INTRODUCTION
The General Assembly met in Edinburgh from 21 to 27 May with the Rt Revd Dr G Russell Barr BA BD MTh DMin, Minister of Cramond in the Presbytery of Edinburgh, installed as Moderator. This year's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly was again Lord Hope of Craighead KT PC. Lord Hope served as Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General and was subsequently Deputy President of the Supreme Court. The most significant piece of business relating to the interface between church and civil law again related to same-sex relationships, as outlined below.
MINISTERS AND DEACONS IN CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS
On the first day of business, the General Assembly discussed the ‘Returns to Overtures’ report focusing on the Overture amending the Ministers and Deacons in Civil Partnerships Act, which had been passed by presbyteries under the Barrier Act 1697 subsequent to the Assembly of 2015. In total, 26 presbyteries voted for the Overture and 19 against; one presbytery was tied and the Committee took the view that this amounted to the presbytery not approving the Overture. In terms of individual presbyters, 1,207 voted for and 1,096 against the Overture.
The Ministers and Deacons in Civil Partnerships Act (Act I 2015), as amended by the Committee, duly passed. Two new sections were passed: new section 1(i) states that ‘same sex marriage’ shall mean ‘a marriage between Persons of the same sex which is recognised in terms of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014'; new section 8 clarifies that ‘Nothing in this Act implies that the Church permits or will permit its ministers or deacons to register civil partnerships or solemnise same sex marriages’. Of approximately 610 voting commissioners present, the vote was 339 for and 215 against. There was a call for Dissent, and arrangements were made to allow commissioners to record their disagreement with the majority.
This Act allows ministers who are in civil partnerships and same-sex relationships to be called to charges under sections 12(2)(b) and 26(b) of the Vacancy Procedure Act (Act VIII 2003), whereby kirk sessions are required to decide whether they would be willing to call a minister in such a situation before advertising the vacancy. The change to the Act does not alter the Church of Scotland's position that ministers are not allowed to conduct or solemnise same-sex marriages. The Church therefore maintains a position that upholds a traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman but allows individual kirk sessions to decide if they wish to opt out of the traditional position and to call a minister or appoint a deacon who is in a same-sex civil partnership.Footnote 1 The Theological Forum is likely to bring a report to the 2017 General Assembly on the whole issue of the theology of same-sex marriage.
THE INTERNATIONAL PRESBYTERY
The International Presbytery Act (Act II 2016) was passed. It gives the new presbytery superintendence of all charges outwith the United Kingdom and the Presbytery of Jerusalem, and replaces the current Presbytery of Europe. The Act legislates for heritable propertyFootnote 2 and eligibility of ministers for charges and ecumenical appointments.
COLUMBA DECLARATION
The General Assembly heard from the Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Joint Study Group report ‘Growth in communion, partnership in mission’ was heard and the Declaration agreed which calls on both the Church of Scotland and the Church of England to work together as national churches – albeit that the Church of Scotland is not an ‘established’ church under the terms of the Church of Scotland Act 1921 and the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act 1925. The report makes particular mention at paragraph 1(11) of the United Reformed Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church and that work with those churches should continue and be encouraged further.
More interestingly, both churches affirmed and recognised each other's ministries and paragraph 3(31) affirms what ‘apostolic succession’ means to the Church of Scotland, while 3(23) recognises that Anglicans are under no compulsion to join the Church of Scotland rather than the Scottish Episcopal Church when moving to Scotland, or vice versa. The report takes the view that Canons B 43 and B 44 allow for sharing and interchangeability of ministries in the two denominations; paragraphs 3(28) and 3(29) look for a move towards the mutual eligibility and recognition of ministries, while recognising that there are barriers and significant differences at present. It should be noted, as a matter for reflection, that a minister of the Church of England has been appointed to a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland in recent years and is a full member of the Reformed, Presbyterian courts of that church.
As to wider ecumenical work, it was noted that ecumenical relationships with the United Free Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland remain impaired and that talks with the Free Church of Scotland ceased in 2009.
The Church of Scotland is now registered under the Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969 (an Act of the UK Parliament) because it is likely to conclude a church-sharing agreement in Longtown, Cumbria, with the Methodist Church.
EUROPEAN REFERENDUM
A short supplementary report of the Church and Society Council was received which affirmed the Church of Scotland's stance, adopted by the 1996 and 2014 General Assemblies and the subject of deliverances in 2002 and 2005, that the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union.
LEGAL QUESTIONS
From 1 January 2017, should a congregation wish to change its constitution, it may only adapt the Unitary Constitution, as opposed to the Model Deed of Constitution. This would mean that new congregations or congregations changing their constitution would only have a kirk session and no temporal court, such as a congregational board or deacons court/committee of management. In section 8 of its report to the General Assembly, the Legal Questions Committee explained that this would bring congregations more into line with charity law, and it was noted that a ‘temporal court’ did not have legal personality as such, with the juridical personhood belong to the kirk session as being supreme in all decisions of a congregation.
PANEL ON REVIEW AND REFORM
The Panel on Review and Reform was encouraged by the Ministries Council's agreement to review the nature of ministry of word and sacrament, in particular those authorised to celebrate the sacraments, in section 3(4) of the report on the Path of Renewal programme, which builds upon the concept of a ‘Church without walls’.Footnote 3
CHURCH AND SOCIETY COUNCIL
The Church and Society Council's motion seeking to recognise that corporal punishment of children is violent and damaging to mental and physical health was narrowly approved, as was the motion not to invest in companies which derive more than 15 per cent of their turnover from extraction and/or sale of thermal coal and/or oil extracted from tar sands.
