INTRODUCTION
As always, the General Assembly deliberated on a wide range of issues. Prior to 12 May 1999 the Assembly were regarded by many Scots as the nearest thing to a Parliament that they possessed; and though devolution has perhaps lessened the Assembly's impact it has not diminished their enthusiasm for tackling difficult social and political questions, ranging from the economics of world poverty and the ‘Enough food for everyone … if?’ campaign to a major report on Israel–Palestine which had attracted considerable criticism from Scotland's Jewish community in advance of the debate. Probably of most interest to readers of this Journal, however, are the following.
CLERGY AND ORDINANDS IN SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS
Much the most high-profile debate was on clergy and ordinands in same-sex relationships. In 2009 the Assembly had placed a moratorium on the ordination of openly gay candidates and appointed a Special Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry, which reported in 2011.Footnote 3 In 2012, after a long debate on the Special Commission's report, the Assembly voted to consider the matter further and set up a Theological Commission to bring in recommendations to the Assembly in 2013.
The 2013 Assembly had three options before them. The first was what was dubbed the ‘Revisionist’ option, which would allow ministers in civil partnerships to be appointed to churches and gay couples in civil partnerships to be allowed to have their partnerships blessed but would allow individual kirk sessions to opt out of the arrangement. Under the second, ‘Traditionalist’, option, no new minister or probationer in a civil partnership could be inducted or ordained. The third option was a counter-motion (in effect, an alternative proposal) to section 2 of the Commission's draft Deliverance proposed by the immediate past Moderator of the Assembly, the Very Revd Albert Bogle, which reaffirmed the Kirk's traditional view on the issue but would allow an individual kirk session to choose to call a minister in a civil partnership if it so wished.
The Assembly supported Dr Bogle.Footnote 4 The result of the proposed Deliverance as amended by his counter-motion is that, instead of changing the Kirk's historic position on same-sex relationships with an opt-out for ‘Traditionalists’, the Assembly have decided to maintain the status quo but with an opt-in for ‘Revisionists’ – a very subtle shift of emphasis in the hope, no doubt, that this will keep the Church together.
The next step will be for the Committee on Legal Questions to draft an Overture to be considered by the Assembly in 2014. If approved, it will then be sent down to the presbyteries for their approval under the Barrier Act 1697 because the terms of the Overture will inevitably engage an issue of ‘doctrine or worship or discipline’. The change will be implemented only if a majority of presbyteries approves the proposal and the General Assembly confirm it in 2015.
APPEALS
The General Assembly agreed the Appeals Act (Interim) (Act II 2013), amending the handling of appeals and setting out updated Rules of Procedure. Under the Interim Act, except where an Act or Regulation specifically provides another appeal procedure, a person with a legitimate interest who is aggrieved by a decision of a church court may intimate an appeal within 14 days of the decision. An appeal may be taken only upon one or more of the following grounds: an error in church law, a breach of the principles of natural justice or material irregularity of process, a claim that the decision was influenced by an incorrect material fact, or on grounds of the severity of any sanction imposed. There is a caveat that the court against whose decision an appeal is being taken will be able to give interim effect to that decision pending the determination of the appeal.
The Act establishes an Appeals Committee of the Commission of Assembly and re-establishes the Judicial Commission. Both are authorised to act for and on behalf of the General Assembly in hearing and adjudicating finally on appeals as specified in the Act. Section 4 sets out the respective jurisdictions of the Appeals Committee and of the Judicial Commission.
Section 5 declares that ‘the General Assembly themselves shall not hear or dispose of any appeals save for appeals in matters of doctrine’ and that the decisions of the Appeals Committee and the Judicial Commission will not be reviewable – but with the proviso that where the relevant Commission believes that an important issue of principle is at stake, it may refer the matter to the General Assembly. That, of course, is exactly what happened four years ago in Aitken,Footnote 5 when the Commission of Assembly decided by a majority of one to refer to the General Assembly's determination the Dissent and Complaint against Aberdeen Presbytery's decision to sustain the Revd Scott Rennie's call to Aberdeen, Queen's Cross. It was that reference to the General Assembly which set in train the process that culminated in the decision on ministers in civil partnerships referred to above.
FINANCE AND PENSIONS
The financial position of the Church was discussed in more than one debate. In answer to a question during the debate on the Report of the General Trustees, the Chairman of the Trustees disclosed that the Trustees believe that there are currently 400 churches which are no longer required.
The cost of pensions is increasing because pensioners are living longer and many ministers are almost at retiring age – making the current pension schemes no longer sustainable. The issue is complicated by the fact that pensions law requires pensions so far as attributable to service post-1997 to be increased, whereas for pre-1997 service increases are at the discretion of the Trustees; since 2009 the Trustees, though reluctantly, have not been able to grant an increase. To reinstate pension increases for pre-1997 service would require an investment of £48 million. There is similar pressure on stipends: though the Ministries Council wishes to keep salaries and stipends approximately in line with inflation, ministers, deacons and parish workers have had only one increase, of 2 per cent, in the past four years. The financial situation appears to be having effects beyond its immediate impact on pensions and stipends: the Convener of Ministries Council, the Revd Neil Dougall, told the Assembly that there was a lack of candidates wishing to train for the ministry and few of those in training were under 40.
IMPLICATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE
The Assembly considered the Joint Report of the Council of Assembly, the Committee on Ecumenical Relations and the Legal Questions Committee on the implications of the independence of Scotland. Some of the Church's responsibilities are contained in its Articles Declaratory, which declare the Church to be a national institution serving all the people of Scotland and which, in turn, were embedded in statute law by the Church of Scotland Act 1921. The Report therefore concluded that, in order to ensure both that the current rights and responsibilities of the Church were preserved in law and that the contribution of all faiths in Scotland should be fully recognised, the proposed Constitution of an independent Scotland should be published before the independence referendum in September 2014.
The resulting Deliverance declared, inter alia, that the Queen and her heirs and successors should be Head of State and should have a Scottish coronation or investiture to symbolise her or his role as Queen or King of Scots and that the lawfulness of the Articles DeclaratoryFootnote 6 should be acknowledged in any constitutional settlement and the relationship between Church and state affirmed.
AND FINALLY …
The General Assembly approved the proposal of its Legal Questions Committee that the style used in naming Acts and Regulations should be changed because ‘While the old Scottish word “anent” has served the Church well for many years … it is a term which has dropped out of common usage today’. So that's that, then – but your correspondent cannot help feeling rather wistful thereanent.
