Robert Leighton: The Bishop

Extract

In 1611, Robert Leighton was born into the era of the Church of Scotland's 1610 Accommodation between the Presbyterian and Episcopalian systems of church government. The Episcopalian Bishop of Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow between the ages of fifty and sixty, was the same man as had been the Presbyterian Parish Minister at Newbattle between the ages of thirty and forty. Leighton's especial significance is that he represents in his own person the very kind of accommodation which the signatories of the Joint Report on Anglican-Presbyterian Relations (1957) were aiming at, and which is an ecumenical possibility which will obviously continue to be explored.