Assembly 2023

Thomas Baldwin considers some of the reports which will be presented at the General Assembly later this month.

ASSEMBLY BUSINESS COMMITTEE

THE Assembly will be asked to approve the last of the new large presbyteries, bringing together Argyll, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Abernethy, Lochaber, Lochcarron-Skye, Uist and Lewis to create the Presbytery of the Highlands and Hebrides. The new Presbytery is expected to come into existence on January 1 2024.

As part of General Assembly reform, space is going to be made in future for reports from at least two of the new presbyteries.

Other Assembly reforms are addressed in other reports, or are still being discussed, but the Business Committee says there has been strong support for more opportunities for prayer during the General Assembly, which will be implemented this year.

A review of the role of the Moderator of the General Assembly, following conversations with former Moderators, concludes that the role should continue to be full time for a year, but recommends measures to improve support for the Moderator during the year and better debriefing afterwards, more ‘downtime’, stronger relations with Presbytery Moderators, a job description for the role of Moderator’s Chaplain and template for the role of Moderator’s spouse.

The Assembly is asked to approve the sale of the Moderator’s flat in Rothesay

Terrace, Edinburgh, which the Church has owned since 1998. One of the church’s furlough flats for overseas staff has been identified as a replacement.

SOCIAL CARE COUNCIL

The CrossReach report begins with discussion of the proposed National Care Service for Scotland. While the council accepts that ‘much change is necessary’, it says that it and other third sector providers of social care hold ‘reservations about the Bill as it stands’, including cost, the impact on supported people and loss of local control.

The proposed deliverance instructs the council and Faith Action Programme Leadership Team ‘to continue to engage with the Scottish Government... and urge the Scottish Government to respect the views of care service providers and services users and their families’. It argues that the new service should promote cooperation between commissioners, service providers and service users, have ‘clear and transparent’ ministerial accountability, be based on values protecting and upholding human rights and dignity, and respect the Fair Work Convention recommendation on pay across the whole care sector.

Meanwhile, the report states that CrossReach continues to ‘offer services to those in need of care and support across the life course’ and draws particular attention to its work this year in three areas: drugs deaths, dementia and The Promise, a national commitment to young people in vulnerable situations. On drugs deaths, the success of CrossReach’s existing programmes has been recognised in a £2.4m grant by the Government to extend Beechwood House, Inverness, under the new Residential Rehab Rapid Capacity Programme.

CrossReach is an active partner in the Scottish Government dementia strategy and is responding to the consultation on rewriting the strategy. Its Heart for Art programme now has 18 groups and supports around 300 participants every year.

One of the ways in which it is responding to The Promise is in offering trauma informed training to its children’s workforce across all services. These include Prison Visitors Centres at HMPYOI Polmont and HMP Perth, and the Daisy Chain early years project in Govanhill. It also reports that its work with children – supporting up to 25 young people in seven small community houses, and its school for up to 30 children in Erskine – ‘has led to the creation of a sector-leading practice model, one of the first of its type, outlining the Care and Education Services relational model of care to support children and young people, to be formally launched later this year’.

Less positively, the council reports that the organisation has been impacted by the difficulties in recruitment across the whole sector, leading to ‘heavy reliance’ on agency workers. This has led to some services being ‘reduced, closed or temporarily unable to offer support to new service users’. It asks for the support of Presbyteries and the Church to help advertise vacancies.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND GUILD

Built around the year’s theme of ‘Wee Seeds, Big Trees’, the Guild’s report welcomes small signs of hope and urges the organisation to take advantage of the opportunities offered by change. It welcomes the opening of a new Guild in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, as well as the start of the Young Adults Guild, which held its first online meeting in January. The latter, it says, ‘has given the young adults and the Guild a real sense of hope for the future’.

The report also mentions the growth of summer Guilds which, it says, has ‘enabled a whole new group of people to be part of the Guild family’. It continues: “These groups challenge us to be open to new possibilities and new ways of working, and in doing so we see growth.” Elsewhere, it says that in many places a change from evening to afternoon meetings has led to a growth in membership. The report acknowledges that church mergers will impact on the number of Guild branches, but says they can lead to growth in membership, ‘particularly where one of the uniting charges does not currently have a Guild’. It also encourages Guilds to consider meeting in community halls or other spaces where a church building will no longer be available.

COMMITTEE ON CHAPLAINS TO HM FORCES

Alongside the usual commendations of those who serve as chaplains, and encouragement of ministers to consider service, the Chaplains’ Committee this year recognises the contribution of Chaplains following the death of the Queen last year.

The report states: “The death of Her late Majesty was profoundly felt across the whole military community. She was their Commander-in-Chief, she knew the community very well, and some would even say she was at her happiest when visiting the military family. The Committee is grateful to all Chaplains who supported our military personnel, and their families, through this period of national mourning.”

The Committee also asks the Assembly to recognise the contribution of Chaplains supporting personnel who responded to NATO’s call for support following the invasion of Ukraine. It adds: “As with the whole Church, we pray for peace and justice in that land.”

ECUMENICAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE

The Ecumenical Relations Committee asks the Assembly to affirm the ‘ecumenical imperative embedded within the Articles Declaratory of the Church of Scotland’, and to note the ecumenical implications of 2021’s Presbytery Mission Plan Act. That includes guidance that presbyteries may not need to duplicate services offered by another denomination, and should explore opportunities for working ecumenically where more than one denomination exists in a community.

The report notes that several presbyteries have already engaged with them on the place of Local Ecumenical Partnerships within their plans, and ‘encourages the exploration of potential opportunities for creative and collaborative ecumenical initiatives.’

It reports that the establishment of the Scottish Christian Forum (which the Church of Scotland agreed to participate in in 2021, replacing Action of Churches Together in Scotland) ‘continues to be a matter under discussion’. A conference of ten denominations took place in January, and the Ecumenical Officers’ Forum will bring proposals for the Scottish Christian Forum to a future gathering. The Committee invites the General Assembly to welcome the signing of the Saint Margaret Declaration, between the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, which took place in November last year. It also commends a new Saint Margaret Declaration Liturgy and encourages its use ‘as an expression of that which the Catholic Church in Scotland and the Church of Scotland hold in common’.

HOUSING AND LOAN FUND

The Trustees of the Housing and Loan Fund report that in 2022 the fund provided assistance to eight retired or retiring ministers or their spouses. As of December 31, the fund had 176 tenants living in its properties along with two let commercially and seven vacant properties. There were also 101 outstanding housing loans.

Rents have not been increased this year, with existing rental income sufficient to cover maintenance and repairs. Post-covid, the report states that routine visits to rental properties have resumed and that the backlog of maintenance work caused by the lockdowns has been cleared.

The report encourages ministers within five years of retirement who may wish to request the fund’s help to contact them, and also says it welcomes initial contact from people within five to ten years of retirement. “Such approaches not only assist the Trustees with financial forecasting, but can help to alleviate some of the anxieties which ministers and their spouses may experience in respect of housing as they contemplate their future after retirement.”

MORE REPORTS NEXT MONTH. The General Assembly takes place from May 20-25. Life and Work will be providing daily coverage at www.lifeandwork.org and there will be a free downloadable summary, giving an overview of the key decisions and speeches, available from May 31.