THE year 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation (as featured in the January issue of Life and Work).

It is perhaps timely to look at the impact of this event on the Church in Scotland. The influence of Luther’s thinking on the early history of the Scottish Reformation has been the subject of much scholarly investigation. I am not a Reformation scholar, and what follows here is somewhat speculative.

Nearly twenty years ago I had occasion to look at connections between Scotland and Denmark in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. I now believe the Lutheran influence on the early Church of Scotland assumed pivotal importance during the reign of James VI, especially after his move to London in 1603. James married Anne of Denmark (sister of the Danish king Christian IV) and that in claiming his bride spent some months in Denmark, where Lutheranism had become the state religion. Essentially Episcopal in structure, it seems to have worked well.

When in 1611 James resolved to introduce episcopacy into Scotland it seems very likely that he chose the Danish model. There was a sizeable and influential Scots émigré community there.

As far as I can understand at the time few Scots found it difficult to absorb bishops into church polity.

All this changed when Charles I (advised by Archbishop Laud) tried to assimilate the Church of Scotland with the Church of England. This led to the signing of the National Covenant in 1638, the execution of Charles, and the Cromwellian Interregnum.

When Charles II reintroduced episcopacy he seems to have modelled in on the pre-1638 pattern.

I was stimulated to consider a Danish Lutheran connection with Scotland. I was attending worship in a church in Odense, where I found the vigorous congregational hymn-singing and emphasis on the sermon comparable with many Church of Scotland services. To preach, the minister donned a black Geneva preaching gown and white ruff. After that the minister changed into vestments, and celebrated Communion in an aisle, with the congregation gathering round a railed altar, kneeling on a bench to receive the Sacrament.

I do not believe that in 17th century Scotland people gathered round an altar or knelt to receive Communion.

I do believe that the celebration of Communion in a separate aisle was characteristic of 17th-century Episcopal worship in Scotland, and that there is evidence of this in the design of a number of churches built between 1611 and 1690 whose plans are equal-armed (Greek) crosses.

These include Fenwick (1643) 17th-centuryKirkintilloch Auld Kirk (1644) and Lauder

(1673). Other churches in which there was a Communion aisle were Old St Peter’s, Thurso and Elgin Old, where a painting exists showing Communion tables set out at the east end of the church rather than in front of the pulpit.

After 1690 when Presbyterianism became Scotland’s state religion the celebration of the Sacrament was moved to tables in front of the pulpit.

Several years ago I visited Lauder Parish Church and the minister said that with all the arms of the cross seated it was difficult to preach so as to be heard by the entire congregation. Had one of the arms been a Communion aisle that problem would have been resolved. I take this to be a clue as to the original use of the building.

This argument is, I believe, sound. In this year it would perhaps be fair to the memory of Martin Luther to put it more prominently into the public domain, in the hope that it may stimulate some debate about a possible link between Danish Lutheranism and the 17th-century Church of Scotland.