COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 26 April 1977)

§ Lord KIRKHILL
My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 24. 398 This Amendment removes the word "Established" inserted before "Church of Scotland" as a result of the Amendment by the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, which was approved by your Lordships' House. The word does not appear in the Church of Scotland Act 1921, which dealt with the constitution of the Church, and when the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland were united in 1929 the name of the united Church was declared to be "The Church of Scotland". As "Established" is not part of the title of the Church of Scotland—and it is the title which is being quoted in line 9—it seems right that the word should be removed. Representatives of the Church of Scotland have indicated their agreement with the Amendment, and as the principle underlying the Amendment by the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord MacLeod of Fuinary—namely, the inclusion of a specific reference to the Church of Scotland—has been embodied in the Bill, I hope that your Lordships will not insist on the inclusion of this particular word.

Lord CAMPBELL of CROY
My Lords, first of all, I and, I am sure, my noble friends and noble Lords in other parts of the House who felt the same way when the Bill was previously before us, will be glad that neither the Government nor another place sought to change the decision which your Lordships made as a result of a Division about including the name of the Church of Scotland in the Bill. I understand this Amendment to be a drafting Amendment, as the noble Lord has explained. I also understand, as he does, that the Church of Scotland agrees that it is not necessary to have the word "Established" included, and that we do not need so to describe the Church in the Bill.

§ Lord BALERNO
My Lords, on the whole we welcome the omission of the word "Established", because as the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhill, has said, it is not part of the title of the Church. Lest there be any here who think that the omission of the word means that the Church of Scotland is disestablished, for the avoidance of doubt one must say that the Act of 1921 399 was passed in order to make possible the union between the Church of Scotland and the historic Free Churches of Scotland and that when the Act of Union came to be consumated in 1921 the phrase then used was: The Church of Scotland, Established and Free. As I come from the Free Church side of that fusion, I am not sorry to see the omission of the word "Established".