Title page of the 1929 Scottish Prayer Book, described as "the pinnacle of achievement in the best of Anglican liturgical work"
Throughout the century the number of congregations in the Church remained steady at around 320, with some closing and others being opened.
Several major initiatives were undertaken to enable the Church to move into new areas - the Million Shilling Fund, begun in 1914, built six new churches around Glasgow; the Home Mission Appeal, in the late 1920s, built ten churches in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Brechin and Saint Andrews dioceses; the Home Mission Crusade, begun in 1944, produced five churches in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Million for Mission, between 1991 and 1996, inaugurated work in areas of deprivation.
The other great developments of the century included liturgical reform, the establishment of the General Synod, the development of self-supporting and women's ministries and the launch of Mission 21.
Liturgy
Ever since the Reformation there had been a Prayer Book in Scotland - the English Book of 1552, the Book of Common Order of 1562, the Prayer Book of 1637, the Scottish Communion Office of 1764, the 1912 Book of Common Prayer (Scotland) and in 1929 the Scottish Prayer Book, which was overseen by Bishop Arthur John MacLean of Moray. His biographer described the book as "the pinnacle of achievement in the best of Anglican liturgical work".
In 1966 the first of the 'Grey Book' liturgies appeared (grey because the printer had an excess of grey card available) to be followed by a second in 1970. The Experimental Liturgy of 1977 (known by the colour of its cover as 'The Orange Book', was the first modern language liturgy of the century and appeared in 1977, to be followed by 'The Blue Book' in 1982.
Alongside work on the Communion Office there was a parallel development of non-Eucharistic services - The Ordinal (authorised in 1984), the Funeral Service (1992), the Administration of the Reserved Sacrament (1992), Daily Prayer (1993 and 1994), and, currently, rites of Christian Initiation. See Liturgy for details on all Scottish Episcopal Church liturgies.
The General Synod
The Synod replaced the Provincial Synod and the Representative Church Council in 1982 - its membership consisting of the House of Bishops, a House of Clergy (76 drawn from across the dioceses) and a House of Laity (again 76 from across the dioceses). In addition the Conveners of the principal Boards and Committees and the Principal of the Theological Institute are members of the Synod.
A scene from the 2006 General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Responsible to the Synod are a Standing Committee, which reviews and plans the Synod's business throughout the year, and five Boards - Mission, Faith and Order, Administration, Information and Communication, and Ministry.
The change from Provincial Synod and Representative Church Council to General Synod was mirrored in each Diocese as the (clergy-only) Diocesan Synod and the Diocesan Council merged their responsibilities and formed new Diocesan Synods.
Ministry
Across the Anglican world during the first half of the twentieth century there was discussion on ways of extending the ministry beyond the full-time and stipendiary. The Lambeth Conferences of 1958 and 1968 affirmed that no theological principle was involved and recommended a wider understanding of ministry.
In 1952 and 1954 the Scottish Bishops declared that they had no objection to ordaining those who were in full-time work, but it was not until 1973 that Regulations were produced and enabled the first ordinations of non-stipendiary clergy to take place later in the year.
A selection policy was agreed but each diocese was left to produce its own pattern of training within agreed guidelines. This continued until 1994, when the Theological Institute took over responsibility and all students (for both stipendiary and self-supporting ministry) followed a Provincial Curriculum. The Institute broke new ground and instead of students being trained in the residential setting of Coates Hall the majority continued to live and work in their own communities and train on a part-time basis in regional centres.
The importance of the laity in ministry began to be increasingly recognised. The office of Lay Reader had been introduced in the nineteenth century and in 1982 Elders were commissioned in some congregations in the Aberdeen diocese to assist in the pastoral and spiritual care of the people. As the century moved to its close new initiatives in collaborative and local ministries began to be explored and implemented, giving new hope and imaginative ideas, particularly for small and rural congregations.
Women's Ministry
The Code of Canons in 1929 recognised the office of Deaconess, although (as in the rest of the Anglican Communion) it was made clear that Deaconesses were not in Holy Orders. The Lambeth Conference in 1968 recommended that Deaconesses should be part of the diaconate but it was not until 1981 that the matter was formally discussed by the Provincial Synod.
The motion that the diaconate be opened to women did not gain a sufficient majority among the Bishops (although it did among the other members of the Synod) and therefore failed. Four years later the General Synod had replaced the Provincial Synod and a motion from the Diocese of Glasgow was passed. It received Canonical assent at the Synod of 1985 and the first women deacons were ordained later in the year.
The first women priests in the Anglican Communion were ordained in Hong Kong - as part of war-time necessity - in 1944. During the 1960s and 1970s there was a movement in many countries across the world towards the ordination of women as priests. In 1974 there was an irregular ordination of 11 women in the United States and the American Church authorised women's priestly ordination two years later.
In 1993 and 1994 the Scottish Synod agreed to allow women to be ordained as priests and the first ordinations took place in December 1994. The ordination of women Bishops was approved in principle by the Synod of 2002, although no female bishop has yet been appointed.
Mission 21
In 1995 Canon Alice Mann of the Alban Institute in the United States came to Dunblane, at the invitation of the Primus, the Most Reverend Richard Holloway, and Mission 21 began.
Its aim was to enable the Scottish Episcopal Church to believe in its ability to make new choices and confidently welcome people into its membership. The hope was that the vitality of congregations would be renewed by reversing the demoralisation caused by declining membership, the frustration emanating from theological differences and the inertia resulting from unimaginative thinking and action at all levels of the Church.
By the year 2000 eighty congregations, led by 40 trained facilitators, had undertaken a study course on 'Making Your Church More Inviting' and six churches were involved in a size transition programme. A consultation on the way forward for small healthy congregations had been undertaken and part-time Mission 21 co-ordinators had been appointed in four dioceses.
