Description
Finlay A.J. Macdonald
224pp
‘A book of exceptional interest. It will undoubtedly be an important contribution to the debate about the future shape of the Church. Readers will find their understanding of the Church’s operation greatly enhanced and will learn much about its history.’ Rev. John Miller
‘This book is needed at the moment … it shows that that our structure is "change-bearing" and that we have been changing and evolving in sometimes remarkable ways.’ Rev. Douglas Galbraith
This book shows how, over the past half-century, the Church of Scotland has developed and evolved in a remarkable number of positive and innovative ways. It provides elders, ministers, church members and others interested in Church matters with an account of some of the big issues which face the Church, and have faced it over the course of the author’s own ministry.
EXTRACT
Chapter 2: A Church Reformed and Reforming
Reformata semper reformanda
One of the principles of a reformed church is the recognition that it is in continuing need of reform. Reformation is not something which happened at a moment in history, but an ongoing process. An old Latin phrase, ecclesia reformata semper reformanda, (a church reformed, yet always in need of reform) gives classic expression to this notion. This rule has applied in the life of the Church of Scotland, as styles of worship and patterns of congregational life have developed over the centuries. The past thirty years have been particularly busy in this regard.
I was ordained to the ministry and inducted to my first charge of Menstrie, in the wee county of Clackmannanshire on 2 June, 1971. My own early efforts at reform were not promising. The interim moderator, the recently retired Reverend William Turner of Gargunnock, was to become a real “father in God” to me over the next thirty years, but things did not get off to an promising start. He informed me that, as was customary in the case of a newly ordained minister, the congregation wished to present me with robes. I said I was delighted to accept and wondered if I might have a blue cassock, rather than the (then) traditional black. After a rather long pause the reply came: “Macdonald, if you want to buy your own robes you can have canary yellow, but if the congregation is providing them you will have black!” That was me told.
My first attempt at organisational change was no more successful. At an early meeting of the Congregational Board I suggested that we should appoint some committees, including a Finance Committee. A canny farmer, Jimmy Gellatly by name, responded: “Whit dae we need a Finance Committee for? We dinna hae ony finance!” In fairness, I should add that Jimmy was a committed and generous elder who, I discovered after his death, had quietly seen to it that the kirk books balanced at the end of each year.
...
As, in such modest ways, I was trying to introduce colour to worship and efficiency to congregational management, the Church of Scotland as a whole was engaging with a report which had been presented to the General Assembly of 1971 – the Anderson Report. This was the report of a Special Commission of twenty persons, set up by the Assembly of 1969, with the remit “to examine priorities in mission in Scotland for the ‘seventies and to make recommendations for action“. The Commission was chaired by Professor Hugh Anderson of New College and the official title given to the report was “Keeping Pace with Tomorrow”. Another of my earliest ministerial memories is of a presbytery conference devoted to the study of the report, and a sense of excitement and anticipation that the Church was moving forward positively into the ‘seventies.
It is interesting to re-read the Anderson report today and realise just how much the world has moved on ...
<© Finlay A.J. Macdonald