Session

We ask our elders this question.

Do you pledge yourself as a member of Kirk Session, that's the local group of elders, to work together with the minister in the oversight and government of this congregation for the upbuilding of God's people in spiritual fruitfulness and holy concord and for the extension of Christ's kingdom? Now, some of the language, perhaps it's a little bit old-fashioned, but I think you can get the point.

The aim of our Kirk session, our group of elders, is to help us to grow in our holiness, in our unity, holy concord, and ultimately, and in our fruitfulness as disciples of Jesus, ultimately so that Christ's kingdom can extend in size and in power and all to the glory of God.

That's the aim.

But did you notice the way that elders promised to do that? They promised to join with the minister in the oversight and government of this congregation.

Do you see that? It's not for us to decide this.

It is for the elders, in the name of Jesus Christ, to work this out, following the Lord's instructions.

In the PCI, we say that the Kirk session is responsible for admission to both sacraments, and where necessary, they can admonish, suspend, and exclude from the benefits of membership of the congregation, and then readmit when there's signs of repentance.

The Town Council of Edinburgh kept minutes, and they survive in a long, unbroken run, which is unusual and lucky.

The Kirk Sessions kept records of who was disciplined and for what.

The High Court of Justiciary kept records of trials, and the trials in this story were mostly serious enough to reach it.

Against that, there is almost nothing written by the people the records are about.

The fear was not abstract, and the parish records show what it looked like from the inside.

Families opened graves themselves to check.

Kirk sessions record the cost of the watch being met by public subscription, the purchase of a padlock, the payment for a new lock after the old one was cut.

There are entries for the repair of a wall where somebody had come over it.

Little is known of Lila's life.

The only surviving official documents concerning her are the minutes of the Kirk Session for 1704, covering only three months.

Academics surmise she was an elderly spinster or widow, a woman without a male protector.

Lila was seized and brought before Reverend Alan Logan, the local Protestant minister, authorized to interrogate witches.

She insisted she could not name the other women present, for their faces were hidden behind ominous black masks.

Most of the names she did give up were those already convicted and executed in the past.

According to the minutes of the Kirk session, she continued to make these assertions up until a few hours before her death.

The Grave Between the Tides Lila's Adi never faced the fiery stake.