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Alloa West Parish Church had its origins in the request in 1765 of a number of citizens of Alloa to the Associate (Burgher) Synod to be taken under its charge. A session was formed and a minister settled in 1769. The church was in the Presbytery of Stirling. In c 1800 there was a secession of 310 members and 160 adherents to the Auld Licht cause, leaving the New Licht members with the West. In 1820 on the union of the Associate Synod and the General Associate Synod this church under the name of Alloa West Secession Church became a church of the United Secession Church. In 1847 the USC united with the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church and the congregation became known as Alloa West UP. With the union of the UP Church and the Free Church in 1900 the congregation became Alloa West United Free Church, and then, in 1929 with the Union of the UF and the Church of Scotland it became Alloa West. In 1941 Greenside Mission, Alloa, was united with the Alloa West congregation.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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