National But Not Established

The Disruption was not repaired quickly. Most of the Free Church joined the United Presbyterians in 1900 to form the United Free Church, and reunion with the national church required first that the disputed principle be settled beyond argument. The church drew up the Articles Declaratory of its constitution in spiritual matters, and Parliament gave them statutory recognition in the Church of Scotland Act 1921, an unusual piece of legislation in that it acknowledges a jurisdiction rather than conferring one, and disclaims any power in the civil courts over the church's spiritual decisions. On that footing most of the United Free Church reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929.

What resulted is a national church that is not established in the English manner, and the differences are concrete rather than symbolic. The sovereign is a member of the Church of Scotland, not its Supreme Governor, and worships as a member when in Scotland; at accession the sovereign swears an oath to preserve the Presbyterian church government of Scotland; no minister is appointed by the Crown and no Scottish churchman sits in the House of Lords by right of office. The Church of Scotland is therefore the clearest live counter-example to the English arrangement, and its own doctrine of spiritual independence stands as a rejection of royal supremacy rather than a local variation of it.