|
|
|
Single Person record details
|
|
Back
|
|
Person Code
|
NA13218
|
Corporate Name
|
Cawdor Kirk Session
|
Dates
|
1567-1967
|
Activity
|
Cawdor Kirk Session was known of old as Baraven, due to the situation of the old church which was replaced in 1619. The old Parish Church was dedicated to St Ewan and was formerly a commune kirk of the Cathedral of Elgin. Ministry of the session is recorded from 1567 in the person of Allan McIntosh. In 1945 the Parish Church of Cawdor was united with the former United Free Church congregation of Cawdor North. After the local union the former United Free Church was sold and removed to Fornighty were it was re-erected as hall. In 1960 Ardlach established a link with Cawdor however this arrangement was terminated in 1963 and Cawdor was later linked with Croy and Dalcross in 1967 under the ministry of Rev. D Johnston, minister at Croy and Dalcross. The kirk session sat within the Presbytery of Nairn and later of Inverness.
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
|
Presbytery of Inverness
|
NonPreferredTerm
|
Baraven (name of old)
|
Notes
|
Sources: Hew Scott and others (ed.), Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vols.2 and 8-11 (Edinburgh, 1915-2000).
|
Associated records
|
|
|
GB232/CH2/674 | Records of Cawdor Parish / Cawdor Old Kirk Session | 1719-2003 |
|
|
|
|
|