Editing Church of Scotland (section)

===Independence of the church===
[[File:NecTamenConsumebatur.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Stained glass showing the burning bush and the motto "nec tamen consumebatur", [[St. Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow]].]]

Controversy still surrounded the relationship between the Church of Scotland's independence and the [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] of Scotland. The interference of civil courts with church decisions, particularly over the appointment of ministers, following the [[Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711]], which gave landowners, or patrons, the right to appoint ministers to vacant pulpits, would lead to several splits. This began with the [[First Secession|secession of 1733]] and culminated in the [[Disruption of 1843]] when a large portion of the church broke away to form the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)|Free Church of Scotland]]. The seceding groups tended to divide and reunite among themselves—leading to a proliferation of Presbyterian denominations in Scotland, as is demonstrated in the timeline above.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

The [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|UK Parliament]] passed the [[Church of Scotland Act 1921]], finally recognising the complete independence of the church in matters spiritual, and as a result of this, and passage of the [[Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act 1925]] ([[15 & 16 Geo. 5]]. c. 33), the church was able to unite with the [[United Free Church of Scotland]] in 1929. The United Free Church of Scotland was itself the product of the union of the former [[United Presbyterian Church of Scotland]] and the majority of the Free Church of Scotland in 1900.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} The 1929 assembly of church leaders to effect the Union of that year met at Industrial Hall on Annandale Street in north Edinburgh.<ref>Edinburgh and District: Ward Lock guide 1935</ref>

Some independent Scottish Presbyterian denominations still remain. These include the [[Free Church of Scotland (post-1900)|Free Church of Scotland]]—sometimes given the epithet [[Wee Free|The Wee Frees]]—(originally formed of those congregations which refused to unite with the [[United Presbyterian Church of Scotland|United Presbyterian Church]] in 1900), the [[United Free Church of Scotland]] (formed of congregations which refused to unite with the Church of Scotland in 1929), the [[Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland]] (which broke from the Free Church of Scotland in 1893), the [[Associated Presbyterian Churches]] (which emerged as a result of a split in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the 1980s) and the [[Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)]] (which emerged from a split in the Free Church of Scotland in 2000).{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} The motto of the Church of Scotland is ''nec tamen consumebatur'' ([[Latin (language)|Latin]])—"Yet it was not consumed", an allusion to Exodus 3:2 and the [[Burning Bush]].