Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian describes the part his Christian faith plays in his songwriting.
Source: Sunday Herald. posted at 5:19 PM

Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow is calling on Catholics to resist "indirect assaults" on traditional values. In a St Mungo Day homily he said: "Recent legislation to introduce civil partnerships dangerously weakens the uniqueness of marriage as a time-honored, legally recognized and protected social reality and a fiscally privileged entity. It also implicitly places homosexual acts on a plane of moral equivalence to marital love. . All of this flies in the face of the Christian Catholic view of sexuality and marriage, and stems from the basic mistake of separating the unitive and procreative aspects of marital love."
Source: Zenit News Agency. posted at 5:13 PM

One of Shetland's most visited tourist sites, the medieval chapel at St Ninian's Isle, is falling into disrepair. The chapel dates back to the twelfth century and some of it overlies an older eighth century structure.
Source: Shetland Times. posted at 5:10 PM

The Catholic church in Scotland is seeking exemption from controversial adoption laws that will allow children to be placed with gay couples. It wants Holyrood to grant a "conscience clause" giving the church and other faith-based groups the right to reject applicants to their adoption agencies on the basis of gender.
Source: Sunday Times. posted at 5:07 PM

The Church of Scotland has accused the Westminster government of plans to sanction "murder" by liberalising embryo research laws. In response to proposals by the government to update the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, the Kirk said that proposals to allow the harvesting of embryos for stem cells risk turning unborn children into "research objects". The Catholic Church, whose opposition to the medical use of embryos is well known, supported the Kirk's position, claiming the plans represented "the killing of human beings on a massive scale".
Source: Sunday Times. posted at 5:06 PM

Martin Friel of St Catherine's of Alexandria RC Church in Edinburgh is appealing for footballs and strips for use in a sports project with orphans in Knysna, South Africa.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 3:35 PM

Young volunteers from Tayside and Fife are making final preparations for their role in projects which include the rebuilding of Asia's tsunami ravaged communities. Link Overseas Exchange is also supporting an HIV/AIDS programme in Pune, India. The Link programme was originally established in Angus by the Rev Andrew Greaves and his wife Vicky, and is now based in Dundee where Mr Greaves is minister at West Church in Perth Road.
Source: Dundee Courier. posted at 3:33 PM

After more than three years as spiritual leader of Great Britain's Ukrainian Catholics, Bishop Paul Patrick Chomnycky is off to the United States to become bishop of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Stamford, Conn. The British Eparchy has a transient population of about 15,000 Catholics in 30 communities in England, Wales and Scotland served by 15 priests.
Source: Western Catholic Reporter, Edmonton. posted at 3:18 PM

The leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics is to visit Darfur, an area of Sudan described by the UN as suffering "the greatest humanitarian disaster in the world". Last year the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) embarked on a massive aid mission to help people in the region, with supporters in churches, schools and parishes collecting more than £650,000. Cardinal Keith O'Brien will also visit Juba, Sudan's southern capital, to see how money raised in Scotland is being spent on the ground.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 3:11 PM

MSPs have united to fight the deportation to Kenya of father-of-two John Ragwar, who has been living in Scotland for eight years. His wife, Karen, works as a clerk for the Church of Scotland. Morag Mylne, spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland, said her prayers were with the couple and their young children. "The Church has long expressed its deep concern at deportation policy and practice, in particular where that affects families and involves separating parents and children," she said.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 3:07 PM

A former headmaster of Kinloss Primary School, who inspired generations of boys to join the Scouts, has died at the age of 88. Albert Slorach MBE was a former Session Clerk of Kinloss Parish Church.
Source: Forres Gazette. posted at 8:48 PM

Members of Hamilton North Parish Church this week thanked those who helped celebrate the church's 250th anniversary last year.
Source: Hamilton Advertiser. posted at 8:40 PM

The minister of EU Congregational Church in Pathhead, the Reverend Ena Borthwick, has retired after 25 years of service.
Source: Fife Free Press. posted at 8:36 PM

Rev Graeme Richard Wilson will be ordained and inducted to the vacant charge of Galston Parish Church on Thursday, January 19.
Source: Kilmarnock Standard. posted at 8:31 PM

Furious Orangemen have complained about East Lothian Council to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, claiming "sectarian malice" was behind a complaint by a Catholic community councillor. They also slammed the council for failing to hold an internal review after claims that the congregation of Our Lady of Loretto RC Church in Musselburgh had been terrified by an Orange Lodge band during a parade.
Source: East Lothian Courier. posted at 8:28 PM

Church of Scotland clerk Karen Ragwar today made a desperate plea to immigration chiefs not to rip her family apart by deporting the Kenyan-born father of her children from Scotland. Karen and her husband John's children have lived in the Lothians all their lives.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 8:12 PM

Scotland is no longer a Christian country, writes Steve Bruce, professor of sociology at the University of Aberdeen. "It is a secular country which makes available to most Scots every conceivable form of religious belief and spiritual exercise; and the vast majority of us show no great interest, positive or negative, in any of them. When arguing with non-Christian groups about access to public privileges and the respect shown to their beliefs, Christian leaders might do well to appreciate that they, too, now represent minority faiths."
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 7:50 PM

"I write as an atheist," comments Bill Jamieson on Cardinal Keith O'Brien's remarks about a Christian Scotland. "But for many of us born before 1950, the sense of dismantling and destruction of the Judeo-Christian culture in which we were raised has never been more intense - and more alienating ... Before lunging to denounce Cardinal O'Brien, we should take a long, hard look at what secularism has brought us. It is not paradise, but a precipice over which we look and now recoil from."
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 7:48 PM

Scotland's largest Episcopalian congregation has moved to a temporary home while a multi-million-pound expansion project gets under way on its church. St Paul's & St George's Church in Edinburgh attracts 700 people each Sunday and is full at its morning family worship and evening service.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 7:31 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien last night won support for his controversial claim that other faiths needed to realise they lived in a Christian country. The leader of Scotland's evangelical Christians last night said he "welcomed the debate" raised by the cardinal. Mike Parker, general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland, said: "Talking too much about Jesus is not our biggest problem in Scotland; a lot of Christians keep it quiet." Freddy Gray, deputy editor of the Catholic Herald newspaper, said: "Too often we compromise the Catholic Church for the sake of other faiths." Dr Mona Siddiqui, head of the department of theology and religious studies at Glasgow University, suggested the Church faced a struggle in its battle to revitalise Christianity. She said: "The concern for many Christian churches, especially the Catholic Church, is how to make religion a vibrant, living reality in people's lives."
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 7:18 PM

The Government wants to relax the laws on Sunday trading after pressure from supermarket chains which want to bring England and Wales into line with Scotland, where there are no restrictions. But the move faces opposition from small traders and religious groups who want to "keep Sunday special".
Source: The Independent. posted at 7:15 PM

British scientists are planning to create human-rabbit hybrid embryos to speed up research into the causes of inherited conditions such as motor neurone disease and Parkinson's. Edinburgh University's Professor Ian Wilmut - who created Dolly the Sheep - and colleagues in London believe the hybrids will help them circumvent a shortage of human eggs which is hampering research. However, the Church of Scotland said the proposal violated the distinction between humans, who were "created in God's image", and animals, who were not.
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 7:12 PM

The Mearns coastal parish is embarking on a three-year fund-raising campaign to meet the cost of vital repairs and alterations to its two churches. The parish is the result of a union of Benholm and Johnshaven with Garvock-St Cyrus in 1998 since when the congregations have agreed that it is not possible to maintain four places of worship.
Source: Dundee Courier. posted at 7:55 PM

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has caused controversy among non-Christian faiths by telling them that they needed to realise they live in a Christian country. Cardinal Keith O'Brien makes the comments in an interview by Sally Magnusson on What I Believe, to be broadcast by Radio Scotland on Sunday, 15 January at 8am. He says: "I feel I must take a stand when Christianity itself is questioned in this country. In a re-Christianised Scotland I would certainly respect the beliefs of people of other faiths, the great world faiths, and acknowledge when they are celebrating their feasts, just as they acknowledge when we celebrate the feast of Christmas and these sort of things. But I would also like them to realise that they are living in Scotland as a Christian country." A spokesman for the Hindu Temple in Glasgow condemned the remarks: "I think they are obnoxious. If you go to India there are more Christians there than there are in Britain." Inyat Bunglawala, from the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Mr O'Brien should be addressing his comments to Christians. I think Muslims are surprised that many Christians don't take their faith so seriously." Osama Saeed, the Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Great Britain, said he didn't think the remarks were controversial. "Mr O'Brien is a Christian leader and he is going to spread Christianity - I don't find that particularly surprising ... When he talks about re-Christianising Scotland, he is merely going back to a time when it was Christian and acknowledging that that has been lost."
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 7:51 PM

There are reports of racist vandals targeting the property of Sikhs and Muslims in Scotland, while Britain's largest Hindu organization is claiming that Hindus are increasingly the victims of hate crimes. Police in Edinburgh have reported at least 13 incidents. Rev John Tait, Vice-Chair of Leith Churches Together, commented: "All that fosters fear and violence against any group is an attack on us all. God wants all people to live together in peace and in harmony with each other and with Him."
Source: Indolink, San Ramon, CA. posted at 7:34 PM

Scots appearing in Who's Who for the first time this year include the Episcopalian Bishop of Brechin, the Rev Dr John Mantle; the Very Rev Alexander Gordon, Provost of St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Inverness; the Rt Rev David William Lacy, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; the Rt Rev David Chillingworth, Episcopalian Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane.
Source: Daily Record. posted at 4:38 PM

Celebrating her 100th birthday, Mrs Amy Pearse of Avonsleigh attributed her long and healthy life to the loving support of her family and her active church life. Mrs Pearse was born in Stirling, Scotland. She was eight when her family moved to Australia. Mrs Pearse said the highlight of her life was when she met her husband, Len, who she married in 1935 at the Box Hill Presbyterian Church. Len Pearse was an ordained minister and soon after their marriage he took up an appointment at the Congregational Church in Castlemaine. Mrs Pearce lives in Avonsleigh with her cat, Cindy, and son, Malcolm.
Source: Ferntree Gully Mail Newsgroup. posted at 12:54 AM

One of Scotland's leading experts on alcohol addiction has called for a revival of the temperance movement after a report revealed drink-related deaths have doubled in the last decade. Dr Alasdair Young, a consultant psychiatrist at Castle Craig clinic in Peebles, said a return to 19th-century attitudes to drink were needed to counter the destructive culture of binge drinking that is destroying the fabric of society.
Source: Sunday Times. posted at 8:37 PM

Churches up and down the country are busy preparing for Homelessness Sunday 2006 which will take place on Sunday 29 January.
Source: Christian Today. posted at 5:53 PM

Destiny Church in Edinburgh is hosting free big screen movie nights this month. Films include Shrek 2 and The Passion of the Christ.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 5:45 PM

A former pupil who was repeatedly tortured and sexually assaulted at the notorious St Ninian's residential school has taken the Crown Office to court in his fight to bring his alleged abuser to trial. Mr Emile Szula, 53, has chosen to waive his right to anonymity in order to seek a judicial review into the decision not to prosecute the alleged abuse "ringleader" at Gartmore school in Stirlingshire, which was run by the De La Salle Roman Catholic order.
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 5:44 PM

The Reverend Darryl Abernethy of Stranraer Free Presbyterian Church is calling for local registrars to follow the Western Isles and refuse to conduct civil partnership ceremonies.
Source: Galloway Gazette. posted at 6:55 PM

An innovative religious experiment is celebrating 40 years of success. A thanksgiving service is being held tonight to mark four decades of the Livingston Ecumenical Parish. The Most Reverend Bruce Cameron, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and former member of the ministry team in Livingston, will preach at the service in St Paul's Church in Ladywell, Livingston.
Source: West Lothian Courier. posted at 6:41 PM

The Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly arrived in Malawi yesterday to witness first-hand the impact of HIV/Aids pandemic. Reverend Daniel Gunya, Blantyre Synod general secretary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian said Right Rev Dr David Lacy would tour the CCAP's three synods during his 10-day visit. But Mr Gunya denied Scottish press reports (see earlier Herald story) that Mr Lacy was following in the footsteps of Scottish Executive first minister Jack McConnell. "Moderators normally come to Malawi and other African countries to visit partner churches," he said.
Source: Daily Times, Blantyre, Malawi. posted at 1:36 PM

Rev Alan McWilliam of Whiteinch Church of Scotland in Glasgow has helped spearhead the development of a new community centre for the area.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow. posted at 1:27 PM

The priest at the centre of a sudden and mysterious departure from his island parish last month will not be returning to his duties at Castlebay in Barra. The Catholic Church has appointed Father Michael Hutson, of St Margaret's, Lochgilphead, to take over at Star of the Sea parish, which was vacated by Father Roddy MacNeil just before Christmas on the instructions of Bishop Ian Murray.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal. posted at 1:19 PM

A new Glasgow primary school is to be named after Rev John Miller, minister of the city's Castlemilk East Church and former moderator of the Kirk's General Assembly, and his wife Mrs Mary Miller, who is heavily involved in Castlemilk community project The Jeely Piece Club, which has offered a variety of childcare, educational and social support facilities to local families since 1975.
Source: Church of Scotland news release. posted at 5:15 PM

Mike Parker is leaving the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland to become Middle East Director of a Christian mission agency working with Arab churches. Rev Parker, an Episcopalian priest who has been Scottish director of the Alliance for three years, leaves in April 2006 and expects to move to Cyprus the following month to join Middle East Christian Outreach.
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release. posted at 5:09 PM

A Dundee heroin addict who robbed a dead woman as she lay awaiting burial then stole money from St John's Roman Catholic Church was yesterday detained for nearly six months.
Source: Dundee Courier. posted at 4:49 PM

Feature on churches in Galilee includes the Scottish Church in Tiberias and its current overseer, Ms Jane Zelinsky, a Scottish immigrant of Polish ancestry.
Source: Ynet News, Tel Aviv. posted at 12:01 AM

Visitor numbers to historic Rosslyn Chapel have almost doubled in the space of 12 months on the back of the worldwide bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News. posted at 11:57 PM

The Scotsman reveals the true extent of inequality across Scotland, in a study showing the country's wealthiest suburb has a life expectancy of 87.7 years, while a boy born in the poorest area of Glasgow can expect to die at 54.
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 11:58 AM

The Right Rev David Lacy, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, left Edinburgh today for Malawi and Kenya to witness first-hand the impact of HIV and Aids in Africa. He is accompanied by Nigel Pounde, co-ordinator of the Kirk's HIV-Aids project.
Source: The Herald. posted at 11:54 AM

The former Chief Executive of the Scottish Interfaith Council, Sister Isabel Smyth, was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours for services to interfaith relations.
Source: Church of England Newspaper. posted at 11:42 AM

Bob Holman asks how high-flying MP Douglas Alexander, "a child of the manse and the kind of Christian who shows his faith more by actions than words", can support the Labour government's acceptance of Britain's massive arms industry.
Source: The Herald. posted at 6:37 PM

The minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Dearborn, Michigan, the Rev Douglas Barranger, who gained a doctorate in systematic theology from King's College in Aberdeen, has died at the age of 49.
Source: Detroit News. posted at 6:28 PM

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev David Lacy, has given a new year message in which he prays for a happy 2006.
Source: Church of Scotland news release. posted at 7:03 PM

Cardinal Keith O'Brien used his New Year's Day address to condemn Westminster and Holyrood for failing to uphold traditional family values. Speaking at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, he accused politicians of undermining the family as the most vital building block of society. He said: "When our lawmakers condone and endorse trends in society which are ultimately ruinous of family life we are entitled to question their motivation and condemn their behaviour." George Broadhead, spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, said: "These relentless Vatican-inspired attacks are reaching a level that could lead to an escalation of violence against gay people."
Sources: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release, The Herald. posted at 6:57 PM

Rejected by their families and society in Sri Lanka, women branded as mentally ill and left to languish in mental hospitals are being given a new start thanks to St Andrew's Scots Kirk in the capital, Colombo, established more than a century ago by Scottish tea plantation owners. St Andrew's parishioners contacted Netherlee Parish Church in Glasgow whose members raised more than £45,000 within a year, enough to buy a property which could give up to 12 women a new home.
Source: The Herald. posted at 6:28 PM

A ban on working on the Christian Sabbath in parts of Scotland should be reviewed, according to Archie Campbell, councillor for Paible in North Uist. Western Isles Council currently only allows work in emergency situations. A policy established in 1988 aims to protect Sunday as a day of rest. John Roberts of the Lord's Day Observance Society claimed changes would lead to a break-up of the community.
Source: The Scotsman. posted at 6:13 PM

Many thanks to the Enquiry Desk at Scotsman.com for their same-day response to an emailed suggestion that they should credit the un-bylined SoS story listed here yesterday. The composer James MacMillan is the Lay Dominican who is working on liturgical music at St Columba's parish in Maryhill, Glasgow.
Source: Scotland on Sunday. posted at 6:08 PM

Fiona Leith went to church on Christmas Day for the first time in her life. "The female minister walked around the church freely, as though she were presenting a chat show ... In that church there was a shining example of the most modern aspects of Christianity, and the broadest of age ranges on the pews were sitting attentively, enraptured by the whole thing. She was talking about my life as much as that of the person next to me."
Source: Scotland on Sunday. posted at 10:58 PM

A community buyout of Raith Rovers football club brokered by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, succeeded thanks to an £800,000 donation from a fellow son of the manse. John Sim, whose father was a Church of Scotland minister in Kirkcaldy at the same time as Brown's father, was the main backer of the consortium that bought the Fife football club for £1.2m last week.
Source: Sunday Times. posted at 10:55 PM

Un-bylined piece by a Lay Dominican who formed a choir for the Catholic Chaplaincy at Edinburgh University and now works on liturgical music at St Columba's parish in Maryhill, Glasgow.
Source: Scotland on Sunday. posted at 10:52 PM

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, is "setting a lead for all" with his New Year resolution to take more time out of his hectic schedule for spiritual reflection. "We all need to stop and catch our breath from time to time. I think we would all benefit from doing more of this in 2006," he said.
Source: Sunday Times. posted at 10:39 PM