wfn.org | Scottish Protestants Look to Uniting Their Churches

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

29-Feb-96

96080     Scottish Protestants Look to Uniting Their Churches 
 
                 by Ecumenical News International 
 
EDINBURGH, Scotland--Scotland's major Protestant churches have taken a 
major step on the path to church union. 
 
     Representatives of the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal 
Church, the Scottish Congregational Church, the United Reformed Church, and 
the Methodist Synod in Scotland have held their first meeting in a series 
intended to draw up a plan to unite their churches.  (The Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) is formally related to the Church of Scotland.) 
 
     According to a statement released by the Scottish Episcopal Church, 
"the goal of these discussions is to present to the participating churches 
at their synods and assemblies in 1998 a draft proposal for a plan for 
union.  The draft proposal will give the churches a chance to react to the 
ideas and to say where to go from there." 
 
     The statement said that a decision in June 1994 by the Scottish 
Episcopal Church to ordain women meant that "doctrinal issues have now been 
cleared to a point where there is not really any doctrinal obstruction to 
union." 
 
     The next meeting about the plan will take place on April 19, 1996. 

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