A quoad sacra parish is a parish of the Church of Scotland which is not a civil parish. That is, it had ecclesiastical functions but no local government functions. Since the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, civil parishes have had no local government functions, and are of statistical and historical interest only. Typically, a number of quoad sacra parishes could exist within a single civil parish, each often maintaining its own parish church. Quoad sacra translates from Latin as 'concerning sacred matters'. Where a civil and ecclesiastical parish were coterminous, the area was designated as a 'parish proper', parish quoad omnia (English: concerning all matters, or parish quoad civilia et sacra (English: concerning civil matters and sacred matters.
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Role
Whilst generally ecclesiastical, the distinction between ecclesiastical and civil parishes was often blurred. Civil parishes had the duty of setting church rates, in addition to their civil roles in the provision of education, sanitation and the poor law.
Legislation
Particular Acts of Parliament which created quoad sacra parishes in Scotland are the New Parishes (Scotland) Act 1844, the United Parishes (Scotland) Act 1868 and the United Parishes (Scotland) Act 1876.