General Assembly 2021

Tuesday June 1 2021

Welcome to Life and Work's coverage of the 2021 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which opens on Saturday May 22.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, this year's General Assembly is a 'blended' event with the Moderator, officials and speakers appearing in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, while Commissioners join by video link.

It opens at 10am on Saturday May 22, and continues until Thursday May 26 with sessions each day from 1-3.30pm and 4-6pm.

You can follow proceedings live from the Church of Scotland's General Assembly site, where you will also find full reports and pre-recorded Conveners' speeches, and on Facebook.

Life and Work will be providing daily reports of the debates, and Lynne McNeil will be live-tweeting the event. You can follow her on @lifeworkeditor

FREE downloadable summary of the key decisions, debates and speeches

Day Five: Moderator hails 'significant progress'; Prince William again speaks of affection for Scotland; good news on pensions; praise for Military Chaplains; warning that Church still has too many buildings

Day Four: Assembly welcomes fossil fuel disinvestment; cut in ministry numbers agreed; praise for CrossReach staff who worked through the pandemic

Day Three: Church Warned on Ministry Numbers; Guild raises over £550,000 for partner charities; Church's confessional standards to be discussed

Day Two: Church takes step towards same-sex marriages; agrees Saint Andrew Declaration with the Scottish Episcopal Church

Day One: opening speeches, debates on budget and presbytery reform

Further reading:

Summaries of the reports to this year's Assembly

Interview with the Moderator, Baron (Jim) Wallace of Tankerness

Assembly timetable

2020: Last year's main General Assembly was cancelled, but you can read the reports of the installation of the Moderator in May,  Commission of Assembly of July and the two-day Assembly in October.