The ordination\/installation standards debate that has caught all the attention for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has distracted a lot of people from the other business of the Kirk. This is too bad since there is a lot of other important business to be done at the Assembly and I hope that last night’s debate won’t take too much wind out of the rest of the Assembly meeting.<\/p>\n
One of the things that has really impressed me about the Church of Scotland is the spirit and seriousness with which they have been addressing the changing place of the church, dare I say mainline church, in modern society.<\/p>\n
I think that there are a number of reasons for the Kirk’s success in addressing this, not the least of which is that while the debate on various aspects of human sexuality has been on the table (such as the issue of blessing same-sex unions in 2007 and multiple reports from the Working Group on Human Sexuality) the various issues have not distracted the church the way they have in some other denominations — Presbyterian and otherwise.<\/p>\n
But another aspect is the length of time that the church has been seriously dealing with this. One major milestone was the “Church Without Walls<\/a>” (CWW) report and group. The original report was commissioned in 1999 and presented in 2001 and it’s purpose was<\/p>\n To re-examine in depth the primary purposes of the Church<\/i> The recommendations of that report were:<\/p>\n Have a look at the summary of the 2001 report (DOC Format<\/a>) And this year there was a GA “fringe event” to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the start of the CWW which Liz at “journalling<\/a>” talks about yesterday<\/a> and today<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since 2001 this work has not stopped. While the 2009 GA voted on Thursday to fold the Church Without Walls Planning Group into the Mission and Discipleship Council<\/a> the part of the charge “to formulate proposals for a process of continuing reform” has indeed been realized as have many other of the recommendations.<\/p>\n Monitoring of CWW, as well as changes to the Kirk structure originally fell to Assembly Council. But when that body was restructured the next group charged by the GA to look at the future of the Kirk, and the group that was keeping an eye on the CWW Planning Group, is the Panel on Review and Reform<\/a>. It has as part of its charge:<\/p>\n …to listen to the voices of congregations and Presbyteries, to present a vision of what a church in need of continual renewal might become and to offer paths by which congregations, Presbyteries and agencies might travel towards that vision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Formed in 2004 it has been holding discussion with presbyteries and congregations as part of its work. In their 2009 Report<\/a> to the Assembly they discuss the continuing discussion process and also encourage all governing bodies and entities of the Church of Scotland to include the Kirk’s vision statement on their publications. That vision statement says:<\/p>\n The vision of the Church of Scotland is to be a church which seeks to inspire the people of Scotland and beyond with the Good News of Jesus Christ through enthusiastic, worshiping, witnessing, nurturing and serving communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, the Church of Scotland has recognized that they have a constitutional, and traditional, impediment to reform in the Third Article of the Articles Declaratory<\/a>:<\/p>\n lll.<\/span> This Church is in historical The Church of Scotland has a status that almost no other Presbyterian branch has and that is its standing as a National Church. They are, by the Kirk’s constitution, required to be everywhere<\/i> in Scotland, and as you can imagine there are costs involved in keeping small churches open.<\/p>\n At the 2006 General Assembly there was a request, and the assembly complied, with establishing a Special Commission on Structure and Change. The purpose was to evaluate the changes to the central committees and offices of the church and to consider changes to the overall structure, including presbyteries. In the report presented to the 2008 General Assembly (DOC Format<\/a>) they discuss the Third Article. Here is that section, absent the text of the Article which I included above:<\/p>\n \n13. The Third Article Declaratory<\/b><\/p>\n 13.1 [Text of the Third Article]<\/p>\n 13.2 The Church is accordingly constitutionally committed to providing a ministry, understood 13.3 We believe that the time is right for the Church to look critically at the Third Article and 13.4 We question whether any valuable principle is dependent upon retaining the Third Article. We 13.5 Whether there is a continuing role for the Third Article is helpfully discussed in a section of The 2008 Assembly established the special committee to look at the Third Article and how it impacts the church and it will report back to the 2010 Assembly.<\/p>\n This would be a major change as you can imagine and there is already discussion about what the implications are. At the National Youth Assembly<\/a> this past September the youth debated this as part of their discussion of “Future Church.” In the National Youth Assembly Report<\/a> to this General Assembly recommendation, or statement, number 10 is:<\/p>\n 10. Believes that Territorial Ministries as outlined in Article 3 have a complex impact on the mission of the church; it could be perceived as the focal point in relation to the calling and training of ministers without appropriate attention to the possibility of using lay ministers and particular callings. At the same time territorial ministry offers a precious universality in the support of the country\u2019s people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And the news media has picked up<\/a> on a proposal to use video technology to provide ministerial presence in churches that have vacancies, particularly those in remote areas that have difficulty attracting ministers to their charges. The action item in the Ministries Council report<\/a> says:<\/p>\n 6. Note with concern the pressures being faced by the Church in Presbyteries facing numerous, lengthy vacancies, commend ministers, deacons, Auxiliary ministers, readers and elders who are enabling the Church in these presbyteries to evolve new patterns of life, and welcome in particular the possibilities that video technology, secondment and transition ministry offer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Like other Presbyterian branches the Church of Scotland has difficulty getting their ministers distributed to all the churches with urban charges being preferable to small isolated churches on the islands in Orkney.<\/p>\n So as the Assembly continues this coming week we will see what other references are made to a church thinking out side the box and looking to the future to see what a 21st century church looks like. But the Assembly will also be looking ahead to the 2010 Assembly and the report on the Third Article that is now waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ordination\/installation standards debate that has caught all the attention for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has distracted a lot of people from the other business of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-scotland","category-ga-business","category-membership"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nand the shape of the Church of Scotland as we enter into the next
\nMillennium; <\/i>
\nto formulate proposals for a process of continuing reform; <\/i>
\nto consult on such matters with other Scottish Churches; <\/i>
\nand to report to the General Assembly of 2001.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\ncontinuity with the Church of Scotland which was reformed
\nin 1560, whose liberties were ratified in 1592, and for whose
\nsecurity provision was made in the Treaty of Union of 1707.
\nThe continuity and identity of the Church of Scotland are
\nnot prejudiced by the adoption of these Articles. As a national
\nChurch representative of the Christian Faith of the Scottish
\npeople it acknowledges its distinctive call and duty to bring
\nthe ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of
\nScotland through a territorial ministry<\/b>. [emphasis added]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nas including a ministry of Word and
\nSacrament, in every part of Scotland
\nwithout exception. It appears to us that everything that we have been called upon to
\nconsider in the areas of structure,
\nfinance and the allocation of resources,
\nflows from the imperative contained in the Third Article and, in particular, its third
\nsentence. It is the requirement to bring
\nthe ordinances of religion to the people
\nin every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry that determines that congregations
\nmust be maintained, irrespective of
\ntheir ability to support themselves and
\ntherefore that other congregations must take
\non the burden of that support. It has implications for how resources are to be allocated. <\/p>\n
\ndecide whether it should be retained,
\namended or removed altogether. <\/p>\n
\nwould agree with the view expressed in Church Without Walls<\/i> that it is a statement that needs to be
\nexamined and questioned at the beginning
\nof the twenty-first century. It may be
\nthat as a result of such an examination the Church will conclude that the time has come
\nhumbly to lay down the title of
\n\u201cNational Church\u201d and accept a new title
\nsuch as \u201cA Church for the Nation\u201d. It may be thought more meaningful for the Church to
\n\u201crepresent to\u201d the Scottish people the
\nChristian faith rather than to assume
\nthat the Church of Scotland is \u201crepresentative of the Christian faith of the Scottish
\npeople\u201d. We are one of many Christian
\ndenominations within our country and it
\nmay be that an ecumenical outlook would be more effective in reaching all Scotland with
\nthe Gospel. Major changes would not
\nnecessarily see the Kirk lose its
\nPresbyterian identity. The Presbyterian Church in other countries has survived without being
\n\u201cnational\u201d in its context. Our
\nself-identity would change in some ways but
\nso would the ability to earn greater respect within the nation. The example of Jesus as the humble
\nservant would seem to provide a helpful
\nmodel. <\/p>\n
\nChurch without Walls<\/i>. We have included that
\nsection as Appendix IV to this report.
\nWe commend it to the Church as a
\nstarting point in its consideration of the question. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n