4 May 2026

In  the Acts of the Apostles, which was written in the first century, there is an election taking place.  A new office is being created within the Church – the diaconate and the whole community is entrusted with the election of seven men to take responsibility for practical matters like the fairer distribution of food.

The task is not entrusted to individuals like Peter or even the disciples but to the whole community. There is no monarch, archbishop, duke or laird assuming the right to elect the seven deacons. It is the whole community of those who were followers of Jesus.

And in this tiny passage where something new is emerging from the nascent Church, we read that their election is followed by a series of liturgical actions. They stand before the apostles who pray and lay their hands upon them just like our kirk ordinations.

This right of the people to elect ministers within the early Church was eroded by the time of the Reformation. John Knox considered election so important that  his ordination liturgy is described as ‘The Forme and Ordour of the Electioun of the Superintendents’ adding ‘Quhilk may serve also in Electioun of all uther Ministers.’

The right of the whole community to elect their minister was reinstated in 1560. As it says in the ‘First Book of Discipline’, ‘This libertie with all care must be reserved to every severall church, to have their votes and suffrages in election of their ministers.’

It wasn’t long before people with power and influence were able to interfere with this democratic principle. Three secessions followed including the great Disruption (1843).   The Kirk was not able to detach itself from patronage until 1871, only a generation after the  Disruption. What a painful legacy it has left us today. Why didn't we keep our eye on the Word of God? (Acts 6;1-7)