A Mallaig GP who shared his name with Disney character Donald Duck has died at 81. Dr Duck was a missionary in India and Pakistan for years and was a Kirk elder and a campaigner in the local community. He delighted in telling people he had the name before the cartoon favourite.
Source: Daily Record.

Churches of all denominations will take part in a series of open days to be held over the summer months in Moray. The open days are being supported by the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church. There are about 50 religious sites on the Moray Church Trail, ranging right back to the Dark Ages and through to present-day.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Prayers may be banned from the Highland Council chamber at full council meetings. Labour group leader Michael Macmillan mooted the idea on the grounds that Christian prayers alone "may breach equal opportunities legislation". Mr Macmillan, who lives in a former manse and is the son of a kirk elder, describes himself as "a Presbyterian, occasional churchgoer". Fellow Ross and Cromarty councillor Alasdair Rhind, an elder at Tain Parish Church, doubted that such a proposal would attract much support in a formal debate. He said: "I don't believe we are in that deep a multi-faith society in Scotland. We must stand firm for the Christian Church in Scotland."
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Bashir Maan, the former Glasgow councillor and Muslim community leader, has been forced to resign from an honorary charities post following a letter to The Herald last month in which he deplored the introduction of gay sex education in schools. Mr Maan, Scottish chairman of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, was asked to stand down as president of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations.
Source: The Herald.

An Edinburgh Schools Gospel Choir will be launched following this week's Edinburgh Goes Gospel project for 13 to 17-year-olds run by the city council and Scottish Arts Council.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

In a strongly worded homily to be delivered to a congregation of Catholic Peers and MP's at Westminster tomorrow, Cardinal Keith O'Brien will warn that the Government's proposed regulations designed to outlaw "sexual orientation discrimination" constitute a threat to freedom of conscience and religious freedom.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.

Feature on the Church of Scotland-led Livingstonia Synod Aids Programme.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Rough sleeping on the streets of the Capital has been virtually wiped out following a concerted effort to tackle the problem, housing leaders say. The Bethany Christian Trust homeless charity said the number of people turning to it for somewhere to stay overnight had fallen for the each of the last three years. The charity is now ploughing more resources into helping people on low incomes furnish empty flats instead.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

The father of the Edinburgh care worker held in Albania on child sex abuse charges has insisted his son is innocent. Douglas Brown, 85, said his son David discovered a male staff member had been sexually abusing a three-year-old. He sacked the man but did not report the incident. Mr Brown said: "Now someone has let it be known that sexual abuse took place at the home and they've arrested David." Mr Brown revealed that his eldest son had devoted his life to children since becoming "smitten" by the church in his early 20s. "David is a remarkable person. Dr Barnardo is his hero and he always had it in his mind to do the same as him. He was on his way to doing it until all this happened."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Around 40 pet owners attended an animal blessing service at Craigiebuckler Church in Aberdeen yesterday. Now in its 14th year, the event gives them a chance to express their gratitude for the love and loyalty their pets give them throughout the year. Yesterday's service attracted a large number of dogs, two rabbits and a cat to receive the blessing of church minister Reverend Kenneth Petrie.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, is today meeting with Scottish Catholics in Glasgow to debate development issues and to discuss common concerns. Afterwards the minister will meet with Scottish community representatives from other Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Buddhist organisations. Mr Benn asked the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund to organise the meeting in recognition of the importance of faith in inspiring people to become involved in politics and campaigning, says SCIAF.
Source: Ekklesia.

New legislation allowing un-married couples, including gays, to adopt children will not remove the right of adoption agencies to turn them away, the Scottish Executive said yesterday. The statement followed weekend reports that Peter Peacock, the Education Minister, was considering moves to allow Catholic and other faith-based adoption agencies to opt out of the Adoption (Scotland) Bill going through the parliament.
Source: The Herald.

Profile of Jan Benvie, the only Scottish member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams' Iraq group.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

The Scottish Catholic Church will be forced to close parishes as a result of falling congregations and a halving in the number of priests in some areas, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, has laid out a radical restructuring plan for Edinburgh Archdiocese which involves scrapping old parish boundaries and creating new clusters of churches which 'share' priests. A spokesman for the Church said: "I have no doubt that this is the sort of exercise that may well be repeated across the country."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

Catholic adoption agencies are to be given the right to refuse to hand over children to homosexual couples. Michael Mesarowicz, director of St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society, a Glasgow-based Catholic adoption agency, said he welcomed the new proposal. "Children who have been removed from families are vulnerable, and to place them with a same-sex couple presents them with additional dilemmas that children may not be able to take on board."
Source: Sunday Times.

Rangers have been ordered to make a public announcement at all of their home games prohibiting the chanting of the song "Billy Boys". The instruction comes from Uefa as one of a number of directives aimed at stamping out sectarianism.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Campaigners hoping to restore the oldest peal of church bells in Scotland are looking for people to ring them. The eight 18th century bells of St Andrew's and St George's Church in Edinburgh are expected to be reinstalled in September this year.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) The Church of Scotland’s Shetland Presbytery has condemned the Home Office’s decision to forcibly remove Thai-born local resident Sakchai Makao from his home in a dawn raid carried out by immigration officials earlier this week.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) European trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has received a public rebuke for his stance on trade and development from 70 leading development NGOs, including SCIAF (the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), CAFOD, Christian Aid, Tearfund and Traidcraft.
Source: Ekklesia.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) Extensive interview with the Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway and new Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He said he was more open to the idea of ordination of homosexual bishops in the Anglican communion. "My own views are coloured by the fact that I am trained and qualified as a psychotherapist, so my view of human sexuality is more liberal and open than many other people's would be and my own view is a liberal opinion, and I'm not going to shift from that. But I'm well aware that's not where the church is and my task as a Primus is to stay with where the church is and that is what I'll do. But I've got my own convictions about where the church has got to move."
Source: The Scotsman.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) St Margaret's RC Church in Gorebridge has been hit by vandalism, with windows being smashed following a spate of recent incidents around the building. The problem at St Margaret's came to a head just a day after the Advertiser reported that St Mary's Episcopal Church in Dalkeith had been the subject of vandalism.
Source: Midlothian Advertiser.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) Religion has emerged as the main theme at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including two shows featuring Jesus as a stand-up comedian. "Clearly it's a very personal subject that artists and writers currently feel a particular need to explore," said festival director Paul Gudgin. 'According to Jesus', and 'Jesus: The Guantanamo Years' both feature Jesus Christ as a comic. 'Bible Babel Live!' will give Fringe-goers the opportunity to see the Bible read from start to finish in 80 hours over 10 days including readings in English, Greek and Chinese.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) Bereaved relatives wept after vandals smashed 44 gravestones in a rampage at St Conval's cemetery in Barrhead, which is owned and managed by the Catholic Church Archdiocese of Paisley.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.

(Thursday, June 08, 2006) Allowing unmarried and same-sex couples to adopt children is no more than an ideologically driven "social experiment" which will have a negligible impact on the number of people coming forward to adopt, religious groups told MSPs yesterday. Instead of removing the bar on such couples adopting through a new bill, they urged ministers to focus on encouraging married couples to adopt and improving the residential care for children who cannot be placed with a family. The Muslim Association of Britain, Bishops' Conference of Scotland, Church of Scotland and Care for Scotland, the Christian charity, said if the bill really wanted to put the interests of children first, it should identify marriage as the ideal setting in which to raise them. Father Daniel Fitzpatrick, of the Bishops' Conference, said there was no evidence a same-sex family would be best and people should ask why there was not a better level of care in homes. The call brought an angry response from Frank McAveety, Labour MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, who spoke of being the adoptive father of two children and made a scathing allusion to abuse uncovered in homes run by the Catholic Church. He snapped: "None of us have a good history on that, have we Father?"
Source: The Herald.

(Wednesday, June 07, 2006) Obituary of Cathie Souter; born September 3, 1912, died June 1, 2006: mother of Stagecoach Bus Company founders Brian and Ann, and of David Souter, minister of Kinnoull Parish Church, where Cathie Souter was christened, and moderator of the Presbytery of Perth.
Source: The Herald.

(Wednesday, June 07, 2006) Cardinal Keith O'Brien celebrated mass to mark the reopening of the church of St Mary, Mother of God, in Leslie, Fife, three years after the High Street building was gutted by fire.
Source: Fife Now - Glenrothes Gazette.

Church leaders and pro-life groups yesterday strongly condemned the latest proposal by Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, to use cloning and gene alteration to create babies free from hereditary diseases. Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, led condemnation. He said: "We would be implacably opposed to Professor Wilmut's proposal. We view the embryo, no matter what stage of development it is at, not as a potential human being but as a human being with potential." Dr Donald Bruce, director of the Church of Scotland's society, religion and technology project, said: "While the Church of Scotland accepted the cloning of sheep to assist the genetic modification to make therapeutic proteins in sheep's milk, modifying humans permanently is not the same."
Source: The Herald.

A Catholic theologian from Scotland told Scottish soccer fans they might be committing a sin if they do not support their historical and soccer archrival England in the World Cup. Father William McFadden told soccer fans north of the border that they need to examine their consciences before deciding where their allegiance lies for the June 9-July 9 games in Germany. Father McFadden, who serves as rector of Scotland's national seminary, Scotus College in Glasgow, said the determining factor was motivation. "If a Scot has an automatic negative reaction to supporting England, then they would have to question where that feeling is coming from," he said. "As Christians we are called to have positive relationships with others who may be different from us. If we have an automatic anti-relationship with someone simply because they are English, then that is anti-Christian."
Source: Catholic Online.

The Church of Scotland's awareness campaign for postnatal depression, Bluebell Day, enters its second year with new supporters and funding partners committed to seeing wider awareness and better service provision for postnatal depression in Scotland.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Last month's Christian Aid book sale at St Andrew's and St George's church in Edinburgh raised £113,000, organisers have announced.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Prince Charles was last night accused of wasting police time after cancelling his plans to turn up for a church service at Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral, where 20 officers had been deployed to protect him and his wife, the Duchess of Rothesay.
Source: The Scotsman.

Obituary of William Leggat Smith CBE MC, war veteran, lawyer and public servant; born January 30, 1918, died March 30, 2006. At various times he was, among other roles, Chairman of the Fund for Indigent Gentlewomen of Scotland, President of the Society of Sons of the Manse and of the Sons and Daughters of United Presbyterians, Convener of the Retirement Scheme of the Church of Scotland, a serving Elder of his Church and an officer of the Order of St John.
Source: The Herald.

The 150-year-old Gillespie Church in Dunfermline could face closure if plans to move the town's bus station are given the green light. The Rev Gordon Reid, Gillespie minister and moderator of Dunfermline presbytery, said: “Everybody is absolutely appalled with the plans and with the lack of consultation.”
Source: Dundee Courier.

Last month's Christian Aid book sale at St Andrew's and St George's church in Edinburgh raised £113,000, organisers have announced.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

As Jack McConnell talks of wiping out sectarianism, the Sisters of Peden march on through Auchinleck, staunchly defending their faith.
Source: Sunday Times.

A Wester Ross community has hit out at the Church of Scotland over the sale of an historic church building. For almost 30 years, Lochcarron Community Council has maintained the redundant East Church, an imposing listed building at the village entrance, and tirelessly fundraised to keep it wind and watertight. However, the Church of Scotland has now concluded the sale of the building which it owns - but the community is disappointed that there has been no thanks from the church for the work of local people over the years.
Source: North Star News.

The Western Isles is preparing to reverse its controversial ban on gay weddings in the Outer Hebrides in the run-up to new anti-discrimination legislation. The council says it will now find someone prepared to conduct a same-sex ceremony even though local registrars have until now refused to perform them. But Rev Tim McGlynn, minister of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) on the isle of Scalpay, said: "It's sad that those who claim to preach tolerance and diversity seem to be intent on forcing an aggressive and very militant secularism on everyone who does not agree with them."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

The latest sign of Whithorn's regeneration now stands proudly at the entrance to the town, a symbol of its Christian heritage. The sculpture of an angel, with Scotland's first Christian church, the Candida Casa, in her arms went up last week, carefully postioned to watch over travellers coming and going.
Source: Galloway Gazette.

Local MP Des Browne travelled to Stewarton on the day of his appointment as Defence Minister to fulfil a long-standing speaking engagement with Our Lady and St John’s Women’s Guild. Guests on the evening included ladies from John Knox, St Columba’s, United Reformed and Dunlop Churches.
Source: Kilmarnock Standard.

Images are the new words for people today, according to new research published by the Church of England. Roadside shrines, bouquets and teddies, combined with widening appeal for prayer stations, labyrinths and beads, are all indicators of this trend. The research, carried by the Rev Lynda Barley, Head of Research and Statistics for the Archbishops’ Council, was published this week in her book Christian Roots, Contemporary Spirituality. People have “almost journeyed full circle”, she argues, from the days when the gospel was communicated by stained-glass windows to the non-literate congregation.
Source: Church of England Newspaper.

Hundreds of headstones have been damaged by vandals at Fauldhouse Cemetery in West Lothian. Church leaders vowed to repair and rededicate the cemetery and now, along with the local councillor, have set up an appeal fund. Canon John Agnew, parish priest at St John the Baptist RC Church said: said: "It's a tight-knit community and people are broken-hearted."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

The myths and half-truths expounded in the book and the film of The Da Vinci Code were the subject of a lively question and answer session at Dundee Contemporary Arts last night. Those taking part included Rev David Robertson of St Peter's Free Church, which co-hosted the event with Logie and St John’s (Cross) Parish Church.
Source: Dundee Courier.

A mass Songs of Praise will see choir members from as far back as 1925 re-tread the aisle of St Columba's South church in Elgin to mark its centenary year.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Scotland's 15,000 police officers will be asked to declare their religion as part of a national audit amid claims that Catholics are being denied promotion by a "stained glass ceiling". A spokesman for the Catholic Church welcomed the move. "At the moment we don't know whether there is a problem within the police service. This will bring some much-needed transparency," he said. A Church source added: "I know Catholics in the police who have not been able to get beyond the rank of sergeant because they were Catholic, and were not Masons."
Source: The Scotsman.

Salvador Dali's masterpiece Christ of St John of the Cross has been returned to the revamped Kelvingrove art gallery and museum after 13 years at the city's St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. Kelvingrove re-opens on July 11 after a £35 million refit.
Source: Evening Times, Glasgow.

The world's first purpose built storytelling centre, promoting the rich traditions of storytelling across Scotland, opened today in Edinburgh. The £3.5m Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile is a joint initiative with the Church of Scotland.
Source: Scottish Executive news release.

A prayer room has opened in Braehead shopping centre, near Glasgow, to "provide moments of peace and solitude" away from the crowds. Braehead's chaplain, Church of Scotland minister Rev Elisabeth Spence, said: "This is a place where people of all religions can come to pray. Or it can just be a place staff and shoppers can come to for some quiet contemplation and take a few moments away from the hustle and bustle." A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: "The need for a still and calm space in the busy lives people lead is greater than ever."
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth (39) was yesterday welcomed to Glasgow by the city’s Lord Provost, Cllr Liz Cameron, as he prepared to take up the post of Provost of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. Previously Rector of St Saviour’s Church, Bridge of Allan, his new post makes him one of the youngest senior members of the clergy in the UK.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.

A group of six people from Baula in northern Malawi - none of whom has ever travelled outside the country before - visits Ruchazie in Glasgow from tomorrow as part of the Together for a Change project, which gives people from poor communities in Scotland and Africa a unique opportunity to share one another's experiences. The project is funded by the Church of Scotland Guild and organised by Ruchazie Church of Scotland and St Philip’s Roman Catholic Church working together.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.