The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body. It generally meets each year and is chaired by a Moderator elected at the start of the Assembly.
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👉 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. It is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh had a population of506,520 in 2020, making it the second-most-populous city in Scotland and the seventh-most-populous in the United Kingdom. The wider metropolitan area had a population of 912,490 in the same year.
Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, the highest courts in Scotland, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. It is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scottish law, literature, philosophy, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1582 and is now one of three universities in the city. The financial centre of Scotland, Edinburgh was in 2020 ranked the second-largest financial centre in the United Kingdom, the fourth-largest in Europe, and the thirteenth-largest in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
- 👉 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Edinburgh
- General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Family worship
- General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland
- General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of The Hub, Edinburgh
- General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Bishops' Wars
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Family worship
Family worship, sometimes simply family prayer, is prayer, bible reading, and singing of psalms and hymns conducted in private homes of Christian families.
During the Protestant Reformation, daily Mass was simplified in order to allow wider participation by laypeople. In the Reformed tradition, it became more common especially in England and Scotland in the 17th century to emphasize daily morning and evening services in the home led by fathers to replace the morning and evening prayer services. Puritan minister Richard Baxter gave lengthy instructions in his Christian Directory for family worship. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland added a chapter to the 1647 Westminster Directory for Worship on family prayer shortly after adoption. Matthew Henry also wrote on family worship in his A Method for Prayer, as well as a collection of psalms and canticles for family use called Family Hymns. James W. Alexander, son of Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander wrote Thoughts on Family Worship in the nineteenth century. The rise of pietism saw a decline in the importance placed on the unity of the family, and family devotions were by and large replaced with private devotions, which were significantly shorter than traditional family worship. Small group activities are also sometimes considered a replacement for family worship.
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland
The Assembly Hall is located between Castlehill and Mound Place in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the meeting place of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of The Hub, Edinburgh
The Hub is a public arts and events building in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Located at the top of the Royal Mile, it is a prominent landmark as its tall Gothic spire (71.7 meters) is the highest point in central Edinburgh, and towers over the surrounding buildings below Edinburgh Castle. It was the Highland Tolbooth St John's Church.
The building is a notable example of Gothic Revival architecture and was designed by architects J Gillespie Graham and Augustus Pugin. Constructed between 1842 and 1845, it was originally designed as a meeting hall for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. From 1929 the building was used as a church until the mid-1980s. Today it is the home of the Edinburgh International Festival and is used as a ticket office, information centre and performance venue. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland continues to meet here each May.
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the context of Bishops' Wars
The Bishops' Wars were two separate conflicts fought in 1639 and 1640 between Charles I and his Covenanter opponents in Scotland. They were the first of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the First and Second English Civil Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, and the 1650 to 1652 Anglo-Scottish War.
In 1637, Charles I, then king of both Scotland and England, imposed changes in religious practice on the Church of Scotland. These were strongly opposed by many Scots, leading to the signing of a National Covenant in 1638, pledging to prevent their implementation. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland then expelled bishops, turning a religious dispute into a struggle for political supremacy. The new Covenanter government raised an army to prevent Charles using force to restore his authority.