Residents in Torrance, East Dunbartonshire, are protesting at plans to build a halfway house for young men from a Church of Scotland residential school.
Source: The Herald.

The annual Methodist Conference takes place in Scotland for the first time this year, meeting at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh from 24-29 June.
Source: The Good News.

Yale professor Jaroslav Pelikan, one of the world's foremost scholars of the history of Christianity, has died at the age of 82. A Lutheran convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, Pelikan twice delivered the Gifford Lectures in Scotland, and last year published Whose Bible Is It?, a history of the scriptures.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, according to the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno. Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies. He said creationism harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events. Brother Consolmagno said prior to speaking at the Glasgow Science Centre earlier this month: "Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."
Source: The Scotsman.

A two-and-a half-tonne marble statue of the late Pope John Paul II, created by Scottish artist Tom Allan from Italian Carrara marble, has been unveiled in Lanarkshire. Hundreds of people attended a ceremony to mark the installation of the 7ft sculpture on Saturday at Carfin Grotto near Motherwell.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales was last night drawn into a furious row over a senior aide sacked because of his homosexuality. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, was personally involved in the dismissal of his personal Press secretary, Stephen Noon. Mr Noon was subsequently head-hunted from the Tony Blair-backed campaign group Britain in Europe to become senior adviser to Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party.
Source: Mail on Sunday.

Rev Alan McDonald, the incoming Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, has said he wants to "twin" the Kirk's poorest parishes with some of its richest congregations in order to make affluent church-goers intolerant of poverty on their doorstep.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

Around 185,000 passports were lost or stolen last year in Britain and more than 1500 bogus applications were made. Random checks are being carried out on people such as Justices of the Peace, lawyers and church ministers who countersign applications.
Source: Sunday Mail.

The government has ruled that a European directive designed to restrict hazardous substances should not apply to church organs, which contain lead.
Source: The Observer.

Two leading figures are to preach in the same historic Inverness presbyterian church. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Scotland's most senior Roman Catholic churchman, will begin a series of evening services today. Rev Fergus MacDonald, a former Moderator of the Free Church, will be guest preacher on 18 June.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien will be the first signatory to a petition urging the UK Government not to commit to a replacement for the Trident Nuclear Weapons System on Monday 15 May in Edinburgh. The Cardinal will sign the petition outside the Scottish Parliament's main entrance at 1pm. He will be joined by Morag Mylne, Convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council, as well as representatives of other churches and MSP's. Copies of the petition can be downloaded from the Justice & Peace Scotland website. An online version of the petition is also available.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.

The Church of Scotland needs to speak more effectively to young people, the Mission and Discipleship report to this year’s General Assembly will say.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Church of Scotland's general assembly will be asked to endorse a report which says any replacement for Trident would be "morally repugnant" and the "ultimate in hypocrisy". The church and society council is also highly critical of many aspects of the war on terror, from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and rendition flights to the wisdom of identity cards.
Source: The Herald.

Canadian clergy are spiritually exhausted, stressed out, have few friends and little support, according to a report by Rev Dr Andrew Irvine of Knox College in Toronto, a former Church of Scotland minister. 'Clergy Well-Being: Seeking Wholeness with Integrity' shows that 77 percent of the surveyed clergy felt they were more like a CEO than a pastor; 18 percent could not identify a close friend in church or their community; and 80 percent felt guilty if caught taking time off during the week even though most work a 50-hour week.
Source: Canadian Christianity.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who visited the troubled Darfur region of Sudan earlier this year with Scottish aid agency SCIAF, has cautiously welcomed the recent agreement between the Sudanese government and one of the country's rebel groups to halt the fighting that has displaced over two million people and cost thousands their lives. "The safety of civilians and aid workers must be made a priority," the Cardinal said.
Source: Independent Catholic News.

An exhibition providing a child's view of sectarianism has opened in Glasgow. Photographs, articles and poetry from 24 primary pupils feature in the exhibition at the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The Church of Scotland has consistently argued that the introduction of Trident represented a significant escalation in the UK’s capacity for mass destruction, and these concerns are echoed in the Church and Society committee’s report to this year’s General Assembly.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Church of Scotland's Social Care Council, CrossReach, will tell this month's General Assembly that its operating deficit of around £3.5 million pounds is not sustainable in the long term.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

This month's General Assembly is to hear how the Church of Scotland constantly has to balance the need to preserve its architectural heritage with the demand to ensure its buildings are fit for modern congregations.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Road closures for major events in Edinburgh's city centre are driving church-goers away from Sunday services. Ministers have seen a massive drop in congregation size on days when roads around their churches are closed for events such as Sunday's Great Edinburgh Run because disabled and elderly people unable to walk far are blocked from travelling to church by car. Edinburgh Churches Together met with the city council six weeks ago to highlight the problem and Reverend Mitchell Bunting, said: "We feel the fact a lot of these events are held on Sunday mornings are unfair on worshippers." Father Ed Hone, of St Patrick's Church on the Cowgate, said his congregation halves on days when the roads are closed off.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

A requiem Mass for 93-year-old Father Maurus Deegan is to be held at Pluscarden Abbey in Moray on Friday to mark the first anniversary of his mystery disappearance. Father Maurus vanished without trace during one of his regular daily walks at the Benedictine community where he was a member for 57 years.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien will bless a new stained glass window on May 31 to mark the restoration and re-opening of St Mary's church in Leslie three years after it was gutted by fire.
Source: Fife Now - Glenrothes Gazette.

The Care Commission has suspended admissions to Geilsland residential centre in Beith which caters for, among others, underage sex offenders. There has been a series of critical reports about the school, whose former pupils include Colyn Evans, the 18-year-old jailed last year for killing 16-year-old Karen Dewar. Opened in 1964, Geilsland is owned and run by the Church of Scotland's Board for Social Responsibility, now known as CrossReach.
Source: The Herald.

On Saturday 13th May The first UK statue commemorating Pope John Paul II will be unveiled at Carfin Grotto on Saturday. The figure, by sculptor Tom Allan, will be blessed by Bishop Joseph Devine and Archbishop Szczepan Wesoly, the retired Archbishop for Polish emigres based in Rome.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.

THE Church of Scotland is to set a target of raising £12.5 million to help fund church and community work in the country's most deprived areas. A report to be presented to the Kirk's General Assembly later this month claims many people in deprived areas believe "the church is not for the likes of us". And it says many congregations needed to reposition themselves "so as to become communities and places where people know they are in touch with what life is about".
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Thieves rifled a children's collection box labelled Pennies For Jesus during a break-in at a north-east church. The incident at Macduff Parish Church was branded mean by the police and "pretty low" by minister, the Rev David Randall.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Europeans risk being completely unprepared to face modern-day challenges if they are not guided by a solid sense of moral responsibility and Christian ethics, said a statement from Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the pontifical councils for Culture and for Interreligious Dialogue, and Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of external and ecumenical relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, following a three-day meeting between the two churches in Vienna. John Haldane, professor of philosophy at St Andrews University, told the meeting that Christians should not insist so much on Europe returning to some nostalgic sense of its Christian roots, but instead "win the case for their beliefs, including their social theology." The churches should not just blame modernity for today's ills, he said; they should face the various points postmodern critics make.
Source: Catholic Online.

The Church of Scotland will discuss later this month pulling out their investments in Israeli companies at their annual General Assembly in Edinburgh, it has been revealed. The Church and Society Council will raise the issue to “show solidarity to the Palestinian people”. The proposal was condemned by Sister Margaret Shepherd, director of the Council of Christians and Jews. She said: "It is quite clear that now is a time to encourage and promote negotiation, rather than making financial gestures which will not benefit anyone." Simon McIlwaine, coordinator of Anglicans for Israel, echoed the concerns. “It beggars belief that members of a supposedly Protestant and evangelical Church should seek to place it at the disposal of radical Islamists like Hamas who seek to expunge the Jewish and Christian presence from the Holy Land,” he said.
Source: European Jewish Press.

Bishop Philip Tartaglia gave his blessing to the inaugural meeting of a new Pro Life Group in the Diocese of Paisley last night. In his address, Bishop Tartaglia said that legal abortion means that a state accepts "that the rights of the weak can be violated".
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.

The Church of Scotland's influential Church and Society Council will express concern at May’s General Assembly about ‘enforced’ poverty among those who seek asylum in the UK. According to the council, a "policy of destitution" is being used to persuade asylum seekers to give up their claims and return to their country of origin. The denial of shelter and means of support to unsuccessful asylum seekers by the deliberate action of the state, as is current practice, is "an affront to the values of the civilisation that we like to believe we live in."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Council of Assembly will ask this month’s General Assembly to freeze the total amount paid by congregations to the Church of Scotland’s overall budget next year. Kirk members increased their offerings to the Church last year by just under £2 million – a rise of 2.4 per cent over the previous year.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Church of Scotland's Ecumenical Relations Committee is to report to this year’s General Assembly on the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held during February in Brazil. The Kirk’s representatives included the Rev Dr Norman Shanks, former leader of the Iona Community and moderator of the WCC Assembly's planning committee. During the WCC Assembly another of the Kirk’s delegates, Graham McGeoch, was appointed to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

A church that has seen its congregation double will soon celebrate its reopening after a major revamp. St Joseph's RC Church in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire will reopen this summer following an 18-month refurbishment programme.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.

Bell ringers from across Scotland took part in an open contest at St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington, on Saturday.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

A loyalist parade whose route led last year to the assault of a priest passed peacefully outside the churchman's parish last night. The Catholic Church in Scotland had criticised police and council officials for approving the parade, which passed St Ninian's in Hamilton.
Source: The Herald.

UK Government policy on asylum seekers has been condemned in a Church of Scotland report as an "affront" to civilised values. The report from the Kirk's church and society council voices concern about the "enforced poverty" suffered by unsuccessful asylum-seekers, who are denied housing and benefits.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Suggestions that the Catholic Church could be about to abandon a key teaching on contraception has opened old wounds in its ranks, claims Iain S Bruce in a story which quotes, among others, Harry Conroy of the Scottish Catholic Observer and Patricia McKeever of Catholic Truth.
Source: Sunday Herald.

The Bishop of Motherwell has called on politicians to fight for the rights of pregnant women and mothers with young children. Bishop Joseph Devine was responding to figures that 30,000 women are sacked in Britain every year for taking maternity leave. He also used the issue to mount a fresh attack on the number of abortions being performed in the UK. "When politicians tell us there are not enough young people to finance our pensions, ask them about the 600 babies we abort every day," he said. "To give pregnant women and mums with young children greater protection in their jobs, more supportive measures will have to be introduced at the workplace ranging from the right to flexible working to security of position and tenure in their careers."
Source: Bellshill Speaker.

The former Badenoch Christian Centre in Kincraig, which was closed by the Church of Scotland last May, has reopened and been relaunched as the Cairngorm Christian Centre.
Source: Strathspey & Badenoch Herald.

The former Badenoch Christian Centre in Kincraig, which was closed by the Church of Scotland last May, has reopened and been relaunched as the Cairngorm Christian Centre.
Source: Strathspey & Badenoch Herald.

A Harrisman who retired as Church of Scotland minister at Kinloch over the weekend, was full of praise for the people of the area he had served for the past 17 years. Rev Donald Angus MacLennan, formerly a Free Presbyterian minister in Skye, and his wife Rachel, were presented with gifts as they prepare to make their home in Inverness.
Source: Stornoway Gazette.

Polmont Old Parish Church, founded in 1731, will open its doors this weekend to celebrate almost three full centuries of rich, eventful history.
Source: Falkirk Herald.

How Opus Dei has capitalised on The Da Vinci Code, by Austen Ivereigh, the Archbishop of Westminster’s director for public affairs, and co-ordinator of the Catholic Church in England and Wales’s Da Vinci Code Response Group. "Before The Da Vinci Code the peak of interest in its [Opus Dei's] US website was 200,000 in 2002 — the year of the canonisation of the founder, Josemaría Escrivá. Last year it was 2.5 million — on top of a rash of documentaries, news slots and magazine profiles. A number of Opus Dei’s newest members say they first heard of the organisation through The Da Vinci Code."
Source: The Spectator.

A parish priest has called on South Lanarkshire Council to reroute a march that will pass his church during Mass. Father Gerard Bogan, of St Ninian's Parish, Hamilton, was attacked during a previous parade past his church. The Hamilton Covenanters Memorial march will involve about 100 people and a flute band.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The former parish church at Kinnettles in Angus is to be converted into a family home, despite objections by relatives of people buried in the adjacent graveyard.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Avendale Old and Drumclog Church in Strathaven could lose its £5000 grant from the Church of Scotland to help asylum seekers at Dungavel detention centre because it can't match the funding.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.

When minister Frank Campbell brings his service to a close this Sunday, he will also bring an end to eight centuries of Christian worship at Eckford Church. The church is part of a linked parish, together with Ancrum and Crailing, with Mr Campbell as minister for the three churches and the parish of Ale and Teviot for the last 12 years. However, use of the church at Eckford has dwindled until it is now used only twice a year and looming expensive repairs have forced the decision to end its use as a place of worship. The present church at Eckford was largely built over the period 1665-8, but stands on the site of a much earlier church granted to Jedburgh Abbey in the early 13th century.
Source: Southern Reporter.

The Iona Community has reported to the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly on a year of promoting Christian understanding, justice and peace. The Growing Hope Appeal has raised around £400,000 of the £500,000 needed to carry out work at the community’s Camas Centre on Mull, which offers a variety of activities for groups of young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Church of Scotland’s Ministries Council is to ask this year’s General Assembly to award ‘approved academic provider' status to the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute's Highland Theological College in Dingwall. It will also report that 29 people were accepted into training for ministry of word and sacrament in 2005. This was seven fewer than in 2004 but, says the Council report: "The number of ministers entering Church of Scotland ministry through the admissions process has increased significantly over the past three years."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Holburn Central and Ruthrieston South churches in Aberdeen will merge next month to become South Holburn. The new joint congregation will be led by the Reverend George Cowie, the minister of Holburn Central.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

The use of condoms by AIDS patients to help prevent them infecting their spouses is "common sense", the leader of Scotland's largest Catholic congregation has told The Scotsman. Mario Conti, the Archbishop of Glasgow, signalled his support for a change in Church doctrine to lift the ban on condoms for married couples where one partner had AIDS. But he added that such a position should not be mistaken for support for contraception. The Catholic Church officially opposes the use of condoms but, in a historic move, Pope Benedict XVI is thought to be on the brink of sanctioning a change. Archbishop Conti's comments were welcomed by AIDS charities yesterday, who said a change in the Church's position could save lives.
Source: The Scotsman.

The future of Catholic schools in Scotland is secure on the basis of their academic success, insisted Mario Conti, the Archbishop of Glasgow, who also gave his support to the creation of Muslim faith schools if properly run. He said: "I have been more convinced as time goes on that the benefit of the Catholic school is not only the benefit of faith to the Catholic community but the educational benefit to the community which the Church has traditionally served and continues to serve in areas of social deprivation."
Source: The Scotsman.

Fred Forrester, a former deputy general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teachers' union, argues that "to put forward faith-based education as a free market choice is to run in the face of all the facts. Those who argue for this are harking back to a divisive tribal tradition that has no place in a modern western society."
Source: The Scotsman.

Churchgoers who enjoy a win on the lottery or receive any other kind of financial windfall should give to the Kirk before satisfying their own material needs, the Church of Scotland has demanded. Despite congregation offerings doubling in real terms over the past 20 years, a report by the Kirk's Board of Stewards says members are still capable of giving more.
Source: The Scotsman.

Church membership may be on the decline in Britain, but church members are making up for it by increasing their offerings. A new report from the Church of Scotland's Stewardship Committee reveals that the total amount given to the Kirk by members has doubled over the past 20 years.
Source: The Scotsman.

The Very Rev John Miller, a minister in Castlemilk and former Moderator of General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, explains why he believes that yesterday's signing of an accord on marches "signifies a growing public sense that sectarian strife is a blight on our communal life and that it will not be tolerated".
Source: The Herald.

A film recording the reunion of veteran clubbers in a Dundee church has won the Beck's Futures prize. Matt Stokes, the artist who last night picked up the £20,000 contemporary art award, last year staged a revival of a seventies Northern Soul club in the city, Sally's, based at St Salvador's Episcopal Church.
Source: The Herald.

A leading Scots historian yesterday criticised the keepers of Rosslyn Chapel for perpetuating "ludicrous" Da Vinci Code conspiracy theories. Dr Louise Yeoman said guides and information boards at the chapel should portray the real history of the 15th-century building, rather than attempt to cash in on the popularity of fictional works such as the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Dr Yeoman said: "William Sinclair built this beautiful church for the saying and the hearing of Mass. He built it for his soul and the souls of his family, yet it has been taken over by a rabble of conspiracy theories, many of them anti-Catholic and absolutely ludicrous. The level of misunderstanding and ignorance you need to think this is some sort of pagan, occult conspiracy is huge. It is like a biologist being faced by people who think you could actually get all the animals on Noah's Ark. There needs to be some sort of proper interpretation telling people that this is a medieval Catholic church, and telling people more about Scottish medieval piety."
Source: The Scotsman.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, has criticised European football's governing body, UEFA, for its decision not to fine Rangers fans for anti-Catholic singing during the club's recent Champions League matches against the Spanish club Villareal. He said the ruling may "inadvertently give encouragement to the bigots", and added: "The terms of UEFA's judgement are unhelpful, appearing to give up on Scotland as a hopelessly sectarian society."
Source: Ekklesia.

The Church of Scotland General Assembly is to hear a report from the Housing and Loan Fund on the continuing work being done to meet the housing needs of retired ministers, their widows, widowers and separated or divorced partners. In 2005, 24 ministers, seven widows and two separated or divorced spouses were given support. Of the ministers who retired in 2005, and who were eligible to apply, assistance was given in 39 per cent of cases.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Appreciation of Monsignor Patrick Grady; born 10 March, 1921, in Broxburn; died 23 April, 2006, in Edinburgh, aged 85. "Monsignor Patrick Joseph Grady spent 48 years of his active priestly ministry in Edinburgh and 24 of these in the heart of the capital, at St Mary's Cathedral ... He was chancellor, vicar general and provost of the Cathedral Chapter of Canons. But he took a special pride in the much deserved honour Pope John Paul II bestowed on him late in life - the title of Protonotary Apostolic - it is the highest rank of monsignor, giving him the same entitlement as a bishop to wear a mitre, which he did with pride."
Source: The Scotsman.

March organisers, local authorities, the police and the Scottish Executive have signed a joint statement aimed at "ensuring that drunks, sectarian bigots and racists are not allowed to take over legitimate expressions of history and tradition". Signatories included Ian Wilson, Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge for Scotland, and Jim Slaven, National Organiser for Cairde na hEireann.
Source: Scottish Executive news release.

Neil Baxter on the protracted demise of St Peter's Seminary in Cardross. "The insistence of campaigners determined that only full-scale restoration will do, but unable to propose any viable future use, may lead to the ultimate destruction of St Peter's. A pragmatic vision may be thwarted by an impossible dream. And St Peter's Seminary, which many consider to be Scotland's greatest architectural achievement of the modern period, will become a fabled lost ruin, surviving only in film and photography – merely a thing of memory."
Source: The Herald.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh's newest visitor attraction, is set to open its doors tomorrow. The £3.5 million complex on the Royal Mile includes a modern replacement for the old Netherbow Arts Centre, featuring a new 99-seater theatre, arts cafe, gallery and exhibition space, and education rooms. The world's first storytelling centre includes the already-revamped John Knox House, which dates back to the 15th century and was the reformer's final home. The project has been jointly masterminded by the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the Church of Scotland.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Police in Peterhead are hunting a mugger who stole a bible from an 81-year-old woman. The victim suffered shoulder injuries in the attack in the town's King Street on Sunday morning.
Source: BBC Scotland News.