Moderator 'touched by hurt and pain' of women in the Church
Saturday September 7, 2013
WOMEN in the church are still subject to discrimination, according to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Church of Scotland Guild in Dundee, the Moderator, the Rt Rev Lorna Hood said she had been "touched by the hurt and pain" of those she had met.
She said she would be the first to say that the Guild had not always been given recognition or respect it deserved but had "just carried on regardless because you see that as part of your calling."
Speaking of encounters with women who had been subjected to discrimination, the Moderator said: "Recently, I have spent time with women dedicated to the Lord who have experienced discrimination in the Church of Scotland.
"Today there are parts of this wonderful country of ours where women are still denied a place on Kirk Sessions. When elders who have moved from one part of the country to another find that their ordination as elders is called in to question they find that there is no place for them to serve."
She said she had been "touched by their hurt and pain".
Mrs Hood added: "The pain is real and the hurt runs deep. In such areas, if it were not for the Guild they would be quite isolated."
She admitted the Church would never be perfect but said both Church and Guild had to continue to be risk takers.
"You have been great risk takers through the years. Keep being risk takers and let us all keep taking the risk of being the one Church and live out that calling."
More than 2,000 members attended the meeting, which took place at the Caird Hall in Dundee.
Speakers during the day also included Olivia Giles, the Edinburgh lawyer who founded the charity 500 miles after losing her lower arms and legs to blood poising as a result of meningitis, and Lorimer Gray, of More than Gold, the Christian charity working with churches towards the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
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