Picture by Derek Fett

Friday May 22

General Assembly 2015 - Friday

General Trustees call for congregations to consider disposing of buildings which are no longer fit for purpose

Churches asked to keep manses in good condition

Warm farewell to the Rev Douglas Galbraith as Precentor

The Chairman of the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland has called on congregations not to hold on to old buildings which are no longer fit for purpose.

Iain Douglas admitted that disposing of old churches was an emotional matter, but said that new church and community spaces could be ‘welcoming for the whole community and allow people outside the church to see the activities inside, and those inside to see out’.

He admitted money could be hard to find and that the sale of old church buildings would not pay the cost of the new developments, however he said that he had been inspired by congregations which had undertaken such projects.

The General Trustees also announced the creation of a Manse Fund to meet the costs of applications from churches for work on their manses. However, Mr Douglas appealed to churches to keep their manses in good condition, saying that there had been cases where manses had been allowed to fall into such a state that it wasn’t economical to repair them. The financial shortfall of selling such manses below market rate, and then replacing them, had been as much as £200,000.

The Hymnary Trustees agreed to consider providing an app to enable people to access their resources through smartphones and tablets.

During the Report of the Housing and Loan Fund, the Trustees of the Fund were asked to consider the present practice of halving the rents charged to widows and widowers of ministers, while charging the full amount to ministers who live by themselves for other reasons.

The Nominations Committee agreed to explore, with other committees and councils, the barriers for people in work and students to becoming members of councils, 'and how these can be minimised to allow greater participation and diversity'.

During the morning worship, there was a warm farewell to the Rev Douglas Galbraith, who retired as Precentor of the General Assembly after 20 years. The Moderator told him: “It’s going to be hard to imagine worship at this Assembly without you. You have led the music with skill and such an obvious enthusiasm and love for unaccompanied singing that even us those of us who are non-musicians sing out with enthusiasm.”