Religion and Social Class by A. Allan MacLaren

Author:A. Allan MacLaren [MacLaren, A. Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9780429665394
Google: QtSNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-20T03:46:23+00:00

Status Differentiation within the Congregation

The extent to which graduated seat rents in the Free Church confirmed the internal stratification of congregations has already been demonstrated.82 Social differences among members of the same congregation were consolidated by a host of other factors through which the institution of seat-letting was associated with the sanctity of property and the enforcement of status differentiation. Doors were erected in the more desirable pews and official ‘pew openers’ were closely instructed that ‘care is to be taken, that strangers be not admitted until the seat holders are accommodated’.83 ‘Partitions and obscuring glass’ were utilised presumably as a means of providing special privacy for certain pews.84 Beadles were warned that at all times they must ‘attend first to the rights of seat holders’ and special cupboards were provided in order that Bibles might be locked up after each service.85 Even in the smaller Presbyterian churches status differentiation of this sort is all too apparent. In Charlotte U.P. Church, whilst some members were being interrogated concerning their inability to pay seat rents, others were engaged in covering their sittings with crimson cloth ‘as a pattern to other individuals who may be inclined to cover their seats’.86

If features such as these may have discouraged working-class attendance, at a more general level there was also a failure to integrate working-class members within the congregation on a basis of equality. This was certainly true of the practice of visitation by elders. It was ‘understood that in regard to a considerable proportion of the members of the Church the Elders visits and advice must be solicited before they can be tendered … particularly with those on a level with or above themselves in worldly circumstances’.87 This solicitation was not required from the ‘humbler classes’ belonging to the church who were ‘more than any other exposed to temptation’.88 Discrimination of this sort led almost inevitably to the basis of contact between office-bearers and working-class members being restricted to investigation or appearance before the sessions on matters of moral discipline. Visitation by elders other than that for the investigation of reported moral misbehaviour, or in order to assess or propose increased financial contributions, was seldom carried out. The Free Church was particularly aware of its shortcomings and failures with regard to visitation. A committee reporting on the state of religion in Aberdeen in 1850 found that ‘the one great cause of the low state of religion prevailing within the Church is the careless and perfunctory manner in which many of the office-bearers perform the duties devolving upon them…. Some elders visit not at all, most visit seldom.’89 The failure of the elders to fulfil the obligations of their office is most clearly seen in the larger Free Church congregations. Although there is little evidence to suggest the Established Church elder was more ready to undertake these obligations, constitutionally he remained bound to the ideal of visitation on a parish basis. This was not true of the Free Church, which abandoned the parish as an

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.