Rangers fans are flocking to the site of The Miracle of the Wounded Knee. The small church near Kirkcaldy, Fife, where defender Marvin Andrews claims the healing powers of prayer overcame a career-threatening injury, has become a place of pilgrimage for dozens of Gers. And up to 50 Rangers fans are writing or emailing the Zion Praise Centre in the hope a little of the Lord's restorative powers rubs off on them.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 8:40 PM

A landmark church in the heart of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site has been given a new lease of life. The top tier of the tower and weather vane on the category B-listed Augustine United Church on George IV Bridge have been restored, 20 years after they were removed for safety reasons. The work is part of a £230,000 revamp for the 19th-century church.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 8:33 PM

A legal colleague of Donald Findlay QC last night pondered whether the former Rangers vice-chairman's controversial behaviour was a sign of loneliness. At Larne Rangers Social Club in Northern Ireland last Friday evening, Mr Findlay was reported to have said: "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another f***ing Pope died?" He then went on to tell a vulgar joke about a nun. But the QC defended his new role as stand-up comic and insisted he had done nothing wrong. "There was nothing sectarian in any of my comments," he said. "I made no comments. I told gags at a Rangers supporters' club dinner. I and others have been telling the same gags for three years or more. If you want to make a serious point about this, the serious point is this: are we saying today in Scotland that there is a list of subjects that you are not allowed to make a gag about? If somebody is telling me that then the question I would pose is: what the hell does that do for free speech in this country? Are we so anally retentive?" The QC went on to describe Scotland as a "miserably twisted and at times bigoted media-driven country". He denied that he himself was a religious bigot, and insisted that anyone who accused him of such behaviour was themself a bigot. The question many of his colleagues ask is why a prominent QC performs on the public stage for a fee which Mr Findlay says is "often considerably less than £500". "I think he is a genuinely lonely person," said one lawyer. "He's never married, his 'relationship' with Rangers came undone back in 1999 and I think that was probably the saddest day of his life. Attending these functions is probably some sort of substitute."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:30 PM

A highly organised break-in at Dunkeld Cathedral has horrified churchgoers who found thieves had escaped with a haul worth thousands of pounds. Parishioners on Sunday discovered a shattered display case. Several "irreplaceable" items, all centuries-old, were missing from the Chapter House museum.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 8:05 PM

Bob Geldof today urged schoolchildren to play truant to march on Edinburgh in their millions in a bid to influence the G8 summit. His co-ordinating partner Midge Ure urged every householder and religious institution in and around Edinburgh to offer hospitality to the protesters. "We want every church, chapel, synagogue and mosque to open their doors and let them in," he said.
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
posted at 7:58 PM

A chorus of criticism began yesterday over remarks made by one of Scotland's leading lawyers about the late Pope John Paul II. Speaking in Larne, Northern Ireland, Donald Findlay QC asked an audience of Rangers Football Club supporters: "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another f****** Pope died?" A spokesman for the Glasgow archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church said: "This is yet another lamentable lapse of judgment on the part of someone who should know better." Mr Findlay said his after-dinner routine usually contained obscenities and he would joke about religions, including the Protestant faith. "At the same event I cracked jokes about Ian Paisley. Are we really at the stage that there is a list of things that you cannot make jokes about?" he said.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 7:54 PM

An appeal for the churches in Britain to help bring an end to the inequality and discrimination suffered by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land was made today by Father Samuel Barhoum, Anglican Vicar of Nazareth. Preaching at the National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Father Samuel requested the church's "solidarity and support so that we can continue with our work, so that we can encourage Christians to remain steadfast."
Source: Anglican Communion News Service.
posted at 7:50 PM

A minister healed an 800 year old rift by apologising to generations of miners snubbed by their church. Snooty lairds banned them from Newton Church in the 13th century. Miners only got into the kirk in Danderhall, Midlothian, around 1720 - after they built their own gallery so the bluebloods couldn't see them. The Rev Jan Gillies apologised to the congregation at the funeral of former pitman Dennis English. Jan, 56, said: 'I was horrified when I heard about the church's history and felt that there was still a lot of hurt."
Source: Daily Record.
posted at 8:38 PM

Donald Findlay QC, one of Scotland's leading criminal lawyers, last night admitted he had told a joke about the late Pope John Paul II at a Rangers social club in Northern Ireland. Mr Findlay, who resigned as vice-chairman of Rangers Football Club six years ago after being filmed singing Orange songs at a social club next to Ibrox, could face investigation by the Faculty of Advocates if a complaint is made. Mr Findlay, 54, attended the event at the Larne Rangers Social Club with Andy Goram, the former Rangers goalkeeper. Both delivered routines alleged to have been littered with obscenities and jokes about Catholics. Mr Findlay said to an audience of around 140 people: "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another f***ing Pope died?" Last night Mr Findlay defended his remarks. "I am not denying telling jokes. I refute that it was a sectarian tirade."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 8:25 PM

A diocesan celebration was held in the Caird Hall in Dundee yesterday to mark the Year of the Eucharist. The event was led by Bishop Vincent Logan, the Bishop of Dunkeld, on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The day was split in two parts with the Emmaus journey brought to life in drama and song by a group of young people. The celebration of Mass formed the second part of the event with many young people making their first holy communion, with children from as far afield as Alloa, Tullibody and High Valleyfield in Fife as well as Dundee attending.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 8:21 PM

Murchadh Macleoid complains: "Among the cities of Scotland, only in Glasgow and Edinburgh can one find a Gaelic church service each Sunday. There is nothing in Aberdeen, and - more disturbingly - in Inverness ... Compared to the sheer poetry of the Gaelic Bible, the English version is dry and uninspiring. Our Gaelic spiritual heritage stretches back for 1,500 years. The roots of the Highland Sabbath come from the practices of the Celtic Church. If we lose the language from the churches then we also lose our religious roots. We shall just be a branch of an English-language religious world, always seeking for leadership and learning from outside without any notion that there might be some depth and goodness in our own religious heritage." He concludes: "Chan eil sinn ach ag iarraidh an cothrom a bhi ag adhradh anns a' chànain sin a bha tlachdmhor dhuinn bho làithean ar n-òige. Mas e cuir as dhuinne am freagairt dha uireasbhaidhean nan eaglais, chuir cuid-eigin a' cheist cheàrr."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:18 PM

Historic Scotland has objected to plans for a multi-million-pound extension to a popular Edinburgh church which is bursting at the seams. St Paul's and St George's Episcopal Church at the top of Broughton Street can only seat 350 people, but regularly a congregation twice that size manages to cram in, with many worshippers being forced to stand at the back. Rector Dave Richards said: "We were disappointed by the tone and content of Historic Scotland's objections. These plans are the end result of five years of discussion and thought. Twenty years ago, St Paul's and St George's was a dying congregation and the future of the building was in doubt. Today over 800 people of all ages attend its Sunday services and participate in events throughout the week."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 8:13 PM

Fashionable wristbands worn to publicise the Make Poverty History campaign are produced in appalling "slave labour" conditions, damning evidence has revealed. Chinese factory workers producing the white rubber bracelets are forced to toil in conditions that violate Chinese law and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) set up to establish international standards for working conditions. Hearing of the news yesterday, Sir Bob Geldof, called for immediate measures to improve the terms and conditions of the workers with the threat of all business being withdrawn if the response is unsatisfactory. A leading executive in one British charity also condemned the revelations as "deeply shocking". He went on to blame Oxfam, Christian Aid and Cafod of "rank hypocrisy" for dealing with sweat shops while calling for fair and ethical trade.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:10 PM

Sandy Stoddart, the sculptor, will this week unveil the latest in a line of commemorative busts. His James MacMillan is a likeness of the avant-garde composer complete with trademark designer stubble. "Neither MacMillan nor I are seen as artists who are willing to 'take part' - we don't share the consensus view - so we work outside the Establishment," says Stoddart. "From that point of view, I suppose this work is also, in part, an auto- portrait." One of the most exciting recent commissions is a request from a Catholic seminary in Chicago for a bust of Pope John Paul II. "I've always considered myself as a religious artist, but without any theological confinement. I was brought up in the Baptist tradition, I'm interested in Hindu teachings and I have more of less devoted my life to the depiction of the Greek gods," he explains.
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 8:05 PM

The Church of Scotland is to push ahead with plans to have advertising on its website, despite dire warnings to the General Assembly that it was heading down "a dangerous road" that could lead to it being commercialised and devalued.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:05 PM

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland insisted that the Kirk was not in crisis, and told churchgoers to shake off their "despondency" about its future. Addressing Church members at the close of the assembly, the Rev David Lacy asserted that the Kirk was not in the poor shape critics claimed, and said its finances were actually improving, with income rising year on year.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 8:03 PM

Scottish charities have accused Jack McConnell of creating a potential funding "disaster" with his headline-grabbing initiative to raise funds for Malawi, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Charity bosses fear the First Minister's "national fundraising drive" will starve them of desperately needed cash, putting some out of business and harming voluntary work at home and abroad. McConnell, who has just returned from a five-day aid trip to Malawi, did not inform Scottish charities of his plans. Fiona Duncan, chairwoman of the Institute of Fundraising Scotland, said: "We are concerned that the Executive's focus on one country may be to the detriment of other causes, both at home and abroad." She added: "There are around 18,000 charities in Scotland, many of which rely heavily on voluntary income and the generosity of supporters to carry out their vital work." The backlash against McConnell's plan is also coming from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the umbrella group for voluntary bodies in Scotland. Associate director Stephen Maxwell said: "An Executive-led public appeal could have implications for the future of charitable fundraising in Scotland."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 8:02 PM

There is a "desperate need" for more chaplains in the British military, Herbert Kerrigan QC, convener of the committee on chaplains to HM forces, told the Church of Scotland's General Assembly.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 7:54 PM

Sheena MacDonald reviews last week's General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 7:46 PM

"The case for state-funded Muslim schools is clear," writes Aasmah Mir. "All three brothers from a Sikh family I know went to Catholic schools. Their parents had heard the school had a good discipline record and academic achievement. But the boys immersed themselves in the paraphernalia of that religion. They went willingly to weekly mass , sang all the hymns, memorised the school anthem in Latin and just stopped short of taking first communion. Theirs wasn't an experience of religion being rammed down their throats, of division or indoctrination. They made an effort and were made to feel welcome. Surrounded by second and third generation Irish and Italians, there was an unspoken acceptance, a peculiar solidarity. And that picture isn't an idyllic one-off. In one Catholic school in Glasgow's Pollokshields, 95% of pupils are Muslim." Of her own experience at secondary school, she adds: "Religious education began to encompass other religions and became excruciating. The week we 'did' Islam, the class turned to giggle at me as the teacher told them that Muslim girls weren't allowed to have boyfriends. What I wouldn't have given to be back in Bible class: a religious oddity, an accidental expert on Christianity."
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 7:36 PM

Who is to teach respect to the young, asks Jenny Hjul. "Certainly not the church, which most young people ignore and which also recoils from its traditional role in society. At the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland this week, ministers of the kirk exhorted their followers to support a protest march on July 2, a march which, incidentally, is the focus for anarchists. The minister who proposed the move said he got the idea from the director of the Friends of the Earth Scotland. The kirk, once a beacon of moral certainty, is now swayed by the fashionable views of a politically motivated green pressure group."
Source: Sunday Times.
posted at 7:31 PM

Bob Geldof has invited the Pope to Scotland to conduct a mass at Murrayfield stadium to coincide with the Make Poverty History march in the run-up to the G8 summit. Talks with the stadium are believed to have already taken place with a view to staging the event on 2 July. The Vatican is understood to have told Mr Geldof that the Pope will be unable to attend in person, but that he could appear in a live link-up from Rome on a giant video screen set up in the stadium.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 7:28 PM

Churches from around the world have criticised the Kirk for failing to consult with them over its decision to end funding for overseas missionary work. In an open letter read to the General Assembly by a former moderator, the Very Reverend John Cairns, 19 of the Church of Scotland's 21 partner churches hit out at the manner in which Board of World Mission had decided to allow long-standing partnership contracts to run out, describing it as "arbitrary". The letter also states that the consultation exercise was "completely ineffective in that the decisions seem to be irreversibly made". The move to end contracts in South Africa, Asia and the Middle East came as a consequence of budget cutbacks.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 7:27 PM

The Free Church Assembly has agreed to look at the possibility of planting a new church in the Montrose area and to seek church extension status for a new church in Dunfermline. In other business the Assembly decided to appoint Rev Dr John Macintosh as the new Church History Professor for the Free Church College. And the Assembly accepted that it was permissible for Free Church congregations to sing the Scottish paraphrases.
Source: Free Church of Scotland.
posted at 7:25 PM

A report to the Free Church Assembly stressed the benefits of Sunday observance for individual, family, church and community. Individuals are feeling increasing stress and need a return to the one day in seven rest pattern, it said. Families need to spend time together away from the hustle and bustle of the daily routine. "In Sunday worship Christians avoid every trace of gloom and put aside business which might interfere with prayer".
Source: Free Church of Scotland.
posted at 7:22 PM

Congregations must help pay off almost £3 million of debt or face losing parish ministers and "irreparably damaging" the Church of Scotland, the General Assembly was told. Douglas Cranston, convener of the Board of Ministry, said financial pressure meant more congregations would have to increase contributions and start paying for the upkeep of ministers without the help of the Kirk. Currently only congregations with incomes above £75,000 a year pay the full cost of their minister. Of the Kirk's 1,234 parishes, just 321 - 26 per cent - reach this figure.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 7:19 PM

A delegation of African and Asian bishops is making a special visit to Scotland this week to urge Scots to act to make poverty history. Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi in India, Archbishop Berhaneyesus Souraphiel Archbishop of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, and Archbishop Medardo Joseph Mazombwe of Lusaka, Zambia, will arrive in Edinburgh today with Cardinal Keith O'Brien following a meeting in London with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 12:46 AM

A controversial new title and logo for the Kirk's Board of Social Responsibility was likened yesterday to the Post Office's unsuccessful attempt to rebrand itself as Consignia. As part of a major reorganisation of its committees, the Church has carried out a £20,000 rebranding of the new Social Care Council, giving it the title "CrossReach: Providing a Caring Future". The Rev Andrew McLean was unhappy that the words "Church of Scotland" were no longer in the title.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:56 AM

The Church of Scotland unveiled the latest edition of its hymnary yesterday when hymns from the new book were sung at St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh. Though the final work has apparently been well received, the compiling of the fourth edition of the hymnary, dubbed "CH4" by Kirk officials, has caused acrimony over the choice of songs. Only 290 of the 825 entries remain from the old hymnary which was last updated in 1973.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:54 AM

Ron Ferguson writes: "You can't travel any distance from the coffee houses of George IV Bridge without tripping over a Presbyterian general assembly. Aficionados can choose between the industrial-strength heart attack-inducing caffeine version of Presbyterianism of the FCC, the slightly mellower but still seriously temple-vein-throbbing espresso of the Free Church or the decaffeinated, fairly-traded Kirk latte at the top of the Mound, where, God bless him, John Knox wears a Make Poverty History armband." His advice in conclusion: "Dismount from the moral high horse. What those of us who belong to the old churches need most is to get over the loss of archaic and disabling privilege, and get a life. In the process, we may even learn a new vocabulary of grace, a fresh language of embodied spirituality which can blaspheme gloriously against the latest tiresome privileged dogmas and touch the human heart."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 11:20 AM

Any sell-off by the Church of Scotland of its controversial hotel project in Israel would be seen as "an act of betrayal", its general assembly has been told. The £9m Tiberias resort development by the Sea of Galilee, built in 1999 and one of the Kirk's most costly overseas investments, is facing financial operating difficulties. But Rizek Abusharr, an elder with the presbytery of Jerusalem, told assembly commissioners yesterday they should be aware of the pain that would be caused to the Christian church as a whole and in Israel and Palestine if Tiberias was "sold off out of church hands".
Source: The Herald.
posted at 11:12 AM

The Church of Scotland is set to make more than £1 million from the sale of a Victorian villa in Colinton Road, Edinburgh. News of the sale comes the day after the Kirk admitted it needs to sell parts of its architectural heritage if congregations are to get adequate financial support. A former manse in Merchiston Gardens is also on the market, with a £675,000 asking price.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 6:54 PM

Laura Dunlop QC has been appointed procurator to the Church of Scotland's General Assembly. The procurator, who is a senior advocate, serves as standing counsel to the Church, advising the General Assembly on matters of civil law and representing the Church in any litigation. The office of procurator goes back to 1638.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:49 PM

A church congregation could soon have a permanent place of worship on Deeside. Plans for a multipurpose hall submitted by the Banchory Christian Fellowship were "warmly welcomed" yesterday by members of the Marr area committee. Councillors heard the 120-strong congregation is bucking a local trend. More than 30 churches in the north-east have closed down over the last 20 years. Pastor Stuart Keir said the fellowship's growth showed it was "not all doom and gloom" for Christianity. He added: "Perhaps a church like ours, which is a non-denominational one, means we might be attracting people from a variety of backgrounds, which reflects Banchory." The fellowship was officially formed in June 2003 as a "daughter church" of the Deeside Christian Fellowship, based at Milltimber.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 9:27 AM

Rev Alex MacDonald, the Free Church Moderator, yesterday told the Free Church General Assembly that Scotland was a 'lost' nation because of "the Enlightenment rejection of Christianity". Rather than bringing the hoped-for happiness, prosperity and improvement in society, the rejection of Christianity had led to social breakdown, a culture of death and a general confusion about morality and meaning. Mr MacDonald suggested that the Christian Church in Scotland had not dealt well with this, too often going along with the prevailing culture or becoming stuck in traditionalism. In terms of preaching Mr MacDonald claimed that 75% of the pulpits in Scotland do not preach the Gospel, substituting it with a "post-Enlightenment, post modern soundbite". The other 25% preach the Gospel but seldom do so with conviction. The Free Church has not been good at political, educational and social involvement, he added. He suggested that the Church needs to improve its communication skills and the content of its message, learning to tell the story of the Gospel again with compassion.
Source: Free Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:17 AM

The number of abortions carried out in Scotland rose to 12,448 terminations in 2004 compared with 12,304 the previous year, according to health service figures. Tim Street, director of the Family Planning Association Scotland, said ministers needed to push for more sex education. The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child Scotland called for more relationship education to prevent the "irresponsible attitude" that leads to abortions, and for stricter criteria in getting a termination. The Catholic Church described the statistics as a "senseless death toll".
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:08 AM

The Rev William Macleod, Moderator of the Free Church Continuing (FCC), has criticised radio and television for promoting blasphemy. The Portree minister told the church's General Assembly: "It used to be thought that television, being publicly funded through the licence fee, had a duty to maintain high moral standards. Yet now, sadly, television is seen as reflecting society and supposed to be at its best when portraying drunkenness, violence, immorality and swearing as normal." Mr Macleod said that Scotland used to be noted for its Sabbath observance while Sunday on the continent was seen as "lax and wrong". He added: "Now sadly the Sabbath on the continent is often observed much more strictly than in our own land." Meanwhile, the Rev Alex MacDonald, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, claimed at its general assembly, also in Edinburgh, that young people were now "fed on a diet of sex and violence" in films and video games. He also criticised the dramatic rise in alcohol abuse claiming Scotland was in a state of moral confusion. People, he said, pinned the blame for a "devastated society" on Calvinism or Presbyterianism. "You cannot blame John Knox for the catastrophic state of our nation today," he said. "This is the postmodern world we are living in, formed by the scepticism of generations - a world that has lost its way, a world full of lost, confused and despairing people."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:04 AM

The Church of Scotland's annual General Assembly today agreed to encourage churches to ring their bells at 1.45 pm on Thursday July 7 in order to show their support for the need to find solutions to the world's energy problems. The time - 1345 - has been chosen specially to represent the fact that 13% of the world's population produces 45% of its greenhouse gas emissions. The convenor of the Kirk's committee on ecumenical relations earlier called for the G8 leaders to act to help the world's poor when they meet in Gleneagles, Perthshire. Rev Erik Cramb said: "George Bush and Tony Blair are leaders who regularly proclaim that power is of God. Let us say to them, as this local part of the world church, if that is so, and we believe it is, then power should be used to serve the purposes of God, prominent among which are surely that the hungry are fed and the oppressed set free."
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
posted at 7:33 PM

The number of abortions in Scotland rose slightly last year, according to official figures published today. A total of 12,448 terminations were carried out in 2004 compared to 12,304 in 2003.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 5:11 PM

The former Bishop of Argyll and the Isles has lost his battle with liver cancer. Roddy Wright shocked the Catholic Church when he disappeared nine years ago, running off with one of his parishioners, a divorced mother-of-three. He later stepped down from the church, married the divorcee on a Caribbean Island and started a new life with her in New Zealand. The current Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, Ian Murray, said he was "very sorry" to hear of Mr Wright's death. "He will be fondly remembered by the priests and people of this diocese for the many kindnesses he displayed during his time in Argyll and the Isles," Bishop Murray said.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 5:06 PM

Kirk plans to impose limits on the number of ministers in each part of Scotland have run into trouble after an Edinburgh minister claimed the General Assembly was being misled by one of its boards. The quota scheme, designed to cope with a reduced number of ministers and spread them more evenly across the country, has provoked fears of growing central control in the church. The board of national mission was asked to bring forward an analysis of responses from local presbyteries and produce further proposals. It said 22 presbyteries backed the proposals, nine were against and seven had mixed views. But the Rev Ian Gilmour of South Leith Kirk yesterday quoted highly critical comments on the quota scheme from several of those said to be in favour.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 4:49 PM

A lawyer told Glasgow Sheriff Court that shouting "orange b*****d" or "fenian b*****d" at an Old Firm match was not bigoted. Marco Guarino made the claim as he defended East Kilbride man William Degnan, who yelled sectarian abuse at rival Rangers fans. But Sheriff Kenneth Hogg fined Degnan £200 for breach of the peace aggravated by religious prejudice.
Source: East Kilbride News.
posted at 12:16 PM

The congregation of Our Lady of Loretto RC Church, Musselburgh, decided in its centenary year to build a new church in Bauchi, in the Fadama Mada district of Nigeria, after a hidden 'time capsule' discovered during renovations revealed the poverty of those who contributed to Our Lady's construction.
Source: East Lothian Courier.
posted at 12:11 PM

A Kilsyth resident has been honoured by the new Pope. John Cullen, of Maxwell Place, has been awarded a Bene Merenti medal, a Papal award recognising people for their work within the community. It will be presented by Cardinal Keith O'Brien at a service in St Patrick's Church on June 19.
Source: Cumbernauld News & Kilsyth Chronicle.
posted at 12:08 PM

St George's Chuch in East Wemyss faces an uncertain future after Kirkcaldy Presbytery decided St Adrian's Church in West Wemyss was the favoured long-term option for Wemyss parishioners.
Source: Fife Now - East Fife Mail.
posted at 12:06 PM

Archbishop Mario Conti is to join June, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, and Brigadier Donald Hardie, Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire, as a patron of the learning disabilities charity, Cornerstone Community Care.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 11:58 AM

The Church of Scotland was yesterday urged to let more young people take on key leadership roles. Youth representatives told the annual General Assembly that they wanted to be treated as equals who are "seen and heard" within the Church. Although the calls received widespread support, some delegates stressed that appointments should be made on merit and not purely on age. Valerie Crookes, a member of the presbytery of Dundee, said youngsters should be given a greater say. "We're not wanting to be treated anything different to anyone else. We're wanting an equal part in the Church," she said. Another youth representative, Chris Hoskins, from Falkirk, said: "Young people are not the Church of tomorrow, they are the Church of today. To be treated as such, they have to be given responsibilities and opportunities within the Church to input into what the Church is doing."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:45 AM

An athiest teacher at a Roman Catholic high school yesterday claimed he was barred from promotion because of religious discrimination. David McNab, 53, a maths teacher at St Paul's High School in the Pollok area of Glasgow, told an employment tribunal that he was made to feel like a "second-class citizen" when his headteacher told him he could not be considered for the post of principal teacher of pastoral care because the job required Catholic Church approval. Glasgow City Council argues that it was an occupational requirement for the post and denies discrimination on the grounds of religion or religious belief.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:30 AM

Obituary of the Very Rev Dr William B Johnston, Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly in 1980. One of the major figures in the ecumenical affairs of the churches in the British Isles, during the 1980s he took a leading role in both the British Council of Churches and the Scottish Churches Council, serving as BCC executive committee chairman. During his long ministry at Colinton, Edinburgh, from 1964-1991, his distinctions ranged from appointment as a chaplain to the Queen in Scotland to the translation of works by Calvin and Barth.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 11:21 AM

Members of the Church of Scotland must reconcile themselves to losing parts of the Kirk's architectural heritage if congregations are to receive adequate financial support, the General Assembly was told yesterday. David Clark, convener of the committee on parish appraisal, said congregations had to be realistic about both "wonderful" and "dire" buildings. On average, 35 per cent of the Kirk's annual £27 million income goes on basic maintenance of its properties, before what Mr Clark described as "the major crisis jobs".
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:18 AM

This week's General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland will be told that the Church's message is not being heard because the Church is not speaking properly. In order to facilitate this, the Church is continuing to update and develop its website. The Free Church bookshop on the Mound in Edinburgh is now making a profit and the denominational magazines continue to be widely used. And the Church has appointed a Communications Officer, Catherine Pearson, to develop a corporate identity for the Church, maintain the denominational website, and help congregations develop their own websites, produce printed material, help with the Church's magazines and help co-ordinate media communication.
Source: Free Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 8:41 PM

A Glasgow church has taken the campaign to Make Poverty History to new heights. Members of Queen's Park Baptist Church have pinned a giant 26ft white wrist band around the church's 150ft high steeple.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 5:53 PM

Kirk ministers who quit their parishes to take up influential public posts are set to win back their right to speak at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly. Some people, including former Moderator Andrew McLellan, who is now Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Edinburgh's education leader, Ewan Aitken, are currently barred from taking part in decisions of the Kirk, although they are still ministers.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 5:41 PM

The Methodist Church of the Great Britain, home to the Wesleyan Movement which influenced millions across the world, has applied for a liquor licence for its headquarters building - Westminster Central Hall - in central London. The move has outraged traditionalists in the Church and raised the sensitive question about the Methodist attitude to Christian abstinence, especially on alcohol consumption. John Wesley, who co-founded Methodism in 1739 with Charles Wesley, was not teetotal and once described wine "as one of the noblest cordials in creation". He was, however, against the consumption of spirits. The Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales are among those churches which require communion wine to be alcoholic, and which permit the consumption of alcohol on church premises. Many Roman Catholic premises have full licences. The United Reformed Church requires communion wine to be non-alcoholic, but permits local congregations to decide whether alcohol may be consumed on church premises. The Baptist Union of Great Britain leaves decisions about consumption of alcohol to local congregations. Baptist churches can therefore be found in which communion wine is alcoholic, and alcohol is served on church premises.
Source: Christian Today.
posted at 5:39 PM

Any ordained minister actively involved in the life and affairs of the church should be eligible to be a member of presbytery, the Church of Scotland's General Assemby agreed on Saturday. Following a report by the convener of the council of assembly, Mrs Helen McLeod the Assembly decided presbyteries and kirk sessions should be asked for their views on spending priorities for the church. The panel on review and reform's convener the Rev Ian Gilmour reported his panel's decision to focus on the importance of vision, arguing that vision inspires and often provides clarity and direction.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 11:34 AM

Jack McConnell has been urged to make a detour during his visit to Malawi this week to visit Zambia in order to attend celebrations marking the centenary of the town of Livingstone - named after the great Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone. Officials from the Zambian High Commission contacted the First Minister's office in Edinburgh to ask McConnell to visit the town for the centenary celebrations, but were told that his itinerary was already set. "What an opportunity lost," said a spokesman for the UK-based Britain-Zambia Society. "We've known for weeks that Scotland's First Minister would be flying to Malawi, which is a hop and a jump from Livingstone. But no one thought to ask him to fly on to Livingstone and represent Scotland at celebrations which recall the great 19th-century explorer's role in bringing Christianity to this part of the world."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 11:19 AM

The Sunday Mail "reveals" that newly-ordained Edinburgh pentecostalist bishop Climate Irungu Mwangi used to be a gangster. Scottish Christian News Monitor brought you the news in this story from the East Africa Standard on May 14.
posted at 11:16 AM

Police are to mount a massive surveillance operation against violent and sectarian football fans as part of the crackdown on hooliganism and religious intolerance in Scotland.
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 11:00 AM

Profile of Zimbabwean archbishop Pius Ncube, who castigates Robert Mugabe as a fascist, a fraudster, a liar and a godless murderer, and who is visiting Scotland to be presented with the Robert Burns International Humanitarian Award.
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 10:56 AM

The Rt Rev John Taylor, retired Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church, will today assist in the confirmation of almost 50 new members of St Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek, Kentucky. He will be joined by the church's rector, Rev Robin Jennings, and Rev Ted Gulick, Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky, with which Glasgow & Galloway is twinned. Gulick said Taylor's visit was important in reminding American Episcopalians that they are members of a world family of Anglicans, especially in the wake of recent schisms in the American church over scriptural interpretation and the installation of an openly homosexual bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. It is important to realize that members of the church can have differences of opinion and still work together, Gulick said, and Taylor agreed. "The Anglican community has always been able to embrace a variety of approaches to Scripture and theology, and I think that's one of the strengths of it," Taylor said. "I hope we can hold onto that."
Source: Louisville Courier-Journal.
posted at 10:46 AM

Scotland was poised for street confrontations last night after a militant anti-abortion group vowed to name and shame pro-choice MSPs by targeting their homes and leafleting their neighbours. The UK Life League has drawn up a hit list of Scottish politicians, topped by First Minister Jack McConnell, whom they feel should be "outed" for their support for the "holocaust" of legalised terminations. The League's leader, Jim Dowson, who describes himself as a "god-fearing, Presbyterian socialist", will drive a trailer, decked in pro-life posters, to the streets where MSPs live in order to "embarrass" them in front of other residents. Other politicians singled out include health minister Andy Kerr, Liberal Democrat minister Nicol Stephen and SNP MSPs Nicola Sturgeon and Linda Fabiani. Dowson also said he is "looking forward" to informing former SSP leader Tommy Sheridan's neighbours of his "sick" views.
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 10:39 AM

The Kirk's new Moderator has put himself on a collision course with the Scottish Executive by speaking out against moves to allow homosexual couples to adopt children. The Rev David Lacy said God would never bless such a move, which is, he believes, against the teachings of the Bible, and called on politicians to back policies promoting marriage. He said the Catholic Church had been "more coherent" in the past than the Kirk in adopting moral positions and said he looked forward to expressing his views on controversial issues. Inverness-born Lacy, who is 53, also backed a fully integrated education system. Asked whether he supported state-funded faith schools, he said: "Probably not. I don't think there is any requirement on the state to provide schools for any one faith. I'd rather see each faith providing education in any way it wants, as an extra."
Source: Sunday Herald.
posted at 10:32 AM

Followers of an ancient religion will celebrate the opening of a new chapel tomorrow. Members of the Celtic Orthodox Church will gather at the modest building - a converted garage - in Rathen, near Fraserburgh, to see its bell blessed and then tolled for the first time. The tiny place of worship sits right beside the home of priest Father Timothy Curtis. Father Curtis became the north-east's first orthodox priest since the 10th century when he was ordained at a ceremony in Old Deer last year. He now leads the Orthodox Community of St Drostan, which will meet at the Chapel of Transfiguration in Rathen and a small church in the Buchan village of Fetterangus.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 10:56 PM

The new moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has formally taken up the role. The Reverend David Lacy succeeded the first female moderator, Dr Alison Elliot, who was also the first elder in modern times to hold the title. His appointment heralds the start of the week-long General Assembly, where the Kirk debates aspects of church life and social policy.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 10:42 PM

The outgoing Moderator of the Church of Scotland says the Catholic Church's position on contraception damages the fight against AIDS in Africa. Dr Alison Elliot told Scotland Today that the Vatican is being judgemental, and believes the new Pope has to act. But the Catholic Church hit back, insisting condoms do more harm than good.
Source: Scotland Today.
posted at 10:39 PM

The Church of Scotland is at a crossroads this weekend as its members congregate on the Mound in Edinburgh for the annual General Assembly. The 944 members from the Kirk's 46 presbyteries will find themselves presented with the fruits of last year's decision to establish the Council of Assembly, a committee set up to tackle the onerous task of reducing the size of overheads and rationalising its bureaucracy to cope with the challenges of faith in an increasingly secular society. Proceedings are likely to start with fireworks rather than a damp squib.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 10:37 PM

Steve Bruce, professor of sociology at the University of Aberdeen, wields a sharp scalpel in this dissection of Christianity in Scotland. "In every congregation in the land, the men and women in the pews are mostly old ... In 1900, being Christian was expected; in 2005, it is exceptional ... If only a few organisations were decaying, it might be their fault, but when all the Christian churches (and most of the rest) are declining, the cause must lie in some general social process ... The upward movement of Scots Catholics and the outward movement of Highlanders and Islanders has made both populations better integrated. When the social barriers came down, so did the distinctive piety ... Those who point to a few lively and growing congregations as signs of a better future miss the point that there will always be growth spots amid decay as the dwindling number of Christians huddle together ... Many surveys tell us that adult conversion is rare; if people are not socialised into a faith in childhood, they are very unlikely to acquire one later ... Because the churches have lost the power to stigmatise deviants, their decay has opened the door to a raft of foreign religions and spiritual therapies, and it is now possible for us to cobble together our own spiritual club sandwiches ... Being a Christian is not 'natural'; it is an acquired characteristic. Like a language, it must be learned and, if it is not used in the home, in everyday conversation and in public life, it dies out. As the population that speaks a minority tongue shrinks, decline does not slow; it becomes faster. There is no natural obstacle to the death of a language. I do not see why the fate of a religion should be different."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:15 PM

The Free Church of Scotland is seeking to improve the quality of its praise and has produced a double CD as a teaching aid to help precentors and others learn new tunes. The Church also hopes to hold a Festival of Praise in St Peter's Free Church, Dundee, featuring choirs from Scotland and the USA.
Source: Free Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 8:31 PM

Zimbabwean archbishop Pius Ncube has received the 2005 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Archbishop Ncube is an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe and his regime. The Archbishop's phones have been tapped, he has received numerous death threats, and his life is constantly in danger. Cardinal Keith O'Brien said: "His courage and determination in the fight for human rights in Zimbabwe have been an inspiring example. He has been described as 'a shining light in the fight for human rights'. His faith and witness to Christ's message have seen him recognised throughout the world. He has received awards for his human rights work before and will I am sure receive further awards in future, but the fact that Scotland has recognised him in this way is something that I am truly proud of."
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 8:21 PM

Next week's Free Church General Assembly in Edinburgh will hear of a number of ecumenical initiatives including a connection between the Korean Presbyterian Church and the Free Church Presbytery of Lewis. Members of the Lewis Presbytery have already visited Korea and a reciprocal visit is expected soon. The Free Church continues to play a key role in the International Conference of Reformed Churches which will meet in Pretoria, South Africa this year. The Church has also been asked to help with the Reformed Church in Sweden. More Free Church congregations are establishing links with congregations in the Presbyterian Church of America. The Assembly will be informed of the work of a number of American Presbyterian missionaries currently working with the Free Church in Scotland. Nearer to home, the Assembly will hear a joint report of the working group of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, highlighting the issues of Scripture, the Church and poverty. These discussions have proved fruitful and the Assembly will be asked to continue the discussions between the two churches. A spokesperson for the Free Church said that they were "delighted to be involved with so many different churches all over the world and at home and hoped that the image of the Free Church as parochial would soon be dispelled".
Source: Free Church of Scotland.
posted at 3:38 PM

The Kirk is facing opposition to its plans to cash in on the commercial potential of the internet by allowing advertising on its website. Ministers and elders at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, which opens tomorrow, will be asked to approve the move, which could bring in more than £45,000 a year. But some inside the Church are unhappy at the plan which they consider to be "too commercial".
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 2:36 PM

Tory shadow Scottish secretary James Gray has quit his job after just seven days, shortly after a newspaper interview in which he appeared to favour abolishing the role of members of the Scottish Parliament. Mr Gray who was educated in Glasgow and his father was a moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Source: This Is London.
posted at 12:45 PM

The leader of Scotland's Catholics believes the church will eventually relent and allow priests to marry. Cardinal Keith O'Brien reignited the row over his orthodoxy by saying he could foresee the day when married priests were accepted by the church. There are already some married priests in the Catholic church who converted from Anglicanism and who are not bound by the rules of celibacy, including one in Scotland. Cardinal O'Brien, the archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has upset conservative Catholics in the past with his views on contentious subjects such as the celibacy of the priesthood and homosexuality, but since being elevated to the College of Cardinals he has espoused views more in line with Vatican teachings. However, in an interview in the Catholic Times to be published on Sunday, he says that after seeing married deacons working in the church he believes married priests will follow. When he made a profession of faith ahead of being made a cardinal at the ecclesiastical senate in Rome in October 2003, he added a statement at the end of the Nicene Creed in which he affirmed support of the church's teachings on celibacy, contraception and homosexuality. A spokesman for the church said the cardinal's comments were not incompatible with his profession of faith in 2003. He said: "It is a neutral comment on the issue, it is neither a ringing endorsement of the concept, neither is it an outright denunciation." His comments in the interview have angered members of Catholic Truth, a right-wing orthodox movement. Ronald MacDonald, spokesman for the group, said: "He is trying to say that he is not necessarily personally in favour of this, but we can debate it. It's a sleekit way of trying to have his cake and eat it."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 12:43 PM

Profile of Dr Alison Elliot in her final week as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. A fortnight after the Asian tsunami, she was in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. Did people question her about God's role in the disaster? "Less than I had expected. God is not a municipal authority, providing for our well-being all the time. For me, the Christian God is not the kind of God which would allow or disallow that sort of thing to happen because I don't believe in that kind of interventionist God."
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 12:40 PM

Rev Eliza Armstrong is retiring after 13 years as the United Reformed Church minister in Greenock's east end. The former primary teacher was called into the ministry 25 years ago, and chose to serve in the Congregational Union of Scotland.
Source: Greenock Telegraph.
posted at 12:37 PM

Next week's General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland will hear that for the second year in a row the denomination had a slight surplus in its finance despite having to spend over £600,000 on building up a pension fund. Other financial matters include ministers' salaries being set at £17,000 per year. The Free Church central funds have an annual budget of £3 million, 10% of which is spent on international missions, 41% on minister's wages, 5% on church extension, 20% on pensions and 6% on the college. Stornoway remains the largest giver (£269,010) with some 54 churches being 'self-supporting' or 'aid giving' and 44 being subsidised. The Church is "disappointed that in 2004 it was forced to spend £176,000 on legal fees, defending the court action from the breakaway 'Continuing' group".
Source: Free Church of Scotland.
posted at 7:52 PM

There has been an increase in the numbers of people applying to become ministers or deacons in the Church of Scotland. The Kirk's Board of Ministry will report to the General Assembly that a total of 75 people - 39 men and 36 women - applied last year compared with 59 in 2003.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 7:10 PM

Plaques have been erected at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly Hall in Edinburgh to commemorate the Scottish Parliament's historic stay there from 1999 to 2004.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 7:08 PM

Archbishop Pius Ncube of Zimbabwe arrives in Edinburgh today, staying overnight before travelling to Culzean Castle in Ayrshire to take part in a humanitarian awards ceremony. Archbishop Ncube is one of the five finalists who are being considered as the recipient of the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Archbishop Ncube is an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe and his regime. The Archbishop's phones have been tapped, he has received numerous death threats, and his life is constantly in danger.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 7:06 PM

Scotland is "inextricably linked" to its Christian heritage, Cardinal Keith O'Brien will say in a speech to be delivered this evening at the Holyrood Dialogues debate in Edinburgh. Addressing the question 'Scotland: Christian or Secular?', he will say: "There is an increasing influence by Christians in society in general. Christians are more and more aware of just where they stand on certain issues and they do not wish standards to continue to deteriorate."
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 7:04 PM

The Conference on World Mission and Evangelism has issued a letter to the Christian world in which it calls on churches everywhere to become healing and reconciling communities of hope, open to all.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.
posted at 12:19 PM

Churches Together in England are seeking to appoint an administrator/website editor for their project marking the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.
posted at 12:18 PM

Efforts to settle a bitter wrangle between the Free Church of Scotland and the Free Church Continuing have broken down and look like heading back to the courts. The dispute reached the Court of Session in March when the breakaway group, known as the Free Church Continuing (FCC), lost an action over about £10 million of church assets. The Scotsman has learned that both sides now intend appealing against aspects of the court's decision. The groups met in Inverness this month, when the Free Church made a "final" offer but no deal was reached. Both will hold their general assemblies next week with the wrangle, affecting more than 20 church buildings, unresolved.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 11:32 AM

The number of people attending church services on Sunday mornings is a "wonderful miracle", the Church of Scotland's incoming moderator said yesterday.
The Rev David Lacy, moderator-designate of the Kirk's general assembly, said there were twice as many people in the pews as on the terraces at football matches.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 11:29 AM

Feature on modern missionaries, focusing on St Paul's and St George's Church in Edinburgh, BMS World Mission, and individual missionaries Sarah Anderson and Anne Roemmele.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 7:05 PM

Report on the Congregational Federation in Scotland's 2005 May Assembly.
Source: Congregational Federation in Scotland.
posted at 6:59 PM

Dr Bashir Maan, a leading member of Scotland's Muslim community, is profiled in the June issue of the Church of Scotland's magazine, Life & Work. The Kirk's director of social work, Ian Manson, reveals the Church's care homes for the elderly, which were threatened with closure less than two years ago because of funding problems, are now out of deficit. And, a new joint mediation network to resolve disputes within churches to be launched is profiled.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:53 PM

The Church of Scotland's Sunflower Garden Project which provides a service for children affected by drug use in their family, has welcomed a new study carried out by the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh. The report describes the effect of parental drug and alcohol abuse on a generation of Scottish children as revealed in the first academic study of calls to the ChildLine charity.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:49 PM

The General Assembly is to receive an in-depth, and sometimes critical, theological examination of its own power structures. The Church's Panel on Doctrine is to comment on the exercise of power in the Kirk. This comes in response to the 2001 report Church without Walls which identified ".circuits of power [in the Kirk] that operate in hidden ways from passive aggression to outright manipulation."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:43 PM

The Church of Scotland's Committee on Artistic Matters will report to this year's General Assembly on its work to preserve and develop Scotland's heritage of church buildings. It has also continued to survey the Church's national treasury of sacramental vessels, and has worked in cooperation with the Scottish Episcopal Church, Glasgow Metropolitan College and Robert Gordon's University, Aberdeen, in the provision of a course on the care of church buildings.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:41 PM

The Iona Community is to report to the Kirk's General Assembly that it has enjoyed a "good and challenging year". The Community will report that it has been involved in activities as diverse as opposing house demolitions in the West Bank and working with young ex-offenders in Scotland.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:39 PM

The Church of Scotland continues to explore new ideas for worship, including a new hymn book, this year's General Assembly will hear. The Kirk's Panel on Worship will report that it wants the Church to place much more emphasis on personal spirituality, music and, most of all, communion in its modes of worship. Work undertaken in the past year includes Starters for Sunday, a website providing ideas for Sunday services.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 6:38 PM

The Church of Scotland is publishing a code describing the working conditions of its ministers following discussions with the Department of Trade and Industry.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 5:36 PM

A Scottish priest has been appointed to the Catholic Church's most senior doctrinal body in Rome, where he will work in the department which was until recently run by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Fr Patrick Burke, who is currently a parish priest at Our Lady and St Ninian's in Bannockburn and Sacred Heart in Cowie, Stirlingshire, will take up his post as an official in the Doctrinal Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican this September.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 5:34 PM

Detectives are hunting a pensioner who subjected a teenage girl to an indecent assault in the grounds of High Carntyne Church, in Glasgow's east end. The incident emerged as police in Midlothian continued their investigation after a teenager was raped in Rosewell, just yards from the Rosslyn Chapel, which is featured in the best-selling novel the Da Vinci Code.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 5:25 PM

After nearly 500 years of intense division, Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians yesterday declared that one of the two faiths' most fundamental differences - the position of Mary, the mother of Christ - should no longer divide them. The move, aimed at reconciling Protestants to Catholicism's devotion to the Blessed Virgin, exemplified in thousands of statues in churches and shrines across the world, cuts across one of the more arcane disputes between the two churches, but is likely to alarm some evangelicals and conservatives. A document called Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, published yesterday in Seattle and to be released in London on Thursday, declares: "We do not consider the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us as communion dividing ... we believe that there is no continuing theological reason for ecclesiastical division on these matters." The report was drawn up by a joint working party of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission which has been engaged in often tortuous negotiations about the two churches' differences since reconciliation began in the 1960s.
Source: The Guardian.
posted at 5:22 PM

The teaching of moral values in Scottish schools is being downgraded by local authorities, it was claimed yesterday. The Church of Scotland fears changes to the way schools are managed is having a particularly negative effect on religious education. In its report to this year's General Assembly, the Kirk's education committee warns that the restructuring could see religious education "merged" with other subjects.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 12:05 PM

The Church of Scotland is to make a detailed stand on national issues as varied as the future of Britain's nuclear weapons system and overcrowding in prisons when the Church and Nation Committee report to this year's General Assembly.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 11:58 AM

The Committee on Chaplains to HM Forces is to ask the Kirk's General Assembly to recognise the heavy demands placed on the Armed Forces, including their chaplains, in the role they were assigned throughout the conflict in Iraq and in the continuing role of maintaining the peace there. The report goes on to say that the maintenance of peace in Iraq has been "costly".
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 11:57 AM

Sir Bob Geldof today warned First Minister Jack McConnell not to welcome G8 leaders to Scotland unless they acted immediately to make poverty in Africa history. Sir Bob said targets which should have been reached this year would not be met until 2150. "The men who can put this plan into immediate action will meet in this country. It is the specific responsibility of Scotland, and their great task, to ensure that this is done and it is the specific task of the First Minister to not welcome them if they are not prepared to do it."
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 10:35 PM

Civic dignitaries and senior council officials took to the streets of Perth yesterday for the traditional Kirking of the Council at St John's Kirk.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 10:27 PM

A priest has been banned from selling alcohol at his parish hall because licensing chiefs claim he is "not a fit and proper person". Father Vincent Lockhart, a priest in Coatbridge, had applied to take on the role of official licensee at his church hall, which would have allowed him to serve alcohol at occasional functions such as christenings. But because he has not undertaken any formal licensed trade training - a requirement of a number of Scotland's licensing boards - his bid to sell alcohol at St Monica's Parish Hall was rejected. A spokesman for the Catholic Church said the broad-brush approach was 'ludicrous' and 'could harm reputations'.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 10:09 PM

Religious leaders, trade unions and aid agencies have issued calls for the cancellation of Third World debts. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) reminded supporters that "a great national gathering" was being held in the Scottish capital ahead of the G8 summit at nearby Gleneagles to show the strength of feeling of the message to world leaders.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency, Tehran.
posted at 10:05 PM

The Evangelical Alliance today threw its weight behind Tony Blair's call to help restore 'respect' for other people. As well as supporting the Prime Minister's desire to see an end to anti-social behaviour in young people, the Alliance, in partnership with leading Christian youth organisations, Youth for Christ and Crusaders, is launching the first Champions of respect competition. The competition will seek to discover and reward young men and women who act as role models in their communities and organisers hope to see thousands of young people recognised for their positive contribution to society.
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.
posted at 9:56 PM

The Church of Scotland Committee on Education says that "relationships education" should be at the centre of the school curriculum for young school children so that they can learn to treat other individuals with respect and interact with society as a whole.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:54 PM

The Church of Scotland Trust, established by Act of Parliament in 1932 to hold properties outside Scotland for the Church, is reviewing the Church's heritable property in the presbyteries of England, Europe and Jerusalem. In relation to its property interests in Israel, the Trust is involved in the Tiberias Review Group, a body also involving the boards of World Mission and Stewardship and Finance, which was set up to examine the management and financing of the Tiberias Project, also known as the Church of Scotland Galilee Centre.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:53 PM

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is to be asked to approve an "ecumenical policy for the 21st century" by the Committee on Ecumenical Relations. It is now 50 years since the Church of Scotland last embraced a comprehensive ecumenical policy and, following the decision to discontinue SCIFU at the General Assembly of 2003, the Committee was instructed to examine this subject and report back. The policy, which is in the tradition of the churches together model, seeks the maximum degree of co-operation between all branches of the Christian Church. The Kirk's Committee on Ecumenical Relations seeks to reject the vision of the ecumenical movement as a 'melting-pot'. "We believe that it is time to think of the total church life in Scotland in terms of a woven fabric of faith. Not a 'melting-pot' but a 'tartan', where the 'colour' of each church, whether large or small, has its importance in the final design." It is with delight the committee reports that the national sponsoring body for local ecumenical partnerships is now up and running.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:50 PM

A drop-in group in Edinburgh for grandparents who look after children affected by their parents' drug misuse has been launched by the Church of Scotland.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:48 PM