As we Presbyterians say, we value doing our business “decently and in order.”

So, in that spirit and for the sake of completeness I will honor the trifecta and bring you a brief note about the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and their General Assembly.

The General Assembly of the Free Church (Continuing) will convene tomorrow, Monday 18 May, as scheduled and directed by the 2019 General Assembly. But, in light of the Covid-19 restrictions and recommendations here is their plan quoted from their news article:

The Assembly should be constituted, as indicted, in Edinburgh on Monday 18th May 2020, with the meeting taking place mainly by teleconference.

At the meeting on 18th May, subject to the agreement of the Assembly, the Assembly will, after a few preliminaries, consider only at that time a Report by the AAN [Assembly Arrangements and Nominations] Committee. The Assembly will then suspend to meet in Inverness on Tuesday 6th October. The fact it is being suspended rather than adjourning to meet will give a degree of flexibility, should it be impossible to meet on the said date.

In an update from last week, there are more details about the meeting, including that it will be preceded by a one-hour prayer meeting with remarks by the 2019 Moderator. From there the business portion of the meeting will convene. The meeting will be public and the Zoom meeting information is included in that update.

Based on these updates it must be presumed that the induction of the Moderator-designate the Rev. John MacLeod as the Moderator of the 2020 General Assembly is postponed until at least the indicated October date when the Assembly hopes to re-convene.

We look forward to an update following tomorrow’s teleconference. Our prayers are with them for their meeting.

In a normal year, this is an interesting and active week in Edinburgh with three General Assemblies in session at the same time in the early part of the week. Not so this year. We will see what God has in His Providence for us going forward.