Origins of Christianity in Scotland The fifth-century
Saint Ninian conducted the first Christian mission to what is now southern Scotland. In 563 AD,
Saint Columba travelled to Scotland with twelve companions, where according to legend he first landed at the southern tip of the
Kintyre peninsula, near
Southend. However, being still in sight of his native land he moved further north along the west coast of Scotland. He was granted land on the island of
Iona off the
Isle of Mull which became the centre of his
evangelising mission to the
Picts. However, there is a sense in which he did not leave his native people, as the Irish
Gaels had been colonising the west coast of Scotland for some time. The Scottish Catholic Church would continue to grow in the centuries that followed, and in the 11th century
Saint Margaret of Scotland (Queen Consort of
Malcolm III of Scotland) strengthened the church's ties with the
Holy See, as did successive monarchs such as Margaret's son,
David, who invited several religious orders to establish
monasteries.
Reformation The
Scottish Reformation was formalised in 1560, when the Church of Scotland broke with the Church of Rome during a process of Protestant reform led, among others, by
John Knox. It reformed its doctrines and government, drawing on the principles of
John Calvin which Knox had been exposed to while living in
Switzerland. In 1560, the Scottish Parliament abolished papal jurisdiction and approved Calvin's Confession of Faith, but did not accept many of the principles laid out in Knox's
First Book of Discipline, which argued, among other things, that all of the assets of the old church should pass to the new. The 1560 Reformation Settlement was not ratified by the crown for some years, and the question of
church government also remained largely unresolved. In 1572 the acts of 1560 were finally approved by the young
James VI, but under pressure from many of the nobles the Concordat of Leith also allowed the crown to appoint bishops with the church's approval. John Knox himself had no clear views on the office of bishop, preferring to see them renamed as "superintendents"; but in response to the new Concordat a Presbyterian party emerged headed by
Andrew Melville, the author of the
Second Book of Discipline. The Scottish Episcopal Church began as a distinct church in 1582, when the
Church of Scotland rejected episcopal government (by bishops) and adopted a
presbyterian government by elders as well as
reformed theology. Scottish monarchs made repeated efforts to introduce bishops and two ecclesiastical traditions competed.
Episcopal government imposed by the Stuarts , In 1584,
James VI of Scotland had the
Parliament of Scotland pass the
Black Acts, appointing two bishops and administering the Church of Scotland under direct royal control. This met vigorous opposition and he was forced to concede that the General Assembly should continue to run the church. Calvinists who disliked the more ceremonious style of liturgy were opposed by an Episcopalian faction. After ascending to the English throne in 1603 James stopped the General Assembly from meeting, increased the number of Scottish bishops and in 1618 held a General Assembly in
Perth; this gathering adopted
Five Articles of Episcopalian practices. Many Scottish church leaders, and their congregations, responded to the Five Articles with boycotts and disdain. James's son
Charles I was crowned in
Holyrood Abbey,
Edinburgh, in 1633 with full
Anglican rites. Subsequently, in 1637, Charles attempted to introduce a
Scottish version of the
Book of Common Prayer, written by a group of Scottish prelates, most notably the
Archbishop of St Andrews,
John Spottiswoode, and the
Bishop of Ross,
John Maxwell, and edited for printing by the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
William Laud; it was a combination of Knox's
Book of Common Order, which was in use before 1637, and English liturgy in hopes of further unifying the (Anglican) Church of England and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland. When the revised
Book of Common Prayer was used for the first time during worship on 23 July 1637 in St Giles' Edinburgh, it
sparked a riot which was so representative of the strength of popular feeling in Scotland that it indirectly precipitated the
Bishops' Wars and this successful challenge of royal authority helped encourage many unhappy Irish Catholics into partaking in the
Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the already increasingly uncooperative
English Parliament into likewise declaring war on the king in the
English Civil War. As a result of the weakness of the king, Presbyterian
Covenanters were able to become the de facto government in Scotland until disagreement between the Scottish and English Parliaments over how to run Britain in terms of both civil and religious governance after the king was defeated led to another war and Scotland's conquest by the Covenanters' erstwhile allies the English Parliament's
New Model Army. Following the
Restoration of the monarch in 1660, the government of
Charles II reimposed episcopacy, and required all clergymen to swear allegiance to the king and bishops and renounce the Covenants, or be prevented from preaching in church. Up to a third, at least 27%, of the ministry refused, mostly in the south-west of Scotland, and numerous ministers also took to preaching in the open fields in
conventicles across the south of Scotland, often attracting thousands of worshippers. This was forcibly repressed by the government, in actions later dubbed
The Killing Time. The conflict continued under
King James VII of Scotland (also James II of England) until the
Glorious Revolution led to his removal from power. With the 1689 refusal of the Scottish bishops to swear allegiance to
William of Orange whilst James VII lived and had not abdicated, the Presbyterian polity was finally re-established in the Church of Scotland. However, the
Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1690 (April c. 7) allowed Episcopalian incumbents, upon taking the
Oath of Allegiance, to retain their benefices, though excluding them from any share in the government of the Church of Scotland without a further declaration of
Presbyterian principles. Many "
non-jurors" also succeeded for a time in retaining the use of the parish churches. In 1900 the church had 356 congregations, with a total membership of 124,335 and 324 working clergy. In 1995, the Scottish Episcopal Church began working through a process known as
Mission 21. Canon Alice Mann of the Alban Institute was invited to begin developing a missionary emphasis within the congregations of the church throughout Scotland. This led to the development of the
Making Your Church More Inviting programme which has now been completed by many congregations. In addition to working on making churches more inviting,
Mission 21 emphasises reaching out to new populations which have previously not been contacted by the church. As
Mission 21 has developed, changing patterns of ministry have become part of its remit. In 1633 Charles I remodelled
Holyrood Abbey as a
Chapel Royal, and held his
coronation there with full Episcopalian rites. In this year he also founded the
See of Edinburgh and appointed William Forbes as first Bishop of Edinburgh in the following year. He also appointed
John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray as the first, and last, Episcopalian
Royal Almoner of Scotland. The Abbey was lost to its Protestant congregation as part of the events of the
Glorious Revolution and eventually ruined. The Lord Bishop of Edinburgh and Anglican congregation were also evicted from
St Giles' Cathedral following the Prayer Book riots in 1637. The office of Royal Almoner was made largely honorific then effectively secular, and by 1835 had merged into the responsibilities of the
King's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer. The current headquarters (the Scottish Episcopal Church General Synod Office) of the Scottish Episcopal Church is Forbes House, number 21 Grosvenor Crescent in the
West End of Edinburgh. The primus does not have any metropolitan jurisdiction. Metropolitan responsibilities are held by the diocesan bishops. The last head of the Scottish Episcopal Church to hold both primate and metropolitan titles was Arthur Rose, Archbishop of St Andrews, up to his death in 1704. The last bishop to exercise metropolitan authority was Alexander Rose, Bishop of Edinburgh, up to his death in 1720.
21st century In terms of official membership, Episcopalians constitute well under 1 per cent of the population of Scotland, making them considerably smaller than the Church of Scotland. In 2012 the church had 310 parishes with an adult membership of 34,916 and communicant numbers some 10,000 fewer at 24,650. As with other churches in Scotland, attendance has declined over recent years: the overall figures reflect rises in some dioceses and decline in others, but amount to an overall fall in attendance of 15 per cent between 2007 and 2012. and in almost identical language it was reported in 2018 that the church faced "continuing decline in members and attendance". By the end of 2020 numbers had fallen further to 27,600 (membership) and 19,800 (communicants). No meaningful attendance figures could be produced due to the legal restrictions on church attendance introduced in response to
COVID-19. By 2021 membership had fallen by a further 32% from 2012 levels, to just over 24,000. Modelling suggests that if the decline in membership continues at its current rate, which it has done since the 1920s, the Scottish Episcopal Church will be extinct by around 2045. However, the denomination may survive beyond that date, due to a small number of more vibrant congregations. In the 2024 statistics, 11 SEC congregations, out of 275, had over 100 people in regular attendance. Meanwhile, 49 congregations recorded 10 or fewer in attendance. The average congregation size was 35. Following the vote, a number of individual congregations began to leave the church, although they have been obliged to leave their buildings and funds behind them. In November 2017 a high-profile female supporter of same-sex marriage,
Anne Dyer was appointed Bishop of the theologically traditionalist Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney by the other bishops, rather than elected as usual. (This was because the diocese had twice been unable to produce the minimum number of candidates for an election.) Although the appointment drew protests, which the primus attacked as "subversion", Dyer was nevertheless consecrated in March 2018. A number of clergy subsequently resigned, and in January 2019 the
Westhill Community Church in Aberdeen voted to leave the SEC. The
Scottish Episcopal Institute, a theological college for the whole of the Scottish Episcopal Church, was founded in 2015. It provides training for both lay ministers and ordained clergy. ==Structure==