag Doll” may give the most heart-felt summary of the event in Thank You Mark.  She, as well as all the others, especially appreciated Mark Yaconelli’s keynote messages.  If you want another extensive set of comments check out NYA2008 on the blog People Will Forget What You Say by Margaret McLarty.

From this vantage point, reading the accounts of the event and looking through the wiki it looks like an exciting event.  But more, I am impressed with the topics they tackle and especially that in doing so they speak to the whole church.  While youth delegates are involved in wider meetings of various Presbyterian branches, this appears to me to be the one that discusses and produces recommendations that most closely reflect the younger generation’s thoughts and ideas.  Furthermore, this appears to be, for four days, an intense and balanced mix of business, relationship, and technology.  Interesting stuff.

Next Moderator of the Church of Scotland — The Process

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While I regularly blog the nominating process of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, we have a different insight this year because another blogger,  the Rev. Louis Kinsey, is on the nominating committee for the Moderator of the 2009 GA and Louis is sharing his experience of serving on that committee on his blog Coffee with Louis.  The committee has had its first of two meetings and he shares with us his experience (but no names) from that meeting.

I look forward to hearing further from him.

Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly 2008

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If you have not picked up on the buzz, the excitement level is rising for the annual National Youth Assembly of the Church of Scotland which begins on Friday in Dundee.  Among the blogs that I follow, Stewart Cutler and Margaret McLarty seem particularly excited and I kind of wish I could be there too.  I look forward to what they have to say after the event, and they are both presenters in workshops.

This annual youth event has its own blog, wiki, and its Twitter keyword is NYA2008.  No traditional web site that I can find so it sounds like a very Web 2.0 event.  Lots of Twitter.  Pictures on flickr?
The four day event includes Debates (sounds like discussion sessions) on Sustainable Living, Social Media (“If you’re not online you don’t exist”), Healthy Relationships, Future Church (including a discussion topic of “The Rights and Rites of the Church”).  And the featured speakers and seminars strike me as a great mix of typical church-related topics (Mission, Bible Society, The Book of Revelation) and realities of life (parenthood, mental health).  A good looking event that seems to know their target audience.
So have fun and be sure to write.  (Based on the Twitter search that won’t be a problem.)

Moderator of the Church of Scotland Now Blogging

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Well, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has started blogging.  The first, I think, entry is about the visit of six Malawians to Glasgow.

It will be interesting to see how this develops.  At the moment the blog is a page on the Church of Scotland web site and not hosted using the more typical CMS blog software.  When a new post is added we will have to see if it replaces the previous or they are available on the same page or the older one is archived.  And if there is an RSS feed I have not found it yet.  And as you can tell, this is not Web 2.0.  It is more like a weekly update or reflection from the Moderator and without comments it is not interactive.  We will see if this evolves.

General Assembly of the Church of Scotland — Wrap-up 1: General Thoughts and The British PM

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The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland concluded their meeting today and while I had hoped to do some live-blogging during the sessions, life and work (pun intended) kept me busy with other things.  I will do a couple of wrap-up posts over the next few days since I will have the extended Memorial/Decoration Day holiday weekend to do some blogging.

My first reaction is that it was great to be watching a General Assembly, any GA, again.  While some terminology and issues may be unique to the Church of Scotland (CofS), there is much in their deliberations that overlaps with other branches.  In particular, the CofS is looking at a reorganization of their most basic constitutional document that has echoes of the PC(USA) Revised Form of Government debate (in structure and approach but not as much content).  There were also debates that involved interim ministry, pastoral searches, theological education, and the church in the 21st century.  I’ll talk about those debates in later posts, but the feel of the proceedings was very familiar to us GA Junkies.

One of the headline items of the General Assembly was an invited speech on Saturday by British Prime Minister the Right Honorable Gordon Brown MP.

Two items of background are helpful to know to appreciate the context of this speech.  The first is that Gordon Brown is a “son of the manse,” his father having been a Church of Scotland minister.  In his speech he looks back and comments on growing up and what he learned from his father including:

And all that I was taught then remains with me to this day. Like so
many here today, my father lived on a ministerial stipend. But he also
brought us up to study the great texts, to believe that the size of
your wealth mattered less than the strength of your character; that a
life of joy and fulfillment could be lived in the service of others; and
that to be tested by adversity is not a fate to be feared but a
challenge to be overcome.

The second piece of background is that this is the 20th anniversary of a speech given by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the General Assembly.  That speech is available from the web site of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and is considered a key exposition of her moral and religious world view.  The Thatcher speech is known in Scotland as the “Sermon on the Mound,” a play on both the scriptural discourse of Jesus and the artificial hill where the Assembly Hall is located.  This is a name that the Thatcher Foundation frowns upon saying in the editorial comments with the speech text “Tastelessly, opponents nicknamed the speech ‘the Sermon on the Mound.'”  The speech caused an uproar for its proof-texting scripture, worship, and theology to justify her political theories.  The Wikipedia page on the speech describes the Moderator’s reply in presenting her with reports on housing and poverty “which was interpreted by the press as a polite rebuke.”

Mr. Brown’s speech politely walked a fine line between Church and State while never really doing much with either.  He does deal with the moral responsibility each person has for making the world a better place, the role that the church has for holding up issues and speaking truth to power, and he acknowledge the reports handed to the PM 20 years ago saying:

So just as twenty years ago this weekend the then Prime Minister was
presented with the Church and Nation Committees’ deliberations and
kindly invited to study a report entitled ‘Just Sharing’, I expect
nothing less than for you to ask me and the Scottish Parliament to
study in detail – and reflect upon – today’s report of the Church and
Society Council —- to reflect upon your demands, your priorities,
your call for action on homelessness, on child poverty, on the
shortfalls in the care of older people. And I agree also with what you
say about the misery caused by gambling and drug addiction, and the
scourge of alcohol abuse.

After talking about the human urge to work for justice he then spoke of the potential of cyberspace and its ability to bring together like-minded people even if they are on the opposite sides of the world.  His logical conclusion is:

And what I want to argue is that the joining of these two forces –
the information revolution and the human urge to co-operate for justice
– makes possible for the first time in history something we have only
dreamt about: the creation of a truly global society.

A global
society where people anywhere and everywhere can discover their shared
values, communicate with each other and do not need to meet or live
next door to each other to join together with people in other countries
in a single moral universe to bring about change.

As a true politician he did not embrace any distinctive theological issues but spoke of “universal truths” using Christian terms and references and talked of global issues in general terms.

Needless to say, a speech by an important politician received significant coverage in the media and the blogs.  There is coverage on the BBC Web Site with an article on the speech and a critical commentary in the Scotsman.  On the blogs there is plenty of commentary as well, but I would single out the comments by Alan in Belfast and Puffbox that highlight Brown’s comments about the value of the internet.  There is plenty more of both regular media and blogs if you do a web search on these.

OK, enough of the kids that have left home coming back to say “hi.”  Next, on to the meatier subjects of reorganization and the Articles Declaratory.

The Theology of Dr. Who

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As long as I’m tackling some of the less polity-oriented items today, I’ll go ahead and do this post on Doctor Who.

Actually, it begins with the actor who plays the title character, David Tennant.  Now, this would just be an interesting SciFi bit if it were not for the fact the Mr. Tennant’s father is the Very Rev. Alexander “Sandy” McDonald, a respected Church of Scotland minister and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1997.  For more details you can check back to a post of mine about this in September 2006.  But as the tenth Doctor Who begins his third season the publicity has increased.

First, there was a very nice tribute piece that David did for his father excerpted on Irregular Bones.

Second, there has been a lot of buzz recently about the theological parallels to Christianity in the Doctor Who series.  It appears to have started with a Sunday Telegraph article about a Church of England conference that encouraged the use of the series in sermons and other church contexts as a tool to connect with youth in the church.  This has, of course, been picked up in the blogosphere including The Lead on the Episcopal Café, a long article at Heresy Corner, and at Sola Dei Gloria.  There are a host of other blogs as well.

Now, I was a fan of the show, particularly the Fourth Doctor, but I have not seen a lot to draw from any more than other forms of popular media.  A clip here, a quote there.  Just the usual.  Now popular media is a useful tool, but I find it interesting that there was a whole conference on this one series.