No. 1.-Certificate of Death of Minister. I, Clerk of the Free Church Presbytery of certify that the Reverend of day of within the said Presbytery, died on the In testimony whereof, I have subscribed this Certificate at years. Eighteen hundred and (Signed) do hereby Minister years. day of P. C. When there is no Presbytery Clerk, or when he is absent or unwell, a Certificate by the Minister of the Congregation next adjacent will suffice. A form of the Certificate, in this case, will be furnished by the Treasurer of the Fund, on applying to him and explaining the cause of a Certificate by the Presbytery Clerk not being forthcoming. At No. 2.-Certificate of Existence of Widow. the thousand eight hundred and Maiden Name) Widow of Minister of the Congregation of of Parish of before me,2 the said within the Presbytery did compear and declared that she has continued a Widow since the death of the said her husband. I therefore hereby certify that is alive, and, to the best of my knowledge, has remained unmarried since the death of her said husband. In testimony whereof, I have subscribed this Certificate, place and date aforesaid. 3 1 The Annuities are payable half-yearly, on 15th May and 11th November, and the Certificate must be dated on or after that day. If the Certificate is dated on 15th May or 11th November, it must be expressed thus:-'At the fifteenth day of May (or eleventh November, as the case may be) One thousand eight hundred and years, after twelve o'clock noon, which day, etc., as above. The Certificate may be granted either by a Minister or a Justice of the Peace. If by a Minister, this blank should be filled up thus: The Minister of and if by a Justice of the Peace, the blank will be filled up thus:-'One of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County (or City as the case may be) of The Minister or Justice of Peace will sign here. At No. 3.-Certificate of Existence of Children. FREE CHURCH MINISTERS' WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS' FUND. the thousand eight hundred and 1 As in the case of the Certificate No. 2, on preceding page, if the Certificate is dated on 15th May or 11th November, it must be expressed thus:-' At the fifteenth day of May (or eleventh day of November, as the case may be) One thousand eight hundred and o'clock noon, I,' etc., as above. years, after twelve 2 See Note No. 2, on preceding page, which applies here also. If the Widow of the Minister shall have died during the preceding half-year, here add:-' And I further certify that (Insert Maiden Name) of the said died on the The Minister or Justice of Peace will sign here. Widow day Free Church of Scotland. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ON UNION WITH OTHER CHURCHES. MAY 1867. In their Report of last year, the Union Committee presented a summary of their whole proceedings since the date of their first appointment in 1863. After referring to the various documents of authority in the several Churches now negotiating on the subject of Union, which their respective Committees had interchanged, and to the programme which those Committees had jointly drawn up of the matters which appeared to require consideration in the view of following out the great object of their appointment, the summary in question set forth the results of their inquiries regarding the various important subjects which the programme embraced. In order to place these results fully before the Assembly, a large Appendix was added to their Report, containing a series of minutes, extending from 1st March 1864 to 21st March 1866, and embodying the whole findings in regard to the several heads of the programme, at which the Joint Committee had arrived. In reference to these findings, the Free Church Committee, in their Report to last Assembly, further stated it to have been their purpose, in conjunction with the Committees of the other Churches concerned, to reconsider the whole of their findings, in order that, as regards all matters in which they are really agreed, their agreement might, if possible, be made more fully manifest, and that as regards those particulars as to which there might be some difference of view, the real nature and extent of that difference might be exactly ascertained. Time, however, for carrying out this contemplated revision having failed, the findings were sent up to the Assembly unchanged; an arrangement which the A Committee had become the more willing to adopt, because of its affording an opportunity of giving to all the negotiating Churches the earliest information as to the exact state of the Union movement, and of obtaining from the Courts of these Churches suggestions which it would be most desirable that the Committee should have in their possession before finally adjusting the findings at which they had arrived. The Free Church Committee, accordingly, in their Report of last year, respectfully recommended to the Assembly to take the necessary steps to bring the findings of the Joint-Committee, as they then stood, under the notice of the Presbyteries of the Church. In making this proposal, the Committee were careful to explain, that what they wished to have from the Presbyteries, was not any judgment on the Union question, or even any decisive opinion as to the bearing on that question of either the agreements or differences which the inquiries of the Committee might appear to have so far elicited,-the proper occasion and opportunity for pronouncing any such deliverance having obviously not then arrived. That alone which the Committee sought to obtain was suggestions ' with a view of rendering their inquiries and their final Report more complete.' Having received and considered their Report, the Assembly directed its clerks to transmit the Report to all the Presbyteries of the Churches for their information, and in order that the said Presbyteries, if they should see cause, might communicate to the Union Committee such suggestions, with reference to the inquiries which the Committee are now prosecuting, as might seem to the Presbyteries to be expedient and necessary. The same course having been followed by the other Union Committees in reporting to the Supreme Courts of their several Churches, similar steps were taken by all of these Courts, and numerous suggestions have in consequence been received by all the Committees. Copies of the documents in which these suggestions are contained are laid on the table of the Assembly along with the present Report. The fact, that under the foregoing remit from the General Assembly, no fewer than sixty-seven Presbyteries have sent up suggestions, cannot but be regarded as a gratifying proof of the deep interest which is taken in this great subject of Union all over the length and breadth of the Church. In the document (See Appendix) in which these suggestions are printed, the Committee have endeavoured to present, along with them, such a vidimus or summary as may suffice to indicate their general character, and the heads of the programme to which they chiefly relate. From the nature of the case, however, this could be done only in a general and somewhat imperfect way. It is only by looking at the suggestions in detail, that their precise import and object can be ascertained. The heads of the programme regarding which much the greatest number of Presbyteries have transmitted suggestions, are the First, viz., that which has respect to the province of the civil magistrate in relation to religion and the Christian Church,' to which reference is made by fifty-nine Presbyteries; the Second, viz., that which has relation to any other matter of doctrine about which explanations on either side may seem to be called for,' to which reference is made by fifty-two Presbyteries; the Sixth, viz., that which has respect to education and Government grants,' to which reference is made by thirty-seven Presbyteries; and the Seventh, viz., that which has respect to Finance and Church property, including such matters as the Free Church Sustentation Fund,' etc., to which reference is made by sixty-two Presbyteries. The heads of the programme, in regard to which suggestions are less numerous, are the Fifth, viz., that which has respect to the law and practice of the Churches as to public worship,' to which reference is made by twenty-one Presbyteries; the Ninth, viz., that which has respect to the relation of the Churches, if united, to ministers and congregations beyond the limits of Scotland,' to which reference is made by twenty-one Presbyteries; the Eleventh, viz., that which has respect to the relation of the United Church in its component parts, to the past ecclesiastical history of this country,' etc., to which reference is made by nine Presbyteries; and the Fourth, viz., that which has respect to the election of office-bearers, constitution of the Church Courts,' etc., to which reference is made by one Presbytery. Regarding the Third, Eighth, and Tenth heads of the programme, there are no suggestions offered by any of the Presbyteries. These Presbyterial returns the Committee have regarded as indicating more or less explicitly the views which the Presbyteries entertain partly as to the relative importance of the several heads of inquiry which the programme embraces, considered in themselves, and partly as to the relative need which seems to the Presbyteries to exist, for more fully bringing out the mind of the negotiating Churches respecting the matters to which these heads of inquiry re As has been already stated, however, it is only by looking into the suggestions in detail, that they can be rightly estimated or understood. The Committee are fully satisfied, from the tenor of the prefatory statements with which most of the suggestions are introduced, as well as from the friendly tone by which the suggestions themselves are pervaded, that they have all been made in the real interests of Union, and with a sincere desire to promote that great object in harmony with the instructions of the General Assembly. By the remit of last Assembly, the suggestions of the Presbyteries were required to be sent to the Committee on or before the 20th of December 1866.' |