The Admission of Ministers in the Church of Scotland, 1560-1652: A Study in Presbyterian Ordination

This study is an examination of the practice employed by the Church of Scotland in admitting men to the Ministry between 1560 and 1652; it is an attempt at gaining an understanding of the thinking that lies behind Presbyterian Ordination and a look is taken at some of the problems with which the Reformers were faced; problems, some of which still concern us today. In the Introduction, I have attempted to put the need for reform which arose within the Church of the 16th century, into focus by drawing attention to the corruption, worldliness and ignorance that existed amongst the clergy of that time; the efforts at reform which were made and the events which gave rise to the complete Reformation of religion within Scotland. In any discussion of the Scottish Reformation, however, outside influences cannot be ignored. This is particularly true when we consider that many of the new ideas arriving in Scotland at this time had their origin in the Europe of John Calvin. These ideas affected the nature of the Ministry as much as anything and so it is against this background that our study of Ordination must be fixed. Calvin 's teaching on the Ministry reveals the importance he attached to it and in his Institutes, he spends a lot of time explaining the different ministeries spoken of in the Scriptures. These fall into two categories, viz. ordinary and extra-ordinary ministeries and/ and it is what Calvin has to say about the former that concerns us in this study. The Pastoral office can be divided into those who preach the Word and administer the Sacraments and those who teach. In either case they must be suitably qualified and Calvin is firmly of the opinion that Ministerial appointment ought to depend entirely upon the candidate receiving a "Call". Throughout our study "the Call" is understood as being an outward ecclesiastical procedure aimed at confirming the action of God with whom the initiative always lies. The seriousness of the matter is stressed by the way in which the Church is instructed to carry through the process of examining, testing, electing and admitting ministers, viz. in an atmosphere of prayer and fasting. In Apostolic practice, admission to the Ministry was always carried through in this way and accompanied by the Laying on of the hands of those already in the Ministry. Calvin believed this to be a useful symbol and commended its use. Speaking generally, the practice and procedure of the Continental Churches examined in this thesis follows the example and teaching of Calvin. So too, does the practice and procedure of the Church of Scotland. The early documents of the Reformed Church are unanimous in emphasising the place of Scripture and in abrogating the ceremonies of the Roman Church. The teaching and proposals for a Reformed Church contained in these books were/ were made effective in Scotland. For example, admission to the Ministry was made dependent upon the candidate receiving an "Ordinarie Vocatioun. " To receive such a Call the candidate had to be elected by the people and examined "befoir men of soundest jugement" before being solemnly admitted. Not everyone was happy and willing to accept these new ideas, however. One such person, Ninian Winget, a staunch supporter of the old Church, tried to persuade Knox and his followers concerning the error of their ways. The examination of Winget's arguments undertaken in this thesis, serves to highlight the main points of divergence on matters which were and are of fundamental importance. The old Ecclesiastical organisation of the Scottish Church was felt to have been defective in many ways. The Episcopate did not commend itself nor did the attendant theory of a personal Apostolic Succession. The system had failed, but, there was something much more serious than that of concern to the Reformers. They did not believe that bishops should constitute an order superior to that of the presbyterate; this being so they could never accept that only Episcopal ordination was valid. It is true that a system of Superintendentships was introduced in Scotland but this did not last long and was really only a measure of expediency, much needed at a time of great change and while there was a severe shortage of/ of qualified ministerial candidates. The Superintendents were not, however, bishops in the line of the Prelatic Succession. In actual fact the Reformers sought to revive the conception of the Church as the Christian community in the completeness of its whole membership. Ordination was a concept little known or thought of and in the practice of the Church at this time the emphasis fell on admission to a Ministerial charge. In these early days, the Superintendents took the lead in organising the Church and in the placing of ministers through-out their own areas. When they disappeared from the scene, however, the Scottish Church settled down to having what amounted to a Presbyterian system of government. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Value Creation in Multi-Level Networks: A Development of Business Model Theory

Currently, business model theory does not describe how the phenomenon of value co-creation is affected by interactions that span organisational levels in the network. Such interactions include the sharing of customer data and logistical information in addition to exchanges of products and services for cash payment. This paper seeks to develop business model theory to include the business models of networks by incorporating concepts from the value creation systems literature. A theoretical framework is developed to examine how value is exchanged between stakeholders in a network. A value perspective enables the theorisation of what motivates the stakeholders as well as what capabilities they may provide to the network. This framework is use to analyse a multi-level careers guidance network in the UK, to check the sustainability of its network business model. The contribution of this paper is an addition to the literature on network business models, using concepts from the Value Creation Systems literature, and a method for assessing the sustainability of network business models. An analysis of the value-flows between network stakeholders can show how choices of grain, extent and criteria affect the mutual satisfaction of the network’s stakeholders, and hence the sustainability of the network

The political instrumentalization of professional football in Francoist Spain 1939-1975

PhDThe objective of this thesis is to be the first systematic study of the political instrumentalization of football in Francoist Spain from 1939 to 1975. Seven separate and contrasting aspects of this political instrumentalization may be isolated, and, accordingly, this thesis will consist of a chapter examining each one of these seven aspects in turn. After a first introductory chapter, Chapter Two will examine the application of Fascist concepts to Spanish football. In the third chapter, the questions of whether and to what extent football was used by the Franco regime as a political soporific will be discussed. The theme of Chapter Four is the lack of democracy within the structures of the game, a situation that is alleged to have been deliberately imposed by the regime in order to not create an uncomfortable comparison for itself with the lack of national and local political democracy. The poor working conditions of the footballers, which mirrored those of the great majority of Spanish workers during the Franco period, are the subject of Chapter Five. In the sixth Chapter, the political significance of the presence in Francoist Spain of a group of refugee players and coaches from Europe will be examined. The diplomatic and ambassadorial significance of football, in particular of the spectacular international triumphs of the Real Madrid club, will be discussed in Chapter Seven. The political significance of football as a focus for Basque and Catalan nationalist sentiment, in opposition to the centralist Madrid regime, is the subject of Chapter Eight

Studying innovation ecosystems using ecology theory

This paper proposes a set of perspectives for studying innovation ecosystems that are based on ecological research. Our perspectives are based on fundamental similarities between natural and business systems. We suggest that innovation ecosystems can be defined as pathways of interlinked business models. Pathways are characterised by the flows they convey not the types of business model that support the flows. These pathways convey material and informational resources, as well as value. Like the nutrient and energy pathways in natural ecosystems. Pathways help to recycle scarce resources such as customer attention and customer-derived information. Business model descriptions are similar to an organism’s genome in that they describe limitations on sensing, acting and understanding. We conceptualise this as the ‘umwelt’; the self-world. These limitations have implications for how firms and customers interact with customers. They have other implications for how firms interact with each other in business model communities and how they accommodate each other. We illustrate and test these ecological perspectives using a case study of a healthcare smartphone app’s ecosystem. We find that our perspectives can be used as novel methods of studying interactions between business models; or to study ecosystem building

Pripravnost javnog zdravstva Europskih zemalja za kemijske nesreće

In response to the attack of 11 September 2001 on the USA, World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for Europe took immediate steps in order to be able to assist countries in case of a terrorist attack. Among other things, WHO organised a series of different consultations with international organisations, government representatives and experts in order to assess the state of preparedness at the national and international levels, to identify the main problems and to make recommendations. The problems were addressed in the context of possible public health consequences, regardless of whether such an incident derived from a deliberate act or a naturally occurring event. This overview gives a brief account of presentation made at the European Union “First Civil Protection Forum”, which was held in Brussels in November 2002, and which served as a basis for defining the EU priorities and actions to make Europe a safer place to live.Kao odgovor na napad na Sjedinjene Američke Države 11. rujna 2001, Regionalni ured za Europu Svjetske zdravstvene organizacije (SZO) odmah je poduzeo nekoliko koraka kako bi bio spreman da pomogne državama u slučaju terorističkog napada. Među ostalim, SZO je organizirao niz različitih konzultacija s međunarodnim organizacijama, predstavnicima država i ekspertima s ciljem da se procijeni stupanj pripreme na nacionalnoj i međunarodnoj razini, da se identificiraju glavni problemi, te da se donesu preporuke. Tim problemima pristupilo se u kontekstu mogućih posljedica na javno zdravstvo, neovisno o tome da li se radi o namjernom aktu ili prirodno nastalom slučaju. Ovaj pregled predstavlja kratki sadržaj uvodnog predavanja pripremljenog za “Prvi forum civilne zaštite” Europske unije, koji je održan u Bruxellesu u studenome 2002, a koji je poslužio kao osnova za definiranje prioriteta i akcija Europske unije, kako bi Europa postala sigurnije mjesto za život

Building user commitment to implementing a knowledge management strategy

In the IS literature, commitment is typically considered to involve organizational or managerial support for a system and not that of its users. This paper however reports on a field study involving 16 organizations that attempted to build user involvement in developing a knowledge management strategy by having them design it. Twenty-two IT-supported group workshops (involving 183 users) were run to develop action plans for better knowledge management that users would like to see implemented. Each workshop adopted the same problem structuring technique to assist group members develop a politically feasible action plan to which they were psychologically and emotionally dedicated. In addition to reviewing the problem structuring method, this paper provides qualitative insight into the factors a knowledge management strategy should have to encourage user commitment. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved