History
The 'Woman's Guild' was founded in 1887 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on the initiative of A. H. Charteris. Charteris acknowledged woman were already involved in Christian service but that there "was a need to develop and organize them as an official working unity within the church."
Within then years, there was 29,000 members in 400 branches. This reached a peak in the 1950s of over 160,000 members. By the centenary of 1987, this had halved to 80,000. Also from the 1950s, Young Mothers' groups were formed, which eventual evolved into the Young Woman's Groups section of the Guild. This section shared the same basic aims.
Today the guild has about 35,000 members and is one of Scotland's largest voluntary organisations
In 1997, following a major review, the Guild adopted its current constitution. The new constitution changed the name 'Woman's Guild' to 'Church of Scotland Guild' - and opened up groups to men as well as women.
Read more about this topic: Church Of Scotland Guild
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