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Operating under the Unitary Constitution |
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What on earth is the Unitary Constitution, you may ask? It is a form of structure for the leadership of a Church of Scotland. For many years St Andrew's Parish Church operated under what was called the Model Deed, meaning that the work of the church was split into the spiritual and temporal with the Kirk Session having responsibility for the former and the Congregational Board for the latter. While this worked well for many years, with the adoption of seven Action Groups to which much decision making was devolved, it was found that there was often unnecessary duplication of decisions and meetings between the Congregational Board and Action Groups. In 2006 the congregation voted to move to the Unitary Constitution. While this returns oversight of all matters both spiritual and temporal to the Kirk Session, this is balanced by the decision making powers that have been passed to the members of the Action Groups, which comprise both elders and church members. 
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The Kirk Session at St Andrew's, like all Church of Scotland churches, is made up of elders and the minister. The elders are members of the church who have been ordained into this leadership role. |
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The Coordinating Group is a group made up of the convenors of the various Action Groups, the minister, session clerk and depute clerk. The purpose of this group is simply to coordinate the work happening between the different Action Groups and to allow opportunity for the convenors of each Action Group to share information without taking up valuable time in the Kirk Session meetings. |
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 It is in the Action Groups that most of the planning work of St Andrew's takes place. Inspired by our Purpose Statement, each aspect of that purpose, plus the areas of finance and property, are covered by an Action Group.
Each Action Group is made up of elders and church members and has been delegated certain responsibilities by the Kirk Session. Find out more about each Action Group. |
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