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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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NA12861
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Corporate Name
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Kirkliston Kirk Session
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Dates
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1598-
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Activity
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The church at Kirkliston, which belonged to the Templars, dates back to about 1200 A.D. and was dedicated by Bishop de Bernham in 1244. Pre-reformation the parish was known as Liston and was the mensal parish of the Archbishop of St Andrews. By Act of Parliament in 1598 the parsonage and vicarage of Kirkliston were dissolved from the Bishopric of St Andrews and was granted to the minister of the parish, James Law. The original church was extended in 1823 and 1884.At the disruption in 1843 a number of members and elders left the established Church and set up a Free Church at Kirkliston under the name of Newliston. The established church after the disruption became know as Kirkliston Old and remained so until 1941 when the congregations of Newliston and Kirkliston Old united as Kirkliston. The Old Church continued in use and the Newliston building became church halls. Kirkliston sat within the Presbytery of Linlithgow (later Linlithgow and Falkirk) until it was transferred in 1976 to the Presbytery of Edinburgh.
Each congregation of the Church of Scotland has a Kirk Session, which comprises the minister(s) and the ruling elders, all members of the Session (including the minister) being elders. The elders? duty is care for the spiritual needs of the congregation; each of them has a district of the parish assigned to him/her. The Kirk Session determines the number of elders. The minister is moderator of the Session, and there is a clerk who has custody of all the Session?s records. There may also be a treasurer, and an officer or beadle. The Session must have maintained a communion roll, containing the names and addresses of the communicant church members within the parish.
The Kirk Session?s duties are to maintain good order amongst its congregation (including administering discipline and superintending the moral and religious condition of the parish), and to implement the Acts of the General Assembly. The Kirk Session is at the base of the pyramid of church courts, and it is subject to the review of the Presbytery in which it is situated, and to the superior courts of the Church. Each Kirk Session elects one of its number to represent it at the Presbytery (and formerly at the Synod).
Into the 19th century, there used to be weekly collections made for the support of the poor, but as the state began to assume responsibility for their support (by means of taxation) so funds collected from communicants might be directed to special schemes (eg support of missionaries), more recently through a weekly freewill offering scheme. Seat or pew rents were also quite common (money paid for a fixed seat in a church), but declined rapidly from the 1950s. Many congregations now have a congregational board, which monitors income and expenditure. Former Free Church congregations often had Deacons? Courts, which had responsibility for the whole property of the congregation, and had to apply spiritual principles in the conduct of their affairs.
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Jurisdiction
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Presbytery of Edinburgh
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NonPreferredTerm
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Old Kirkliston (from the Disruption to 1941)
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Notes
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Sources: Hew Scott and others (ed.), 'Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae', vols 1 and. 8-11 (Edinburgh, 1915-2000); A.I Dunlop, 'The Kirks of Edinburgh 1560-1984', (Edinburgh, 1988).
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Associated records
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GB234/CH2/229 | Records of Kirkliston / Kirkliston Old Kirk Session | 1659-1954 |
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