Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 14, 2011

The Church of Scotland, (Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais na h-Alba) known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation. The Church traces its roots back to the beginnings of Christianity in Scotland, but its identity is principally shaped by the Reformation of 1560. Its current pledged membership is about 9% of the Scottish population—though according to the 2001 national census, 42% of the Scottish population claim some form of allegiance to it (see Religion in Scotland).

Although connected with early Christians in Scotland, its current identity was fundamentally shaped by the Scottish Reformation of 1560. At that point, the church in Scotland broke with Rome, in 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 Geneva, 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, amongst other things, that all of the assets of the old church should pass to the new.