|
|
|
Single Person record details
|
|
Back
|
|
Person Code
|
NA13500
|
Corporate Name
|
Abernethy and Kincardine Kirk Session
|
Dates
|
1560-1932
|
Activity
|
The two parishes of Abernethy and of Kincardine were united together in 1560, with each retaining its own church after the union. Ministry of the session is recorded from 1567, in the person of John Glass. In 1932, following the Union of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church in 1932, the Abernethy portion of Abernethy and Kincardine united with the former United Free Church congregation of Abernethy and Boat of Garten, under the name of Abernethy, and the Kincardine portion united with the charge of Boat of Garten to form the session of Boat of Garten and Kincardine. Abernethy later went on to establish a link with Cromdale and Advie in 1972 and Boat of Garten was linked with Duthill in 1969. The Kirk Session of Abernethy and Kincardine sat within the Presbytery of Abernethy.
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.
|
Jurisdiction
|
Inverness-shire
|
NonPreferredTerm
|
Boat of Garten and Kincardine Kirk Session (Kincardine portion of Kirk Session from 1932)
|
Notes
|
Sources: Hew Scott and others (ed.), Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vols.6 and 8-11 (Edinburgh, 1915-2000).
|
Associated records
|
|
|
GB232/CH2/1054 | Records of Abernethy and Kincardine Kirk session | 1731-1923 |
|
|
|
|
|