The Church of Scotland
By The Very Rev. CHARLES L. WARR* ON October 2. 1929, after twenty years of conference, a union of the Established Church with the United Free Church of Scotland was solemnised in Edinburgh at a joint meeting of their respective General Assemblies. As a result, the reunited Church of Scotland became probably the most representative National Church among the Reformed communions of Christendom.
The Scotsman of today is not theologically-minded as once he was reputed to be. Children are no longer brought up on The Shorter Catechism and throughout the whole country the evidence is strong that the Bible is now an unfamiliar book. The church-going habits of the people, though very much better than they are in England, bear little resemblance to what they were fifty years ago. At the same time, of the country's total population of five million, more than three and a half million owe an allegiance, real or nominal, to the Kirk. Scot- land remains stoutly Presbyterian, though within the last century the Church of Rome has made striking progress. Today, according to The Catholic Directory, it embraces over 760,000 people. This advance has not been due to conversions among the native Scots. such conversions as thpre are, or have been, being counter-balanced by conversions from Rome to the Reformed Church. It is very largely the result of a long and steady immigration from Catholic Ireland into Scotland's industrial areas. As the birth-rate among the Roman Catholics is much higher than among the Protestant community, the Catholic population is bound to continue to increase in a higher ratio. This whole matter constitutes a situation which in a generation or two may have serious implications for a country which still is Protestant to the core. The Presbyterian constitution of the Church of Scotland represents ecclesiastical government by a hierarchy of courts as opposed to an episcopal hierarchy of persons. At the foot of the pyramid is the parochial kirk-session, consisting of the parish minister and a number of lay elders elected by the con- gregation. Then come the Presbyteries. Some of these, nowa- days, are far too large to function efficiently as administrative and disciplinary bodies. It is not improbable as a consequence that the future will see the restoration of the office of Superin- tendent along the lines of the Knoxian model. Above the Presbyteries are the provincial Synods, each comprising a group of Presbyteries; and above all is the General Assembly, the Supreme Court of the Church, presided over by the Moderator, and graced by the Sovereign's representative in the person of the Lord High Commissioner. In every court, save the kirk- session, ministers and lay elders sit in equal numbers and with equal voting power. That is why in Presbyterianism the laity, as represented by the eldership, have always evidenced so strong and vital 'an interest in the affairs of the Church. They know themselves to be an integral and essential part of it, each with his own responsibility for its governance and welfare.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is one of the most impressive bodies in Christendom. It consists of both clerical and lay commissioners from each of the eighty-five Presbyteries, and is perhaps 4he most striking expression of democracy in action to be found anywhere in the world. Among its lay membership are representatives of all walks of Scottish life from the peer to the peasant. It is the ecclesiastical final court of appeal. Through the work of its great standing com- mittees and a large number of special and ad hoc committees, it is concerned with administration and finance, missionary activities at home and overseas, relations with other Churches, social services, and whatever in national and international affairs affects the moral and spiritual welfare of the people. Its debates are of an unusually high quality, far in advance of those of the Houses of Parliament; its pronouncements are weighty; and its voice is still listened to with respect by the secular authorities.
Though as the National Church it is established by the State in the unrestricted possession of its ancient patrimony, the Church of Scotland has complete spiritual freedom. There can be no interference by the secular power. From the days of the Reformation, it has been the strongest protagonist of education for the people, and has always insisted on a high educational standard among its clergy. In spite of heavy pressure, especially since the Second World War, to modify and shorten the theological course demanded of candidates for the ministry, it has consistently refused to do so, save in respect of those • who were away on war service, or an occasional exceptional case. Six years at a university are normally required—three in and congregation free from the incubus of outmoded custom and frustrating parochial prejudice.
Into these new areas the Church has followed the people. It appealed for £1 million for Church Extension in 1944, and this year it is appealing for another El million. It has carried odt enormous building programmes in churches and halls throughout the country, a programme which will have to be carried on without respite. And it is a striking fact that in these new housing schemes the Church is gathering into its fold, in a way quite unknown in the old settled parishes, large numbers of people who previously have had no connection whatever with organised religion. Every Church Extension worker has the same story to tell. If, when a new housing scheme has been completed, the Church is on the spot with a building and a minister, some 80 per cent. of the people can be brought into the fold. Wait for two years and that figure will drop to 50 per cent. Wait for five to ten years and it will drop to 30 per cent. Wait a little longer, and the whole district will have become pagan.
Since 1932, though from time to time interrupted, negotia- tions have been carried on between official representatives of the Church of Scotland and of the Church of England with a view to the healing of their unhappy divisions. So far there is not much progress to report. The conferences still continue. alternately at Durham and Edinburgh, though they would appear to be conducted on a leisurely and highly academic level. To the man in the street it seems incomprehensible that in our otherwise unified island two great historic National Churches, one Presbyterian and the other Episcopalian, should not be able to compose their differences. Inter-communion presents no difficulties to the Church of Scotland. Accepted communicants of all branches of the Universal Church are welcomed to her Communion Tables, as are the divines of other denominations, Anglican and non-Anglican, to her pulpits. She has never believed that this neighbourly hospitality could weaken her loyalty to her own High, doctrines of the Church, its ministry and sacraments, or should weaken the loyalty of her guests to theirs. The Anglican position, however, is different. The Anglo-Catholic interpretation of the historic episcopate, with all its implications, involves the Church of England in many problems as regards inter-communion with non-episcopal Churches, for which it does not find it easy to devise a solution. The movement towards unity, oddly enough. comes in England mostly from the laity and in Scotland mostly from the clergy. The Scottish Presbyterian layman remains obstinately suspicious of a bishop. One doubts whether, despite the ominous shadows that overhang the world, there is any strong sense of urgency on either side, or whether their divisions really make many Church people genuinely unhappy. More- over, the whole issue is deeply complicated by racial and political memories, stretching back across the centuries. These, though wholly irrelevant to the modern situation, have left wounds which. in many cases, are still raw. The Scottish mind, it must be admitted, is more tenacious of ancient wrongs than is the English. It is, indeed, an open question whether in such circumstances the Churches of England and Scotland—though each is well aware that their present estrangement grievously weakens their presentation of Christ to the world—are likely to set an example of organic union in any foreseeable future. There are some who feel that if and when the scandal of religious separatism is healed in Great Britain, it will only be due to outside pressure from the New World and the young Churches of the Mission Fields which can no longer be resisted.
Previous page
