Photo – The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Proposals to create three new super presbyteries are to be considered by a “virtual’ Commission of Assembly next month.
The body has been called because the General Assembly has been cancelled this year due to the Coronavirus outbreak and will consider business that is deemed “urgent, straight forward but uncontroversial”.
Any debate about any of the decisions will be held online on Saturday May 16 when the annual gathering in Edinburgh was supposed to open with the Duke of Cambridge, who is known as the Earl of Strathearn in Scotland, representing his grandmother, Her Majesty the Queen.
A Commission of Assembly consists of a tenth of the Commissioners who made up the last General Assembly.
Commissioners decided last May that the number of presbyteries should be reduced from 45 to around 12 as part of a three-year Radical Action Plan.
The proposed three new Presbyteries will be:
The Presbytery of Fife, made up of the existing Presbyteries of Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and St Andrews
The Presbytery of Aberdeen and Shetland, merging the Presbyteries of Aberdeen and Shetland
The Presbytery of Clyde, merging Dumbarton and Greenock and Paisley.
The Commission will also be asked to approve the appointment of Rev Dr Martin Fair as the Moderator of the General Assembly for 2020-21, as well as agreeing measures to streamline the governance of certain councils such as CrossReach, committees and trusts.
Due to the cancellation of the 2020 General Assembly and restrictions on normal Moderatorial activities throughout the year, Dr Fair will continue in his role as minister of St Andrew’s Parish Church in Arbroath, Angus.
It is proposed that he will be “available for Moderatorial duties as required and there will be a review of this situation in the summer or as conditions allow”.
Uncontroversial
Rev Dr George J Whyte, Principal Clerk to the General Assembly, said: “Of course, the Church is not meeting in General Assembly this year.
“There are some decisions which would normally be taken by a General Assembly and which need to be taken at this time, rather than wait until the next Assembly in 2021.
“We have characterised those decisions as ‘straightforward, time-critical and non-controversial’.
“Papers have therefore been sent out to members of the Commission of Assembly asking them to approve certain items of business.
“The methodology proposed is that if a member of the Commission agrees to these proposals they need take no action.
“If sufficient members request that a particular matter be discussed, the Clerks of Assembly will seek to arrange a virtual meeting of the Commission, to be held on Saturday May 16 2020.
“We hope in this way to keep the Church’s business moving on as regards these important matters.”
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