Matthew Ross is a minister of the Church of Scotland, working (since 2018) for the World Council of Churches. He was General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland 2014-2018. [1]
Between 1996 and 1998 he served as a probationer for the ministry at Duddingston Kirk in Edinburgh. In 1998 he was ordained a minister by the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of St Andrews. The Rev Matthew Ross served as minister at Ceres and Springfield Parish Church, Fife, between 1998 and 2003. He was also a member of the Church of Scotland's Board of Practice and Procedure (1999-2003); he was appointed acting Depute Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2002-3.
In 2003 he moved to Brussels to work as Executive Secretary of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches; additionally, in 2009, he served as Moderator of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Europe. [2] He then returned to parish ministry in Scotland, serving at the Parishes of Cockpen and Carrington linked with Lasswade and Rosewell in Midlothian (2009-2014). [3] He was a member of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council and Committee on Ecumenical Relations. [4]
In 2014 he was appointed to succeed Stephen Smyth as General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS). In 2018 he left ACTS to work for the World Council of Churches (based in Geneva) as Programme Executive for Diakonia and Capacity Building. [5]
Presbyterianpolity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply. Groups of local churches are governed by a higher assembly of elders known as the presbytery or classis; presbyteries can be grouped into a synod, and presbyteries and synods nationwide often join together in a general assembly. Responsibility for conduct of church services is reserved to an ordained minister or pastor known as a teaching elder, or a minister of the word and sacrament.
The Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 259,200 members in 2023. While active membership in the church has declined significantly in recent decades, the government Scottish Household Survey found that 20% of the Scottish population, or over one million people, identified the Church of Scotland as their religious identity in 2019. The Church of Scotland's governing system is presbyterian in its approach, therefore, no one individual or group within the church has more or less influence over church matters. There is no one person who acts as the head of faith, as the church believes that role is the "Lord God's". As a proper noun, the Kirk is an informal name for the Church of Scotland used in the media and by the church itself.
The Church of Scotland was one of the first national churches to accept the ordination of women. In Presbyterianism, ordination is understood to be an ordinance rather than a sacrament; ministers and elders are ordained; until recently deacons were "commissioned" but now they too are ordained to their office in the Church of Scotland.
Susan Marjory Brown is a Scottish Presbyterian minister. She is the minister at Dornoch Cathedral and Honorary Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland. She was the first woman to take charge of a cathedral in the United Kingdom.
Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) was a national ecumenical organisation of churches in Scotland, founded in 1990. It ran until 2022.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body. It generally meets each year and is chaired by a Moderator elected at the start of the Assembly.
A Church of Scotland congregation is led by its minister and elders. Both of these terms are also used in other Christian denominations: see Minister (Christianity) and Elder (Christianity). This article discusses the specific understanding of their roles and functions in the Scottish Church.
Jennings Ligon Duncan III is an American Presbyterian scholar and pastor. He is Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary.
The Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711 or Patronage Act is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The long title of the act is An Act to restore the Patrons to their ancient Rights of presenting Ministers to the Churches vacant in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland. Its purpose was to allow the noble and other Patrons in Scotland to gain control over the Church of Scotland parish churches again, having lost that custom in the Glorious Revolution.
Norman Shanks is an ordained Church of Scotland minister, who prior to his retirement in June 2007 was minister of Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow. He is married to Ruth, and has a daughter and two sons, and seven grandchildren.
Finlay A. J. Macdonald is a retired minister of the Church of Scotland. He was Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1996 until 2010. In addition to his rapid rise up the ranks of the Church of Scotland, Macdonald is known for fostering co-operation between the various boards and committees which administer the Church and for steering the Church smoothly through its annual business meetings.
William Currie Hewitt is a minister of the Church of Scotland and is a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (2009–2010).
Robert Liston was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1787/88.
Neil Campbell was a Scottish minister, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at the start of the Original Secession and Principal of Glasgow University during a flourishing period of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Albert Orr Bogle is a minister of the Church of Scotland. On 25 October 2011 he was nominated to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2012-2013; he was duly formally elected as Moderator on 19 May 2012 - the first day of the General Assembly's week-long annual session.
Kenneth Mackenzie was a minister of the Church of Scotland, who served as a foreign missionary in Central Africa, and was later a founder of the anti-apartheid movement within Scotland.
Elizabeth Lorna Hood, is a minister of the Church of Scotland. From 1979 to 2016, she was the minister of North Parish Church, Renfrew. From 2013 to 2014, she also served as Moderator of its General Assembly. She is an Extra Chaplain to the King in Scotland, appointed in September 2023.
Angus Morrison, is a minister of the Church of Scotland who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2015–2016. He had been nominated for the role a year earlier but withdrew because of ill health. He is an Extra Chaplain to the King in Scotland, appointed in 2023.
Stephen Smyth FMS is a Marist Brother from Scotland. Between 2007 and 2014 he served as General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland; the first Roman Catholic to hold this post. He retired in 2014 and was succeeded by the Rev Matthew Ross.
Derek Browning is a minister of the Church of Scotland, who was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from May 2017 to May 2018