The General Assembly
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INTRODUCTION
The General Assembly, which meets each year in Edinburgh,
has the authority to make laws determining how the Church
of Scotland operates. It also is the highest court of
the Church (the other courts being the kirk session
and the presbytery) in which cases can be heard in matters
of litigation.
The 2009 General
Assembly closed on Wednesday 27 May 2009. The 2010 General Assembly will open on Thursday 20 May until Wednesday 26 May.
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During the General Assembly you can read press releases about Assembly business, and access agendas for each day, reports and speeches from these pages. You can also connect to our webcast facility to watch the discussion as it happens and read an update on where business has reached.
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General Assembly 2009
Reports, minutes and other papers are archived on the Assembly area of our extranet section, along with the remits booklet which includes instructions to presbyteries, kirk sessions, congregations and individuals following this year's General Assembly.
Highlights from 2009
Watch some of the highlights from this year's Assembly on our webcast pages here, including the address by Most Rev Desmond Tutu and the retiring Moderator, Very Rev David Lunan.
The Moderator and the Lord High Commissioner
The Rev William Hewitt was appointed as Moderator of the General Assembly for 2009. Read his biography here.
The Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland 2009 was The Right Honourable George
Reid. |
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Special Commissions
A Special Commission on Structure and Change was set up in 2006 by the General
Assembly to identify and report on the effect of changes
to the structure and organisation of the Church, and its final
report was made to the 2008 General Assembly. The report included the recommendation that a Special Commission on the Third Article Declaratory be appointed.
This is due to report to the General Assembly in 2010.
The 2009 General Assembly set up a Special Commission to examine questions relating to homosexuality and the ordination and induction of ministers. This is due to report to the General Assembly in 2011.
Act and regulations
The acts and regulations of the Church of Scotland which
were updated by decisions taken at the 2009 General Assembly
are available online on our
Previous Assemblies
Archived reports, minutes and daily
papers from previous Assemblies are available on the
For archived daily audio news updates, podcasting service and
video highlights from previous Assemblies, visit our Webcast pages.
Background and history
Click here
for more information on the history and structure of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and a guide
to proceedings.
* To view PDF documents we recommend using Adobe Reader software, which is available to download for free from the Adobe website.
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