Assembly 2024

ASSEMBLY BUSINESS COMMITTEE

A significant proportion of the Assembly Business Committee’s report is dedicated to buildings, particularly the future of the Assembly Hall. The committee warns that the building is ‘a serious drain on scarce resources at a time when the Church has other priorities’, that equipment and furnishings will need renewing in ‘the foreseeable future’ and that it requires internal refurbishment ‘to make it fit for purpose in the 21st century’.

It also states that, with the number of Commissioners to the General Assembly declining and many participating online, the Church no longer needs a space as large as the 1000-seat Hall. It will consult over the next year and report to the Assembly of 2025 with proposals for its long-term future.

As agreed last year, the Moderator’s Residence at Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, will be put up for sale following this Assembly. The committee reports that the furlough flat previously identified as a residence has proved to be unsuitable for access reasons. Another furlough flat at Inverleith Row will be used by the Moderator for 2024-25, while the committee investigates other possible properties including redundant manses.

Elsewhere, following instructions from last year’s Assembly, the committee has consulted with the Legal Questions Committee and Faith Action Programme Leadership Team on allowing representation in the Assembly of candidates and probationer ministers. It is agreed to offer the right to attend the Assembly – to speak and move motions, but without voting rights – to probationers. A further instruction to consider allowing voting rights to youth representatives has been discussed, but neither committee thought this was appropriate, and the report points out that young people can be ordained to the eldership and take ‘their place in the governance of the Church at every level in the usual way’.

The deliverance includes a section instructing all presbyteries to work with the Office of the General Assembly and the Human Resources Department to establish consistent terms and conditions for paid employees across the Church. The report notes that there has been ‘a divergence’ in the conditions of employment for the full time Presbytery Clerks as the new presbyteries have emerged over the last two years.

The committee records its gratitude to John Williams, who will this year be helping to run the Audio-Visual system for his 50th Assembly.

LEGAL QUESTIONS COMMITTEE

Legal Questions brings the latest progress on developing a process of Presbytery Review, which was first raised at the General Assembly of 2016 but was paused from 2020 to 2022. The aims are to make sure that a Presbytery is satisfactorily fulfilling its functions and responsibilities, to enable action when proper processes are not being followed, and to celebrate good practice.

A draft Presbytery Review Act is presented by the committee to this year’s Assembly, partly informed by an urgent Governance Review in response to concerns about one of the new presbyteries last year. The proposal is that the Act will be ‘road tested’ in two presbyteries before a final Act is brought for approval next year.

The report also notes that a sub-group of the Committee has been set up ‘to consider and monitor national and constitutional issues in the life of the Church, such as the Oath of Accession, in light of events following the death of Her late Majesty the Queen’.

COMMITTEE ON CHAPLAINS TO HM FORCES

The Chaplains committee’s report warn that recruitment is a ‘critical issue’, with numbers at ‘an historic low’ and no new chaplains endorsed since the last General Assembly. All eligible ministers are encouraged to discern whether God is calling them to serve as a chaplain, full- or part-time. It adds that ‘Chaplaincy in the Cadet Forces provides many benefits too’.

The deliverance notes ‘the significant contribution of HM Forces personnel in a variety of theatres, notably the NATO response to the war in Ukraine and current operations in the Red Sea area’. The committee commends Church of Scotland chaplain the Rev Dr Mark Davidson RN, Principal of the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, for training given to Ukrainian chaplains, ‘and welcomes the bonds of friendship, fellowship and support that have now been forged’.

It also welcomes the recent review by Lord Etherton KC into the historic treatment of LGBT+ people in the armed forces, and notes with regret ‘any breach, in the past, of the pastoral relationship between Chaplain and military personnel’.

ECUMENICAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE

The key points of the Ecumenical Relations report are handily summed up in an Executive Summary:

“The Report of the Ecumenical Relations Committee in 2024 focuses primarily on the future shape of the church in Scotland, with particular reference to the Articles Declaratory of the Church of Scotland. Affirming the ecumenical vision inherent in the Articles Declaratory, the Committee addresses the realisation of that vision with reference to Presbytery Mission Planning, engagement with the Presbyteries of the Church and the possibility of a wider national church conversation in relation to ministry and mission.

“With respect to the creation of a national ecumenical body within Scotland, the Committee invites the General Assembly to recognise the Scottish Christian Forum as such a body and to approve the participation of representatives of the Church of Scotland within it.

“The Committee notes the ongoing work in relation to the Saint Margaret Declaration, with the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and, in particular, the proposal to renew the work of the Joint Commission on Doctrine. In relation to the Saint Andrew Declaration, with the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Committee notes the ongoing process within the Scottish Episcopal Church in relation to the amendment of their ecumenical Canon (Canon 15) and the potential for enabling shared ministry through this. In relation to the Columba Declaration, with the Church of England, the Committee places on record its thanks to the Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, for his commitment to the relationship between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, and highlights our ongoing commitment to the ecumenical, prayer initiative: Thy Kingdom Come.

“The Committee highlights our ongoing engagement with the church in Europe through the Conference of European Churches and the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe. Further, it highlights our ongoing engagement with the church globally and notes the forthcoming 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 2025.

“In conclusion, the Committee invites the General Assembly to reaffirm the ecumenical vision inherent in the Articles Declaratory.”

PENSIONS TRUSTEES

The Pensions Trustees report that all of the schemes and sections they manage are fully funded and self-sufficient. The statutory increases in pension were 5% for benefits accrued between 1997 and 2005, and 2.5% for benefits accrued since then. The discretionary increases were 6.7% for ministers on pre-1997 pensionable service, 8.9% on the Widows and Orphans Fund and 89% on the Contributors Fund.

The Trustees add that the funds their schemes are invested in are expected to have the highest Environment, Social and Governance rating available. “Investments are sought in companies, both through shares and debt, which comply with good corporate governance principles, which act as responsible employers, which have regard to the environment and which show sensitivity to the communities in which they operate.”

IONA COMMUNITY

The Iona Community report calls on the Church of Scotland at every level ‘to identify specific ways in which the different strands of the work of the Iona Community might inform and influence the future planning and delivery of mission and outreach work of the Church’. Presbyteries, Sessions and congregations are encouraged to take up opportunities to ‘forge links, cross-cultural learning and partnerships across Europe’. The work of the Church of Scotland in Israel and Palestine is commended, although the Assembly is asked to regret the withdrawal of Church funds from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme (EAPPI).

HOUSING AND LOAN FUND

The Trustees of the Housing and Loan Fund bring a new constitution for approval, which will allow it to donate surplus funds to the Church ‘for the furtherance of its charitable purposes’. The Trustees have identified that they have a surplus of £9 million which they intend to transfer to the Assembly Trustees.

As of January 1 this year, the Trust owned 185 properties, having bought 12, received one as a bequest, and sold three in 2023. They had 178 tenants and 98 borrowers. Ministers who are within five years of retirement are encouraged to contact the Fund if they feel they may need assistance.