Religion: Bishops in the Kirk?

Presbyterianism is no religion for a gentleman.

—Charles II in 1660 The word "bishop" in Scotland is not a nice word.

—The Rev. Thomas F. Torrance, Church of Scotland, in 1957

The last time a pastor tried to practice the Anglican ritual in a Church of Scotland kirk, a stout-armed Presbyterian shopwoman named Jenny Geddes hefted the stool she was sitting on and threw it at his head. That was in 1637, in St. Giles Church. Edinburgh. This week the Church of Scotland's General Assembly sat down in Edinburgh to thresh out a proposal that has...

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