The Church of Scotland

AT the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which met in Edinburgh the new Moderator was Dr. J. Hutcheson Cockburn, Dunblane. Much of the work done arose out of the

present international situation, such as “The Church and War Damage” and the need of chaplains to the forces. The Moderator’s closing address which was entitled, “The Church of Scotland and its Task in a Changing World,” dealt with various matters. In speaking of a proposed new catechism he said, “The Shorter Catechism and even more the Larger Catechism, great doctrinal statements though they be, are no longer able to be fitted into the spirit and tradition of our day. . . . But this also has to be reckoned with, that the place once nobly occupied by our Shorter and Larger Catechisms is empty, and I know no other Church in which the teaching of doctrine is so neglected.” Surely that confession proves up to the hilt how false the claim of his Church is to be “The Church of Scotland.”

Of more than passing interest to some of our readers is the re-admission of the Rev. Roderick MacInnes to the ministry of the Church of Scotland after a lengthy discussion. In submitting a detailed history of his credentials, intentions and migrations from one denomination to another Mr. MacInnes has cast a rather unfavourable light upon his early upbringing which manifests all too clearly the spirit of old Adam when he said after his Fall by way of extenuating his own fault, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. That, of course, is his own business, but it is the business of others when he says that he studied for the ministry of our Church only to please his mother, and “was forced by the Free Presbyterian attitude towards other Churches to seek admission to his father’s Church, the Church of Scotland.” We have no desire to fan the embers of past controversies, but we may be permitted to say that if the Established Church of Scotland at the time referred to had acted according to Presbyterian church law and asked the applicant for a certificate from the Presbytery under whose jurisdiction he was, or communicated directly with that Presbytery they might have learned something that would have been to their advantage. Further we can assure our readers that to the court which received him as a student of the Free Presbyterian Church he gave a very different account of his motives for studying for the ministry of that Church than that

which he gives to the Assembly of the Church of Scotland which makes further comment superfluous.

The Free Church.

In the Assembly of the Free Church, which also met in Edinburgh, the Rev. John Shaw, Leith, was appointed Moderator. Following the precedent of last year the Moderator did not give an opening address, but gave a closing address as in former years. In submitting the report of the Highlands and Islands Committee, the Rev. J. M. MacLennan, Lairg, deplored the fact that the Gaelic language was dying out in many congregations, where it used to be the backbone of their activities. The report of the Psalmody Committee indicated that there was room for improvement in congregational singing, the convener stating that in some congregations it was at times nothing more than solo singing by the precentor or the minister. In his closing address entitled “The World Situation and the Church’s Duty,” the Moderator dealt with such points as, the gospel as the only remedy for present conditions in Europe, family worship and church attendance, the consequences of secularising the Lord’s Day, and the problem of the churchless millions.