Scotland's most inspirational mother Helena Cairns shed tears of joy last night as she was named Great Scot 2004. Former nurse Helena, 45, scooped Scotland's top People's Oscar for fostering 28 little victims of the Chernobyl disaster. She became involved after hearing a charity worker address her church group.
Source: Sunday Mail.
at 12:47 PM

One of Scotland's leading churchmen has demanded a clampdown on drinking shown in television soaps, claiming it encourages alcohol abuse among teenagers. Canon Kenyon Wright, an architect of devolution and the chair of Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS), has condemned programmes such as Casualty, EastEnders, Holby City and Coronation Street for glamorising "irresponsible" drinking.
Source: Sunday Times.
at 12:27 PM

Members of parent-teacher associations and students who help to mentor younger children could soon be forced to undergo police checks to ensure they are not paedophiles. Last week, voluntary organisations including the Girl Guides, the Scouts and the Boys Brigade, warned they could be forced to close as a result of the new checks, introduced by the Protection of Children Act (Scotland). While legislation in England covers only regulated workers such as teachers and social workers, in Scotland all unregulated workers, including parent volunteers, will face checks.
Source: Sunday Times.
at 12:16 PM

Scots-born Annie Sinclair Cunningham (1832-1897) will be inducted in November into the Wheeling, West Virginia, hall of fame. Annie Cunningham helped found the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1896 she was elected president of the International Union of Women for Foreign Mission Work at the organization's meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. Unfortunately, her three-year term was cut short by her death less than a year later.
Source: The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register.
at 11:47 AM

The public furore over Scotland's sexual health strategy has been reignited by a Greater Glasgow Health Board scheme to extend the provision of the morning-after pill to girls as young as 13 without their parents' consent. A letter from the board to community pharmacists reveals that from January a pilot group of 30 chemists will be allowed to hand out Levonelle-2 tablets free to children in conjunction with another scheme to give children free condoms. Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic church in Scotland, said the Glasgow project was "reckless and dangerous". "This completely pre-empts the executive's long-awaited sexual health strategy and effectively gives the green light to sexual promiscuity on the part of young children, leaving aside the question of the illegality of underage sex," he said. Eileen McCloy, founder of the parents' group Not With My Child, added: "It is bizarre and disrespectful to parents for the health board to ride roughshod over their concerns. Parents will be wild with anger."
Source: Sunday Times.
at 11:33 AM

Thoughtful piece by DJ and an events promoter Alan Miller, the PR for Glasgay. "Hundreds of years of religious social guilt and judgmental puritanism has built up to leave us Scots with one cracking headache of mixed messages," he writes, adding: "The Catholic Church broadly believes that homosexuality is a corrupting temptation, and not a defining 'identity'. Like bad luck, it could happen to anyone. This is not the same as saying it can be caught or for that matter taught ... but that as a possibility, it lies within us all. However, for the political gay community this idea is a bit of a socio-sexual hot potato. Many gays like to believe that inside every straight there is a gay person waiting to come out, but the far more unsettling reality is that this works equally the other way around..."
Source: Sunday Herald.
at 11:26 AM

The appointment of openly gay ministers would rip the Church of Scotland apart, according to the kirk's next moderator. Rev David Lacy said the kirk could not afford to ordain ministers known to be homosexual. "The church is evenly divided and it would rip itself apart," he said. "I find myself truly representative of the church in that sometimes I believe we should not appoint gay ministers and at other times I really believe we should." He added: "There are certainly people of homosexual persuasion in the ministry of the Church of Scotland who are non-practising and that's perfectly legitimate, but they wouldn't force the issue on the church because they love it despite its failings. My heart goes out to them because we just can't get to grips with the issue and I admire them. They can't help their sexuality but for the sake of the church they love they don't practise it."
Source: Sunday Times.
at 11:19 AM

Penicuik's first 'Drug-proof Your Kids' course, sponsored by the local Crime Prevention Panel and tutored by Ivor and Denise Forrest from the charity Care for the Family, has proved successful.
Source: Peeblesshire News.
at 8:38 PM

Kenny Williamson of the Turning Point Craft Initiative in Shetland has been presented with a £10,000 cheque from Faithworks, the Christian social action movement. In January this year Mr Williamson, a committed Christian, set up the initiative for recovering drug and alcohol addicts which combines woodworking and woodturning skills with addiction counselling.
Source: Shetland News.
at 8:31 PM

New security measures are being introduced at St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Inverness after details emerged in court of the theft of a valuable candlestick from the altar. The vestry committee this week agreed to implement unspecified safeguards in addition to the closed-circuit television cameras which were installed immediately after the theft. But there is no question of the Cathedral's open door policy being abandoned, said Cathedral spokesman Canon Len Black, Dean of the Diocese of Moray, Ross and Caithness.
Source: Inverness Courier.
at 8:26 PM

Kate Henderson has won the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts 'New Young Artist' award for her nine-panelled stained glass window in Dalbeattie Parish Church.
Source: icDumfries - Galloway News.
at 8:20 PM

Christians who use the Bible to sanction secrecy regarding child abuse are rebuked in HELP, a set of materials produced by the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS), which criticises the sometimes "immense pressure from within the church to deal internally with a situation such as abuse". The use of Biblical verses such as Matthew 18:15 ('If one of my followers sins against you, go and point out what was wrong, but do it in private, just between the two of you.") to justify an "in-house treatment" of abuse cases is also challenged in the booklet.
Source: Church of England Newspaper.
at 7:49 PM

A 540-strong kirk congregation has pledged a staggering £280,000 to a roof repair fund. Officials at St Andrew's Church in Moffat have been stunned by the response to an appeal for donations.
Source: icDumfries - Dumfries & Galloway Standard.
at 7:29 PM

A town is to mark Halloween by officially pardoning 81 witches executed more than 400 years ago. Descendants and namesakes of those put to death in the town of Prestonpans, East Lothian, during Scotland's 16th and 17th century witch-hunts are expected to attend Sunday's ceremony. Local historian Roy Pugh, who helped secure the pardons by presenting evidence to the local baronial court, will make the declaration in what he described as a "simple and solemn" ceremony. Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, the 14th Baron, decided to convene his court to consider the pardon before it is abolished on November 28 under legislation ending Scotland's feudal system.
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
at 7:27 PM

An arsonist who tried to burn down two churches has been locked up. The vestry at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Bishopton was gutted by a blaze after a makeshift firebomb was thrown at the building. Hours earlier Bishopton Parish Church in Ferry Road, Esrkine, was targeted by the same firebug.
Source: icRenfrewshire - Paisley Daily Express.
at 7:22 PM

The Church of Scotland has opened its controversial retreat in the Holy Land. The Tiberias Centre at St Andrews in Galilee, acquired in 1884 for medical missionary work, has been refurbished at a cost of more than £10m.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
at 7:17 PM

The Catholic Church in Scotland has condemned the delay in appointing the new team of European commissioners because of opposition to Rocco Buttiglione, the proposed justice commissioner, claiming it showed prejudice against those with religious beliefs. John Deighan, the Church's parliamentary officer, had e-mailed every Scottish MEP, urging them to reject the move to block Mr Buttiglione, calling it an unjust attack on freedom of religion and conscience. MEPs are opposed to Mr Buttiglione, who has called homosexuality a sin and holds conservative views on women and marriage.
Source: The Herald.
at 7:15 PM

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager and former Scotland manager, has credited his love of football and his understanding of leadership to his time with the Boys Brigade, the Christian uniformed youth organisation formed in Glasgow more than 100 years ago.
Source: The Herald.
at 7:09 PM

A new stage in the journey of local churches from different denominations working together throughout Scotland has begun with the launch of a National Sponsoring Body for local ecumenical partnerships by the Scottish Churches' Forum in Dunblane. The Sponsoring Body brings together the nine member churches of Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS), together with the Baptist Union of Scotland, to act as an advice and support agency for existing and new local ecumenical partnerships.
More...
at 7:06 PM

The Methodist Church is launching a competition to find the best recipes for Mocktails - alcohol free cocktails - aimed at encouraging sensible drinking among younger women. The contest is timed to coincide with the release of the movie Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Source: Methodist Church news release.
at 10:43 PM

The Church of Scotland has officially re-opened its Tiberias centre in Galilee. Occupancy rates have been running at just under 50 per cent since it began taking guests in July of this year, with visiting parties composed substantially of people from other areas of the Holy Land, in addition to church groups from Asia, Europe and the USA. The hotel's 35 staff is comprised of Arab Christians and Muslims, Jews and Druze as well as Scottish Presbyterians.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
at 10:36 PM

Neil Robertson, 41, a music teacher at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Glasgow, has dropped his religious discrimination claim against Glasgow City Council. He raised his action after failing to get a promoted post but midway through the third day of evidence withdrew his complaint. He said he was now satisfied the reason he had not got the job was not because he was a Protestant.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
at 10:27 PM

Rev David Lacy, moderator-designate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, is an experienced leader of the general assembly's administration and is seen as a conventional figure. He said yesterday his role as a parish minister at Henderson Parish Church in Kilmarnock was one of the reasons for his being elected. "I've always been very outspoken about that. I believe that the parish system works and also that the national church works better than its reputation." He described talk that the church was dying as nonsense. "I just think the church is an amazing institution and am pleased to represent that cause for a year".
Source: The Herald.
at 11:31 PM

A growing Edinburgh church is to ask its members to raise an average of more than £5000 each so they can all get a seat every Sunday. The congregation at St Paul's and St George's Episcopal Church in the New Town is growing so fast that people are regularly forced to stand at the back during services. Now the church has drawn up plans for a £4 million expansion and is turning to its members to raise nearly all the cash.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
at 11:24 PM

A mass lobby of the Scottish Parliament tomorrow will urge MSPs to play their part in reforming the world trading system to benefit the millions living in poverty. Groups from all over Scotland are expected to take part in the "Head for Holyrood" event at noon, organised by the Scottish coalition of the Trade Justice Movement, which includes Christian Aid, Oxfam, the World Development Movement, the Church of Scotland's world mission department and the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
at 7:06 PM

The Rev David W. Lacy, minister of Kilmarnock Henderson Parish Church in Ayrshire, has been named as Moderator Designate of the 2005 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. More...
at 2:54 PM

A music teacher at a Glasgow Catholic school is claiming religious discrimination after he failed to be appointed to a promoted post. Neil Robertson, who is Protestant, is the first to use new legislation banning discrimination on the grounds of religious belief in Scotland. The 41-year-old music teacher claims his application for a new post as head of the faculty of performing arts at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Glasgow's west end was unsuccessful because of his religious beliefs, even though he was the only candidate to be interviewed.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
at 2:37 PM

A music teacher at a Glasgow Catholic school is claiming religious discrimination after he failed to be appointed to a promoted post. Neil Robertson, who is Protestant, is the first to use new legislation banning discrimination on the grounds of religious belief in Scotland. The 41-year-old music teacher claims his application for a new post as head of the faculty of performing arts at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Glasgow's west end was unsuccessful because of his religious beliefs, even though he was the only candidate to be interviewed.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
at 2:37 PM

An ancient well in east Caithness once renowned for its curative properties has been brought back into use. The Brethren Well, near Lybster harbour, is believed to have been used by monks from a nearby priory more than 1,500 years ago.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
at 9:42 AM

Devout Christian Roy MacGregor has stood down as chairman of Ross County football club after 10 years to concentrate on his business interests. MacGregor famously stayed away from the club's League Cup tie against Rangers in Dingwall in 2001 after it was switched to a Sunday Sky TV slot. MacGregor's legacy is a football operation copied by clubs across Britain. The youth set-up overshadows that of many SPL outfits with around 17,000 youngsters coached every year. Many more unemployed, disadvantaged and disabled adults benefit from a range of Life Skills courses and services.
Source: Daily Record.
at 9:39 AM

Performances by the Puppetry of the Penis show at the local authority-operated Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock later this week are being opposed by Rev Calum MacLeod, minister of Kilmarnock Howard St Andrew's Church of Scotland. He said: "If this kind of show happened in the street, they'd be arrested. It's a sad reflection on society and the morals of those responsible for our public institutions, and the council are accountable." Irvine and Kilmarnock presbytery referred the matter to one of its committees for further discussion.
Source: The Herald.
at 9:24 AM

The Archbishop of Armagh, Robin Eames, chairman of the church's report into its conflict on homosexuality, was a special guest at a service at the weekend marking the bicentenary of the Synod of Laurencekirk, which helped determine the future of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Synod of Laurencekirk in 1804 saw the church take a major step towards the repeal of 18th century penal laws under which it suffered persecution.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
at 7:05 PM

Edinburgh-born Royal Navy NCO Chris Cranmer, who has been granted permission to carry out Satanic rituals on board a British warship under laws protecting religious freedom, has been defended by his mother, Catherine, a member of the Church of Scotland. "He does not have an evil bone in his body and he is an upstanding member of society," she said. "He is a very kind, sweet and good-natured son who loves his family deeply."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
at 7:00 PM

In an interview to be aired on Fox News tonight, President George W. Bush reaffirms his reliance on 'My Utmost for His Highest', a compilation of daily devotionals based on the teachings of Oswald Chambers, a Scottish minister who died in 1917. "It's a way for me on a daily basis to be in The Word," Bush said.
Source: Brandeton.com.
at 6:47 PM

Between 500 and 550 members of the Black Watch held a final church parade in the relative calm of southern Iraq on Sunday as they prepared to head towards danger zones nearer Baghdad to help US forces tackle rebel hotspots.
Source: Designerz.com/Agence France Presse
at 6:39 PM

BBC Scotland is devoting five nights next week to Teen Commandments, in which kids from Auchterarder to Orkney tell video diaries about their lives, including attitudes to Christianity.
Source: Daily Record.
at 6:29 PM

The Evangelical Alliance believes that the government's Gambling Bill is confused, contradictory and potentially poses a serious threat to local communities and the social health of the nation. While welcoming the government's proposals to protect children from the worst effects of gambling deregulation and its stated top priority of safeguarding society, the Alliance finds it hard to see how the Bill can do this in its current form.
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.
at 6:24 PM

A Scottish devil-worshipping non-commissioned officer in the Royal Navy has become the first registered Satanist in the British Armed Forces. Chris Cranmer, 24, a naval technician from Edinburgh serving on the Type 22 frigate Cumberland, has been officially recognised as a Satanist by the ship's captain. That allows him to perform Satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a funeral carried out by the Church of Satan should he be killed in action.
Source: Sunday Telegraph.
at 4:40 PM

Religious figures are opposing a new law that would protect gays and lesbians from hate crime because they fear the rules will prevent them from attacking homosexuality as a sin. Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, said the new categories of hate crime would curtail religious freedom of speech. Gordon Macdonald, of Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), says the recommendations reflect the fact that faith-based organisations were "excluded" from the working group. "There were three gay and lesbian organisations on it, but not one religious group. It is not surprising that it came up with proposals that were imbalanced," he said. Don Horrocks, the head of public affairs for the Evangelical Alliance, believes the proposals will lead to members of the gay community demanding "malicious" prosecutions. The general secretary of the Scottish Bishops' Conference in the Catholic Church, Monsignor Henry Docherty, said he felt the new law could be used to intimidate Christians.
Source: Sunday Herald.
at 4:13 PM

Zambia aims to attract an additional 400,000 tourists in 2005, marking the 150 years since Scottish explorer David Livingstone first visited the Victoria Falls.
Source: Reuters Foundation Alertnet.
at 11:28 PM

Hearing a charity worker address her church group inspired Helena Cairns to become 'mother' to 28 child victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, taking them into her own home for a month at a time. Now she is a finalist in the 2004 Great Scot awards.
Source: Sunday Mail.
at 11:23 PM

Members of the Free Church of Scotland have been told they should not allow their children to go out guising this year because Hallowe'en falls on the Sabbath. If they insist on dressing up as goblins and ghouls to visit friends and neighbours, they should do so next Saturday - a day early.
Source: Sunday Times.
at 11:20 PM

Peace campaigner and Church of Scotland minister Rev David McLachlan insists he will stick to his principles after law lords threw out his appeal against a £150 fine imposed at Helensburgh District Court for a blockade of Faslane naval base, near Glasgow, in February 2001. Now the minister of Langside Parish Church in Glasgow is refusing to pay the fine and is prepared to go to jail to defend his beliefs.
Source: Sunday Herald.
at 11:16 PM

Angus Calder says inaccuracies - especially about the Reformation - spoil Carl MacDougall's book of the TV series Writing Scotland: How Scotland's Writers Shaped the Nation. On one particular "poisonous myth", Calder writes: "It is constantly alleged that Knox and his grim co-thinkers destroyed theatre in Scotland - MacDougall suggests that they actually burnt playhouses down. How could they, when these did not exist? Outdoor 'folk' forms of popular theatre had been proscribed under the Catholic Mary of Guise, as subversive of public order. Knox himself thereafter attended, without protest, a private theatrical performance. Edinburgh's population was too small to support public theatres such as flourished in Shakespeare's London and James VI was in no position to provide such patronage as Queen Elizabeth accorded to dramatists."
Source: The Scotsman.
at 8:17 PM

Angus Calder says inaccuracies - especially about the Reformation - spoil Carl MacDougall's book of the TV series Writing Scotland: How Scotland's Writers Shaped the Nation. On one particular "poisonous myth", Calder writes: "It is constantly alleged that Knox and his grim co-thinkers destroyed theatre in Scotland - MacDougall suggests that they actually burnt playhouses down. How could they, when these did not exist? Outdoor 'folk' forms of popular theatre had been proscribed under the Catholic Mary of Guise, as subversive of public order. Knox himself thereafter attended, without protest, a private theatrical performance. Edinburgh's population was too small to support public theatres such as flourished in Shakespeare's London and James VI was in no position to provide such patronage as Queen Elizabeth accorded to dramatists."
Source: The Scotsman.
at 8:16 PM

Vernon Love is building a cairn at Highland Park in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The stones include a slab from Iona.
Source: Shreveport Times.
at 1:41 PM

United Reformed Church members are being urged to join a mass lobby of the Scottish Parliament on October 27 in support of the "Vote for Trade Justice" campaign.
Source: United Reformed Church Scottish Synod.
at 7:22 PM

Plans for a major Orange Order procession in Penicuik on June 25 next year were given the go ahead by Midlothian Council's General Purposes Committee last week. The decision follows discussions between representatives of the Order and the local police after the two sides were unable to agree on an acceptable route.
Source: Peeblesshire News.
at 7:16 PM

Dunblane Cathedral's congregation is being asked to dig a little deeper after its annual accounts showed a deficit of around £14,000 for the second year running. Rev Colin McIntosh said: "The barrier we have to get through is the perception that because the cathedral looks very striking that we have lots of money. The fact is we don't but I am hopeful that if we give people the facts and information they will respond."
Source: icStirling - Stirling Observer.
at 7:06 PM

Rev Archie Black, former minister of Ness Bank Church, says BBC1's longrunning Songs of Praise programme should be axed after viewing a recent programme filmed in Inverness and on the Caledonian Canal. He accuses the long-running series of being run to an Anglican agenda and ignoring Scotland's majority Presbyterian tradition. He also claims the Inverness programme was inaccurate and snubbed Gaelic culture. Inaccuracies included describing Thomas Telford, designer of the Caledonian Canal, as a Victorian engineer when he died three years before Queen Victoria's reign, and suggesting the Battle of Culloden was an English victory over the Scots. A spokeswoman for Songs of Praise said: "Seven of the last eight programme filmed in Scotland came from Church of Scotland buildings, so I think Mr Black is being a little unfair." Local Episcopalian priest, Canon Len Black, also defended the programme. "It's very fair to all the churches, " he said. "I have never found any bias and the programme-makers go out of their way to avoid this." However, Donald Martin, director of Comunn Na Gaidhlig, expressed his disappointment at the lack of any Gaelic content in the Highland episode transmitted earlier this month.
Source: Inverness Courier.
at 6:51 PM

Cornerstone Church in Kilwinning is aiming to become cosmopolitan by opening a Starbucks coffee shop inside.
Source: icAyrshire - Irvine Herald.
at 6:45 PM

There is a special evening service at Irvine's Mure Church on Sunday, October 24, when the Rev Hugh Adamson and his parishioners welcome back missionary partners Liz and Kevin Borlase and their children Hannah and Justin from Kikuyu Hospital, Kenya, where they are working under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.
Source: icAyrshire - Irvine Herald.
at 6:42 PM

Shop workers will be guaranteed Christmas Day off this year after the passing of the Christmas Day (Trading) Bill. It was welcomed by Dumfries MP Russell Brown, who collected more than 1,000 signatures from church congregations across Dumfries and Galloway in a bid to secure the day as a holiday for shop staff.
Source: icDumfries - Dumfries & Galloway Standard.
at 6:29 PM

Civic Christmas decorations are being put up in Perth, and the Salvation Army is among those concerned at the way the festive season is being stretched out each year. Major David Hinton, West Scotland divisional commander, said: "It is becoming common practice in many walks of life to display the external trappings of Christmas ever earlier in the year, and we are concerned at what appears to be the increasing secularisation of what is fundamentally a Christian festival. The commercial exploitation of Christmas misses the essential message, that a loving God has visited this world in the person of his son, to redeem humanity and show in Christ a loving and caring way of life."
Source: The Herald.
at 9:06 AM

The BBC's flagship religious affairs programme, Songs of Praise, "has no relevance to Presbyterian Scotland", according to Rev Archie Black, former minister of Ness Bank Church in Inverness. "The programme is promoting Anglicanism and an Anglican vision of worship and should be taken off the air," he said following a broadcast from Inverness on Sunday 10 October, the weekend of the National Mod. "Significantly, the Church of Scotland was unrepresented in this programme," Mr Black claimed. "The praise, for the most part, was bland and ill-chosen. Notably, there was nothing from the Scottish Psalter. And although the Caledonian Canal transects the heart of the Gaidhealtachd, there was not the slightest reference to the Gaelic language."
Source: The Scotsman.
at 8:52 AM

The Salvation Army believes that new laws planned by the government which would pave the way for mega-casinos are a grave mistake that will lead to more people becoming gambling addicts. According to an NOP poll, 93% of the population think there are enough opportunities to gamble in the UK already.
Source: Salvation Army news release.
at 6:28 PM

The Salvation Army believes that new laws planned by the government which would pave the way for mega-casinos are a grave mistake that will lead to more people becoming gambling addicts. According to an NOP poll, 93% of the population think there are enough opportunities to gamble in the UK already.
Source: Salvation Army news release.
at 6:28 PM

The Church of Scotland has "significant concerns" about the Government's new Gambling Bill. Ian Manson, director of the Kirk's Board of Social Responsibility, said: "One of the consequences of this Bill will be to widen the availability of gambling and therefore increase the number of people involved in this activity. This in turn will inevitably lead to an increased number of people developing an addiction to gambling. From its pastoral and caring work the Church is well aware of the grief that such an addiction causes individuals and families, a grief that can often end both in financial ruin and relationship ruin."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
at 3:34 PM

Contents in the November issue of Life & Work magazine include a feature on the new Church of Scotland and United Free Church hymnary, CH4, which has taken a 30-strong committee eight years to produce. In the second part of the exclusive new series, Faith for Today, the Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan reflects on contemporary Christianity. And there's an insight into the year-long celebration of the Kirk's Church without Walls initiative which begins in November.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
at 3:31 PM

The Church of Scotland is running a competition to find a Photographer of the Year. Church-related entries from snappers anywhere in the world are invited, and visitors to the Kirk's website will be able to vote for their favourite image from January. Website editor Lynsae Tulloch said: "Whether it's a photo of innovative worship in Inverness, sunlight streaming through a stained glass window in Europe or mission in action in Africa, we want to see those entries."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
at 10:21 AM

The US diocese of New Hampshire, at the centre of the row which is rocking the worldwide Anglican communion after it elected an openly gay bishop, last night issued a formal apology for the pain and confusion it had caused the church. The move is likely to be rejected as inadequate and cynical by conservative evangelicals who had been demanding repentence and Robinson's resignation, moves the bishop has rejected many times.
Source: The Guardian.
at 9:55 AM

Horse racing will be allowed on Christmas Day and Good Friday for the first time under a shake-up of Britain's gambling laws. The Rev John Watson, of convener the Church of Scotland's study group on gambling, said: "I wonder how much further the Government is going to drag us into the gutter. The Church is totally opposed to licensed gaming and betting on Christmas Day and Good Friday."
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
at 6:42 PM

The Windsor Report on the future of the Anglican Communion has "clear implications" for the Scottish Episcopal Church, according to its Primus, Most Rev Bruce Cameron. "I hope we will not make any quick knee-jerk reaction to what is a very full report with far-reaching recommendations," he said. "I have always affirmed that I believe the Scottish Episcopal Church's vocation is to be an open and inclusive church, allowing a wide degree of diversity to exist within its life. At the same time I do not want to diminish the pain that is felt by both sides when we engage those matters of faith and practice that deeply divide us."
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
at 10:02 AM

Obituary of Professor Ernest Best ("Paddy"), internationally renowned New Testament scholar, best known for his work on Mark's Gospel and the Epistle to the Ephesians; born 23 May 1917 in Belfast, died 1 October 2004 in St Andrews, aged 87.
Source: The Scotsman.
at 9:28 AM

Interview with Church of Scotland minister, life skills coach and business consultant Norman Drummond, focusing on the Gemini Project, which pairs disadvantaged young people with corporate high flyers.
Source: ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
at 9:18 AM

Edinburgh civic leaders were today forced into a major road tolls U-turn after a public inquiry ruled their plans were unfair. Objectors included the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Edinburgh.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
at 5:26 PM

Bishops should observe a "moratorium" on ordaining any more openly gay clergy after the ordination of a gay canon in the US caused "deep offence" among the Anglican community, a key report said today. The Windsor report, compiled by a commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, called on the US Episcopal church to apologise after "proper constraints" were breached in the ordination of Canon Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire last year.
Source: The Guardian.
at 5:22 PM

Britain's ancient laws of blasphemy and blasphemous libel are likely to be repealed under proposals being considered by the home secretary, David Blunkett. The move is being considered as part of a package that will include a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, in order to make clear that freedom of speech and the freedom to criticise religions will not be curtailed.
Source: The Guardian.
at 5:19 PM

Five of the six ministers who have tended the Echt community for the past 40 years gathered as the parish church marked its 200th anniversary yesterday. They included the Rev S. Edwin P. Beveridge, who was Echt minister in the early 1960s, right up to the current minister, the Rev Alan Murray, who began his duties in the community last February. Also attending were the Rev George Robson, the Rev Jim Dick and the Rev David Souter. Alastair Stuart, son of the late Rev Charles Stuart, represented his father at the joint gathering with the Midmar congregation.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
at 11:25 AM

The Church of Scotland's controversial luxury hotel in the Holy Land would have been scrapped if it had been known how long violence between Palestinians and Israel would drag on, Rev Fred Hibbert, who is running the hotel and has overseen its construction, appears to admit in an interview. The £9.5m Scots Hotel in Tiberias officially opens in less than a fortnight as Israeli forces wind up a 17-day crackdown on insurgents in Gaza which has killed 109 Palestinians.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
at 7:57 PM

Two 6ft-wide plasma TV screens have been installed at Orchardhill parish church in Giffnock, Glasgow, to help parishioners join in with hymns and prayers. Session clerk Jo Weir said: 'There has been a positive reaction from young people. They have also gone down well with those with eyesight problems who find it difficult to sing from hymn books.'
Source: Sunday Mail.
at 7:53 PM

Feature on the Scottish Executive's 'harm reduction' approach to tackling drug addiction. Christian anti-drugs worker Maxie Richards is among those quoted: "It has been a complete disaster. We are living with the mess caused by harm reduction. If it had worked we would not have had this explosion in drug deaths and drug crime. It speaks for itself. It is quite disgraceful that we have allowed it to get to this point."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
at 7:38 PM

Scots composer James MacMillan, who hit the headlines five years ago when he talked about 'Scotland's shame' of religious bigotry, collected a CBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday.
Source: Daily Record.
at 12:30 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has said that Catholics must have more children or face seeing their faith eclipsed by the religions of immigrants. He said members of the Church hierarchy fear immigrant groups could "take over" in western European countries because they have more children than indigenous Christians.
Source: The Scotsman.
at 12:19 PM

Review of how Cardinal Keith O'Brien and the Catholic Church in Scotland have fared in his first year since receiving the biretta. "I'm not saying we are perfect, but we are working towards perfection," he says.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 12:14 PM