John Baillie served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1943-1944. The Church and Nation Committee was set up in 1919, by the Church of Scotland, to review its relationship to the national life of the country. It set up the more specific Commission for the Interpretation of God's Will in the Present Crisis at the General Assembly of 1940. Its role was, 'to seek reverently to guide the Church in the interpretation of the Holy Will and Purpose of God in present-day events, and to examine how the testimony of the Church to the Gospel may become more effective in our own land, overseas and in the international order'.