Although much of the business of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland relates to legislation and debates of reports from committees, unlike the synods of episcopal churches the General Assembly is also a court, with exclusive jurisdiction in ‘matters spiritual’. However, under the terms of Act III 2001, as amended, disciplinary matters are investigated by a Presbyterial Commission and, in disputed cases, ultimately come before the Assembly's Judicial Commission. Cases before the General Assembly were once quite common; but for the 2009 Assembly to find themselves hearing a judicial dispute was very unusual indeed.

The Charity Commission's final guidance on The Advancement of Religion for the Public Benefit met with cautious approval, not least because it is considerably more user-friendly than the rather tortuous exposure draft that preceded it. Several aspects of that draft were arguable: the final version resolves many of the uncertainties.

Lower financial thresholds for accounting and reporting requirements for small charities were brought into effect on 1 April under the terms of the Charities Acts 1992 and 1993 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2009. The changes include raising the threshold above which charities must prepare accruals accounts from £100,000 to £250,000; raising the threshold for external scrutiny of accounts from £10,000 to £25,000; and increasing the threshold for submission by registered charities of annual accounts and trustees' annual reports to the Charity Commission from £10,000 to £25,000. The Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers particularly welcomed the higher threshold for accruals accounts, the preparation of which requires a considerable degree of expertise, since the prospect of having to master the mysteries of accruals accounting has been a considerable discouragement to potential treasurers.

In September, the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and the Charity Commission launched a joint consultation on the detail of the new Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs), a corporate structure envisaged under the Charities Act 2006. CIOs will be registered with and regulated by the Charity Commission and will offer charities an alternative to incorporation under company law, thereby avoiding dual regulation by the Commission and by Companies House.

In February, the Synod revised the draft legislation on clergy terms of service. Attention was chiefly focused on the parts of the draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure dealing with the vesting of parsonage houses; in the event, the Synod voted to reject those provisions under which ownership of parsonage houses would have been transferred from the incumbent to the diocesan parsonages board. In contrast, the draft of the Regulations to be made under the Measure, which will specify the detailed terms of service, was accepted without amendment.

The Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008, which were put in place in the wake of the Shipman murders and the subsequent inquiry by Dame Janet Smith, came into effect on 1 January 2009. They modernise and consolidate all previous regulations, and replace the Cremation Regulations 1930, as amended. However, the new Regulations are themselves an interim measure, to be replaced in due course by a new system of death certification under the Coroners and Justice Bill, which was introduced into the House of Commons in January 2009.

The 2008 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland attended to various legal issues in the spirit of general reform.

In April, a Bill was considered to enable women to be consecrated as bishops. The most crucial amendment for consideration was that ‘the Bench of Bishops will provide pastoral care and support for those who in conscience cannot accept the ordination of women as priests and bishops through the ministry of an Assistant Bishop or Bishops’. The Archbishop resisted the amendment on the grounds that, if it were passed, the Church

The Synod met in Galway; there were two Bills of particular significance.

Synod discussed the question of whether, by way of Covenant, some degree of regulatory certainty could be given to the Lambeth Conference as one of the Instruments of Communion in the Anglican Communion. The Synod was being asked to give commitment to the process ‘in principle’ but not to the details, and an indication of the synodical process by which the Covenant might be adopted. It was therefore remitted to the Faith and Order Board to decide how this could be done. The Bishop of St Andrews considered that the process was a means of broadening discussion; others were concerned that, if the Church committed itself to the process, it committed itself to the outcome; yet others described the whole concept of a Covenant as very un-Anglican.