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The 2009 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was largely dominated by the issue of homosexuality and ordination/induction; and that debate has already been described elsewhere.1 Since the end of the Assembly, some ministers, Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries have sought clarification of the moratorium on public comment declared on the issue, to ensure that they are able to continue to preach and teach on broader issues of theology and ethics.
In other significant debates, the General Assembly addressed several issues with implications in civil law or within the Church's own legal system.2
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
Charity law
The Council of Assembly, the committee that has a co-ordinating role in respect of the agencies of the General Assembly, proposed that its own Assembly-appointed members should constitute the Church's central charity trustees for the purposes of civil charity law. This would have removed the anomaly that a member of any one of the Church's Councils or Committees has - in theory - accountability as a charity trustee for all of the unincorporated bodies of the Church, including all the ones on which that individual does not serve. However, on the counter-motion of a former Moderator, the Assembly resolved instead to establish a special Committee to examine further the general area of charity trusteeship in the central agencies of the Church, and it will report back to the General Assembly of 2010.
Trustee indemnity insurance
On the initiative of the Legal Questions Committee, the Assembly adopted a scheme of trustee indemnity insurance, to be obligatory for all congregations, so that individual elders and members of financial bodies (who together constitute the charity trustees of the congregation) have adequate protection. An interesting difficulty had to be overcome in this respect, as Scots charity law had been so framed that such insurance was unlawful because it was deemed to be a benefit to the individual trustee. The Scottish Parliament has undertaken to...