Things are getting busy in Edinburgh now as two more Assemblies convene this evening. Here is a brief preview on the Free Church (Continuing). More on the other later in the day.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) will convene at 6 PM this evening at Liberton Kirk, Kirkgate, Liberton, Edinburgh, and will conclude this coming Thursday, probably before noon. The church’s press release has more details on the meeting arrangements as well as a summary schedule.

The book of reports is available for download online. For governing documents and church order, the Acts of Assembly are available online and the basic polity document is the Westminster Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. In addition, the church is guided by the Westminster Standards. And finally, there are a few documents related to this branch’s formation back in 2000.

Compared to other meetings the social media footprint will be fairly small. Expecting some news on their Facebook page, and the church’s Twitter feed is @fccscot. The hashtags for the meeting are #freechurchcontinuing and #ga2018. Probably best to focus on the former as the latter is in use by the Church of Scotland as well. And other than myself when I will be with them I am not aware of another individual tweeting from the Assembly. Will update if I find a good follow.

It is my plan to join them for a full day of business, probably on Tuesday but that is not set yet.

Looking through the Reports I see a lot of business typical of Assemblies these days. The Assembly Arrangements Committee includes in their report investigating the improvement of video conferencing arrangements. This would provide the opportunity for office bearers from the Presbytery of the USA to more fully participate in other meetings. The Ecumenical Relations Committee will be presenting an update on an invitation from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to join in Ecclesiastical Fellowship. On the other side, they note with sadness the decision by the Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken of the Netherlands to admit women to ordained office and seek to end the Ecclesiastical Fellowship with them. And the Committee on Psalmody will report on their production of a split-leaf Psalter.

Maybe the most high-profile report will be from the Committee on Public Questions, Religion and Morals. The church has issued a press release regarding their proposed comment to the Scottish Parliament regarding a bill to impose a smacking ban. The committee is concerned that this bill represents “Yet another example of the Government overreaching its locus and interfering in family life.” The Committee’s other ongoing matters include Child Protection and the Named Person Scheme, and Organ Donation.

I look forward to joining them in a day or two and continue to pray for their work and the deliberations ahead.