Church of Scotland celebrates 450th anniversary

    “If you think this is dreaming an impossible dream then let me say this, the
Scottish Reformation began with John Knox in Perth and it circled the
globe,” said Christie. He spoke at a service in Edinburgh on May 23 attended
by more than 1,200 people to mark the 450th anniversary of the Scottish
Reformation in 1560.
    Knox was one of the 16th century founders of the Presbyterian church in
Scotland, having worked alongside Reformation leader Jean Calvin in Geneva.
    Christie  noted, “The world of 2010 does not need or want a divided church;
divided within itself it cannot stand. It is time for the 21st century church to
affirm that which unites us.” Christie referred to the “blinkered eye of
tradition or the earplugs of sectarianism” that prevented Christians being
one.
    Also speaking was the presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alex
Ferguson. He read out the account of the Scottish Parliament of August 1560 that
approved the Scots Confession, a statement of Christian faith as understood by the
followers of Calvin. Jane Dawson, the professor of Reformation History at Edinburgh
University’s School of Divinity, spoke about the origins of the Reformation, and local actor
John Shedden, dressed as Knox, read extracts from the reformer’s account of the martyrdom
of George Wishart and the Scots Confession.
    Music and songs were provided by pupils from Hyndland Secondary School in
Glasgow, where Christie had previously been chaplain,
    Stuart Wilson, the communications’ head of the Church of Scotland told
ENI that the service was attended by the Rev. Joseph Toal, the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, who read an extract from the Gospel
of St John, said to be Knox’s favorite piece of Scripture.
    A week earlier, Scottish historian and Edinburgh University professor Tom
Devine and  journalist Harry Reid  had asserted that there had been a “scandalous” neglect
of the events of 1560 by the Scottish Government and the Church of Scotland.
    The May 23 service came three days before the end of the 2010 general
assembly of the Church of Scotland.
    The Kirk, as the Church of Scotland is known locally, is Scotland’s largest
denomination, and it works closely alongside Roman Catholics, who make up
the second biggest Christian tradition, in tacking the country’s economic
and social problems.