Two teenage exchange students from Peru and an 82-year-old man have been killed in a crash on the A9 in Inverness. The boys, aged 15 and 16, were part of a Free Church of Scotland exchange trip and had been staying with the man. They were being taken to North Kessock to meet up with other members of their group from St Andrew's School in Lima for a day trip to Stornoway in the Western Isles. Free Church of Scotland spokesman Rev Alex MacDonald said the teenagers had been attending summer camps in the Inverness area.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Rangers FC's tougher stance on sectarianism is to be backed up this season by a concerted public relations campaign aimed at reassuring everyone, including UEFA, that the club is doing all it can to tackle the problem.
Source: The Scotsman.

Multi-faith religious services for people who do not go to church are to be held in Edinburgh for the first time. Four interfaith ministers are to run a fortnightly "universal service of worship" in a Newington community centre. They expect the congregation to consist mainly of people who believe in God but have become disillusioned with existing religions.
Source: The Scotsman.

Opponents feared the Sunday ferry service between North Uist and South Harris would threaten the tradition of the islands. Kenny Farquharson finds a culture that is standing firm.
Source: Sunday Times.

The public will soon be asked to nominate 30 historically significant events they would like to see included in a four-part TV series, Scotland’s History: The Top 10, to be aired on BBC2 Scotland during November. Dr Jenny Wormald, of the University of Edinburgh, is championing for the Reformation. “This was a huge event for people in a time when people did not welcome change as we do today,” she said.
Source: Sunday Herald.

Pool jumping could be banned from adventure holidays by the Adventures Activity Licensing Authority following the death of Laura McDiarmid, 15, who plunged 35ft from a remote cliff face near Newton Stewart, Dumfriesshire. She was among a group of 17 children, including her twin sister, on a week-long summer trip run by the Abernethy Trust, a Christian outdoor centre. Nine adults, including two experienced team leaders, were supervising the children. It is understood that McDiarmid was preparing to jump into a deep pool of water when she hesitated and slipped.
Source: Sunday Times.

Rosslyn Chapel, the church near Edinburgh immortalised in the Da Vinci Code, is to invite wealthy benefactors to sponsor the refurbishment of its most famous features. Trustees of the 15th-century Gothic chapel are expected to invite celebrity visitors such as Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Kirsty Wark and Tom Hanks to sponsor features including the apprentice pillar, intricately carved stonework and stained-glass windows.
Source: Sunday Times.

A temporary bar serving Festival Fringe-goers is being constructed outside the Church of Scotland's Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, just feet from the statue of John Knox in the New College courtyard.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

The Orange Order in Scotland is to hold religious tolerance classes for children under plans to combat sectarianism. Youngsters will be invited to attend anti-bigotry workshops where they will learn about Islam and the Catholic faith and meet religious leaders. Visits to Roman Catholic churches and mosques will also be organised to encourage young members to befriend people their own age and develop respect and understanding for other people’s beliefs. “I am keen to open doors on what some people see as a rather quaint, dated and bizarre organisation,” said Ian Wilson, the grandmaster of the Orange Order in Scotland.
Source: Sunday Times.

A proposal to allow housing development of a greenfield site on Perth’s Kinnoull Hill has been defended by the owners. Although moves to zone two fields next to St Mary’s Monastery for housing have angered some people, the monastery maintains it would free vital funds for restoring the listed building.
Source: Dundee Courier.

The Scottish Christian Party is urging Christians and non-Christians in Scotland to contact their MSP to support a motion condemning the Gay Police Association for placing what they described as a 'Christianophobic advertisement' in a national newspaper. Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, has lodged a motion with the Scottish Parliament. But the Gay Police Association said: "People cannot be allowed to hide behind the cloak of religion as an excuse to commit hate crimes."
Source: Stornoway Gazette.

A fundraising afternoon at the Forneth home of retired Salvation Army officers Paul and Ena Latham realised more than £1310 which their daughter, Carol Johnson, will use to help build a classroom in Uganda.
Source: Blairgowrie Advertiser.

The vicar of All Saints’, Beirut, the Revd Nabil Shehadi, is stranded in Britain with his family, having arrived on a working visit before the current troubles started. All Saints’ Church International Congregation is the only Anglican church in Lebanon.
Source: Church Times.

Piper and former farm steward Tim Ainslie, who was rewarded for his outstanding services to the local community with a British Empire Medal in the New Year's Honours List of 1984, passed away last Saturday at the age of 85. Mr Ainslie served as an Elder at Swinton Kirk for over 40 years.
Source: Berwickshire News.

A 15-year-old girl has died after she fell 30ft (9m) on to rocks at a waterfall in Dumfries and Galloway. Laura McDiarmaid, from Carlisle, was with a group of teenagers from North Cumbria on holiday at the Barcaple Christian Centre near Castle Douglas.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Rangers chairman David Murray says the consequences for the club of fans continuing to sing sectarian songs will be grave. The Ibrox club were fined by Uefa last season for "discriminatory chanting" and have been warned that any repeat will be more seriously punished. "The supporters need to show a certain level of integrity and behaviour in the grounds," Murray told Rangers TV.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

Rangers defender Marvin Andrews has turned down six offers from England in order to be near his Fife church. Wolves, Stoke City and Plymouth Argyle were among the English sides willing to secure the services of the Trinidad and Tobago defender, but Andrews has made up his mind to stay in Scotland and be close to the Zion Praise Centre in Kirkcaldy.
Source: The Herald.

A couple who eloped to Burntisland 50 years ago to get married there are returning to celebrate their golden wedding. Sylvia (69) and Ivan Smith (73) from Nottingham will come back to the seaside town where their romantic escape wedding was conducted on August 22, 1956, by a young American minister, the Rev Mr Kellar, in St Columba's Church, now called Burntisland Parish Church.
Source: Fife Free Press.

Jerusalem (ENI). Holy Land Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan says the only way to stop all the military operations in the region and to ensure that no more human life is taken, is to negotiate around the unsolved and urgent core issue - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It is time to negotiate around the unsolved and urgent core issue," said Bishop Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land in a pastoral letter.

Nairobi (ENI). The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) says its supports the elections scheduled for 30 July in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite reported pre-voting irregularities in the country's first democratic poll in 46 years. But the country's Roman Catholic bishops have refused to endorse the poll, although the elections have received the backing of their counterparts in South Africa.

Vancouver, Canada (ENI). The 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto with delegates from 153 countries and 7000 participants will meet in a prosperous country which has a relatively low rate of HIV infection on a global scale. What delegates might not know is that one particular group of Canadians has been particularly hard hit by infections. Governmental and church workers fighting to contain the disease face a difficult battle trying to stem HIV infections among aboriginal Canadians.

Moscow (ENI). Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police, "loved Christ very much", Argument i Fakty, a Russian weekly newspaper published in Moscow has reported. The words were attributed by the newspaper to Dzerzhinsky's sister Yadwiga who is believed to have died in 1949. "Christ's commandments were deeply rooted in his heart," the newspaper quotes her in a 19 July report as having written of her brother, who organized mass arrests and executions and was known as "Iron Feliks". �He was also known for helping a huge number of orphans and homeless people who appeared after the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War.

Marian Pallister profiles the Uhai Centre for HIV victims in northern Tanzania, a project set up by the Catholic Archdiocese of Arusha and funded by the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF).
Source: The Herald.

Profile of the new principal of Belfast Bible College, Dr David Shepherd, formerly of St Paul's and St George's Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh.
Source: Belfast Telegraph.

Cape Town (ENI). The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has called on the government in Pretoria to help broker peace in the Middle East crisis by inviting representatives of warring groups - �including the Israeli, Palestine and Lebanon leadership - to meet in South Africa to negotiate an end to hostilities in the region. The SACC represents all of the country's major Christian denominations and it said the process, which would be facilitated by the South African government, could be modelled on the country's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Manila (ENI). Six Roman Catholic bishops who have been outspoken critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's government have accused the administration of "dirty tricks" after being accused of fomenting a conspiracy against the national leader. The bishops spoke out against illegal gambling said to involve top officials, extra-judicial killings allegedly involving military and police agents, and some have filed impeachment complaints against Arroyo to eke out the truth behind accusations of vote-rigging in elections during 2004. Now they are fending off allegations that they were involved in a coup plot to unseat Arroyo in February.

Moscow (ENI). The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned its Constantinople counterpart based in Istanbul for receiving into its fold the former administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate's London-based Diocese of Sourozh. Bishop Basil Osborne joined the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in June after clashing with Moscow over the course for the British diocese.

Jerusalem (ENI). Plans to hold a gay pride festival in Jerusalem that encountered strong opposition from religious leaders have been cancelled due to the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon. "Now is not the appropriate time for celebrations," said Hagai El-Ad, one of the organizers of the festival.The proposal to hold the week-long international festival in Jerusalem had helped Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders find a rare common ground in their opposition to a celebration they said was sacrilegious, especially by being held in the Holy City.

Church of Scotland reader and former head teacher of Dales Park School, Dorothy Mair, flew from Florida to take charge of the annual Scottish Week service at Peterhead Old Parish Church last Sunday.
Source: Buchan Observer.

A Dundee Free Kirk minister who wants Scotland’s school system to return to its Christian foundations last night stated his proposal was “not sectarian or discriminitive” [sic]. The Rev David Robertson, St Peter’s Free Church, fears a “small group of seculists” [sic] are plotting to squeeze Christian ethos and foundations out of Scotland’s non-denominational schools.
Source: Dundee Courier.

Appreciation of Rev Alex Murdo MacLeod; born 26 December, 1932, in Ranish, Isle of Lewis; died 26 June, 2006, in Stornoway, aged 73. "Alex Murdo Macleod, a former moderator of the Free Church of Scotland and the honorary president of the Bethesda Nursing Home and Hospice, has died after a long illness. Alex Murdo was well-known throughout the Highlands and Islands as a gifted Gaelic preacher and an able theologian, but perhaps his unique contribution to the Western Isles, which he deeply loved and to which he devoted all of his ministry, was the realisation of his vision to establish a non-denominational nursing home and hospice in Stornoway."
Source: The Scotsman.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, Christian Aid (SCIAF), CAFOD, Tearfund and other church and development groups have expressed dismay and anger at the decision to suspend World Trade Organisation talks which could have lifted millions from poverty.
Source: Ekklesia.

The new director of social care at CrossReach, the Church of Scotland Social Care Council is Alan Staff, a former director of Suffolk Mental Health Partnerships.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

A pensioner known as "Angel" to neighbours was knocked down and killed on her way to church in Leith. Angela Wynne, 78, was on her way to a late night Mass at St Mary Star of the Sea Church on Constitution Street when the vehicle hit her.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

Free Kirk ministers are calling for Presbyterian schools to be set up to combat "the sustained attack" on Scotland's Christian heritage. The Free Church of Scotland, which fears that children are being fed a secular agenda, is examining whether state funding would be possible or whether the schools would have to be set up privately. The 12,000-strong Free Church could struggle to set up such schools on its own resources and may have to seek out like-minded church-goers from other groups, such as Baptists, the Church of Scotland or other Evangelical believers.
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

A "very nasty" advert, submitted by the Gay Police Association and published in the Diversity supplement of the Independent newspaper on 29th June 2006, accuses Christians of bloodshed. The "grossly offensive and wholly unsubstantiated" message of the ad is that Bible believers are causing an explosion of violent attacks on homosexuals, and that the bloodshed has to stop.
Source: Christian News from Scotland.

The commitment of the Anglican church in the West to the priority of the gospel and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ has been brought into question by the Chief Secretary of the Church Army. Philip Johanson said: "One can only conclude that they do not know it, they are not convinced by it, or it makes little or no impact on their lives. They are not sufficiently excited by it as to want to share it."
Source: Church of England Newspaper.

Rev Anne Haselhurst was officially "institutioned" as rector of the Scottish Episcopal churches of St James the Great in Cupar and St Mary's, Ladybank.
Source: Fife Herald.

The Right Rev Alan McDonald, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has written to Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to tell him of his dismay at the apparent lack of meaningful diplomacy and cites "cynical connivance on the part of Western leaders" in a policy of allowing Israel more time to wreak destruction on the infrastructure and people of Lebanon.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

A shop selling products made by homeless people is to open in Edinburgh's Old Town. The Greyfriars Community Project has been awarded £150,000 from Communities Scotland to establish the shop and workshops, creating 10 full-time jobs and help 60 people into work. The partners in the project are Greyfriars Kirk, the Grassmarket Mission, the Edinburgh Cyrenians and Hillcrest Housing Association.
Source: BBC Scotland News.

The Evangelical Alliance has expressed concern over the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice’s controversial decision to permit the advertising of gambling and casinos on TV.
Source: Evangelical Alliance news release.

Next month's issue of the Church of Scotland's magazine profiles the Right Rev Idris Jones, recently appointed Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Rev Doug McRoberts, minister of Keith North churches, explores the theology surrounding the new debate on nuclear power. And Ian Bradley reflects on the life of the Glasgow-born minister George Matheson, author of O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, who died 100 years ago.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Appreciation of Noel Anderson, civil engineer and town planner; born 25 December, 1925, in Edinburgh; died 27 May, 2006, aged 80. "Noel joined Charteris Pleasance Church - now Kirk o' Field - in the early 60s where he remained a member and hands-on fabric convener for the rest of his life ... After his retirement, Noel took up fundraising for the Ark Housing Association and supported the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society through fundraising and practical advice on building and maintenance of the society's hospital in Nazareth."
Source: The Scotsman.

The Right Rev Alan McDonald, Moderator of the General Assembly, has written to the Church of Scotland’s partner churches in the Middle East assuring them that they were in the thoughts and prayers of Kirk members. He will also be contacting Prime Minister Tony Blair encouraging him to redouble efforts to "negotiate a cease fire and implement a serious strategy towards a permanent and peaceful solution" to the Israel and Palestine question.
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

SNP leader Alex Salmond has stepped up his campaign to repeal the 300-year-old law excluding Catholics from the line of succession to the throne. In a letter to Tony Blair, Mr Salmond urges him to consult Commonwealth heads of government on repealing the Act of Settlement.
Source: Dundee Courier.

The Scottish Bible Society today announced the appointment of Elaine Duncan, 47, as the first female chief executive in its 197-year history.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News.

The Church of Scotland’s centre at Tiberias, northern Israel, has temporarily closed its doors because of the situation in the Middle East. Walter Dunlop, the World Mission Council’s associate secretary for Israel and Palestine, said: "Church of Scotland appointed staff in Israel are safely together based in the St Andrew's Guesthouse in Jerusalem."
Source: Church of Scotland news release.

Wardens at St Mary's Episcopal Church in Aberdeen have been left counting the cost after vandals smashed their way in, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to a precious triptych.
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal.

A hotel in Israel owned by the Church of Scotland has been forced to close during the Middle East crisis. The Scots Hotel is in the resort of Tiberias, where Hizbollah rockets landed on Saturday. Jen Zielinski, from Dunoon, is working for the Church of Scotland as a programme director in Tiberias. She said: "When I saw smoke about 50 yards from my apartment I decided I had better go to the shelter. On Sunday morning, I went down to the Catholic church for worship and there were only 10 people and the priest. It was a ghost town."
Source: The Herald.

Leaders of the Catholic church in Scotland have branded new legislation banning denominational schools from teaching that homosexuality is a sin “totalitarian”, claiming it amounts to “thought control”. Cardinal Keith O’Brien said the new sexual orientation regulations in the Equality Act were a “threat to religious freedom”.
Source: Sunday Times.

THE leader of Scotland's 43,000 Episcopalians has claimed that his church has been "written out" of Scottish history and hit out at the caricature of his church as the "English Kirk". The Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, said that the popular version of history which has pitted Presbyterians such as John Knox against Roman Catholics, sidelines the place of the Episcopal Church in the nation's history. He said: "That's what happens in history, minorities tend to be wiped out from history, that's not just true about us, but also the part that Roman Catholicism has played in Scotland's history." Michael Russell, the former Nationalist MSP and Episcopalian lay-preacher, said: "There is a strong argument for saying that John Knox was more an Episcopalian than a Presbyterian, he did believe in bishops." Historian Michael Fry said: "People think of Culloden and the Jacobite Rising being Catholic-Protestant when in reality the Highland clans were mainly Episcopal. But I think the Episcopal Church has allowed itself to be seen as the English church by down-playing its own heritage as an underground church."
Source: Scotland on Sunday.

Huge slabs of rock from the Clashach Quarry, near the village of Hopeman in Moray, are to be shipped to Spain each month for work to complete a ceiling and a main staircase of La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece in the heart of Barcelona.
Source: The Scotsman.