No one does pomp and circumstance like the Church of Scotland.
While many Presbyterian branches have some ceremonial opening to their General Assemblies, as the national church the Church of Scotland has the ties to the civil government which are recognized and celebrated in the opening session. Have a look at the official photo gallery and you will see the symbols of the monarch with the Lord High Commissioner. The First Minister of Scotland seated slightly to his right. And a gallery of local provosts to witness the proceedings.
The letters and speeches in the opening were filled with memorable lines. In the commission of the Lord High Commissioner the Queen writes of her inability to attend due to “other weighty matters.” (For those who might be reading at a removed time there was a royal wedding today as well.) The Lord High Commissioner in his remarks spoke of his not having had the “brush with celebrity” as the new Moderator, Susan Brown, had. (She preformed Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding ceremony.) And the outgoing Moderator, the Very Reverend Derek Browning, telling about his meeting with the Pope where the Pope commented on his socks and how what was to be a 10 minute audience went much longer. As he said “We were together for over an hour. We kept the Archbishop of Canterbury waiting.”
It is notable that Ms Brown was chosen as the Moderator this year in which the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women as ministers will be celebrated on Tuesday. She is only the fourth woman to hold the position of Moderator and it was noted in her installation that she is the first Highland minister to hold the position in a while. It is also noteworthy that of the leadership at the top table seven of the eight are women with the Principle Clerk as the only man up front.
Two major business items highlighted the day. The one getting all the press coverage (and featured in the press coverage of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago) is the decision to move ahead on permitting ministers to conduct same-sex marriages. The Legal Questions Committee presented their report outlining issues that need to be addressed in such legislation, but without a specific recommendation as to how to proceed. That was provided from the floor and by a vote of 345 to 170 the Assembly approved the motion to ask that proposed legislation be brought back to the Assembly in two years.
I would note a couple things about this debate and vote. First, while votes are not exactly comparable the proportions on this vote were roughly the same as votes on similar issues last year. And while I found the debate intelligent, well reasoned and respectful, I can’t say that any really new points were made beyond the numerous debates I have heard in general assemblies and presbytery meetings in the past.
The other big report was from the Council of Assembly as it tries to keep the Kirk a vital and solvent organization. Later in the week a new Strategic Plan for the next decade will be debated and adopted. The data are not good with a decline in giving of £1m over the last two years and a decrease in membership of 150,000 over the last ten years. Budget cuts, changes in the national offices, and decreased services are all possibilities. The concern was raised that this was just on the national level and local congregations are also in difficult positions with some burning through reserves to cover the general budget.
It was observed that many aspects of today’s business were out of place with regards to other reports throughout the week. For instance, why was some Council business before the Assembly when the Strategic Plan will be dealt with later in the week and the Panel on Review and Reform has yet to report?
Several items struck me as being themes that are common to multiple Presbyterian branches at this time. For instance, the Assembly Arrangements Committee was looking for ways to make Assemblies more efficient and to increase the participation of elders. Four years ago the PC(USA) adopted new procedures for its assemblies based on the work of the Committee to Review Biennial Assemblies. And this year, the Presbyterian Church in America will be considering an overture to increase ruling elder participation. Likewise, the PC(USA) has been revising the sections of its Book of Order to make them more conceptual and less prescriptive. The Legal Questions Committee is proposing revisions related to the Acts dealing with ordination and discipline. Among the reasons is to consolidate multiple acts into a single act for efficiency. Another reason is to reduce the time and cost of disciplinary procedures.
Finally, my favorite quote of the day in the context of the same-sex marriage debate with reference to the desire to safeguard pastor’s theological positions. But this gets back to a particular observation I regularly make about general assemblies in a broader sense and how what goes on in the assembly hall is not understood, or not deemed relevant to or by the “people in the pews.” How many GA special reports have been approved by the assembly and now just sit on shelves. How many get their 15 minutes of fame and then all that work is forgotten. (And I know, I sat on a drafting committee for one of these.) So in the course of the debate a commissioner rose and made the point focused on this line that could be applied to many items GA works on:
“Legislation isn’t going to protect – perception is everything in the parish.”
There is no question the Kirk has a hard path ahead of it. Can it pull out of the membership and funding decline? Again today we heard from Derek Browning the line that has become popular in mainline branches: “The church is not dying – it is reforming.” So what is the future? We will see as the week goes on.
Tomorrow is worship at St. Giles in the morning and the Heart and Soul festival in the afternoon. I anticipate a minimum of tweeting and will wrap it up with a post tomorrow evening about the Church of Scotland. With two other GA’s about to begin I will be turning my attention to those as well.
Good night. See you tomorrow