Category Archives: Church of Scotland

Passings: Jack Stotts, Lewis Wilkins, and William Smith

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Question 1. What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. [Heidelberg Catechism]

In life and in death we belong to God. [Brief Statement of Faith]

These two phrases, each leading off their respective faith documents, are almost mantras to me.  “I am not my own,” “We belong to God.”  And from what I know, these are appropriate to the three gentlemen who I remember here today.

The Rev. Jack Stotts Ph.D. was familiar to many American Presbyterians as the former president of Austin Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Seminary before that.  Among his most remembered contributions will be the job of chairing the task force that wrote the Brief Statement of Faith, adopted in 1991.  This document was written in the wake of the UPC and PCUS reunification to embody the shared faith.  He was himself a strong advocate for unification.  He went to be with the Lord on January 24 and is remembered in both a Presbyterian News Service press release and a page on the PCUSA web site.

In God’s divine wisdom He also called home the Rev. Dr. Lewis Wilkins, another worker for Presbyterian unification, on January 31.  In addition to his Presbyterian union work, Rev. Wilkins served a variety of positions, many of them as staff in higher governing bodies including presbytery executive, associate executive of synods, and staff on the national level for the Presbyterian Church in the United States.  The Presbyterian News Service released an article remembering Rev. Wilkins.

Today, the Edinburgh News published the news of the death of Elder William Smith on December 1, 2007.  From reading the article I was struck by the tremendous example he set of an Elder involved in the work of the church.  The article carried the great title of “A Life Spent Serving Faith and Family.”  This servant, unable to afford a university education, was a life-long member of the Church of Scotland and a civil servant.  He was ordained an elder in 1950 and served as his kirk’s clerk twice.  But he also served on the national level being the first elder to serve as convener of the Diaconate Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1981-1986.  In 1987 the Moderator of the General Assembly ask Mr. Smith to serve as his senior chaplain.  Once again he was the first elder to be asked to hold that position.  His dedication and faithfulness remind us that the core of our Presbyterian government is elders and clergy serving together and equally in the administration of the church.

“Well done good and faithful servants.”

Are We Presbyterians Really All That Joyless?

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This topic surfaces regularly and the last time I posted on it was back in October, 2006.  However, this past week two new items appeared that brought this into focus again.

Specifically, it is usually the Scottish Presbyterians that get typed as too serious and joyless.  This past week press coverage brought my attention to an article in the September issue of the regular publication of the Free Church of Scotland, the Monthly Record.  The press coverage brought other people’s attention to it as well since the church set up a special page for it on their web site.  The issue of the magazine is about “Enjoying God” and the editor, David Robertson, wrote the lead article is titled “ The Joy of Calvinism” and begins with this sentence:

The definition of a Calvinist as being a person who is miserable at the thought that someone somewhere is actually enjoying themselves’ is sadly all too typical of the popular misconception of the Free Church (and other forms of Reformed Christianity) in Scotland today.

The writer goes on to say how the culture sees religion, particularly the Scottish Presbyterian kind, as “doom, gloom, blackness, depression and joyless,” how everything that is wrong with Scottish society and even the weather get blamed on Knox and Calvin, and how the Prime Minister of the UK, Gordon Brown, is always labeled by the media as a “dour Presbyterian Scot (the three words always going together).”

The article then reminds us that if we are miserable at our human condition, if we “complain, moan, and have a spirit of bitterness” it is “not because of [our] Christianity — it is in defiance of it.” (emphases in the original)  The author is not denying the true pains and challenges of our human lives.

His point in the article is that Christians should enjoy life more than non-believers because we know the source of our blessings, God the giver of all good gifts.  In so doing, we should enjoy the good things in life as gifts from the one we worship, not worship the good things as idols unto themselves as those who do not know the ultimate source was God.  “The ultimate joy is to know God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And if we cannot thank the triune God for what we are doing, eating, drinking or watching then we should not be involved with them.”  He goes on to talk about worship and say “Every service should be a celebration.”  It is not an argument for a particular “style” of worship, but our attitude towards worship and how we approach such things as the content of prayers and the tempo of hymns.

While not a current article, I and others discovered it this week and it stands in contrast to some comments from a politician about Scotland that reinforces this stereotype.  Interestingly the comments are also old, five years old to be exact, but were brought to light this past week by a Freedom of Information request.  The comments were made in an e-mail by Mr. John McTernan, now serving as a top aide to the Scottish Secretary.  In that old e-mail he tells a colleague that they will enjoy their trip to Sweden, “It’s the country Scotland would be if it was not narrow, Presbyterian, racist, etc, etc. Social democracy in action.”  At the time Mr. McTernan worked for the Scottish Arts Council.  Mr. McTernan is claiming that the comments were taken out of context and are old.  The ruling Scottish National Party is using this as evidence of what Mr. McTernan’s Labour Party really thinks of Scotland.  I won’t go any further into the national politics of this, for that you can see the news on-line, including a story from Scotsman.com.

The point here is that the church can be joyful about the proper things and that would help to not only reverse the perception of Reformed Christians, but attract people to Christ.

Follow up on the passing of T. F. Torrance

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In the last couple of days more has been posted on the internet about, and in memory of, the Very Reverend Thomas (T. F.) Torrance.  Princeton Theological Seminary, where his son Iain is the president, has posted both a news item and an obituary.  In like manner, the School of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh, where Torrance taught and was an Emeritus Professor, also has posted a news item.  And of course, there is a note and remembrance on him at the T. F. Torrance Theological Fellowship web site. Finally, several other blogs have mentioned his passing as well including both an announcement and a eulogy on Faith and Theology. (Although the Princeton Obituary and the Faith and Theology Eulogy are by the same author, George Hunsinger, and are essentially the same.)

I will add that since I was introduced to Rev. Torrance’ work 25 years ago I have appreciated his theological thought.  Having served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1976 and having won the Templeton Prize in 1978 he had distinction in both areas of ecclesiology and theology that are of the most interest to me.  I’ll have to dig out my copy of Reality and Scientific Theology and reread it over the holidays.

Passings: T. F. Torrance and Gene Sibery

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Today brings news of two devoted Presbyterian leaders passing to the Church Triumphant.

Last Sunday, December 2, the Very Reverend Thomas Torrance, went to be with the Lord.  He was an internationally renowned theologian at the University of Edinburgh, and served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1976.  In the US, he may be best know as the father of the Very Reverend Iain Torrance, the current president of Princeton Theological Seminary and also a past Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland serving in 2003.  There are a few news stories available and a press release from the Church of Scotland.

Elder Gene Sibery passed away last Thursday, November 29.  He served as the Vice-Moderator of the 209th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1997 and then served six years as chair of the PC(USA) Board of Pensions.  I was a commissioner to that GA and I found Gene to be approachable and friendly.  His leadership added to collegiality of that Assembly.  For more, see the PC(USA) Press Release.

Moderator Designate for the Church of Scotland 2008 General Assembly

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The Church of Scotland nominating committee has selected the Rev. David Lunan, Clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow, as the Moderator Designate for the General Assembly to be held this coming May.

The Rev. Lunan was ordained in 1970 and served as a youth worker before that and in parish ministry in Moray and Glasgow until 2002 when he became the clerk of the presbytery.  He served as Moderator of both the Presbyteries of Moray and Glasgow.  The Church of Scotland press release talks about his implementation of alternate styles of worship during his parish ministry as well as his extensive youth work.  He is also credited with “raising the profile” of the organization Christian Aid.

While the news coverage pretty much just covers the material in the press release, the Scotsman.com has an article on the six nominees that the selection committee considered.

Presbyterian Church (USA) and Church of Scotland Parallels

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A new news article “Church of Scotland leaders see many parallels with PC(USA)” talks about a visit by two Church of Scotland ministers to the Presbyterian Church (USA) offices in Louisville.  The story from the Presbyterian News Service discusses the ministers’ trip and how they talked with PC(USA) staff, particularly Rev. Tom Taylor, about similar issues for both churches.  These include the decline in membership, lack of young people joining/participating in the church, restructuring the national offices, and the controversy over ordination standards.  The story says that Rev. Taylor had visited the Church of Scotland offices last spring for similar discussions.

Beyond those listed in the story, the list of parallel challenges between the two churches goes very deep.  Three or four years ago, at a meeting of a presbytery committee I was on, I read off a list of issues before the General Assembly that included the ones mentioned above plus some more that included more subtle polity and membership issues.  I then informed the committee that I took the list from the Church of Scotland GA and everyone in the room recognized that they would also be issues at the PC(USA) GA the following month.

Headlines

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No, once again I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and I have not given up on being a GA Junkie.  But between work, family, and getting myself into a presbytery issue and also a synod issue, I have little time left to report on Presbyterian happenings here.

So today, I give you a selection of recent happenings in their barest form with links to more information.  My integration and analysis will have to wait.

In the Church of Scotland news, the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, is still dropping hints about cutting state oversight of the Church of England.  But what about changing the law so a non-Protestant can be monarch the Scottish Catholic bishop asks?

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America adopted the report declaring that the Federal Vision Theology is out of line with the orthodoxy of the Westminster standards.  Now the discussion is getting hot.  The Rev. Steve Wilkins (or TE Wilkins as the PCA’ers would say) has issued a response to the adoption of the report.  That and much more is available at his church’s Federal Vision Page.  There is also a public response from the Rev. Peter Leithart, another proponent.  In addition, the blogosphere is alive

At the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America there was a special motion “that a study
committee be created to read and evaluate reports and responses from other
Reformed denominations and institutions regarding recent controversies on the
doctrine of justification.”  In other words, they will also be studying the Federal Vision theology.

The General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church spent a significant amount of time revising their Directory for Public Worship.  This was a monumental task and after multiple sessions revising and word-smithing the document, they in the end only got through the Preface and five of the eighteen sections.  The whole project has been referred to the 2008 GA.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church took the unique step of electing co-moderators of the GA.

And finally, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church GA approved the proposal to create the New Wineskins transitional presbytery for churches interested in leaving the PCUSA and exploring membership in the EPC.

More on these and other stories as my time permits.

Churh of Scotland General Assembly: News wrap up

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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.

Church of Scotland General Assembly: Notes on Day 6, Thursday

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Today’s session included the report of the Committee on Chaplains to Her Majesty’s Forces, the Church of Scotland Guild, the Parish Appraisal Committee, and the HIV/AIDS Project.  However, the longest report was the Ministries Council stretching across both the morning and afternoon sessions and covering a wide range of topics.  This Council does much the same work on a national level that PC(USA) Committees on Ministry do on a Presbytery level.

Of particular concern in the report was the suitability of International Christian College (ICC) in Glasgow for training Kirk ministers.  The problem is that staff at the college are required to sign a statement of faith that some Church of Scotland ministers would not agree with.  In addition, the Church of Scotland has traditionally trained ministers in a university setting rather than in seminaries and that was a matter of concern about ICC as well.  When that section of the report was debated the council convener, the Assembly Moderator, as well as the Principal Clerk all seemed to reach a point where they were as confused as the rest of the commissioners and at the Clerks suggestion the proceedings were “rewound” to a point  where most people were no longer confused.  In the end there was no final action on ICC since the council wanted another year to consider the situation.  There was a statement by a commissioner the Kirk should be careful adding a sixth school for training at a time when the Church of England was closing some of their schools, and Dr. Barbara Wheeler, the president of Auburn Theological Seminary and the PC(USA) representative to the GA, gave a similar caution pointing out that the PC(USA) now has a surplus of seminaries relative to the number of students and the Church of Scotland should be careful where it uses precious resources.

Another item of concern was a report contained within the council report titled “Vision for Ministries in the 21st Century.”  While the report was generally acceptable as far as it went, there was concern that more work was needed on some issues in the report.  The Assembly passed, by a vote of 299-201, an amendment to the Council report which acknowledged rather than affirmed the “Vision” report.

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: Summary of major issues

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I have had a hard time keeping up with posting about the Church of Scotland General Assembly going on this week, so I will post a summary of the closely watched issues now and will come back and catch up with some of my comments and look at lower-profile issues over the next few days.

The agenda item with the most advanced media coverage was today’s Mission and Discipleship Council’s report on Same-sex Relationships.  There was emotional and lively debate, but in the end the Assembly approved the Council’s recommendation that the discussion continue, and that individual churches be encouraged to study the report.  It was interesting to me that the working group that wrote the report was described as “diverse” in viewpoint but in the end, despite differences of opinion, there was a spirit of convergence.  This is similar language to what was used to describe the PC(USA)’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.

The longest report of the Assembly was Tuesday from the Church and Society Council, both in length (44 action items or deliverances) and time.  The report began in the morning session and, with the break for lunch, concluded at 6:10 PM.  In that time the report covered, and the Assembly approved, opposing nuclear weapons, advocating for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, declaring the death penalty contrary to Christian teaching (but with an addendum for the council to consider it further), encouraging fair trade in food (including support of locally sourced food), speaking out against the evil of human trafficking and alternatives to custody.   There was also a section on energy and climate change where the Assembly challenged church members to make significant lifestyle changes to reduce their use of energy and for the government to set radical targets for energy conservation.  Another hotly debated section of the report dealt with the Middle East.  In particular, deliverance #32 which declared:

32. Endorsing the voice of the local heads of churches in Jerusalem on the subject of Christian Zionism, recognize the theological errors and political difficulties inherent in this interpretation and encourage members of the Church of Scotland to reject it.

This deliverance had extended debate around a counter motion that would have softened the language to concern about Christian Zionism.  This countermotion, like almost all others contrary to the original language of the report, was defeated.  There was also extended debate about “socially acceptable” gambling, including internet gambling.  It was recognized that Church of Scotland social projects do benefit from the money raised from gambling revenues but in the end reaffirmed a decision of the Assembly of 1998 expressing real concern for the national lottery as well as approving the other items about gambling.  Finally, additional items were added to the report from the floor including motions about Darfur and Zimbabwe.