The Church of Scotland and the Church of England are entirely independent of one another. There are differences in the forms of worship, but the fundamental difference is in how the church hierarchy is organised.

The Church of Scotland is one of many Presbyterian denominations.

Presbyterian churches do not have bishops. the hierarchy is a series of committees. Each congregation is managed by a committee called the Kirk Session, which consists of the minister and elders. Each one sends the minister and representative elder to the Presbytery, which is a committee that oversees a wider area, including all the parishes in that area. Every Presbytery belongs to a still larger area called a Synod, and all Synods belong to the General Assembly, which is made up of all ministers and some but far from all representative elders. Every Presbyterian denomination has its own Kirk Sessions and its own General Assembly so if you are speaking about the 'General Assembly' you should really specify which one - for example the 'General Assembly of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland' - but the term 'General Assembly' on its own is usually taken to mean the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Church of England is one of many Episcopalian denominations. Episcopalian means that the church hierarchy includes bishops.

Apart from one or two small congregations the Church of England does not operate in Scotland. The corresponding Protestant Episcopalian denomination in Scotland is the Scottish Episcopal Church, also known as the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and sometimes referred to as the English Church. It is independent of the Church of England, but is in full communion with the Church of England as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

HTH

Anne

On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 04:05 AM, <garyturnbull@sympatico.ca> wrote:

I believe the Presbyterian Church is the same thing as the Church of
Scotland.  It is the official or conformist church of Scotland.  All other
churches in Scotland are considered non-conformist.   The Anglican Church is
considered the official Church of England.  Again other denominations are
considered non-conformist.

No, that isn't correct. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian, but it is not the only Presbyterian denomination in Scotland.

And the terms 'Conformist' and 'Non-conformist' are technically meaningless in Scotland. It originated in the 1660s, when the Church of England was restored in England as the official state religion. Anyone who refused to conform to the doctrines of the Church of England was called a non-conformist. This was before the union of Scotland with England-and-Wales in 1707 and the legislation defining the relationship of the Church of England to the monarch and government in England did not apply and never has applied in Scotland.

Presbyterians in Scotland who do not adhere to the Church of Scotland are Dissenters, not Non-conformists.

Anne

The head of the Church of England is HM Queen Elizabeth, who is the second Queen Elizabeth in England but only the first to reign in Scotland. King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I of England, and every British monarch since James VI (James I of England) has been head of the C of E, including Charles II who did not actually convert to Roman Catholicism, and his brother James VII (James II of England), whose strong inclinations towards Roman Catholicism led to his abdication. See Wikipedia article on King Charles II of England.

Happy New Year Everyone,
Thank you for all of your responses to my question . You have conformed what I had originally thought and added some details that were unknown. I appreciate that.
My question arose because I had read that the queen's church in Scotland was the Church of Scotland. Knowing she was head of the Church of England I jumped to the conclusion that the two churches might be the same. That misunderstanding was answered by the knowledge there are few Anglican family churches in 
Scotland. It would thus become natural for the monarch to attend the established Church under the circumstance.
Thanks again for your help.
Glynn