Kirk Session & Its Teams

Carronside Church operates the Church of Scotland's Unitary Constitution. This means that the Kirk Session is responsible for all matters, both spiritual and temporal, that affect Carronside Church. The Kirk Session consists of Ruling Elders who have been nominated by the Congregation and Ordained to the post for life. The Minister is the Moderator of the Kirk Session meetings and ensures that the proper procedures of the Church are carried out.

The Kirk Session is the lowest Court of the Church of Scotland, the next higher court is the local Presbytery (in our case Kincardine and Deeside) and the highest Court is the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Kirk Session appoints a Session Clerk and a Treasurer to assist it in managing its affairs. The Clerk and Treasurer need not be members of the Kirk Session under the Unitary Constitution. The Clerk is responsible for preparing the Minutes of Kirk Session meetings, dealing with correspondence and other matters as instructed by the Kirk Session and presenting all the Church Records for Annual Inspection by the Presbytery – the Attestation. The Treasurer is appointed to take care of the financial matters and present the Annual Accounts to the Session.

Carronside Church is a Registered Charity, The Kirk Session members are Trustees of the charity in accordance with the rules of the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator (OSCR).

The one benefit of the Unitary Constitution is the ability to appoint non-Elders to help the various teams with their work. For some areas of expertise, people need not be members of the Church, so if we have a short term requirement for a particular skill, we can seek out this help quickly and efficiently.

The Kirk Session appoints the following Teams to manage the various aspects of its work and we welcome any volunteers with particular interests in:

• Worship
• Finance
• Membership
• Young People
• World Mission
• Communications
• Property and Resources

Safeguarding (Preventing Abuse) is managed by a Panel whose members are appointed by the Kirk Session.

HR issues are managed by the Kirk Session itself.

Meetings of the Kirk Session are open to all members of the Congregation to witness.