I am working to make time to catch up on a bunch of blog posts related to my visit to Scotland in May for three General Assemblies. Here is a post on what may have been one of the most interesting points in the GA’s for me. Stick with me through the whole post.

For every Church of Scotland General Assembly the monarch is invited to be a part of the proceedings. Needless to say, she usually does not attend in person but appoints someone to be her personal representative and carry all authority of the monarchy for the week. This is the Lord High Commissioner (LHC) and sometimes the LHC is a member of the royal family, like last year when HRH The Princess Royal represented her mother. This year a family member was not expected due to a prior commitment, and so a distant cousin of the Queen, His Grace Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, DL, FSA, FRSE, was appointed as the LHC.

The Duke is well known as Scotland’s largest landholder and his appointment was not without some controversy. In his appointment and in comments during the week he was recognized for his dedication to conservation and sustainability in his land management. And a 2017 profile in the Financial Times [maybe subscription] highlights his conservation efforts. But his landholdings have come under scrutiny as the breakup of estates has been discussed, as well as for improper handling of toxic waste at abandoned mining sites. There is also concern over how access to the land is managed with tenant farmers and local communities.

Over the course of the week I had the opportunity to hear the Duke speak on three occasions. The first and last were at the opening and closing of the Church of Scotland General Assembly. The opening address can be read or viewed, and the closing address can be viewed [starting about 45:00] as part of the closing worship. But it is traditional for the LHC to pay a visit to the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly, and while he is warmly received with the honor and formality due the position, the LHC does not carry the same ecclesiastical relationship he does across the street at the Church of Scotland. The video of his comments to the Free Church is available on their website.

His first comment to both bodies was the formal greeting and assurance of the church/state relationship defined in the 1707 Acts of Union. As he said to the Kirk, and repeated something very similar to the Free Church:

Her Majesty The Queen has commanded me to assure you of Her great sense of your steady
and firm zeal for her service and to assure you of Her resolution to maintain Presbyterian
Church Government in Scotland.

In his closing comments to the Kirk he included many elements common to most LHC’s closing address. There was the commendation of the Moderator for the good job they did that week. There was also a review of some of the highlights of the week, which included not just the Church of Scotland events and visits, but he also mentioned the visit to the Free Church GA the previous day. In his additional comments there was significant overlap between the two speeches as he highlighted his participation on the Scottish Government’s Advisory Panel on the Commemoration of the Centenary of the First World War. And he talked about how “Armistice Sunday is not the end of it” and how the tragedy continued, noting especially the sinking of the Iolaire on 1 January 1919, a Royal Navy vessel returning almost 300 service men to the Isle of Lewis after the war. Over 200 lives were lost just short of the safety of Stornoway Harbour. And appropriate to the Kirk’s theme of “Peace be with you!”, he spoke of a planned march on Armistice Sunday to remember the war and it’s casualties, and to work to not let something like this happen again.

Lord High Commissioner addressing the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (photo from the Free Church)

But the Duke included a remarkable set of comments to the Free Church General Assembly that were not part of any of his comments to the Kirk. I found them an admirable insight in to Scottish history and a significant step in reconciliation. I will close with his words that opened his address, very slightly condensed, and with a couple of links added to help with historical references. The opening comments of The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry to the Free Church of Scotland:

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren

It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. And it is a great honour to have been appointed by her majesty The Queen as Lord High Commissioner.

My presence here is to confirm the determination of her majesty to uphold Presbyterian church government in Scotland.

Moderator may I congratulate you most warmly upon your appointment and may I wish you an extremely successful and fulfilling period in office.

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren – please be seated

Looking back at the Lord High Commissioners who have visited you I realize with some anxiety that many had happy links with the church from their own family pasts which they could easily share with you. That is not the case with my ancestors.

I am doubtful about apologies on behalf of those long dead, but I believe it is important to recognize and learn from historical events. I think particularly of my Queensberry forebearers in The Killing Times in the southwest. The first Duke was brother-in-law to the infamous Grierson of Lag, and government colleague of Claverhouse. Their hands may not have been stained with blood, but guilt by association was undeniable. And to read about those times – the summary shootings of Covenanters in remote lands. Or perhaps even worse, on their own doorsteps in front of their families is still truly chilling.

And then coming closer to the 19th century, there was a different kind of harassment for more than a decade after The Disruption in 1843, my forebear refused land for those who wanted to build new churches, leaving your folk forced to worship in the open air.

I am sad and sorry that those from whom I am descended showed such intolerance and such discrimination to fellow Christians.

Today we are hugely fortunate to live in a free society…