The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland concluded their meeting today and while I had hoped to do some live-blogging during the sessions, life and work (pun intended) kept me busy with other things. I will do a couple of wrap-up posts over the next few days since I will have the extended Memorial/Decoration Day holiday weekend to do some blogging.
My first reaction is that it was great to be watching a General Assembly, any GA, again. While some terminology and issues may be unique to the Church of Scotland (CofS), there is much in their deliberations that overlaps with other branches. In particular, the CofS is looking at a reorganization of their most basic constitutional document that has echoes of the PC(USA) Revised Form of Government debate (in structure and approach but not as much content). There were also debates that involved interim ministry, pastoral searches, theological education, and the church in the 21st century. I’ll talk about those debates in later posts, but the feel of the proceedings was very familiar to us GA Junkies.
One of the headline items of the General Assembly was an invited speech on Saturday by British Prime Minister the Right Honorable Gordon Brown MP.
Two items of background are helpful to know to appreciate the context of this speech. The first is that Gordon Brown is a “son of the manse,” his father having been a Church of Scotland minister. In his speech he looks back and comments on growing up and what he learned from his father including:
many here today, my father lived on a ministerial stipend. But he also
brought us up to study the great texts, to believe that the size of
your wealth mattered less than the strength of your character; that a
life of joy and fulfillment could be lived in the service of others; and
that to be tested by adversity is not a fate to be feared but a
challenge to be overcome.
The second piece of background is that this is the 20th anniversary of a speech given by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the General Assembly. That speech is available from the web site of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and is considered a key exposition of her moral and religious world view. The Thatcher speech is known in Scotland as the “Sermon on the Mound,” a play on both the scriptural discourse of Jesus and the artificial hill where the Assembly Hall is located. This is a name that the Thatcher Foundation frowns upon saying in the editorial comments with the speech text “Tastelessly, opponents nicknamed the speech ‘the Sermon on the Mound.'” The speech caused an uproar for its proof-texting scripture, worship, and theology to justify her political theories. The Wikipedia page on the speech describes the Moderator’s reply in presenting her with reports on housing and poverty “which was interpreted by the press as a polite rebuke.”
Mr. Brown’s speech politely walked a fine line between Church and State while never really doing much with either. He does deal with the moral responsibility each person has for making the world a better place, the role that the church has for holding up issues and speaking truth to power, and he acknowledge the reports handed to the PM 20 years ago saying:
presented with the Church and Nation Committees’ deliberations and
kindly invited to study a report entitled ‘Just Sharing’, I expect
nothing less than for you to ask me and the Scottish Parliament to
study in detail – and reflect upon – today’s report of the Church and
Society Council —- to reflect upon your demands, your priorities,
your call for action on homelessness, on child poverty, on the
shortfalls in the care of older people. And I agree also with what you
say about the misery caused by gambling and drug addiction, and the
scourge of alcohol abuse.
After talking about the human urge to work for justice he then spoke of the potential of cyberspace and its ability to bring together like-minded people even if they are on the opposite sides of the world. His logical conclusion is:
the information revolution and the human urge to co-operate for justice
– makes possible for the first time in history something we have only
dreamt about: the creation of a truly global society.
A global
society where people anywhere and everywhere can discover their shared
values, communicate with each other and do not need to meet or live
next door to each other to join together with people in other countries
in a single moral universe to bring about change.
As a true politician he did not embrace any distinctive theological issues but spoke of “universal truths” using Christian terms and references and talked of global issues in general terms.
Needless to say, a speech by an important politician received significant coverage in the media and the blogs. There is coverage on the BBC Web Site with an article on the speech and a critical commentary in the Scotsman. On the blogs there is plenty of commentary as well, but I would single out the comments by Alan in Belfast and Puffbox that highlight Brown’s comments about the value of the internet. There is plenty more of both regular media and blogs if you do a web search on these.
OK, enough of the kids that have left home coming back to say “hi.” Next, on to the meatier subjects of reorganization and the Articles Declaratory.
Thanks for the mention. I doubt we’ll be seeing Gordon Brown over in Belfast for the PCI GA anytime soon!
Alan, I think you are correct. As much as Mr. Brown’s people may deny it, I have trouble thinking this was not a revisit of the Thatcher speech 20 years ago. Combined with the PM’s Scottish heritage I think you are right and this is a unique appearance.
Thanks for the post. I’ll be interested to see your further comments. I’m a PC(USA) seminarian on a yearlong internship in the CofS.
I attended the CofS GA one afternoon this week, and was struck by several things as compared to the PC(USA)’s. First, it’s even more formal. Second, the committee structure is such that commissioners don’t serve on committees at GA, so there seems to be less trust in committee decisions. Third, there seemed to be no time limit on commissioners speaking. Fourth, they tended to take business slower and one item at a time rather than many uncontroversial items together.
I could go on, but I thought you might be interested. I may blog on these when I get my breath this weekend.
http://adamjcopeland.com
Adam-
Thanks for your comments. From my observations over several years of webcasts I agree with your thoughts.
1) Yes it is more formal. There are a few powdered wigs to be seen, the principals wear robes or nice suites, and there are more symbols of office than we colonialists have. The business gets conducted in a more regimented way as well. I suspect that it comes from several aspects of the church history, including that it was once the State Church, it is four centuries old, and that before the Scottish National Parliament was established recently it was the deliberative body that represented the national interests. And it is probably part of their institutional memory and tradition.
2) From my observations the commissioner committees are an American, or North American feature. So yes, the CofS national committees similar to our OGA and GAC committees report directly to the GA. In addition, being a smaller country, as you note in your current blog post, more seems to happen at top level committees, such as their national committee that does much of the same work done in the PC(USA) by presbytery Committees on Ministry and Preparation for Ministry. Less trust in committee decisions? Let me think about that, but it had not struck me. There is a clear tension in the CofS between urban and rural churches and presbyteries and maybe that is part of it.
3) I’ll look into this. If there is a limit it is much longer. I think I remember one commissioner’s comments this year getting a bell but she was not verbally told to stop or wrap up.
4) Again, you are correct that without committees they have almost the full week to do business so they work through deliverances item by item. But most items in the deliverance have no objections so it can move efficiently. But consent agendas and minority reports are not a part of the CofS rules of operation.
I look forward to your observations on your blog and will link there if you get them posted.
Thanks again for your first-hand observations. One of these days I hope to attend in person.