A fact from Arnold Spencer-Smith appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 23 November 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the wallet of Scottish curate Arnold Spencer-Smith was found in Captain Scott's Antarctic hut in 1999, about 83 years after Spencer-Smith died in 1916?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Antarctica, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Antarctica on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AntarcticaWikipedia:WikiProject AntarcticaTemplate:WikiProject AntarcticaAntarctica articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject British Overseas Territories, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of British Overseas Territories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.British Overseas TerritoriesWikipedia:WikiProject British Overseas TerritoriesTemplate:WikiProject British Overseas TerritoriesBritish Overseas Territories articles
The paragraph under the heading "Biography" on this page states that Arnold Spencer-Smith was ordained a "deacon into the Church of Scotland in 1910, subsequently being appointed Curate of All Saints, Edinburgh". This would seem to be inaccurate, as while the Church of Scotland, a part of the Protestant Reformed tradition does ordain deacons, it does not ordain "Priests". The office called in some traditions "Priest", is in the Reformed tradition termed "Minister", or sometimes "Teaching Elder". Most likely Spencer-Smith was a ordained into the Scottish Episcopal Church, a part of the Anglican communion, where he would have been known as a Priest. Noel Stoutenburg 0100 GMT 24 November, 2007. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ÞorsHammer (talk • contribs) 00:58, 24 November 2007 (UTC) .... have a look at the sources and then change it if you have evidence,,, be BOLD! Victuallers (talk) 13:49, 24 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
RESPONSE
It seems most likely that S-S was indeed ordained into the Scottish Episcopal Church, not the Church of Scotland. Tyler-Lewis refers to the "Anglican Church of Scotland" and the www.heritage-antarctica.org website refers to ordination "in Edinburgh Cathedral" (presumably St Giles). Short of absolute confirmation I have amended the biographic details on balance of probability.