Saturday at General Assembly 2025

GA2025 Saturday highlights (using the term “highlights” very loosely)

1.    First time King has appointed a Roman Catholic as Lord High Commissioner, Elish Angiolini! Excellent speech!

2.    10 pages of fine details of new and amended Acts (including Discipline) passed. Approved also by the Pharisees!

3.    Assembly agrees to continue to let Conveners have the last word in debates, even when they say things that need to be corrected and you can no longer say anything - it was argued that the mover of a motion should not have the right to have the last word as they do not have the experience nor wisdom nor ability to sum up a debate, only a Convener can!

4.    We’re moving to a new four-day General Assembly in 2026, Friday to Monday, saving some £111,000, on a par with what we pay certain employees! Also agreed to look at possibility of GA meeting every two years. Meeting every ten years was mooted but some cynical Commissioner pointed out that if that was the case this would probably be the last GA ever! Someone wanted to take the GA on tour round the country, but it’s staying in Edinburgh!

5.    Presbytery Review Committee found weariness and exhaustion in the Presbyteries they visited. Surprise!

6.    When we have agreed all sections of a deliverance, why are we then asked to accept the deliverance as a whole? What else would we do at this stage?

7.    The Theological Forum jointly with FAPLT was instructed by the General Assembly of 2023 ‘to reflect on the decline of the Church of Scotland in regard to membership and ministry candidates and to offer guidance on what steps should be taken to address it, reporting by 2024 failing which by 2025.’ Much work has been done on assessing and agreeing the main factors which have contributed to the decline of Church of Scotland membership and ministry candidates. A full paper will be available in 2026. Could one of the factors of decline be that we take so long to do things?

Assembly Trustees coming up next, just another manic Monday?

Mon the Reformers!