The roots of Scottish Christianity go back to St. Ninian in the fourth century and St Columba in the sixth. After the Reformation, the Episcopal Church was the established Church of Scotland. It was disestablished and replaced by the Presbyterian Church in 1689. Penal statutes in force from 1746 to 1792 further weakened the Church, yet Bishops maintained continuity. In 1794 in Aberdeen, the Scottish Church consecrated the first Bishop of the American Church. There was rapid growth in the nineteenth century influenced by the Tractarian Movement.
