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Ecumenical Relations Committee Reported to the General Assembly

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Ecumenical Relations Committee Reported to the General Assembly Report of the Ecumenical Relations Committee ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ECUMENICAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE MAY 2021 Proposed Deliverance Report The General Assembly: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Receive the Report. It is now two years since the Ecumenical Relations Committee reported to the General Assembly. The Report, 2. Instruct the Committee to engage with the reformed therefore, covers work which has taken place since May 2019. Presbyteries of the Church and report to a future Like every part of the Church, the Committee has had to General Assembly. (Section 1) contend with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 06 3. Instruct the Committee to facilitate a conference to this has impacted its ability to work as efficiently as usual. explore the establishing of a cooperative partnership The Committee would like to record its gratitude to the to enable Christian mission and service to the people Ecumenical Officer who has done an enormous amount to of Scotland. (Section 1.6-1.9) facilitate effective ecumenical responses to the challenges we have all faced. The fact that the leadership of so many of 4. Note the establishing of the Scottish Church Leaders’ the churches in Scotland have worked so well and so Forum and welcome the development of an effective supportively together is testament to his skills and ecumenical forum during the Covid-19 pandemic. dedication, as well as to the benefit of building up (Section 2) ecumenical relations over many years. 5. a) Approve the Saint Andrew Declaration, The Report covers the following topics: consisting of mutual Acknowledgements and Commitments between the Church of Scotland 1. The centenary of the Church of Scotland Act 1921, and the Scottish Episcopal Church. formulated in the context of preparation for union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free b) Instruct the Committee, in partnership with the Church of Scotland; the commitment to seeking Inter-church Relations Committee of the further union which is at the centre of the Church of Scottish Episcopal Church, to oversee the Scotland’s identity; the call to respond, and continue implementation of the Commitments in the to respond, to the challenges faced by the Church as a Saint Andrew Declaration and to set up the consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Working Group proposed by it. (Section 3.6) opportunities presented by doing this in collaboration 6. Agree to the participation of the Church of Scotland in with other churches. The General Assembly will be the Scottish Christian Forum and recognise it as the asked to note the opportunities for developing national ecumenical body in Scotland and note the ecumenical co-operation offered by reform of proposal to dissolve Action of Churches Together in Presbyteries and support the delivery of a conference Scotland once the Scottish Christian Forum has been of all the Scottish Churches to explore the establishing formed. (Section 5) of a cooperative partnership to enable Christian mission and service to the people of Scotland; 7. Welcome the appointment of the Very Rev Dr Russell Barr as Co-Chair of the Columba Declaration Contact 2. The initiation and development of the Scottish Church Group on behalf of the Church of Scotland and the Rt Leaders’ Forum; Rev James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle as Co-Chair on 3. The Saint Andrew Declaration between the Church of behalf of the Church of England. (Section 6.1) Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Declaration sets out the basis of our recognition of one another and lays the foundation for closer co- operation in the future. The General Assembly will be asked to adopt the Declaration, as will the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, whereupon the Moderator and the Primus will sign the Declaration on behalf of our two churches; 4. An examination of the concept of ecumenical Mission Communities, as developed within the Covenant Partnership in Cumbria, with a view to learning what may be applicable to the Church in Scotland; 5. A report on progress made towards transitioning from Action of Churches Together in Scotland to the Scottish Christian Forum as Scotland’s ecumenical instrument. The General Assembly will be asked to recognise the Scottish Christian Forum as the national ecumenical body in Scotland; to agree to the participation of the Church of Scotland in the Scottish Christian Forum; to grant powers to the Committee on Ecumenical Relations to give final approval to the creation of the Scottish Christian Forum on the basis of such constitutional arrangements as shall be agreed by all members; and to note the proposal, in due course, to dissolve Action of Churches Together in Scotland. 6. A report on the continuing co-operation with the Church of England, including the Thy Kingdom Come Global Prayer Initiative; 7. A report on the Church of Scotland’s membership of Ecumenical bodies. Reports The Church of Scotland General Assembly 2021 01 Report of the Ecumenical Relations Committee ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The Church of Scotland, believing it to be the will of 1. THE CALL TO RESPOND: LIVING OUT OUR Christ that His disciples should be all one in the Father RESPONSE and in Him, that the world may believe that the Father 1.1 In the Gospel of John, Jesus prays for all who those has sent Him, recognises the obligation to seek and who have come to believe in him “that they may all be one… promote union with other Churches in which it finds so that the world may believe” that he has been sent by the the Word to be purely preached, the sacraments Father. (John 17: 20-21) The times in which we have lived administered according to Christ’s ordinance, and through during the past year and more are ones that will discipline rightly exercised; and it has the right to unite shape our society for decades to come and in ways that we with any such Church without loss of its identity on cannot yet fully comprehend. In the midst of such times, the terms which this Church finds to be consistent with Church of Christ is called to reflect on how it should live out these Articles. (Article VII) its response to the prayer of Jesus. The Articles Declaratory were prepared in the context of 1.2 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the Church of discussions which led to the union of the Church of Scotland Scotland Act 1921[i]. It established the constitution under with the United Free Church of Scotland. It is therefore no which the Church of Scotland currently operates. The surprise that the imperative of unity is so prominent within purpose of the Act is to “declare the lawfulness of certain them and it should be remembered that the ‘union’ of which Articles declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of the Church of Scotland Act 1921 speaks was by no means Scotland in matters spiritual prepared with the authority of intended to be limited just to the union which occurred in the General Assembly of the Church”, specifically “to 1929. The legacy of that work a century and more ago is one facilitate the union of other Churches with the Church of we should continue to celebrate, namely that the prayer of Scotland.” The Articles Declaratory of the Church of Jesus that all his disciples “should be one in the Father and in Scotland [ii] are set out as a Schedule to the Act. Much has him that the world may believe” remains integral to our self- changed over the last century, but the Committee believes understanding and identity as a church. that this is a good moment in the life of our Church to recall 1.7 When, in 2010, the General Assembly reaffirmed its the core principles of our calling to be a church of Christ in commitment to Article III, it also affirmed that: Scotland. [T]he Church of Scotland remains committed to the 1.3 Living out our response in the light of our calling is ecumenical vision set out in the seventh Article integral to the self-understanding of the Church of Scotland. Declaratory and, in pursuit of that vision, stands eager This is expressed, in part, in the following terms: to share with other churches in Christian mission and As a national Church representative of the Christian service to the people of Scotland. Faith of the Scottish people it acknowledges its That is, the future shape of ministry and mission in Scotland distinctive call and duty to bring the ordinances of ought to be undertaken on the basis of cooperative religion to the people in every parish of Scotland partnership as a response to the challenges facing the through a territorial ministry. (Article III) church. 1.4 This is the first of three elements in the identity of 1.8 In more recent times, the General Assembly of 2019 the Church of Scotland which are integral to our self- acknowledged that, with respect to our self-understanding understanding, namely the call to a territorial ministry to the in terms of Article III: whole of Scotland. In 2010, the Church of Scotland reaffirmed “its commitment to be a national church with a [We] need to question seriously whether the Church of distinctive evangelical and pastoral concern for the people Scotland has the ability or resources to fulfil this in the ways and nation of Scotland” in terms of Article III.[iii] that we have historically. Coming to terms with this reality is fundamental to shaping the future of the Church.[iv] 1.5 The second element integral to the identity of the Church of Scotland is that: 1.9 If that was held to be true in 2019, it is even more so in 2021 as we consider how to live out our response in the This Church [has] the right and power, subject to no face of the challenges of these times.
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