The 2010 General Assembly was perhaps most notable for two events: on Sunday 23 May a special session was held to mark the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation and on 26 May, for the first time in its history, it was addressed by a Muslim, Dr Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies in the University of Glasgow. Otherwise, the Assembly devoted much of its time to detailed issues of church law, governance and the more general needs of Scotland's wider society.Footnote 2
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
Governance
The General Assembly passed legislation amending the existing law on discipline of elders, readers and office bearers.Footnote 3 The Assembly also passed a consolidating and amending Act anent deacons.Footnote 4
Charity law
In 2009 the Council of Assembly (the committee of Assembly that coordinates the Assembly's agencies) had proposed that its voting members should be the Church's central charity trustees for the purposes of civil charity law, in order to address the anomaly that a member of any one of the Church's councils or committees was in theory accountable as a charity trustee for all the unincorporated bodies of the Church – including those on which that individual did not serve. Instead, however, the Assembly resolved to establish a special committee to examine further the general area of charity trusteeship in the central agencies of the Church.
That committee duly reported; and the Assembly agreed to appoint the voting members of Council of Assembly to act as the charity trustees for its unincorporated councils and committees with immediate effect but, at the same time, made it explicit that members of the various councils and committees should apply to their duties the same standards as are required of charity trustees and approved the special committee's recommendations for ‘the selection process, skill set and experience required for voting members of the Council of Assembly’.
THE ARTICLES DECLARATORY
Article III of the Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in Matters Spiritual appended to the Church of Scotland Act 1921 defines the Church's ‘distinctive call and duty to bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry’; and some have questioned the degree to which that obligation remains realistic, given the competing claims for scarce resources. At its meeting in 2009 the Assembly established a special commission to review Article III, which duly reported in 2010.
The General Assembly passed a Declaratory Act anent Article III which reaffirmed the principles behind that Article and reiterated the Church's commitment to be ‘a national church with a distinctive evangelical and pastoral concern for the people and nation of Scotland’ and ‘to maintain worshipping, witnessing and serving Christian congregations throughout Scotland’. At the same time, the Declaratory Act asserted that the true origin of this stance lay not in the 1921 Act but ‘in the Church's own calling by Jesus Christ’. It also reaffirmed the Church's commitment to ‘the ecumenical vision set out in the seventh Article Declaratory’.Footnote 5
The Assembly also instructed the Ecumenical Relations Committee to seek discussions with sister Churches on sharing ministries and buildings and to report to the General Assembly of 2012. Possibly more controversially from the point of view of at least some of its ecumenical partners, it also instructed the Ministries Council to consider authorising ‘identified and appropriately trained individuals’ to celebrate the sacraments in the absence of an ordained minister and to report to the General Assembly of 2011 – in short, to examine the possibility of lay celebration of Holy Communion.
THE ECONOMY
Following a report to the 2009 General Assembly entitled Justice and Markets, three conferences were held looking at global, national and local economies from a moral and spiritual perspective. Taking the matter forward, the General Assembly announced the creation of a Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity which will spend two years exploring the fundamental ethical and moral questions underlying economic activity, many of which have been highlighted by the ‘credit crunch’, and report in 2012.
The Commission will be chaired by Professor Charles Munn OBE, until recently Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, and includes both theologians and representatives of finance, industry and the trades unions, as well as the former Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Committee. Its primary objective is to consider matters relating to the Scottish economy and attempt to answer three questions: how the Church can best offer Scottish society a new vision of what might be achievable in its economic, social and community life; how the Church at local and national level can become more engaged in transformative economics linking values such as justice, cohesion and sustainability to economic success; and how inequality can be addressed while retaining appropriate levels of choice.
END OF LIFE ASSISTANCE (SCOTLAND) BILL
Readers will no doubt be aware that the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill is making slow progress through the Scottish Parliament.Footnote 6 As part of its Deliverance on the Report and Supplementary Reports of the Church and Society Council, the General Assembly reaffirmed ‘the opposition of the Church to any legislation which allows assisted dying’, instructed the Council to continue campaigning against any such legislation and urged members of the Church to make clear their opposition to the Bill.
SAFEGUARDING
In last year's Assembly Report Dr MacLean wrote of the difficulties surrounding the issue of ‘forgiveness and proportionality’ on the issue of rehabilitating sex offenders into the life of the Church and its congregations.Footnote 7 At its 2010 meeting the Assembly returned to the matter, instructing kirk sessions to ensure that all those aged 16 years or over in leadership positions working with children and young people should have enhanced disclosure checks (such checks having previously been mandatory for those aged 18 years and over) and agreeing that adequate financial resources would be made available to enable the central Safeguarding Office to implement the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007, the main provisions of which were to come into operation on 30 November 2010.
CONCLUSION
The 2010 General Assembly marked the retiral of the Very Revd Dr Finlay Macdonald as Principal Clerk of Assembly. Dr Macdonald is succeeded by the Revd John Chalmers, while the post of Depute Clerk formerly held by the Revd Dr Marjory MacLean has reverted to being part-time and will be filled by the Revd Dr George J Whyte. Dr MacLean, who will be well known to readers of this Journal, is now serving as a chaplain in the Royal Navy. It would be remiss not to thank her publicly for the care with which she compiled the previous General Assembly reports.
