Church of Scotland
| Church of Scotland | |
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Modern logo of the Church of Scotland
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| Abbreviation | CoS |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Calvinist |
| Polity | Presbyterian |
| Associations | |
| Region | Scotland |
| Founder | John Knox |
| Origin | 1560 |
| Separated from | Roman Catholic Church |
| Absorbed |
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| Separations |
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| Congregations | 1,329 |
| Members | 352,912 registered 1.5 million adherents (2014) |
| Official website | churchofscotland |
The Church of Scotland (Scots: The Scots Kirk, Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais na h-Alba), known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is the national church of Scotland.Protestant and Presbyterian, its longstanding decision to respect "liberty of opinion in points which do not enter into the substance of the Faith." means it is relatively tolerant of a variety of theological positions, including those who would term themselves conservative and liberal in their doctrine, ethics and interpretation of Scripture.
The Church of Scotland traces its roots back to the beginnings of Christianity in Scotland, but its identity is principally shaped by the Reformation of 1560. As of December 2013, its pledged membership is 398,389, or about 7.5% of the total population – though according to the 2014 Scottish Annual Household Survey, a significantly higher 27.8% of the Scottish population, or 1.5 million adherents, claimed some form of allegiance to it (see Religion in Scotland).
While the Church of Scotland traces its roots back to the earliest Christians in Scotland, its identity was principally shaped by the Scottish Reformation of 1560. At that point, many in the then church in Scotland broke with Rome, in a process of Protestant reform led, among others, by John Knox. It reformed its doctrines and government, drawing on the principles of John Calvin which Knox had been exposed to while living in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1560, an assembly of some nobles, lairds and burgesses, as well as several churchmen, claiming in defiance of the Queen to be a Scottish Parliament, abolished papal jurisdiction and approved the Scots Confession, but did not accept many of the principles laid out in Knox's First Book of Discipline, which argued, among other things, that all of the assets of the old church should pass to the new. The 1560 Reformation Settlement was not ratified by the crown, as the monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, refused to do so, and the question of church government also remained unresolved. In 1572 the acts of 1560 were finally approved by the young King James VI, the son of Queen Mary, but the Concordat of Leith also allowed the crown to appoint bishops with the church's approval. John Knox himself had no clear views on the office of bishop, preferring to see them renamed as 'superintendents'; but in response to the new Concordat a Presbyterian party emerged headed by Andrew Melville, the author of the Second Book of Discipline.
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