Obituary of Chakufwa Chihana, Malawi's 'father of democracy'; born 23 April, 1939; died 12 June, 2006, aged 67. Former Malawi vice-president Chakufwa Chihana, who had strong links to the Church of Scotland and human rights campaigners in Scotland, was Malawi's leading democracy campaigner during the three-decade-long dictatorship of Kamuzu Banda.
Source: The Scotsman.

Dr Fred Drummond, who has been a Church of Scotland minister in Perth for the past 15 years, takes up his post as General Secretary of the Scottish Evangelical Alliance on Saturday July 1. Dr Drummond is concerned that Scotland is becoming an increasingly fragmented society, with community and family relationships breaking down, and many people feeling isolated and hopeless. "We must encourage Christians to make a difference in the nation," he said. "When we work together we can bring transformation."
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland this week published 'Asylum Principles', which will enable the Churches to speak with one voice on asylum issues. A similar document will follow focusing on migration.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.

The Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice (CCRJ) has placed a new emphasis on funding racial justice work in communities.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's education committee have come out in support of proposals that would allow unmarried and same-sex couples to adopt children. The Catholic Church in Scotland has said the proposals undermine marriage. However, the Church of Scotland, while supporting marriage, said the needs of troubled youngsters must come first.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Denburn Parish Church, opened in 1771 as Gilcomston Chapel and the third oldest church still in use in Aberdeen, will close its doors for the last time this Sunday.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Charity bosses, MSPs and special guest speakers from Africa have been lined up to give presentations at a World Justice Festival, marking the anniversary of the Make Poverty History march, to be held on Saturday at the Augustine United Church on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

The Moderator of the General Assembly, the Right Rev Alan McDonald, has delivered a speech in which he is strongly critical of the Trident replacement project and of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s recent remarks on that matter. The Moderator shared a platform with the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien, at a packed meeting in Glasgow yesterday evening.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

The Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly has criticised Gordon Brown for saying that his father, a church minister, would have approved of his policy on nuclear weapons. Speaking at an anti-Trident debate in Glasgow, the Right Rev Alan McDonald criticised the Chancellor for defending his decision in the manner that he had. "In Scotland, in the church where his father was a Church of Scotland minister, Gordon Brown said he was sure his late father would have agreed with him about nuclear weapons. Well who knows, but we do know that the Church of Scotland has opposed nuclear weapons for the past 25 years," the minister said.
Source: The Scotsman.

The world’s most ambitious online Dictionary of Architects has been launched in Scotland. It is the creation of Professor David Walker who, as Chief Inspector of Historic Buildings, has provided Scotland with the most comprehensive list of listed buildings in Europe. When others might have retired, Walker embarked on an online dictionary which now includes more than 6,300 Victorian and early 20th-century architects and practices and 33,769 historic buildings, many of them churches.
Source: The Times.

A shrinking number of priests and falling attendances have prompted a radical shake-up of the Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has drafted a plan which would see the establishment of five super-parishes across the city. He said the proposed shake-up was designed to make the most of scarce resources and produce a stable structure that would serve the church's pastoral ministry for the next ten years.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland has released a briefing on decisions that will need to be taken on the future of Britain’s nuclear weapons systems.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.

The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland have approved a Covenant which will encourage closer working relationships.
Source: Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) news.

Military veterans were yesterday honoured with tributes, a new badge and the first annual commemoration of their service while being conscripted into the new British political regiment led by Gordon Brown. The bulldog Chancellor was inaugurating Veterans' Day in the Kirkcaldy church where his father used to preach. Having last week thrown his weight behind a new generation of nuclear weapons, the Chancellor went on to say that his father, the late Rev John Brown, would have supported the controversial move. Although the Kirk is strongly opposed to renewing Trident submarines and missiles, the Prime Minister's heir apparent said of his father: "I think he would have agreed with me. The first duty of a government is to defend and protect the security of the citizens of its country." While the Fife event was about veterans, it was also forward-looking, an anointing of Gordon Brown by his parents' generation, flanked by Labour MSPs in his home town. The Rev Ken Froude, the parish minister at St Bryce, read from the First Book of Kings about Solomon's rise to leadership.
Source: The Herald.

The Methodist Conference of Great Britain has decided to oppose the replacement of the Trident nuclear programme at its annual conference in Edinburgh.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Church leaders from a variety of Anglican and Free Church traditions have joined together to call on the United Nations and the UK government to take seriously the need for concerted action on the supply and sale of small arms in a violent and divided world. Backers of the call include Morag Mylne from the Church of Scotland and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Source: Ekklesia.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has outlined proposals that are expected to lead to the exclusion of the Episcopal Church of the United States from the Anglican Church as a consequence of consecrating a gay bishop. All provinces will be offered the chance to sign up to a "covenant" which will set out the traditional, biblical standards on which all full members of the Anglican church can agree. But it is highly unlikely that churches such as the Episcopal Church in the US, the Anglican churches in Canada and New Zealand and even the Scottish Episcopal Church would be able to commit themselves fully to such a document.
Source: The Times.

A number of high-profile figures have marked UK Veterans Day by sending letters of congratulations to Erskine, formerly known as Erskine Hospital, which cares for ex-servicemen and women and is celebrating its 90th year. They include the speaker of the House of Commons, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Britain's Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and Scotland's Cardinal Keith O'Brien, whose father was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his role in World War II Russian convoys.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Rod Stewart and his fiancée Penny Lancaster have been praised for having their son christened at a public service in South Leith Parish Church. Session clerk Arthur Mathieson said after the ceremony: "We were very proud and excited that they had chosen our church to have this ... It was especially good that he had the service with the public at the normal time of 11am on a Sunday. We were pleasantly surprised that they wanted to go with the regular public worship because everyone had assumed they would want to do it at a different time."
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

The Lord's Day Observance Society has revealed at an annual rally that it received an apology from transport minister Tavish Scott over CalMac's plans for a Sunday ferry service to Harris, but he refused to intervene.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

A farewell service for the retiring Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney for the Scottish Episcopal Church was held last night. A packed St Andrew's Cathedral in Aberdeen heard the Right Reverend Bruce Cameron's last service.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Rev James McMillan, of Trinity Church in Dundee, was suspended without limit of time from his post last Monday by a Church of Scotland disciplinary committee that had been examining his financial dealings while minister of Christ’s Kirk in Glenrothes. When Mr McMillan moved to Trinity in 2003, it emerged that Christ’s Kirk had debts of more than £100,000. These were caused by unpaid bills relating to the construction of a new church hall.
Source: Dundee Courier.

"Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kirk's Moderator, Alan McDonald, to speak against the replacement of Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons," writes Ron Ferguson. "In advance of the meeting, they have spoken out against the intention signalled by that well-known Christian socialist, Gordon Brown, to replace the nuclear submarines on the Clyde at a cost of £25bn." "Gordon Brown has made much of his Christian socialist roots and his manse upbringing ... Among other things, he has done a lot in terms of the cancellation of Third World debt, and in tackling child poverty in the UK. For these things, he has rightly won Brownie points – and votes - from church members. But if he appeals to that religious constituency, he will also be judged by it. Now is the time for that to happen."
Source: The Herald.

Traditional prayers at meetings of the Highland Council face being scrapped amid worries they may be "discriminatory".
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

Rock star Rod Stewart and fiancée Penny Lancaster have had seven-month-old son Alastair christened at South Leith Parish Church in Edinburgh.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Members of the Salvation Army in Kildrum have donated £630 to the Scottish Spina Bifida Association.
Source: Cumbernauld News & Kilsyth Chronicle.

Members of the Salvation Army in Kildrum have donated £630 to the Scottish Spina Bifida Association.
Source: Cumbernauld News & Kilsyth Chronicle.

An insurance firm yesterday cancelled a policy covering three sisters in case they conceived the second coming of Christ. Britishinsurance.com said they had been inundated with complaints after the story appeared in yesterday's Daily Record. The three Christian women, in their 50s, took out the cover in 2000 in case they immaculately conceived. The policy meant they would receive a £1million payout if they could prove they were carrying the child of God. The women, who paid £100 a year for the policy, are believed to be members of a Christian group in Inverness.
Source: Daily Record.

The Salvation Army is to close its only nursing home in the UK, claiming that it can no longer afford to care for residents. The Eva Burrows centre in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, provides nursing care to 32 residents and employs 50 staff. But the Christian charity says it can no longer afford to pay £200 per week for each patient on top of the contributions it receives from the Scottish Executive.
Source: The Scotsman.

The Right Reverend Alan McDonald, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Cardinal Keith O’Brien, President, Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, today responded to media reports that Gordon Brown is in favour of updating Trident. The Moderator said: "It is essential that people understand that the churches stand united in the belief that nuclear weapons are morally and theologically wrong." Cardinal O’Brien said: "Since it is immoral to use weapons of mass destruction in an act of war, equally, storing, accumulating and replacing them, far from eliminating the causes of war actually risks aggravating them." The Cardinal and Moderator will share a platform to speak against the replacement of Trident in Renfield St Stephens Church, Glasgow, on Tuesday 27 June.
Source: Scottish Catholic Media Office news release.

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, has welcomed the election of the Rt Rev Katherine Jefferts Schori as the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.
Source: Scottish Episcopal Church news release.

Edinburgh has become the "gay weddings" capital of Scotland after it emerged more couples are travelling to the city for civil partnerships than anywhere else. Tourism chiefs today said they were looking at more ways of attracting the "pink pound" because gay couples are frequent travellers and big spenders. A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: "We as a society do a disservice to all our fellow sisters and brothers when we undermine the reality of marriage - the natural social organism of the female-male." Meanwhile, the Church of Scotland is deciding whether to allow ministers to give religious blessings at civil partnerships.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

A former Perth minister, who is now a chaplain with the Royal Navy, has been made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. The Rev Tommy Goodwin, who was minister of Trinity Church from 1989 to 1994, was honoured for his work in the Gulf while on board the Navy frigates HMS Chatham, Norfolk and Northumberland. From 2003 to 2005, he provided pastoral support and a listening ear to sailors as they endured the day-to-day experiences of being part of the Gulf conflict.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Representatives of the Lewis branch of the Lord's Day Observance Society will meet transport minister Tavish Scott in Edinburgh today to discuss their concern about Caledonian Macbrayne's decision to introduce a Sunday ferry service on the Sound of Harris in April.
Source: The Scotsman.

Lord Steel has backed a drive by the Roman Catholic Church to reopen political debate on abortion laws he was responsible for introducing to Britain nearly 40 years ago. About 30 MPs have signed a House of Commons motion calling for the establishment of a select committee to re-examine the 24-week limit in the light of recent medical developments. A spokesman for Cardinal Keith O'Brien said: "The Catholic Church in Scotland supports any moves which extend protection to unborn human beings. The fact that the abortion debate is reopening is to be welcomed and, hopefully, a wider parliamentary and public debate will follow."
Source: The Scotsman.

Prime minister Tony Blair has agreed advances in science and technology have changed the terms of the abortion debate but the government will not introduce new legislation. The Catholic Church in Scotland does not want to become embroiled in the legislative process, fearing anything short of banning abortion could thwart their aim of outlawing the practice. A spokesman for the church warned that supporters of abortion could accept the upper limit of abortions could be reduced from 24 weeks to something like 20 weeks, and therefore shut down the debate for another 20 years.
Source: The Herald.

A Church of Scotland mission partner has called for urgent action to help 29 million people in Bangladesh whose drinking water contains arsenic. James Pender, a development adviser to the Church of Bangladesh who works closely with Scottish congregations, particularly in Angus, is visiting Scotland to highlight the issue.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Donald Campbell, who graduated from Rome's Gregorian University and spent two years as a parish priest in the RC diocese of Argyll and the Isles before embarking on a career in finance, has been appointed chief executive of the Gaelic Media Service.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

The Kirk of St Nicholas, Uniting, in Aberdeen has been awarded a grant of £430,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards a £5.1m redevelopment.
Source: United Reformed Church Synod of Scotland.

First minister Jack McConnell has seen the impact of a dispersal order to reduce antisocial behaviour in a church yard. He was at St Michael's Church in Dumfries, which houses the Burns mausoleum and where the order was introduced following a spate of vandal attacks.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The prime minister has said he would support a debate on the law on abortion because he is “troubled” by the current legislation. Tony Blair believes that medical advances allowing babies to be kept alive outside the womb at a younger age mean that a majority of MPs may be prepared to vote to reduce the 24-week cut-off. Blair shared his concerns with Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, during a private meeting last week.
Source: Sunday Times.

SNP leader Alex Salmond and Cardinal Keith O'Brien have agreed a pact to campaign against the 300-year old Act of Settlement, the law which bars Catholics from becoming King or Queen. They will also campaign together against plans to replace Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

St Andrews University has decided to allocate an area for followers of paganism to hold festivals and rituals after realising that failure to cater for followers of the ancient faith could see them fall foul of equal rights legislation.
Source: Sunday Times.

A call from government advisers for “gay” primary school pupils to be given minders to protect them from bullies and for schools to teach anti-homophobia classes has been condemned as “sinister” by religious leaders. The Catholic church has criticised the recommendations, which follow a Scottish executive study which claims to have identified children in primary seven who describe themselves as gay.
Source: Sunday Times.

The Edinburgh charity Richmond's Hope, which provides support for young children who have suffered the loss of a parent or other relative, has been saved from closure thanks to £460,000 in grants from the Big Lottery, Children in Need, Lloyds TSB, the Robertson Trust and Edinburgh City Council. The charity, based at Richmond Craigmillar Church, also this week received an extra £21,000 from the Lloyds TSB Foundation to convert the transept of the church into a self-contained area for working with groups of parents and teenagers who have been bereaved.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

A plea for Protestants and Catholics to work side by side rather than seek unity is made by guest editorial author Harry Reid, and this month’s profile features a leader of an Edinburgh church youth group whose visit to India was the inspiration for a charity, based in Scotland, that helps ‘untouchable’ children.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

On Sunday the Church of Scotland will celebrate the 40th anniversary of women's ordination in the Kirk with a service in Culross Abbey, Fife, where the Moderator will preach.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Two Cambuslang churches are to remain separate after a vote on a proposed union was rejected. The congregation of Cambuslang Old Parish Church accepted the motion, but it was rejected by St Andrew’s Parish.
Source: Rutherglen Reformer.

With Scottish parliament and council elections less than a year away, Bishop Joseph Devine has sent a warning to Monklands politicians. "The nation has not been well served by too many of our politicians, by the army of politically correct regulators, vast public sector bureaucracies and secular and atheist intellectuals who hold key positions in the country," he said. "Many people today recognise that the experiment of modern secular society has failed. The Church is the true bedrock of communities, not the State, not the political parties and not their politicians."
Source: Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser.

A Scottish minister was asked to leave the nightclub in a former church where he used to preach. The Rev Bob Brown thought he would be on safe ground collecting for charity in Aberdeen's Soul Bar. But minutes after getting permission to enter from one member of staff, he was thrown out by a manager who had not been consulted.
Source: Inspire Magazine.

David Cameron has been accused of insulting the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland during a courtesy visit to London. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, whose staff began to organise his itinerary four months ago, returned to Scotland yesterday fuming at the Tory leader's refusal to meet him. Behind the scenes there is a strong belief a focus-group mentality has seized Tories, which may be suggesting the party's association with traditional faith groups is dangerous and harmful.
Source: The Herald.