1.
Bishops' Conference of Scotland
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The conference is primarily made up of the presiding bishops of Scotlands eight dioceses as well as bishops who have retired. The current president of the conference is Archbishop Philip Tartaglia as of November 2012, the BCOS is organised into several agencies. The Conference is also a member of international organisations including the Council of European Bishops Conferences. Marys College, Blairs, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, St. Peters College, Cardross, Dumbarton, St. Andrews College, Drygrange, Melrose, the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland is a full member of Action of Churches Together in Scotland. The BCOS sends a representative to the Ecumenical Relations Committee of the Church of Scotland and is invited to send a delegate to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
2.
Andrew the Apostle
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Andrew the Apostle, also known as Saint Andrew and called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos or the First-called, was a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name Andrew, like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews, Christians, no Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him. According to Orthodox tradition, the successor to Saint Andrew is the Patriarch of Constantinople. The New Testament states that Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter and he was born in the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. Both he and his brother Peter were fishermen by trade, hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that he make them fishers of men. At the beginning of Jesus public life, they were said to have occupied the house at Capernaum. In the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Mark Simon Peter and these narratives record that Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, observed Simon and Andrew fishing, and called them to discipleship. In the parallel incident in the Gospel of Luke Andrew is not named, the narrative indicates that Simon was not the only fisherman in the boat but it is not until the next chapter that Andrew is named as Simons brother. However, it is understood that Andrew was fishing with Simon on the night in question. Matthew Poole, in his Annotations on the Holy Bible, stressed that Luke denies not that Andrew was there. In contrast, the Gospel of John states that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, whose testimony first led him, Andrew at once recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and hastened to introduce him to his brother. Thenceforth, the two brothers were disciples of Christ, on a subsequent occasion, prior to the final call to the apostolate, they were called to a closer companionship, and then they left all things to follow Jesus. Subsequently, in the gospels, Andrew is referred to as being present on important occasions as one of the disciples more closely attached to Jesus. Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes, Andrew was present at the Last Supper. Andrew was one of the four disciples who came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives to ask about the signs of Jesus return at the end of the age, Eusebius in his church history 3,1 quoted Origen as saying that Andrew preached in Scythia. The Chronicle of Nestor adds that he preached along the Black Sea and the Dnieper river as far as Kiev, hence, he became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania and Russia. According to tradition, he founded the See of Byzantium in AD38, according to Hippolytus of Rome, Andrew preached in Thrace, and his presence in Byzantium is also mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew. Basil of Seleucia also knew of Apostle Andrews missions in Thrace, Scythia and this diocese would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantinople
3.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
4.
Scots language
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Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
5.
Archdiocese of St Andrews
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The Diocese or Archdiocese of St Andrews was a territorial episcopal jurisdiction in early modern and medieval Scotland. Although not an archdiocese until 1472, St Andrews was recognised as the see of the Scottish church from at least the 11th century. The obituary of Túathalán, the abbot in question, constitutes the earliest literary evidence for St Andrews and it is possible that the church was founded during the reign of Óengus I, who had been ruling during this time. It is possible thus that St Andrews was established as a bishopric from the outset, junior to the bishopric of Rosemarkie, which appears originally to have been dedicated to St Peter. The dioceses head, the Bishop of St Andrews, came to be regarded as the cleric of the kingdom of Scotland, ahead of the Bishop of Glasgow, the Bishop of Dunkeld. So now in the ordinary and common speech they are called Escop Alban, the time of Giric, styled as Archbishop in Scottish sources, St Andrews is claimed to be an apostolic see and the second Rome. Despite this, the Scottish see withstood York and Canterbury pressure, delivered through the Pope, requests were made to the papacy for an archbishopric at St Andrews, and although these failed, the Scottish bishoprics were recognised as independent in 1192. It was not though until 1472 that St Andrews became a papally-recognized archbishopric, papal assessors in the late 13th century put the dioceses income at just over 8000 pounds, twice that recorded for the diocese of Glasgow. The diocese was the largest in the medieval Kingdom of Scotland territorially, like many other Scottish dioceses, its territory was fragmented in parts. Detached parishes of the bishoprics of Aberdeen, Dunblane and Dunkeld cut up the diocese, there was also an important episcopal manor at Tyninghame near Dunbar. When it became an archdiocese in 1472, the other 12 Scottish sees became its suffragans, in 1492, however, the diocese of Glasgow became an archbishopric too, taking Dunkeld, Dunblane, Argyll, and Galloway away from St Andrews. Within a few decades Dunkeld and Dunblane were back under St Andrews, by 1300232 parish churches are known for the diocese. It was divided into two archdeaconries, both divided into provincial deaneries, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh
6.
Scotland in the High Middle Ages
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At the close of the ninth century, various competing kingdoms occupied the territory of modern Scotland. From its base in the east, this kingdom acquired control of the lying to the south and ultimately the west. It had a culture, comprising part of the larger Gaelic-speaking world. After the twelfth-century reign of King David I, the Scottish monarchs are better described as Scoto-Norman than Gaelic, a consequence was the spread of French institutions and social values including Canon law. The first towns, called burghs, appeared in the same era and these developments were offset by the acquisition of the Norse-Gaelic west and the Gaelicisation of many of the noble families of French and Anglo-French origin. National cohesion was fostered with the creation of various unique religious, by the end of the period, Scotland experienced a Gaelic revival, which created an integrated Scottish national identity. By this date, the Kingdom of Scotland had political boundaries that closely resembled those of the modern nation, Scotland in the High Middle Ages is a relatively well-studied topic and Scottish medievalists have produced a wide variety of publications. Some, such as David Dumville, Thomas Owen Clancy and Dauvit Broun, are interested in the native cultures of the country. Barrow, are concerned with the Norman and Scoto-Norman cultures introduced to Scotland after the eleventh century, for much of the twentieth century, historians tended to stress the cultural change that took place in Scotland during this time. However, scholars such as Cynthia Neville and Richard Oram, while not ignoring cultural changes, argue that continuity with the Gaelic past was just as, if not more, important. Since the publication of Scandinavian Scotland by Barbara E. Crawford in 1987, the sources for information about the Hebrides and indeed much of northern Scotland from the eighth to the eleventh century, are thus almost exclusively Irish, English or Norse. The main Norse texts were written in the thirteenth century. At the close of the ninth century various polities occupied Scotland, the Pictish and Gaelic Kingdom of Alba had just been united in the east, the Scandinavian-influenced Kingdom of the Isles emerged in the west. Dumbarton, the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde had been sacked by the Uí Ímair in 870 and this was clearly a major assault, which may have brought the whole of mainland Scotland under temporary Uí Imair control. The south-east had been absorbed by the English Kingdom of Bernicia/Northumbria in the seventh century, Galloway in the south west was a Lordship with some regality. In a Galwegian charter dated to the reign of Fergus, the Galwegian ruler styled himself rex Galwitensium, in the north east the ruler of Moray was called not only king in both Scandinavian and Irish sources, but before Máel Snechtai, King of Alba. However, when Domnall mac Causantín died at Dunnottar in 900, he was the first man to be recorded as rí Alban and his kingdom was the nucleus that would expand as Viking and other influences waned. In the tenth century the Alban elite had begun to develop a conquest myth to explain their increasing Gaelicisation at the expense of Pictish culture, known as MacAlpins Treason, it describes how Cináed mac Ailpín is supposed to have annihilated the Picts in one fell takeover
7.
St Andrews
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St Andrews is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland,10 miles southeast of Dundee and 30 miles northeast of Edinburgh. The town is home to the University of St Andrews, the third oldest university in the English-speaking world, according to some rankings, it is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom, behind Oxbridge. The University is an part of the burgh and during term time students make up approximately one third of the towns population. St Andrews has a population of 16,800, the town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle. There has been an important church in St Andrews since at least the 8th century, the settlement grew to the west of St Andrews cathedral with the southern side of the Scores to the north and the Kinness burn to the south. The burgh soon became the capital of Scotland, a position which was held until the Scottish Reformation. The famous cathedral, the largest in Scotland, now lies in ruins, St Andrews is also known worldwide as the home of golf. Visitors travel to St Andrews in great numbers for several courses ranked amongst the finest in the world, as well as for the sandy beaches. The Martyrs Memorial, erected to the honour of Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart, the civil parish has a population of 18,421. The earliest recorded name the area is Muckross, after the founding of a religious settlement in Muckross in around 370 AD, the name changed to Cennrígmonaid. This is Old Gaelic and composed of the elements cenn, ríg and this became Cell Rígmonaid and was anglicised Kilrymont. The modern Gaelic spelling is Cill Rìmhinn, the name St Andrews derives from the towns claim to be the resting place of bones of the apostle Andrew. According to legend, St Regulus brought the relics to Kilrymont and this is the origin of a third name for the town Kilrule. The first inhabitants who settled on the fringes of the rivers Tay. This was followed by the people who settled around the modern town around 4,500 BC as farmers clearing the area of woodland. In AD877, king Causantín mac Cináeda built a new church for the Culdees at St Andrews and later the same year was captured and executed after defending against Viking raiders. In AD906, the became the seat of the bishop of Alba. In 940 Constantine III abdicated and took the position of abbot of the monastery of St Andrews, the establishment of the present town began around 1140 by Bishop Robert on an L-shaped vill, possibly on the site of the ruined St Andrews Castle
8.
Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
