CHURCH of Scotland. The Church of Scotland General Assembly met at Edinburgh on Tuesday, 18th May, under the Moderatorship of Rev. Prof. John Baillie, D.D. The Lord High Commissioner for the year was the Duke of Montrose. In his address the Duke said: “Strange, is it not, Moderator, that on 18th day of May, 1943, you the son of a Free Church Manse [the Moderator is the son of the late Rev. John Baillie, Free Church Minister of Gairloch, Ross-shire] and I, the great-grandson of Sir James Graham, so deeply involved in the Disruption controversy as a Secretary of State for Home Affairs in Sir Robert Peel’s Government should be facing each other as members of a re-united Church.”
The Disruption.—The Moderator submitted a statement on the centenary of the Disruption which bore that the General Assembly honoured that love of church and loyalty to Christian convictions which were evinced on both sides of the great debate. They cordially recognised that the complementary principles which formed the ground of contention were essential to the peace and highest welfare alike of Church and Nation. To use a common, though not altogether accurate expression, this way of stating the issues at stake in 1843 was enough to make the Disruption Fathers turn in their graves.
Bigamous Marriages.—The Rev. Joseph Gray, Glasgow presented an overture from the Presbyteries of Glasgow and Annandale that the Scottish Home Department should be requested to consider legislation making it compulsory for members of His Majesty’s Forces to produce evidence of their legal status when application was made for proclamation of bans of marriages and the issue of marriage schedules. The overture, on the motion of the Procurator, was received. In moving the reception of the overture Mr. Gray declared that convictions for bigamous marriages had increased more than three times among the members of the Services. One of the Assembly members pointed out that the overture specified members of His Majesty’s Forces but to many of them, he said, the greater problem was with members of other Forces.
Church’s Man-Power after the War.—In submitting the report of the Committee on Church and National Service, Dr. P. D. Thomson, Glasgow, said that when the War broke out they had 205 probationers. At the end of 1942 the number of probationers dropped to 179—a drop of 26. The number of students in the four divinity halls would be 40 this year. By the end of 1944 they would be 200 ministers and probationers
short at least. It may be somewhat cynical to say it but judging from much of the out-put of the divinity halls of the Church of Scotland this shortage will not be a great loss to the Church of Christ.
Women as Elders.—When Prof. Baillie submitted the report of the Commission on the Interpretation of God’s Will in the Present Crisis the part dealing with such questions as the amendment of the Church’s parochial system, the admission to the eldership and the ministry, and religious education in Schools was carried forward to next year. In connection with a question put by Dr. A. P. Sym, Edinburgh, in reference to Women as Elders, Prof. Baillie replied that the Committee were united in feeling, though the matter had been committed to Presbyteries a few years ago, that it should come up again.
The Cockenzie Case.—The Rev. Thomas Osborne while minister of Cockenzie was offered the post of Town Clerk of Cockenzie which he accepted in 1941. His Presbytery asked him to demit the Town-Clerkship but he took the matter to the Assembly which re-affirmed the Presbytery’s judgment, and instructed Mr. Osborne to obey his Presbytery. On this Mr. Osborne resigned his charge. The congregation was declared vacant and steps taken for the election of a successor. The congregation expressed a desire to have Mr. Osborne as their minister and on learning his willingness to accept of a call if it was lawfull the congregation petitioned the Assembly that they might nominate Mr. Osborne. The Procurator said that while, in his view, there was no positive enactment which precisely prevented a minister of the Church of Scotland holding an appointment as a Town Clerk yet it was important to bear in mind that as Town Clerk Mr. Osborne was also Clerk to the Burgh Police Court and as such he was responsible to collect rates and, if necessary, to pursue people for non-payment. The petition was rejected by a large majority. More may be heard of this case yet.
“Sunday” Cinemas for the Troops.—In presenting the report of the Church and Nation Committee the Rev. Matthew Stewart, Hamilton, expressed the fear that in the opening of cinemas to the Forces on the Lord’s Day that the extension, instead of the curtailment, of such facilities might be expected after the War. Unfortunately Mr. Stewart sold the pass to the enemy by saying that the request of the military authorities was not unreasonable where the effect was to keep the men off the streets. The military authorities have no special prerogative assigned them for breaking divine law any more than human and the most reckless of men can scarcely have the hardihood to assert that the opening of cinemas on the Lord’s Day is a work of necessity and mercy and the professed servants of the Master should not be afraid to make that plain to all and sundry whether in the high places of the nation or in the military command. The men of the Forces deserve all the kindness we can show them and more but we draw the line when such kindness demands us to give what is not ours by right to give. The opening of the cinemas on the Lord’s Day at the request of the military authorities is not within their province any more than to request the opening the public houses in Scotland on the Sabbath to keep the men off the streets.
Drinking by Young People.—The Rev. John MacDougall, Edinburgh, in submitting the report of the Temperance Committee said that drinking
by young people prevailed to such an extent as to cause serious anxiety. “We know” he further added “that the Markham Report revealed that alcoholic drink flowed freely, and we also know that in many cases young women serving H.M. Forces have no place of recreation other than the wet canteen.”
Free Church of Scotland.—The Assembly met no 18th May under the Moderation of Prof. David Mackenzie.
Sole Heirs of the Disruption.—Prof. Mackenzie in his closing address without any qualification claims for the Free Church sole heirship of the Disruption. The writer of the Assembly notes in the Free Church Monthly Record is more guarded as he recognizes that there are “communions owing common descent from, or particular interest in, the Free Church of the Disruption.” Prof. Mackenzie’s statement does not, of course, affect in any way the Free Presbyterian claim.
Visitors to the Assembly.—The Rev. Inglebright Dahle, a Norwegian pastor, in an address to the Assembly said he belonged to a Church which had the King as its supreme head. This statement of the Lutheran consistorial system of Church and State sounds strangely in a year in which so much has been made of the sole Headship of Christ in His own Church.
It would not have been a breach of courtesy in thanking the visitor for his address to point out that the kind of Erastianism acknowledged in the Norwegian Church was directly contrary to the contentions of the Free Church; that is the least which might have been expected from the sole heir of the Disruption.
Education.—The Rev. Norman Campbell in a paper on the Free Church in Education remarked that on looking back over the years since the Scottish Education Act of 1872 that he was definitely of the opinion that the Free Church had made a mistake in handing her schools over to Government without having insisted on religious instruction forming part of the curriculum of every school in the land. Instead of this, he said, religious instruction had been left pretty much in the hands of School Boards. Since 1873 religious life and knowledge of the Scripture had been declining in our land till we had reached the appalling ignorance of this present age. This witness, we believe, is true.
Doctrinal Continuity.—Rev. William Macleod in his paper on this subject said that the formula of 1846 was in reality the formula of 1711. It is quite true the Free Church in 1843 took over the formula of 1711 but the Free Church Act of 1846 made certain additions to the Formula in which the matters contended for by the Disruption Fathers were carefully conserved.
Lima.—The scholastic venture of the Free Church in Lima in certain aspects still causes legitimate heart burnings. This time it is Rev. R. A. Finlayson, Glasgow, who is endeavouring to get matters put right. The Committee it would appear did not carry out last Assembly’s remit and gave no reason for failing to do so. Dr. Christie, Perth, endeavoured to justify the Foreign Mission Committee but Rev. William Macleod, Dornoch, replied that they had a duty to the testimony of the Church and while it
might be impossible to get a Protestant to fill the post of Sub-Director were they justified in continuing an institution in which a Roman Catholic was given a key position? Continuing he said: “We in the Free Church were very careful even in co-operation with other Presbyterian Churches and yet we were permitted to co-operate with the Church of Rome. It was contrary to our Confession to have in a key position a man who was a member of the Church of Rome.” Rev. D. MacDougall, Dunoon, said it was very obvious if the College was to exist it had to subsist on the good will of the community which was Roman Catholic. The College had existed for 30 years yet the Committee confessed that no Protestant Christian could be found to fill this post. Other Colleges in South America had turned out Christian evangelists.