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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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NA20403
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Corporate Name
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Ayr Kirk Session
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Dates
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1604-1894
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Activity
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Ayr kirk session serves what is now known as the Auld Kirk of Ayr (St John the Baptist). Ayr was a medieval parish whose rectory was one of the prebends of Glasgow Cathedral. In 1652 the original church was demolished apart from the tower, and replaced by a much smaller and plainer structure (the Old Church), which was itself replaced in 1810. It is in Ayr presbytery and was in the synod of Glasgow and Ayr until the reorganisation of 1929, thereafter in the synod of Ayr. Synods were abolished in 1993. 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, weekly collections were made for the support of the poor, but as the state began to assume responsibility for their support (by means of taxation), 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 Ayr
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Notes
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See also J T Cox, ?Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland? (various editions); A Herron, ?The Law and Practice of the Kirk: A Practical Guide and Commentary? (Glasgow, 1995); Hew Scott, ?Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae? (vol.iii, 1920).
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Associated records
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GB1663/CH2/751 | Records of Ayr / Ayr Old and New St John the Baptist Kirk Session | 1603-1945 |
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