The Scottish Congregational Church was inaugurated in 1993, linking the three independent elements of the Congreg family in Scotland (the Scottish Congregational College, the Women’s Union, and the Congregational Union) in a “Voluntary Church,” i.e.,a covenant body in which the three partners would submerge their independent interests and work as one body, while retaining their separate constitutionalidentities for legal purposes. The reform scheme also involved replacing all the traditional committees with a simplified threefold structure of mission- driven relationships, comprising mission, pastoral, and educational groups, in every congregation, in area councils (regional groupings of churches), and at the national level. The reform has already proved an outstanding success in renewing concern for mission at the local level.
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