The Dalai Lama is to meet the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Bruce Cameron, and the Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Rev Brian Smith.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
posted at 10:25 PM

Rector the Rev Edmund Marquis-Faulkes will lead a team of three from St Devenick's Scottish Episcopal Church in Bieldside, Aberdeen, on a 300-mile cycle ride to raise £5,000 for projects in Gadisrula, a village in central India.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 10:19 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien today used the occasion of a Scottish-American Memorial Day service in Edinburgh to call for June 30 to be designated an international day of prayer for peace and reconciliation in Iraq.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 10:12 PM

Chancellor Gordon Brown is to make a key Vatican speech to tell the Pope about his ongoing battle against Third World poverty. Brown, the son of a Kirk minister, will travel to Rome next month to seek support for ambitious aid plans.
Source: Daily Record.
posted at 10:11 PM

St Andrew's Old Kirk in North Berwick, once at the centre of Scotland's notorious witch trials, is to be opened as a tourist attraction next month after a £50,000 facelift.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:37 PM

The Dalai Lama has thrown his weight behind campaigns to wipe out sectarianism in Scotland, saying people had to learn to respect other faiths. He also suggested that Scots stick to their own faiths, rather than convert to Buddhism. He said: 'I always believe that it is better to keep one's own tradition.'
Source: Daily Record.
posted at 9:33 PM

Church leaders in Pakistan have been called on to use this year's graduation at Karachi Seminary as an occasion to settle outstanding issues between Karachi Diocese and the Synod of the Church of Pakistan. Specifically, Rev Samuel Pervaiz is asked to produce documentation relating to the sale of Church of Scotland properties and in particular Saint Andrew's Church in Karachi.
Source: Pakistan Christian Post.
posted at 12:53 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has called for an urgent meeting with Malcolm Chisholm, the health minister, to demand an end to prescribing of the morning-after pill to under-16s. He wants the Scottish executive to scrap the controversial Healthy Respect project, which offers girls as young as 13 contraceptive advice and the morning-after pill without their parents' consent. He will also call for sexual health agencies to "admit defeat" and to launch an education programme emphasising sexual abstinence to be piloted north of the border.
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 4:21 PM

The St Giles Cathedral Renewal Appeal Trust is one of eleven charities to benefit from the will of retired legal secretary Betty Inglis, 90, who amassed £1.6m through shrewd investments and dealing on the stock market before her death last December.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 4:11 PM

Scotland will only blossom when our government devolves responsibility and power to the individual, argues Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie. "A free society is much more than a network of market exchanges. Although competition tends to channel our efforts towards serving others, Adam Smith recognised that a strong civil society needed to be based on more than just mutual advantage. We all have a duty towards one another, yet the most effective way of fulfilling these obligations is through the institutions of civil society such as families, neighbourhoods, churches, charities and voluntary organisations."
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 4:01 PM

Claims that Catholics are still persecuted in Scotland insult those who suffered 70 years ago when Protestant Action and Oswald Mosley wreaked havoc, writes Allan Burnett. Protestant Action fundamentalist John Cormack "drew on his rigid Baptist upbringing and formative experience as a British soldier in Ireland to produce Hitleresque invectives about the need to 'smash', 'crush' and 'liquidate' the Catholic-Irish menace..." And Professor Steve Bruce argues that recent studies and Census results suggest that Scots live in a tolerant, non-sectarian nation.
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 3:50 PM

Review of Nathan Coley's exhibition The Lamp Of Sacrifice at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh: "It's irresistible. As soon as you see the sprawling city of miniature cardboard churches, crammed together cheek by jowl, you can't help trying to spot the ones you know. All 286 places of worship listed in the Edinburgh Yellow Pages are here, covering the Lothians, Fife and the Borders..."
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 3:47 PM

Eastwood MP Jim Murphy will meet Holocaust survivor Rabbi Ernest Levy, a Muslim imam, two Catholic priests and two Church of Scotland ministers in Newton Mearns tomorrow to urge them to unite against the British National Party in next week's Euro elections.
Source: Sunday Mail.
posted at 3:45 PM

Postal workers who disapprove of 'extreme' political parties have been told by Royal Mail chiefs that they can refuse to deliver election leaflets, which the Royal Mail is required by law to distribute. A spokesman for Operation Christian Vote threatened to take legal action if it learned of any delivery problems with its leaflets. The party, which has been set up to harness the vote of Christians, opposes abortions, human embryo research and euthanasia. The spokesman said 500,000 leaflets had been handed over to the Royal Mail to be delivered to homes across Scotland.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 3:40 PM

A uniformed inspector from Central Scotland Police preached from the pulpit at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Stirling today in an effort to find the killer of pensioner Hilary Crowley.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 3:30 PM

In a time when the Methodist Church is setting itself new priorities and establishing fresh ways of being church, a new book explores Methodist theology since 1932 and asks how it can be used in the 21st century. 'Unmasking Methodist Theology', the product of three years work by a task group of the Faith and Order Committee, also shows how Methodism contributes to British Christianity.
Source: Methodist Church News.
posted at 5:00 PM

Knox Presbyterian Church in Wallaceburg, Ontario, will celebrate its 150th anniversary on Sunday with an 1854 Free Church worship service featuring an 1846 sermon preached in Auchterarder, Scotland, and with worship led by a precentor and a beadle.
Source: Port Huron Times Herald, Michigan.
posted at 1:17 PM

The Scottish Episcopal Cathedral of The Isles on Cumbrae - the UK's smallest cathedral - will celebrate the restoration and installation of its new Holt organ with a weekend of concerts on 5-6 June.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
posted at 7:40 PM

The new Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Galloway, Bishop John Cunningham, promised "service and friendship" at his ordination today.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 7:38 PM

This week the Government used its Commons majority to press through the Gender Recognition Bill largely unchanged. Don Horrocks for the Evangelical Alliance commented: "We feel that an opportunity to clarify a hotly disputed area of law has been missed. It suggests that individual rights are more important than collective rights and religious liberty."
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.
posted at 7:36 PM

Peterhead's Muckle Kirk - the Old Parish Church - was founded 200 years ago this week.
Source: Buchan Observer.
posted at 7:30 PM

Sheriff Jack McGowan compared the Ayrshire town of Cumnock to Beirut after jailing the first man under a new religious bigotry law. Mervyn Kay had shouted religious abuse at his neighbour before smashing his window.
Source: icAyrshire - Ayrshire Post.
posted at 7:17 PM

Church of Scotland bosses are set to bail out a debt-ridden Glenrothes church. It's believed that a deal will be struck allowing over £100,000 in bills to be paid-off in instalments over the next 10 years. The debt was racked up at Christ's Kirk after grants meant to cover the cost of a new hall fell through.
Source: Fife Now - Glenrothes Gazette.
posted at 7:04 PM

The imminent departure of the last two resident sisters from St Andrew's Convent in Hawick was marked on Sunday with a special Mass of Thanksgiving in St Mary's and St David's Church, led by Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien together with Father Jeremy Bath. The Augustinian Order of Sisters came to Hawick in 1926, taking possession of the historic Stirches House. They opened a convent and a nursing home dedicated to the care of ladies with mental illness.
Source: Hawick Today.
posted at 7:02 PM

The Methodist Church's commitment to a world church will be reinforced next week in a conference celebrating Latin American spirituality, arranged by Methodists for World Mission and ecumenical partners.
Source: Methodist Church News.
posted at 3:32 PM

The June diary for the Moderator of the Kirk's General Assembly, Dr Alison Elliot, includes meeting visitors from the Egyptian Protestant Church and the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, and taking part in Christfest 2004 in Dumfries.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 3:30 PM

Tayside has retained the title of abortion capital of Scotland, with 16.7 terminations per 1000 women. According to latest figures released by NHS Scotland yesterday 1286 abortions were carried out last year on women aged between 15 and 44. Thirty-three of those were under 16. Claire McGraw, from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) Scotland, said: "The Government's strategy for reducing the number of abortions is not working and the rates of sexually transmitted diseases amongst teenagers is rising."
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 3:13 PM

While in Glasgow, the Dalai Lama will be receiving delegations from leaders of Glasgow Churches Together and Glasgow Forum of Faiths.
Source: Phayul.com.
posted at 3:08 PM

The number of abortions carried out on girls under the age of 16 in Lothian has soared by 55 per cent, new figures have revealed. Critics seized on the statistics to demand the scrapping of the Healthy Respect sexual health project, launched in the Lothians three years ago, which includes making condoms and the morning-after pill available free to pupils. Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said: "These are shocking and depressing statistics and a damning indictment of the value-free approach being taken to sexual health and sex education in this country.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 3:05 PM

The restoration of Paisley Abbey will be marked by the first Vision of St Mirin Abbey Flower Festival for 30 years.
Source: icRenfrewshire - Paisley Daily Express.
posted at 3:03 PM

On the eve of the Dalai Llama's visit, The Scotsman profiles Buddhism and its estimated 6,580 adherents in Scotland.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 3:01 PM

The May edition of the Free Presbyterian Magazine is now available online.
posted at 10:53 PM

The Catholic Church in Scotland will celebrate a 'Day for Life' on Monday 31 May 2004. A range of resources and materials have been sent to all parishes for distribution at all Masses during the weekend of 29/30 May. A dedicated website containing this material will shortly be available at www.dayforlife.org.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 10:51 PM

The Orange Order in Scotland is to sell most of its 30,000 shares in Rangers for commercial reasons. With around 80,000 members in Scotland, the organisation hopes members will snap up the chance to buy the shares at £20 for a 75p share, as a souvenir. Orange Order executive officer Robert McLean said: "We made a review of our holdings and decided these ones were inefficient."
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 10:48 PM

She has been credited with reinventing one of the biggest cities in the US using a theory that has reputedly transformed the mental atmosphere of corporations, non-profit groups and rural villages. Now, one of the first American women to be ordained as an Episcopal priest aims to bring her innovative community development project from Chicago to the Clyde. Bliss Browne, the founder of Imagine Chicago, an organisation responsible for a number of successful civic schemes, will work with artists and business leaders to encourage regeneration along the Clyde corridor.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 10:38 PM

Review of 'Sectarianism in Scotland', to be published by Edinburgh University Press on May 31. In it Professor Steve Bruce, head of the department of sociology at Aberdeen University, concludes that sectarianism has been much overstated, that even the number of murders attributed to sectarian motives is exaggerated, that Scotland's Catholics "enjoy social, political and economic parity" with non-Catholics and that "religion (or the ethnicity of one's ancestors) is no longer a major consideration in the lives of most Scots".
Source: The Herald.
posted at 10:34 PM

The congregation of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Bombala, New South Wales, has been recalling its Scots antecendents. Particular mention was made of Rev Dr JD Lang, the first ordained Presbyterian Minister in NSW, a pioneer of parliamentary democracy in Australia and founder of the Scots Church in Sydney. Also recalled was Jackson Clarke, a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, who went to America about 1860 and had two fingers shot off during the Civil War before heading for Australia and the Monaro, where he settled on a property near Berridale and lived to be almost 100. A devout Christian, he worshipped regularly in St Mary the Virgin Church in Gegedzerick.
Source: Bombala Times.
posted at 10:26 PM

Echt Parish Church is taking a step back in time with a series of events to mark its bicentenary later this year.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 10:03 PM

Hundreds of worshippers today joined senior figures in the Catholic Church, including Cardinal Keith O'Brien, for the ordination of the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. Representatives of other denominations and faiths were invited to the ceremony in which Kevin Dunn became the 12th bishop of the diocese, which stretches from Teesside to the Scottish Borders.
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
posted at 3:12 PM

The controversial question of Christianity returned to the EU yesterday when seven states, led by Italy, urged the union to recognise a "historical truth" and refer explicitly to the "Christian roots of Europe" in its new constitution. Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and his fellow foreign ministers were forced to divert into a theological and cultural minefield at the meeting in Brussels called to tackle highly charged but technical issues, such as voting weights and budget procedures.
Source: The Guardian.
posted at 3:08 PM

Wesley Day was marked yesterday with a call to Methodists from the Vice-President of Conference, Judy Jarvis, to "re-engage with where we have come from, and to draw inspiration from the courage and values of our Methodist founders". Preaching at Wesley Chapel, she said: ""e must recover confidence in God's presence and action in the world and in the Church."
Source: Methodist Church News.
posted at 11:08 AM

The Orange Order is to be urged to move the meeting point of its biggest parade in Scotland away from Glasgow Green after complaints from east end residents. It could mean thousands of Orange Order walkers, bandsmen and followers congregating at venues such as Bellahouston Park or Queen's Park. Councillor John Mason said: "My problem is what happens around these parades and I believe this is one of a number of issues which encourages sectarianism in Glasgow."
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 4:27 PM

Artist Nathan Coley, 36, who is from Glasgow and lives in Dundee, has used plain brown cardboard to create miniature models of the 286 places of worship listed in the 2004 Edinburgh edition of the Yellow Pages. The exhibition, The Lamp of Sacrifice, is at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh until July 18.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 4:13 PM

A feature on Scots 'taking over' England includes mention of Dundee-born Father Bill Scott, who moved from the Scottish Episcopal Church to end up in charge of one of the highest Anglican chapels in England, the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy. "But Father Scott's boss, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is a son of the Scottish Manse, Douglas Alexander, MP. The Dundonian vicar in the Church of England chapel appointed by the son of the Scottish manse seemed to me to be an appropriate symbol of the way Scots have penetrated into the heart of the English State."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 4:05 PM

Former teacher Isobel Ralston has died at the age of 97, writes Graham Spiers. Until three weeks ago, she was still going to Sunday morning worship at Hillhead Baptist Church in Glasgow, where she had attended regularly, if you include her Sunday school experiences, for 92 years, and had been an actual member since 1922. She lived through the great teeming, preaching age of church life in Scotland, when 700 people would regularly roll up to her west end church.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 4:01 PM

Parishioners and punters pulled out all the stops for a weekend church auction in the north-east, boosting kirk funds to the tune of £6,774. Locals donated hundreds of lots, from a farm tractor to vintage granite curling stones, for Saturday's sale in aid of Udny and Pitmedden Church.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 3:34 PM

Rural congregations at historic Tarves and Barthol Chapel Churches have launched a week-long Forward Together festival, with a series of free admission events.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 3:31 PM

School children are to be told to avoid sexual intercourse until they are older in a radical change in sex education policy. The strategy, to be introduced in Scottish schools later this year, will replace the current approach which focuses on promoting safe sex and the use of contraception. The U-turn in government thinking follows a sexual health strategy review, and has been influenced by the experience of American schools that promote sexual abstinence and by pressure from the Catholic church. Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic church, said: "The biological approach has demonstrably failed and we need to start thinking about giving children relationship skills, to improve their negotiating skills and help them resist peer pressure by building self- esteem and self-confidence."
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 9:13 PM

Church of Scotland leaders have criticised wealthy, middle-class parishioners who they accuse of keeping their hands in their pockets when the collection plate comes round on a Sunday. Rev Martin Johnstone, of the church board of National Mission, said: "If members across the nation were prepared to give as sacrificially as those in the poorer congregations, some of the problems the church are currently facing would not be there."
Source: Sunday Times.


posted at 9:11 PM

Douglas Gordon, the Turner prize-winning video artist, is producing a new work based on Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian, thought by some to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Glasgow-born Gordon, who is now based in New York, has won a £100,000 scholarship from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and will start working on the project next month. Gordon intends to make a film exploring the history and myths of the 15th-century chapel founded by the Knights Templar and reputed to house a cache of holy relics. At various times it has also been claimed to house the mummified head of Christ and the Holy Grail in its crypt.
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 9:09 PM

A service has been held to remember the nine people killed in the Maryhill factory explosion and pay tribute to those involved in the rescue operation. The 200-strong congregation at Cathcart Old Parish Church included firefighters and others from the emergency services, as well as Lieutenant John Atwell of New York Fire Department. The service was organised by the Glasgow the Caring City charity to provide "spiritual closure" for all those involved in the emergency operation.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 8:56 PM

Handicapped adults are to be given hardcore porn bought by their carers. Social workers, carers, nurses and support workers will be told they must help adults with learning disabilities buy top-shelf magazines, videos or other sexually explicit material. Staff will be encouraged to go into sex shops or on the internet to obtain the porn. The guidelines from Lothian NHS Trust could be adopted across Scotland. Catholic Church spokesman Ronnie Convery said: 'It is irresponsible for any public body to be facilitating access to pornography. It degrades women and it degrades those who use it.'
Source: Sunday Mail.
posted at 8:54 PM

The new religious adviser to Scottish broadcasters has hit out at the stereotyping of Christians as 'Dot Cotton nutters' on television. Dr Ailsa Hollinshead, the new chairwoman of the Religious Advisers' Committee for Scottish and Grampian TV, has said she will urge both companies to properly reflect modern worship rather than rely on lazy clichés. Hollinshead studied the portrayal of Christians on TV for her PhD. She said results from focus groups, involving Christians, Sikhs, Muslims and non-religious people - found that positive depictions of Christianity in drama are few and far between.
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 8:52 PM

Talented Moderators are gagged by the Church of Scotland's traditions, says Magnus Linklater.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 8:46 PM

The Church of Scotland will launch its new hymn book in six months' time, on St Andrew's Day.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 4:16 PM

The Church of Scotland has been accused in a new book of failing homosexuals. Steve Mallon, the author of Sexuality and Salvation, argues that gay men and women are often not accepted by either ministers or congregations.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 4:15 PM

The Church of Scotland's troubled Tiberias hotel and retreat in Israel was plunged into fresh controversy last night after the Rev Clarence Musgrave of St Andrew's Church in Jerusalem accused officials running the project of not employing Christians in senior positions.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 4:14 PM

A move to examine the possibility of linking the parishes of Bower and Watten with Halkirk and Westerdale has alarmed the minister responsible for the latter charge. The Rev Ken Warner told members of Caithness presbytery last week: "The way it is sounding, I will be out the door very soon." He is not due to retire for four years. However, Mr Warner was assured that if the two sets of parishes did link, his position would not be compromised.
Source: Caithness Courier.
posted at 10:52 PM

Old Deer minister Rev James Wishart has taken on the role of interim moderator at Peterhead's Muckle Kirk while the presbytery look for a new minister. The position became vacant at Peterhead Old Parish Church following Rev Dr David Ross's decision to become prison chaplain at the Peterhead jail.
Source: Buchan Observer.
posted at 10:48 PM

Peterhead Methodist Church will once again present itself as the motor fishing vessel Master of the Sea during the town's Scottish Week gala.
Source: Buchan Observer.
posted at 10:47 PM

Cheques totalling £1,400 were presented to local good causes at the Mustard Seed Cafe in New Deer run by St Kane's Church.
Source: Buchan Observer.
posted at 10:43 PM

'The Passion of the Christ' opened in Orkney tonight at the Pickaquoy Centre's New Phoenix Cinema and runs until Thursday next week.
Source: The Orcadian.
posted at 10:35 PM

Dundonald Parish Church in Ayrshire is getting ready to celebrate its bicentenary in June. The first church on the site was built by the Gilbertines around 1130 at the request of the High Steward of Scotland who lived in his castle on the hill in Dundonald. But Christianity had arrived in Dundonald much earlier when Celtic missionaries from Whithorn founded a church there around 500 AD.
Source: icAyrshire - Kilmarnock Standard.
posted at 10:29 PM

The Rev Robert Martin, retired minister of St Andrew's-Glencairn Parish Church in Kilmarnock, has died while hillwalking in the Cairngorms. He was aged 78.
Source: icAyrshire - Kilmarnock Standard.
posted at 10:27 PM

Airdrie & Shotts MP Helen Liddell has launched a stinging attack on Buckfast tonic wine describing it as a "recipe for misery and anti-social behaviour". She has written to Melanie Johnston, MP, parliamentary secretary at the department of health, urging her not to be pressured by lobbying from the manufacturers of Buckfast over EU rules that would remove the word "tonic" from the bottle. And she has invited the English MP to visit the accident and emergency department at Monklands Hospital to see "the indelible stains on the floor, the impact of 're-cycled Buckfast', and the human misery caused by some of its enthusiastic consumers".
Source: icLanarkshire - Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser.
posted at 10:20 PM

Father Hugh Kelly unwittingly locked a sneak thief in a room beside the Sunday collection money at St Bartholomew's Chapel House in Coatbridge. Charles Bradley, who helped himself to £180 before escaping, was jailed for ten months.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 8:59 PM

The first woman Moderator closed this year's General Assembly by speaking of her frustration at the public's perception of the Church of Scotland as being unwilling to embrace change. Dr Alison Elliot said: "We describe ourselves as the body of Christ and a body is a living thing and living things do change continually. What is at issue is not whether this body should change but in what direction. As a reformed Church in need of reform we can lay claim to a tremendous freedom to be the Church that the world needs for today and not bound by the shackle of orthodoxy." Dr Elliot praised this year's delegates for having had the conviction to give the green light to radical proposals for reform within the church.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 8:50 PM

Five rural schools in Midlothian are to shut in the face of angry protests. Plans to rebuild Loanhead and St Margaret's RC primaries on a shared campus in Loanhead were also given the go-ahead even though Scotland's leading Roman Catholic Cardinal Keith O'Brien said the Church would prefer to see St Margaret's kept on an individual site. Parents of children at St Margaret's had also expressed fears that a mixed-faith campus would lead to playground trouble.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:46 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien will use visual aids when he addresses the Church of Scotland's General Assembly later today: a compass mounted in Iona silver, indicating the common Celtic ancestry of today's mainstream denominations; a towel, as a symbol of service in feet-washing; and a wooden rosary symbolising prayer.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 8:47 AM

Husbands and wives of divorced Church of Scotland ministers will be given financial help to set them up in a new home, the General Assembly agreed yesterday.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:40 AM

There has been a sharp increase in the number of people approaching the Church of Scotland wanting to become ministers, the General Assembly heard yesterday, with 33 new candidates starting last year compared with fewer than 15 in recent years.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:25 AM

Scotland's most senior Catholic today will reiterate calls for religious observance in schools of all denominations when he addresses the general assembly of the Church of Scotland. Cardinal Keith O'Brien will also urge members of Scottish churches to remember their common roots and the fact they celebrate the same feast days, such as Christmas, Easter and St Andrew's Day.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 8:23 AM

St Columba's Cathedral in Oban will be consecrated next month - seventy years after Mass was first celebrated there. Father Donald MacKay said it was usual in the past to delay consecration until all the building works had been paid for, although he added that St Columba's has been debt free for many years now. Another reason why the consecration may not have taken place in those early years was that the bishop who was there when work started had died before the cathedral was completed.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 9:34 PM

Churches in the Highlands have been urged by former Mod Gold medallist Donald Angus Matheson, of Barvas, Lewis, to hold bilingual services in Gaelic and English in an effort to save traditional psalm singing.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 9:30 PM

The distributors of Buckfast Tonic Wine have hit back at former Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell's 'vendetta' against them. The potent drink's distributors J Chandler & Co are telling Scots politicians who blame Buckfast for 'human misery' to sort out the social problems without looking for scapegoats. The outburst follows Liddell's renewed calls to ban the sweet wine made by Benedictine monks at Devon's Buckfast Abbey that features in incidents of violence. The Labour MP for Airdrie and Shotts has urged Health Minister Melanie Johnson to visit her constituency to witness the 'graphic evidence' of the effects of Buckfast first hand.
Source: Daily Record.
posted at 9:29 PM

The number of parish ministers in Edinburgh is set to be slashed after the Church of Scotland's General Assembly approved a new national quota system. The Capital could see its current 86 parish ministers reduced to 63, forcing congregations to merge or share a minister. A bid by Edinburgh presbytery to delay the plan for consultation was defeated by 358 votes to 251.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 9:21 PM

Questions were raised yesterday over whether the Church of Scotland should sell advertising space on its website.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:19 PM

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland last night rejected calls by the Rev Iain Whyte for it to halt further expenditure on the £13m Tiberias project, by the Sea of Galilee in Israel, in the light of the severe financial restrictions on the board of world mission.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:16 PM

Rangers have fined defender Robert Malcolm £5,000 after the player admitted writing a sectarian comment [F.T.P.] in a signed autograph for a fan. "Anti-sectarian charity Nil by Mouth made Rangers aware of an incident which took place at a private Rangers function following a complaint from a member of the public," Rangers said in a statement. "The member of the public met with manager Alex McLeish and Bob Malcolm. As result the player is being severely disciplined."
Source: Reuters reporting a Sun exclusive.

posted at 8:54 PM

Church of Scotland leaders have called for the end to children and families of asylum seekers being detained at Dungavel. The General Assembly also called for a full public inquiry into the Government's decision to go to war in Iraq and called on the Scottish Executive to "treat Shirley McKie justly". Former policewoman Ms McKie was wrongly accused of perjury for maintaining a fingerprint found at a murder scene was not hers.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 9:43 PM

The Reverend John Mitchell has called a halt to weekly open-door advice and support sessions at Bonnyrigg Parish Church after 13 years over fears that parishioners would be injured by vandals throwing bottles and planks of wood.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 9:33 PM

With the sexual abstinence programme The Silver Ring Thing about to hit Scotland, the Sun newspaper wants to talk to people who intend to wait until they're married before having sex.
Source: The Sun.
posted at 9:30 PM

When First Minister Jack McConnell addressed the Church of Scotland's General Assembly yesterday he was following in his father's footsteps. Kirk elder William McConnell, a tenant farmer from Arran, made his one and only visit to the assembly more than 35 years ago as a church commissioner representing his local parish.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:13 PM

Scotland is in danger of becoming a secularised wasteland because of the actions of its politicians, a senior churchman warned yesterday. The Rev Fergus Macdonald, the moderator of the general assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, claimed decisions by MSPs - such as excising any reference to Christmas from their greetings card - typified the current political fashion of marginalising religion in the public sector. "In these, and other, actions, the parliaments of Holyrood and Westminster are demonstrating a latent intention to turn the UK into a secularised state," said Mr Macdonald. Another example was the government's refusal to heed Britain's mainline churches when they urged caution about conflict with Iraq, on the grounds the conditions for a just war had not been met. He said: "This decision to reject the criteria for a just war may well, on reflection, have contributed to the shameful, immoral and inhuman treatment being reported as having been meted out to prisoners by a minority of coalition troops. A moral vacuum at the top fosters a moral jungle further down."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:11 PM

The new Scottish Parliament building is a temple constructed to glorify man and a "scandal of mismanagement and extravagance" said the Rev David Fraser, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), in his opening address to the Church's General Assembly in Edinburgh yesterday. In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Fraser, a Glasgow minister, also criticised the media and Islam. He said: "What I see is that the whole nation, apart from the few exceptions who appear in churches and profess their faith at the Lord's Table, are on their way to an excruciating eternity - and we are powerless to prevent it."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:06 PM

At the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Rev Alan McDonald has called for the names of two pilots involved in the Chinook air crash - which claimed the lives of 25 of Northern Ireland's top terrorism experts - to be cleared.
Source: Belfast Telegraph.
posted at 9:04 PM

The world's first three-dimensional cyber church has had to close its pulpit to ordinary worshippers after a large number of people logged in and used swear words in the establishment. The Church of Fools said it had tightened security, including withdrawing the "preach button" and putting in more wardens to stop people using abusive language.
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
posted at 9:01 PM

The uneasy relationship between the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Executive spilled over into the General Assembly yesterday with an outspoken attack on its policy on anti-social behaviour. The Rev Alan McDonald, convener of the church and nation committee, said of First Minister Jack McConnell: "He said that children charities and others - and I think that is us; people who criticise from the trendy heights - are out of touch with ordinary people. Well I don't think we are." However, the Rev Roderick MacDonald, from Cardonald in Glasgow, backed the First Minister's strategy and argued that there was no alternative to electronic tagging. "I am terrified of some of the children in our area," he said. "These are children who are terrorising other children. What do you propose instead of electronic tagging to keep control over that individual minority of children who are going to bully others?"
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:58 PM

Rev Alan McDonald, convener of the Kirk's Church and Nation committee, launched a scathing attack on the Ministry of Defence yesterday over accusations that the Church of Scotland prolonged the grief of families involved in the 1994 Chinook air crash by campaigning on their behalf.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:54 PM

Abstinence from sex before marriage should form an integral part of the way sexual education is taught in schools, the Church of Scotland's General Assembly agreed yesterday. The call came from the Rev Iain Murdoch, who urged the Assembly to speak for the values of the Kirk at a time when "those who represent us suspend their critical faculties". Mr Murdoch said the Scottish Executive's recent sexual-health consultation paper had only one mention of marriage - while the Kirk's response had none.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:48 PM

In his national pastoral letter for Communications Sunday (23 May), Bishop Joseph Devine, President of the Catholic Communications Commission, will warn against a "couch potato" syndrome in TV viewing and urge parents to ration children's viewing, discuss programmes with them and occasionally just switch off for the sake of family unity. The letter will be read out at all of Scotland's 500 Catholic parishes this weekend.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 8:25 PM

The bleak financial future facing the Church of Scotland was laid bare yesterday after it emerged that its expenditure has exceeded income by nearly £20 million over the past four years, while the value of Kirk assets have plunged by more than £35 million. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland heard that it will have to find cuts of more than £800,000 to balance next year's budget.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:13 PM

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland yesterday approved controversial measures to overhaul the structure of the church's administration which could result in redundancies among its staff.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 8:11 PM

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has called for a public inquiry into the UK Government's justification for war in Iraq.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 8:00 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has written to council chiefs opposing plans for a mixed-faith primary school campus in Midlothian. He said the Church would prefer St Margaret's RC Primary to be redeveloped and not merged with Loanhead Primary on a single site.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 7:59 PM

First Minister Jack McConnell today defended his crackdown on louts during a speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He said his drive to tackle anti-social behaviour was about defending Scotland's core values and stamping out disorder in local communities.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 7:58 PM

James Pringle, a former East Asia correspondent for Newsweek, recalls his Church of Scotland background in trying to make sense of how Christianity is filling an ideological void for former Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Source: International Herald Tribune.
posted at 7:55 PM

A pair of nesting blue tits have found refuge in the lock of a church door. The birds, which have returned to Fyvie Church for the third successive year, were first spotted by church beadle Evelyn Black. The congregation uses the other side of the double doors so not to disturb its inhabitants.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 11:29 AM

Jack McConnell will depart from his "war on neds" theme today when he offers a more positive appraisal of Scotland's young people in the first speech by a first minister to the Church of Scotland's general assembly.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 11:20 AM

Christian leaders including Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Kirk Moderator Dr Alison Elliott will meet the Dalai Lama at Dunfermline Abbey on June 3.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:18 AM

Controversial proposals to radically restructure the way the Church of Scotland is run in the face of falling revenues and declining membership were yesterday approved despite fierce opposition. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland meeting in Edinburgh agreed to the establishment of a slimmed down management structure which will see the current proliferation of administrative boards and committees slashed to just six. In addition, an Assembly Council of 16 members will be set up to administer the church between the annual meetings of the General Assembly.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:03 AM

A meeting held last week in Crete between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches has produced three studies on baptism, ecumenical dialogue and Catholic participation in local ecclesial councils. Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, co-moderator of the Joint Working Group, said that the future of ecumenism demands a return to the spiritual roots of the movement. "The document on baptism has already provided the joint commission on doctrine of the Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland with substance for its agenda," the archbishop added. "This has proved very stimulating and opened up new horizons of shared vision and cooperation."
Source: Zenit news agency.
posted at 11:01 AM

An ecumenical group which provides information and advice for families of people involved with religious and other cults has been dismayed by a decision by the Archbishop of Canterbury not to follow his predecessors by becoming its patron. Inform, based at the London School of Economics, has had the active support of both Rowan Williams' predecessors, George Carey and the late Robert Runcie, since its foundation 16 years ago. Among its other patrons are the moderator of the Free Churches' Council, and Catholic and Greek Orthodox bishops. Colin Slee, dean and provost of Southwark Cathedral and now the senior Anglican on Inform's board of governors, was considering his position after Dr Williams' decision. Some senior members of the group suggested Dr Williams had been "nobbled" by Anglican evangelicals who disapprove of Inform's consensual rather than confrontational approach to new religions.
Source: The Guardian.
posted at 10:50 AM

Alison Elliot, the first female Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, yesterday said it had to embrace the future with the "promise of possibility".
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 10:44 AM

A fresh call for a public inquiry will be made when leading members of the Church of Scotland tomorrow debate the case of Shirley McKie at the general assembly. The Kirk will receive the call to back the inquiry campaign in the chamber where MSPs refused to raise the case of Ms McKie, the former policewoman who was cleared of lying on oath during a murder trial. She was wrongly accused of perjury for insisting that a fingerprint found at a murder scene was not hers.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 10:42 AM

The first non-minister since the sixteenth century to take on the role of Moderator of the General Assembly, Dr Alison Elliot made it clear as she took up the post that she would attempt to lighten the culture that surrounds the most senior churchperson in the country.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 10:33 AM

As the General Assembly begins, Allan Massie writes: "It may well be that there is no place now for a national church. In our pick-and-mix society there can be no one voice that speaks for all. It may be that in its zeal (which cannot be doubted) to promote the collective good of Scotland, the kirk is failing to answer the needs of individuals."
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 10:49 PM

The first female Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was yesterday formally appointed to the post at the opening of the Kirk's annual gathering. Dr Alison Elliot, 54, scored two firsts when she was selected for the job last October by becoming the first woman and the first church elder in modern times to hold the title.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 10:29 PM

Profile of Jan de Vries, the Dutch-born, Scottish-based alternative therapist. Britain's most famous alternative health practitioner holds a strong Christian faith despite wartime experiences which included his father and older brother being imprisoned in Auschwitz.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 10:20 PM