The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland convened this evening with opening worship and installation of the Moderator, the Rev. David Meredith. The Assembly will begin with business sessions tomorrow following the address from the new Moderator.

This year the Free Church has made it easier to follow the Assembly with real-time updates on their web site.  Begin at the church web site and click on the news box for the day that you are interested.  (For active business you will need to refresh the page.)  The stub for tomorrow’s business has been posted.

There are pages for reports to the Assembly and for Assembly news.

I will dig into the Assembly reports a bit more soon, hopefully tomorrow, but the highest-profile, and maybe the most controversial, item of business is the Supplementary Report on Worship.  At the last Assembly the Board of Trustees was given the remit to consider if the church should allow flexibility in worship from the status quo, particularly regarding music and permitting music other than exclusive psalmnody.  This report discusses the differences of opinion that the Board found regarding this issue, specifically 2/3 of the sessions favoring the status quo and one third supporting more flexibility.  In light of the division and the advice from presbyteries to go slow the Board is recommending a Plenary Assembly later this year where every minister and equal numbers of ruling elders could gather only for the purpose of discussion and dialogue on the issue.  This would provide a basis for later legislation.

In addition to significant press coverage (example 1, example 2 ) the provision for some flexibility has been a major cause of the editor of the official publication, The Record.  Last week the Rev. David Robertson published on his blog an extended version of an editorial he placed in the publication that argued for more flexibility in worship and contrasted the need for the Free Church to be permissive about worship with the larger Church of Scotland’s policy about ordaining women which was supposed to be permissive but has now become required.  This is not his first editorial advocating for a more permissive stance on worship singing — he published an editorial in the July 2009 edition that suggested flexibility so the denomination could become an option for Church of Scotland congregations to realign if they were concerned over that branch’s stance on ordination standards.  It is also amusing to note that the press headlines usually say something about the denomination considering “lifting the ban on music.”  To be precise, unaccompanied singing of “inspired songs,” meaning the psalms, is permitted now.  The question being discussed is the use of instruments and the singing of other “uninspired” hymns.

Finally, I have been intending to develop a reference space for my personal use but have decided to make it publiclly accessible if others are interested.  Over at gajunkie.wikidot.com I have started a Wiki where I hope to consolidate the basic information about the polity of Presbyterian branches and information to help you follow the developments in those branches.  It is not intended to be as comprehensive and focused on General Assemblies as Robert Austell’s GA Help site is about the PC(USA).  As GA season progresses I am hoping to build out my listing and if I miss a critical piece of information please let me know.

So, keep watching as we see what the Free Church of Scotland is about this week as their Assembly meets.