In the national Church, Dr. David Steel, minister of St. Michael’s Church, Linlithgow, succeeded Dr. George Reid as Moderator of Assembly, while Lord Ballantrae as Lord High Commissioner represented the Queen for the second successive year.
The new Moderator’s theological stance may be easily gleaned from his remarks on the Confession of Faith. “It is to me,” he said, “one of the mysteries of historical theology that the Westminster Confession, largely an English production, very much of the post-Reformation time, should have remained the subordinate standard of the Church so long.” He suggested that the reason for this might be that many of the ministers and laymen had never read it. The Moderator appeared to disapprove particularly of what he called the Confession’s “air of lofty and arrogant disdain for any other point of view.”
These comments of the Moderator, we maintain, cast more reflection on the Moderator himself than on the Westminster document which he purports to criticise. The real answer why the Confession has remained so long such a valuable document is that it is based four-square on the Bible. May the reason not be then why so many in the Assembly were ready to discard the Confession — their lack of acquaintance with the Bible?
The Queen in her letter to the Assembly stated that the Church had a valuable message for a world forced to reconsider its customary attitudes, and went on to assert that “the Christian gospel must be proclaimed and acknowledged.”
As on recent previous occasions a representative of the Roman Catholic Church attended the Assembly. Only a few days before the Assembly the former Moderator had welcomed Archbishop Bruno Heim, Papal Representative in Great Britain to the Church of Scotland Headquarters in Edinburgh. (What a far cry from the days of John Knox). This year the Assembly representative was Bishop Colin MacPherson of Argyll and the Isles, and he, too, was warmly welcomed. Later in the Assembly a proposal was brought forward that the Roman Catholic observer should be invited to speak at next year’s General Assembly. This proposal aroused considerable opposition. Rev. John Sutherland of Killean and Kilkenzie in Kintyre, spoke strongly against the proposal, pointing out that the two Churches were poles apart in doctrine. “The Roman Church,” he declared, “still officially anathematises those very doctrines of the Reformation that we cherish and consider to be essential.” Though Rev. Dr. Roderick Smith, Convener of the Inter-church Relations Committee carried the day, yet many of the Commissioners asked for their dissent to be recorded.
Rev. David Levinson, Convener of the Moral Welfare Committee spoke of the chaotic state of moral and religious education in schools. He wanted moral instruction to be given by properly qualified teachers and given in a religious context, rightly maintaining that it could not stand in any other context. The Committee on Education asked the Scottish Secretary to give full recognition to religious education in schools. From this it would appear that even the Church of Scotland is not happy with the present set-up in schools so far as religious and moral education is concerned. Our only fear is that what will replace the present structure will be no better, particularly if it is based on the guide lines laid down in the Miller Report.
One minister was not satisfied with the attitude of the Committee on Public Worship and Aids to Devotion. He felt that the Committee were performing a holding operation for the more traditional forms of worship. He called for the encouragement of experimental forms of worship. Experiment in the use of modern music, dialogue, drama and dancing was bringing new life to modern worship, he claimed. If this is the path that some in the Church of Scotland wish to follow it is certainly not spiritual life it will bring to the worship of God.
The attempt to relegate the Westminster Confession to the position of an historic document failed, notwithstanding earlier approval of the move by 49 presbyteries to 12. Rev. Andrew Herron spoke strongly for the retention of the Confession. When the question of the legality of the Assembly taking the step of relegating the Confession to the position of an historic document was raised, the Procurator, Mr C. Kemp Davidson, Q.C., said that if they changed the status of the document it was his opinion that it would not be challengeable in the civil courts though he
could not say for certain. The Panel on Doctrine’s recommendation was defeated by 292 to 238.
A proposal for a reformed diaconate was sent to presbyteries for their study and comments. The scheme was one in which men and women would hold the distinctive office of deacon. They would be ordained by presbyteries and would share in the leadership of public worship. It was also proposed that they be given a place in the courts of the church — in the Kirk Session, in Presbytery and Synod and by rota at the General Assembly. It was claimed that such a radical proposal was necessary if this third office was to be recognised and made fully effective. The Panel on Doctrine was concerned about the relationship between the proposed diaconate and the eldership, also whether the concept of a three fold ministry was agreeable to the Word of God, and wished to give further study to the scheme. One thing is very clear — having departed from the Scriptural rule that women are not to hold office in the Church of God, the Church of Scotland has opened the door to a host of unscriptural practices so far as the order and discipline of the Church is concerned. This departure from the Word of God as well as other departures has led the Church into a labyrinth from which it cannot extricate itself but by a return to the Word of God as the sole rule of faith and practice.
The Free Church of Scotland
In the Free Church of Scotland, Rev. Alastair Ross, Oban, was the new Moderator of Assembly. In his opening address he reminded the Assembly that the greatest enemies of the Church of Christ were not physical but spiritual, not visible but invisible, and then went on to warn of the resurgence of phenomena allied to the occult, which is under the sway of Satan.
Mr Donald Jack, Leith, called for the exercise of greater care by the electorate in their choice of Members of Parliament. This country greatly needs committed Christians in Parliament, he declared. He stressed, too, that voters should make it their duty to find out whether any standing in their constituency are Christians and to vote accordingly. This advice we would fully endorse. The Rev. Murdo MacLeod, Dingwall, viewed with alarm the adverse effect that the industrialisation of the North of Scotland was having upon the religious life there. Declining church attendance, ignorance of the doctrines of grace, destruction of the sacred character of the Lord’s Day and an increasingly secular outlook were the conditions now emerging as never before in the North of Scotland, he said. Living in close proximity to the new developments, and well aware of the evils that
are rampant in certain areas in the North, his alarm is not misplaced. The evils, of course, do not flow from the oil rigs but from men’s hearts, only the situation created by the new industries affords ample opportunity for the increase of all kinds of sinful practices if men’s hearts are so inclined — and Satan is not slow to take advantage of this.
The Rev. Murdo MacLeod, formerly of London, warned against complacency over the Church’s finances, claiming that the Church’s capital investments had fallen in value by a third. He suggested that their investment portfolio be put in the hands of a managerial company. Mr John Munro, Inverness, rejected the suggestion of complacency and said that the Committee were in the process of examining the management of their investments. For our part we feel that too much emphasis can be laid on the question of Church finances, and particularly on Reserve Funds. We used to hear older ministers of our own Church say that if the Church is faithful to the truth then we need never fear lack of financial support. When the Lord sent out His disciples saying, Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses, they at least were unencumbered with any worries over their investment portfolio. May it not be that as the Church becomes more highly organised, the less effective it becomes. Organisation can usurp the place which the Holy Spirit’s power once had. Of this danger no Church can claim itself to be free. Let the Church of God lay out all the resources which God has given it for the needs of Christ’s Cause and the extension of His kingdom today, instead of using it to finance secular concerns. The Lord who provides for His Cause today, and provided for it in the past, will provide for its needs tomorrow.