Defending the Revolution: The Church of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament, 1689–95

2010 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Stephen
Keyword(s):  
Early Years ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Revolution

With particular emphasis upon the revolution and the early years of William's reign, this article aims to shed some light on the nature of the relationship between church and parliament, in particular its importance to the church in promoting its vision for a reformed church in Scotland. The article focuses on the strategies used by the church to achieve their objectives. Effective organisation, careful and diligent lobbying of parliament and forthright presentation of their position through preaching, enabled them to galvanise their support within parliament and secure a settlement that not only disappointed their opponents but went beyond what William and erastian inclined Presbyterians would have preferred. It is quite clear that the church significantly influenced the nature and extent of the final ecclesiastical settlement. Consequently, the revolution provided the template for relations between church and parliament until the latter's dissolution in 1707.

‘The Substance of the Faith’ A Clarification of the Concept in the Church of Scotland

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-338
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Torrance
Keyword(s):  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

In determining the meaning of the expression ‘the substance of the Faith’, it seems right to go back to the act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 which ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith ‘as the publick and avowed Confession of this Church, containing the summe and substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches.’ There the WCF was regarded as containing the sum and substance of some thirty Reformed Confessions, including the Scots Confession, the First and Second Helvetic Confessions. These confessions expressly acknowledged the ancient Catholic Creeds and Conciliar Statements of the Church, the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Formulations of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and the so-called ‘Athanasian Creed’, and embodied all their main statements as essential articles of belief. This was true of the WCF which, as James Denney once pointed out, ‘contains everything that is in the Nicene Creed’ (Jesus and the Gospel, p. 39If). That is to say, there was no move away from what the Athanasian Creed and the Second Helvetic Confession called ‘the Catholic Faith’, although the basic articles of faith handed down through the Creeds were set within a confessional frame of distinctively Reformed character. It was inevitable, therefore, that a distinction was made between what Samuel Rutherford called (Due Right Presbyteries, p. 13) ‘a confession dejure, what everyman ought to believe, as the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Athanasius’, and a wider summation of teaching common to ‘true Reformed Protestant religion’.

A Disputed Letter: Relations Between the Church of Scotland and the Reformed Church in the Province of Zeeland in the Year of the Solemn League and Covenant

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 237-251
Author(s):  
Willbm Nijenhuis
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Dutch Revolt ◽  
The Church ◽  
United Provinces

In the year 1643 the Dutch revolt against Spain was dragging gradually to an end. Repeated attempts by Stadtholder Frederick Henry to take Antwerp had failed. Since 1640 only minor military operations had been undertaken. The demand for peace was growing, but this, at the same time, led to divisions of opinion. During this period of domestic tension the United Provinces became involved in events in England leading to the Civil War.

Church-State Relations in the United Kingdom: A Westminster View

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (29) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Frank Cranmer
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Church Of Ireland ◽  
Church State Relations ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

In any discussion of church-state relations in the United Kingdom, it should be remembered that there are four national Churches: the Church of England, the (Reformed) Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales (disestablished in 1920 as a result of the Welsh Church Act 1914) and the Church of Ireland (disestablished by the Irish Church Act 1869). The result is that two Churches are established by law (the Church of England and the Church of Scotland) and enjoy a particular constitutional relationship with the state, while the other Churches and faith-communities (the Roman Catholics, the Free Churches, the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others) have particular rights and privileges in particular circumstances.

scholarly journals The (Non)acceptance of Belhar in the Dutch Reformed Church: Analysing Synodical Debates of 2011 and 2013

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Jacobus Van Wyngaard
Keyword(s):  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Open Session ◽  
Local Congregations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Dutch Reformed Church

This article analyses the open session debates on the Belhar Confession at the 2011 and 2013 General Synod meetings of the Dutch Reformed Church. It identifies six key themes that repeatedly emerge from arguments made by delegates, namely: 1) accepting Belhar for the sake of the youth and future of the church; 2) Belhar as guide in the mission of the church; 3) Belhar as challenge to racism within the church; 4) Belhar and its relationship to liberation theologies; 5) the role of members in formal adoption of a new confession; and 6) adoption of confessions in ways which would not make them binding on all. From these themes three matters, which remain outstanding in terms of how the Dutch Reformed Church engages with the Belhar Confession, are raised: 1) the relationship between mission and racism; 2) the history of heresy and its implication for the present; and 3) the implication of and response to black and liberation theologies. These matters are identified as challenges given particular meaning in light of the emphasis on local congregations and members of the Dutch Reformed Church when discussing the Belhar Confession.

scholarly journals Calvyn se vierde diens, die doktore-amp, en artikel 18 van die kerkorde van Dordrecht 1618 en 1619: ’n Kritiese refleksie

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries L. Du Plooy
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Special Investigation ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
High Esteem ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Die artikel fokus op Calvyn se besondere rol in die formulering van artikels 2 en 18 van die kerkorde van Dordrecht 1618 en 1619. Hierdie kerkorde word steeds deur ’n groot aantal gereformeerde kerke in die wêreld aanvaar en gebruik.Onderwerpe en probleme wat aangeraak word, sluit vrae in soos die volgende: Wie is verantwoordelik vir die onderrig van Teologie? Is die tradisie geldig dat daar naas die drie dienste van Woordbedienaar, ouderling en diaken ook ’n vierde diens bestaan, naamlik dié van doktor in die Teologie? Kan hierdie tradisie, wat hoofsaaklik op die standpunte van Bucer en Calvyn berus, met die gegewens in die Bybel versoen word?Besondere aandag word aan die volgende aspekte gegee:• Historiese gegewens oor doktor in die Teologie met besondere verwysing na die standpunte en invloed van Calvyn.• ’n Kritiese evaluering van die begronding van die vierde diens op die Bybel.• Die verhouding tussen teologiese opleiding in die konteks van die kerk en/of ’n universiteit.• Besondere aandag word gegee aan die situasie in die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika ten opsigte van die funksionering van hierdie vierde diens.Van die belangrikste konklusies wat gemaak word, is die volgende: die kerk het deur die eeue ’n besondere waardering en respek gehad vir die taak en funksie van die doktore in die Teologie. Dit het inderdaad tot groot seën van die kerke gedien. Calvyn se standpunte het dikwels tot verwarring aanleiding gegee, maar andersyds ook bygedra tot die erkenning van die belangrike funksie of taak wat hierdie vierde diens kerklik verrig. Net so vervul die doktore in die Teologie ’n besondere wetenskaplike rol aan teologiese fakulteite van universiteite.Calvin’s fourth office, the doctor ministry, and article 18 of the church order of Dordrecht 1618 and 1619: A critical reflection. This article focuses on Calvin’s special role in the ecclesiastical formulation of articles 2 and 18 in the church order of Dordrecht 1618 and 1619, which is still retained in a large number of reformed church orders in the reformed fellowship of churches.Topics and issues which are addressed include questions such as: Who is responsible for the teaching of Theology? Is the tradition valid that the doctorial or professorial office in theology exists as a fourth office beside that of ministers, elders and deacons? Is this tradition, which mainly rests on the views of Bucer and Calvin, correct in terms of the Bible?Particular attention to the following aspects is given:• Historical data on the doctor ecclesiae focusing on the views and influence of Calvin.• A critical evaluation of the foundation of the fourth office on the Bible.• The relationship between theological training in the context of a church and/or a university.• A special investigation of the situation within the Reformed Churches in South Africa in this regard.Important conclusions are made, for example that the church through the ages had a very high esteem and respect for the office of the doctor in Theology; that this fourth office is still retained in many reformed churches, with great blessing. Calvin’s views did cause some confusion on the one hand, but on the other hand it contributed to the acknowledgement of the important function the doctors in Theology have on behalf of the church and in the faculties of Theology at universities. 

The Church of Scotland and the Funeral Industry in Nineteenth-century Edinburgh

2009 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Industrial Age ◽  
The Status ◽  
Industrial Solutions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This article deals with the relationship between the Church of Scotland, the private sector and the local state in the provision of funeral arrangements and burial sites in Edinburgh in the nineteenth century. The first section introduces the status of the Kirk as upholder of tradition and provider of charity in relation to the funeral day. Next, state intervention will be considered, initially in the form of the introduction of the 1832 Anatomy Act, which had a direct bearing upon the status of the poor in Edinburgh and the Kirk's attitudes towards them when they died. This development, it will be argued, intensified working class desire for respectability in death, and increased the financial resources devoted to the funeral of the industrial age. Meanwhile, the challenge of the private cemetery companies during the 1840s further embodied the invasion of the market into the ‘ultimate’ rite of passage. Their example is used to illuminate not only the Kirk's inability to accommodate changing demand, but also the extent to which private enterprise was relied upon to solve municipal problems throughout the nineteenth century in Edinburgh. Finally, the article will explain the eventual demise of the Kirk as a source of burial provision in the capital, at the hands of a state that could no longer count upon pre-industrial solutions for disposal.

scholarly journals Die beroepsbrief in die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika – ’n kontraktuele werksaanbod?

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Smit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Contractual Relationship ◽  
Contract Of Employment ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The letter of calling in the Reformed Churches in South Africa – a contractual labour proposal? In the Schreuder case the court found that the letter of calling should be considered a legally valid letter of service. Therefore the relationship between a congregation and a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church is regulated by a contract of employ- ment. Consequently Labour Law applies to the position of this church’s ministers. In the court’s verdict on the Church of the Province case, the court found that a priest/minister of the Anglican Church does not enter into a legal binding contract of employment with the church. According to the court the rela- tionship between the Anglican Church and a priest/minister cannot be described as a contractual relationship, but rather a spiritual or religious agreement that is regulated by the canons of the church. Therefore the question should be asked: Is the letter of calling to a minister in the RCSA a contractual labour proposal by a local church? In this article it is argued that a letter of calling in the RCSA should not be considered a letter of service. In the light of Scripture, the confession and the church order the aim of the letter of calling is merely to inform a minister of a religious calling by the Lord. It is therefore suggested that the draft form of the letter of calling currently in use, should be adapted to avoid misunderstandings regarding the position and service of a minister in the RCSA.

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