Preview of the 2005 Methodist Conference, which takes place from 25-30 June in Torquay.
Source: Methodist Church news release.
posted at 2:15 PM

The Catholic Bishops of Scotland today expressed their concern that an estimated 100,000 of the poorest Zimbabweans have recently been evicted from their homes on the instructions of President Robert Mugabe. Speaking in support of Archbishop Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, who visited Scotland recently to receive the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award, they said: "Along with members of the Scotland Zimbabwe Group, we wish to express our solidarity with the dispossessed and to unite with our brother bishops in Zimbabwe who speak out in honesty and justice in defence of the dignity and humanity of the people of Zimbabwe."
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 2:12 PM

Cartoon character Desperate Dan's imposing statue is being used to encourage Scots to join the Make Poverty History campaign. The beefy figure in Dundee is sporting his own white wristband associated with the UK-wide effort to reform the world's aid, debt and trade rules. Mary Cullen, from the Make Poverty History Coalition Scotland, who also works for the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, said the stunt with Dan would encourage action.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 6:42 PM

The Catholic Church in Scotland has hailed the launch of Catholic TV network EWTN on Sky satellite as "a massive step forward for religious broadcasting in Britain."
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 5:34 PM

The Evangelical Alliance has made a direct appeal to the Belarus Ambassador to express grave concerns regarding the persecution of evangelical Christians in Belarus. Dr Don Horrocks, Head of Public Affairs at the Alliance said, "The Belarus Religious Law is extremely repressive and we are shocked at many reports relating to the lack of opportunity for (non-Orthodox) Christians to be able to worship and meet in their own homes or in public areas."
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.
posted at 5:32 PM

Fifteen dogs and three cats took part in an annual animal blessing service conducted by the Rev Kenneth Petrie at Craigiebuckler church in Aberdeen.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 9:09 PM

Christians wanting to make an impact on world poverty and health are right to be campaigning for governments to forgive debts, practise free trade and give generously, says the Medical Christian Fellowship, but the debt crisis is also a huge challenge to the churches urgently to rethink our own attitudes to interest and debt. "It is often easy to point the finger at others, but as Christians we ourselves need to be living out Christian economic principles," said its general secretary, Peter Saunders. "Jesus' call was to lend, even to enemies, expecting nothing back, forgive debts and give generously. The teaching of the apostles and practice of the early church underlined this ... Until the time of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), taking interest was seen as tantamount to theft. However, since the time of the Reformation, when conservative and radical reformers were divided as to whether interest charges should be allowed under some circumstances, there has been a gradual erosion of enthusiasm for these principles not just in western society but in the church itself. Perhaps the international debt crisis is an opportunity for us as Christians to put our own house in order."
Source: Christian Medical Fellowship.
posted at 7:46 PM

The third session of the Church and Society Commission of the European Churches Conference will take place in Dunblane from June 15-19.
Source: A1 Plus, Armenia.
posted at 7:40 PM

Obituary of William Addison, political agent; born July 3, 1911, died May 23, 2005. An Episcopalian who settled in ecumenically as a committed member of Melrose Parish Church, when he applied to train as an agent he was interviewed by a central office mandarin, who asked him why he was a Tory. 'Sir,' he replied (he used this formality to his life's end), 'I am a Conservative because I am a Christian.'"
Source: The Herald.
posted at 7:36 PM

The author of Cardinal Keith O'Brien's favourite book of 2004 will be at Borders book store in Glasgow on Thursday. Ex-criminal John Pridmore's autobiography, From Gangland to Promised Land, is "above all a story of redemption", said the Cardinal.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 7:32 PM

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, have been awarded knighthoods.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 4:03 PM

John Scrimger, organist at St Leonard's-in-the-Fields Church in Perth and former musical director of Dundee Rep and Perth Theatre, has been awarded the MBE for services to music in Scotland.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 4:02 PM

Christian discipleship is to be discovered and nurtured in a seeming paradox, said the Rt Rev Bruce Cameron, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, in his opening address to the Church's General Synod. "We are called to be disciples who do not sit on the fence of indecision, but speak out to a suffering and, at times, lost world of God's message of justice, freedom and peace. But we are also called to be disciples who climb on to that costly fence to engage in the struggle for reconciliation - which does not deny difference and division, but shares it in God's common language of love and forgiveness."
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
posted at 3:39 PM

St David's Church on George Street in Bathgate is celebrating 100 years of worship.
Source: West Lothian Courier.
posted at 8:55 PM

A donations box has been stolen - despite being bolted to stonework in the vestibule of Athelstaneford Church. Church minister, the Rev Kenneth Walker said: "It is one of those things that is just very annoying when it happens, and sickening, but you have to endure it."
Source: East Lothian Courier.
posted at 8:42 PM

The practice of exorcism in some African churches in Britain is becoming an increasing concern, particularly when it involves children, warned the Church of England Bishops' spokesman on deliverance ministry, the Bishop of Monmouth, the Rt Revd Dominic Walker OGS, this week. The Church of England has strict guidelines on the ministry of deliverance, which were introduced by Archbishop Donald Coggan, and still stand today, Bishop Walker said. The guidelines state: Exorcism of a person should be carried out only by a person authorised by the diocesan bishop; Exorcism should be in collaboration with the resources of medicine; It should be carried out in the context of prayer and sacrament; There should be the minimum of publicity; There should be adequate aftercare.
Source: Church of England Newspaper.
posted at 8:36 PM

Scotland's churches have expressed doubts about government moves to improve rights on adoption for unmarried and same sex couples. Cardinal Keith O'Brien said to allow homosexual couples to adopt was "contrary to the common good". Morag Milne, convener of the Church of Scotland's church and society council, said: "For a child, welfare is seen in terms of security and happiness and stability and a loving environment. The church sees marriage as the best way of providing exactly that situation of stability and security and happiness."
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 8:06 PM

Complicated vetting forms are leading to fewer people coming forward to do voluntary work, it was claimed today. And now Disclosure Scotland, the agency set up to screen people who work with children and vulnerable adults, is being urged to simplify its paperwork so it does not deter potential volunteers. SNP social justice spokeswoman Christine Grahame said the organisations worst hit by the disclosure requirements were those with limited resources. "There are wee church groups which don't have a filing cabinet that have just folded altogether," she said.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 7:57 PM

Obituary of Professor David Short, who has died aged 86. The Queen's Physician in Scotland, on call for the Royal Family at Balmoral, he was also the author of several books that reflected his strong Christian faith.
Source: Daily Telegraph.
posted at 7:53 PM

Teachers last night called for an investigation into an American evangelical movement that collects Christmas gifts from Scottish pupils and sends them to children in deprived parts of the world. The call followed concern that the charity, Samaritan's Purse, which runs the Christmas shoe box appeal, did not encourage religious diversity or tolerance. Teachers at the annual meeting of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) in Perth were told that the charity - which has been endorsed by Franklin Graham, the evangelical preacher - was anti-Islam. According to members of the South Lanarkshire branch of the EIS, Samaritan's Purse took 30,000 Bibles into Iraq alongside US soldiers "at the barrel of a gun". However, a spokesman for the UK-based arm of the organisation dismissed the claims and said parcels were given to children across the world regardless of their faith. In the past few years, more than one million parcels have been sent from schools in Britain to orphans in countries such as Mozambique, Romania and Azerbaijan. "It is a very sad day when a level of political correctness causes people concern just because a Christian organisation is involved," he added.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 7:51 PM

Today's proposals by the Scottish Executive to allow unmarried and same sex couples to adopt are "clearly not in the best interests of children", said Cardinal Keith O'Brien. "Demands for parental rights for homosexual partners are more to do with fulfilling their wish for status rather than meeting needs of children," he said. "It is the view of the Catholic Church that to place children in such a situation is to put them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. This is gravely immoral and in open contradiction to the principle, recognized in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the best interests of the child, as the weaker and more vulnerable party, are to be the paramount consideration in every case."
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 7:44 PM

The Evangelical Alliance today expressed deep concern at the re-introduction of the incitement to religious hatred legislation. The organisation believes the wording of the Bill will undermine fundamental civil liberties, cause widespread confusion and generate community tensions.
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.
posted at 7:40 PM

Glasgow's greatest masterpiece, Salvador Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross, has a big chance of being voted Britain's favourite painting. The BBC and the National Gallery will next month launch a three-month poll to find Britain's best-loved painting. Visitors flock from around the world to see the Dali, which is in St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art but will return to its home in the Kelvingrove Gallery next year.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 11:09 PM

Two unsung heroes of the horrific Maryhill factory blast have been honoured by Glasgow's Lord Provost Liz Cameron. Elspeth Glasgow and Gary Gentles collected the Lord Provost's community service award for their courage and selflessness in the hours and days following the explosion in May 2004 at the ICL factory in Maryhill. The pair were care workers at Maryhill Community Hall which became a crisis centre in the blast aftermath. They spent days with virtually no sleep, helping to comfort and support dozens of relatives. Ms Glasgow is a member of the executive committee of Glasgow Churches Together.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 11:04 PM

A bishop today called on two million people to march on the Scottish capital for Bob Geldof's huge G8 demonstration. The Episcopalian Bishop of Argyll & the Isles, Martin Shaw, said: "I think people are getting into a lot of fear and anxiety about this. At least a majority of churches in the city centre are going to open up (to provide accommodation for protesters)." He added: "I think there's been a lot of scaremongering about this. After all, if there are a million people traipsing across a desert in north-eastern Africa, then surely Edinburgh can cope with it as well."
Source: The Scotsman/PA News.
posted at 10:48 PM

The annual Christian Aid sale at St Andrew's and St George's Church in Edinburgh has raised £107,000 towards the charity's work on behalf of the world's poor.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 10:44 PM

Scottish religious leaders met today to underline their support for the Make Poverty History campaign in its efforts "to eradicate the scandal of global poverty". "We stand together, united in the belief in the dignity of all human beings," they said in a joint statement. "In all our religious traditions, care for the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed are central to how we are called to live our lives in accordance with our faith. Each one of us commits to encouraging and supporting our own faith communities to give their support, their time and energy to the Make Poverty History Campaign." The statement is endorsed by Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist leaders.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 10:34 AM

Ron Ferguson asserts that the adoption of Andrew as patron saint of Scotland "was made on extremely dodgy grounds", and proposes his replacement by Columba, "a tumultuous flesh-and-blood hero who indubitably lived much of his life in Scotland and whose Celtic community helped to reshape Scottish life". Today, June 9, is Saint Columba's Feast Day.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 10:24 AM

The trustees of Rosslyn Chapel have been forced to install a new entrance and triple the size of its car park to cope with a surge in visitors sparked by blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code. The 15th-century building is expected to break through the 100,000th visitor barrier for the first time this year.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 9:43 PM

The leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, will be one of the key speakers at Edinburgh's Make Poverty History rally. Cardinal O'Brien, who visited Ethiopia earlier this year, is to deliver a "a powerful personal testimony" on the plight of the one billion people living in poverty, according to organisers.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 9:42 PM

Over the next few days, churches across Scotland will begin to 'white band' their steeples and buildings in response to the Make Poverty History campaign. These banners, which emulate the iconic white wristband of the campaign, demonstrate church support for those demanding that the G8 leaders meeting in Gleneagles (6 to 8 July) act to address the issues of trade, debt and aid. A special website has been established to provide congregations with additional information. Churches are asked to photograph their steeple once it has been 'white banded' and post their pictures on the web site.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:19 PM

The United Free Church of Scotland has released reports to be discussed at its General Assembly, which takes place in Glasgow from Thursday 9 - Saturday 11 June.
Source: United Free Church of Scotland.
posted at 9:05 PM

Obituary of William Murray Cormie; born June 12, 1915, died May 8, 2005; prominent civil engineer and an elder of St John's Renfield Church in Glasgow for 50 years.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 8:09 AM

More than 100 community projects have been launched in the past four years to help combat religious and racial bigotry in Glasgow, it was revealed today. Youngsters across the city have been the main focus of the city's groundbreaking Sense Over Sectarianism campaign.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 8:59 PM

Former Cullen Methodist Church minister Rev John Mitchell will be making a return visit this weekend to take part in the church's 100th anniversary celebrations. Mr Mitchell, now retired and living in Paisley, was minister when the church marked its 50th anniversary.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 8:53 PM

A design by Samantha Buchan of Douglas Primary School in Dundee is to be used for the Scottish Inter-Faith Council's greetings cards this year. Her 'dream of peace' concept so impressed the judges at the Festival of Faiths gathering in the Marryat Hall that it was reproduced in colour on the cover of one of the sections of the programme. Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Baha'i, Buddhist and Christian faiths took part in the joint celebration.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 8:00 PM

The College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church have put out a statement concerning future discussion of issues raised by the Windsor Report in the Province. They "wish to create an environment in which passionately held views can be expressed and heard in an atmosphere of charity, acceptance and honesty". They say that avoiding a debate on homosexuality and the Church is not an option, and detail four factors which "everyone who engages in this debate must consider". First, the interpretation and the authority of scripture - what it says and how it is to be read. Second, an examination of the tradition of faith and the documents which have been produced as part of the Anglican Communion's own examination of this issue. These most recently include the Resolutions of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the Windsor Report and the Primates' Communiqué. Further material will arise between now and 2008, possibly as a result of the coming meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. Third, experience of the presence and the ministry of people of homosexual orientation within the life of the church. And fourth, ways in which our understanding of gender and sexuality has developed and continues to develop in our society.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
posted at 7:56 PM

Community and church groups have vowed to fight plans for a new sex shop in Edinburgh's Leith Walk. Angela Santoro, minister of the World Conquerors Christian Centre, said she expected most of her 400-strong congregation to sign a petition. "We are protesting against the idea of this kind of shop being in the area," she said. "There is a primary school just around the corner and it is just not the right place for it. This is a very family-orientated area. We are planning to ask our congregation to sign a petition and I am sure most of them will agree with us."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.
posted at 4:44 PM

The next Episcopalian bishop of the Diocese of Brechin is to be the Rev Dr John Mantle, who was elected on Saturday. Dr Mantle, at present the Church of England's adviser on bishops' ministry, will succeed the Rt Rev Neville Chamberlain, who retired in January. He spent his childhood in Aberdeen and Inverness and his teenage years in Dundee, where his father, the Rev Rupert Mantle, was priest-in-charge of St Ninian's, Mid Craigie, from 1955 to 1967.
Source: Dundee Courier.
posted at 4:34 PM

Targets set by ministers for bodies working with the long-term unemployed are making the problem worse, not better, researchers have warned. Experts said targets ensure large numbers join job schemes, but do not ensure they reach the labour market. Former heroin user Laney Sharp does the washing up in a church tearoom which boosts her confidence after kicking a 15-year addiction. She was given her job by the vice-chairman of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, the Reverend John Matthews, a minister who is worried about the level of red tape. "There are outputs and outcomes and targets and people just follow those targets. When you target like that, it turns people round to meet the target," he said. "You almost forget what the object of the exercise is, which is to get people into sustainable employment."
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 4:30 PM

"Spirituality has become the acceptable face of religion," writes Giles Fraser, reviewing Channel 4's Spirituality Shopper which begins this evening. "It offers a language for the divine that dispenses with all the off-putting paraphernalia of priests and church. And it's not about believing in anything too specific, other than in some nebulous sense of otherness or presence. It offers God without dogma. Spirituality is just the sort of religion suitable for one of Michaela's dinner parties with her 'lots of friends'. It takes the exotic and esoteric aspects of religion and subtracts having to believe the impossible, having to sit next to difficult people on a Sunday morning, and having to make any sort of commitment that might have long-term implications for her wallet or lifestyle. Yes, spirituality is religion that has been mugged by capitalism."
Source: The Guardian.
posted at 4:28 PM

Scotland is now the most secular part of the UK, The Herald claims. In a questionnaire responded to by 970 of its readers - a self-selecting sample - 53.4% said they were practising members of a religion while 45.7% were not. The latter figure is "startling", according to Callum Brown, professor of religious and cultural history at Dundee University. "The figure suggests Scotland is a leading part of the very pronounced collapse of traditional Christian culture in Europe. In a recent survey of the people of the EU, 42% claimed that religion did not occupy an important place in their life," he said. Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said: "The demise of religious belief in Scotland has been, as this survey shows, greatly exaggerated. Belief in God clearly remains a fundamental truth for an overwhelming majority of Scots. Importantly, belief and practice are not the same thing. Many more believe than actively worship and this does not mean that religion is dead. In politics, many more believe in democracy than turn out to vote, but no-one claims democracy is dead. Believing in God continues to be a bedrock issue for most Scots. The challenge for the churches is to build on this belief." That was echoed by the Rev Alex Millar, who is involved with mission and evangelism at the Church of Scotland. "There is at large a spiritual search being conducted by modern men and women in search of happiness and fulfilment which materialism does not offer. The old pattern of measuring religious affiliation is not necessarily the best indication of the strength of religion. Parish ministers up and down the country increasingly have people attending regularly, but who don't belong in the formal sense of membership."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 4:23 PM

Scotland's biggest Orange Walk is being moved to avoid a clash with the Special Olympics. The Grand Lodge of Central Scotland decided to change the date of their traditional march because the Games are taking place in Glasgow between July 2 and 9. The march from Blythswood Square to Glasgow Green was due on July 9 - which clashes with the the closing ceremony of the Olympics. It will now go ahead on June 25.
Source: Sunday Mail.
posted at 5:17 PM

Lawyer Donald Findlay is considering resignation from a top legal position after controversy over a joke he made about the late Pope John Paul II. The QC's joke at a Rangers supporters' club in Northern Ireland is reported to have prompted a no-confidence vote from colleagues in the Faculty of Advocates. He is considering his position as chairman of Faculty Services Limited.
Source: BBC Scotland News.
posted at 4:51 PM

A priest who caused controversy when he wrote of the sex abuse he suffered while growing up in a seminary has gone missing during a "soul-searching" trip to Ireland. Friends say that Father Steve Gilhooley, 42, has become disillusioned with the Catholic Church and has quit. In his last public statement before disappearing, Gilhooley launched a bitter attack on the appointment as Pope of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - who he accused of trying to silence him. And he revealed he would not be returning to the priesthood. Last year the leader of the Scottish Catholic Church, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who had been a close friend and confidant of Gilhooley, gave him permission to take a year's sabbatical from his Our Lady's parish in Currie near Edinburgh. Worried friends say Gilhooley has not been in touch since he wrote an article in the Irish Times newspaper attacking the election of Pope Benedict XVI and indicating he was quitting the church.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 4:44 PM

"Not since Peter the Hermit hysterically launched the Children's Crusade have we seen anything comparable to Bob Geldof's latest excursion into naïfpolitik," writes Gerald Warner of Bob Geldof's exhortation that a million people descend on Edinburgh in support of Make Poverty History. "The First Minister started all this by bringing Geldof to Edinburgh to address a purposeless conference at Holyrood and giving him hospitality, on the taxpayer, at Bute House. He did so to promote his own self-advertising initiative over poverty in Malawi (Easterhouse, Pilton, Blackhill - job done!). The nearest thing to an ageing rock star in need of the oxygen of publicity is a brain-dead Scottish First Minister who knows he is a laughing stock ... Malawi has had a long record as fashion accessory to the unco guid in Edinburgh. When the Kirk and the Scottish left were lambasting South Africa, they were simultaneously dribbling with enthusiasm over Hastings Banda, graduate of Edinburgh University and elder of the Church of Scotland. In Malawi, the dictator was called Messiah and it was his Christian practice to feed his political opponents to crocodiles ... Neither Africa nor any other continent should be mollycoddled into unending dependency: the anti-globalisation programme is actually neo-colonialism - denying nations the recipe for economic autonomy and turning them into charitable colonies. Most famine is caused by wars waged by Africans against one another, while Aids has its origins in acts of personal irresponsibility. People must take responsibility for themselves: that is what independence means. Realism must prevail at Gleneagles, even if self-indulgence swamps Edinburgh."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 4:42 PM

Catholic children in non-denominational schools will have access to separate sex education classes under plans being drawn up by church officials. Under the new sexual health strategy being devised by the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES), the church wants parents of Catholic pupils to get greater access to the literature used in Roman Catholic schools. Michael McGrath, director of SCES, pointed out that Catholic children in the Western Isles already receive separate sex education classes and this could happen elsewhere in Scotland after the new sexual health strategy is published.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.
posted at 4:38 PM

The Rev Dr John Mantle has been elected as the new Bishop of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church at a meeting of the Electoral Synod held today in Dundee. He will succeed the Rt Rev Neville Chamberlain, who retired as Bishop of the Diocese in January. John Mantle is presently Archbishops' Adviser for Bishops' Ministry in the Church of England. He lives in Peterborough and has an office in London. The Bishop-Elect will be consecrated and installed at a service planned for September 2005 in St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.
posted at 4:35 PM

Obituary of Roderick Wright, former Roman Catholic Bishop of Argyll and the Isles; born 28 June, 1940, in Glasgow; died 23 May, 2005, in New Zealand, aged 64.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 9:57 AM

Scotland Yard is to set up an initiative, codenamed Project Violet, to discover the extent of the problem in African communities across London where children may have been mistreated in the name of black magic. Police said they are currently investigating 30 such cases. Deliverance videos, which encourage aggressive exorcisms of children at home, can be bought in Britain, in areas of London such as Dalston and Brixton. Dr Richard Hoskins, an expert in African religions at King's College London, said a belief in witchcraft in children was particularly relevant to followers of fundamentalist Christianity, and that some Christian fundamentalist churches condoned the violent forms of exorcism. "There's a culpability from some of the churches, they do influence people and have some part to play in this. I think one of the things that should be looked at is whether these churches should be registered. Some of these churches go hand in glove with witchcraft." Dr Hoskins said that although belief in witchcraft - known in Angola as ndoki - was centuries old, cures did not traditionally involve violence. "In Africa, the traditional way of getting rid of ndoki would be to get a witchdoctor to prepare a curative medicine that would deal with the problem. They can't use the defence that this is their culture. No right-minded African would abuse their child in this way," he added.
Source: The Independent.
posted at 9:52 AM

Hundreds of central African children living in the UK may have suffered abuse or even been killed after being accused of witchcraft, charities say. The warning follows the conviction of three people over the torture of an eight-year-old girl. The orphan was beaten, cut and had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes to "beat the devil out of her". Four London charities, working with people from central Africa, told BBC News this was not an isolated case. The children may have been returned to their home countries for "deliverance services" or other punishments. In one case it was claimed an Angolan child had been sent home two years ago, and had since been killed. BBC correspondent Angus Crawford said community workers believed the growth of "breakaway churches" could be one possible cause of the abuse. A minority of these preach a powerful blend of traditional African beliefs and evangelical Christianity.
Source: BBC News.

posted at 9:46 AM

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has reminded people of the reasons for the events planned for Edinburgh on 2 July by the Make Poverty History coalition. The Right Reverend David Lacy said: "They are not about celebrities or semantics or arguments relating to Edinburgh's ability to house vast numbers of marchers. We cannot allow ourselves or others to forget that people are dying because of poverty and the well planned, structured events that will take place on 2 July are designed to bring that tragedy into sharp focus and demand quick and effective solutions that will make poverty history."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 9:38 AM

A £3 million refurbishment of the Church of Scotland's Ballikinrain residential care school near Balfron will be "officially unveiled" tomorrow.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 5:43 PM

The Apostleship of the Sea - the Catholic Church's outreach to the millions of seafarers engaged in the international shipping industry - is to be relaunched where it was founded in 1922, at St Aloysius' Church in Glasgow, with a celebration Mass on Saturday June 4. AOS in Scotland is changing its emphasis from the provision of hostels for seafarers and will concentrate on ship visiting, drop-in centres and sea-going chaplaincy.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.
posted at 5:39 PM

An Inverness historian who was also a former minister of Kingswells church near Aberdeen has died at the age of 89. The Rev Roderick Henderson, known as Derick, was originally from Inverness and became minister of the church in 1977 following a rich and varied career as a tobacco farmer, biscuit salesman, businessman, and as a minister in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 5:34 PM

Ron Ferguson on the Church of Scotland's celebration event, Church without Walls 2005, held last weekend. "All I can report from the Edinburgh front line is that this gathering did not represent a sour and disappointed Presbyterianism which rails at people because they refuse to play by the old rules. This was a lively and encouraging sign of an old church trying to sing an imaginative new song in a strange land, a land in which the cultural tectonic plates have shifted, and things will never be the same again."
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:14 AM

Obituary of Dr Thomas Scott Wilson, public health specialist, past president of the Glasgow Philosophical Society and former elder in St Margaret's Church of Scotland, Tollcross, and then at St Andrew's Church, Cambuslang.
Source: The Herald.
posted at 9:09 AM

Plans to close a listed church known locally as the 'cathedral of the east end' have sparked fury among 250 parishioners. Falling numbers in the Church of Scotland congregation have forced Glasgow Presbytery to consider merging three churches in Shettleston into one. But a row has erupted over the decision to close the 'B' listed Shettleston Old Parish Church - which has had a congregation since 1753 - as well as Carntyne Old Church, and use Eastbank Church as the centre of worship.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.
posted at 7:56 PM

Rev Canon Mark Strange of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Elgin is warning churches in Moray to be on their guard after members of his congregation had their belongings stolen while at worship.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.
posted at 2:23 PM

Obituary of the Very Rev William Johnston, DD, D.Litt; Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in 1980 and respected minister in Colinton. Born 16 September, 1921, in Edinburgh; died 22 May, 2005, in Edinburgh, aged 83.
Source: The Scotsman.
posted at 2:07 PM

The G8 should rethink the logic of corporate globalization and economic models of excessive competition that have widened the gap between rich and poor and aggravated destruction of the environment, says World Council of Churches general secretary Rev Dr Samuel Kobia in a letter to UK prime minister Tony Blair.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.
posted at 2:00 PM

Representatives of local churches in Inverness will meet tonight to discuss setting up a city chaplaincy. Lewis Rose, national organiser of the Scottish Churches Industrial Mission explained: "The idea of a city chaplaincy is to allow the Church to communicate with people at their work, leisure and in ways they feel comfortable with."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.
posted at 1:57 PM