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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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NA23649
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Corporate Name
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Airlie Free Church
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Dates
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1843-1931
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Activity
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Airlie Free Church was formed at the Disruption, when the minister and many of the congregation adhered to the Free Church. A church building was erected almost immediately afterwards. It passed successively to the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland, in the latter case as Airlie South, which united with Airlie as Airlie in 1931. The UFC charge was in the presbytery of Blairgowrie and the synod of Perth and Stirling.
Each congregation of a presbyterian church has a kirk session, which comprises the minister(s) and 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 has a district of the parish assigned to him/her. The session determines the number of elders. The minister is moderator of the session, which also has a clerk who has custody of all its records. There may also be a treasurer, and an officer or beadle. The session was required to maintain a communion roll, containing the names and addresses of the communicant church members.
The duties of the kirk session 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 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).
In the 19th century and earlier weekly collections were made for the support of the poor, but as local authorities began to assume responsibility for this by means of taxation, funds collected might be directed to special schemes such as the support of missionaries, more recently through a weekly freewill offering scheme. Seat or pew rents (money paid for a fixed seat in a church) were also quite common, 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 Blairgowrie
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Associated records
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