THE Church of Scotland's annual gathering has been dominated by the row over allowing gay ordination.
But Scots language experts have criticised the Kirk for erasing an old Scots word from its legal documents.
Anent, meaning about or concerning, has been banished from Church forms while hundreds of pieces of legislation have been purged of the word.
Most Church legislation is given a title such as "Act Anent Discipline of Ministers".
The General Assembly at The Mound was told anent should be dropped because no-one else used it and no-one understood why the Church still did.
A report by the Kirk's legal questions committee states: "While the old Scottish word 'anent' has served the Church well for many years, it is a term which has dropped out of common usage."
Michael Hance, director of the Scots Language Centre, said: "It is a bit odd that the Kirk, a centuries-old institution, impervious to change, should have selected this Scots word and decided to remove it."
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