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Friendships Between Churches Welcomed

Saturday May 17 2025

The Rt Rev Rosie Frew, Moderator of the 2025 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

The appointment of the first Roman Catholic to hold the role of Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was welcomed this morning as a ‘living out’ of the growing friendship between the two churches.

Legislation had to be rushed through the Houses of Parliament earlier this year to enable Lady Elish Angiolini to take up the role of the King’s representative at the Assembly.

In her speech to the Assembly, Lady Elish said that ‘those born and brought up in Scotland are also all well aware of the profound significance of the appointment of a Catholic to this role’ and spoke of the ‘tribal enmity’ which used to exist between the Catholic and Protestant communities’. She said that everyone in the room had ‘an obligation or, at least, a wonderful opportunity in life, to… put into practice that essential love of humanity, irrespective of creed, race or disposition’. And she spoke of the Ibrox disaster in 1971, when her father had rushed to help the victims, and of her own experience of being helped by complete strangers as she lay trapped in the wreckage of the Polmont Rail Disaster in 1984.

Lady Elish concluded: I still believe that prejudice and sectarianism can be overcome by that fundamental recognition in us that we are, "all Jock Tamson's bairns" and by the recognition of each other as the creation of God, requiring the love, forgiveness and support we would all seek for ourselves in all of our imperfection.”

The Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Rosie Frew, told Lady Elish that her appointment had been ‘an inspired one, a real living out of the 2022 St Margaret Declaration of friendship and respect between the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church in Scotland, brothers and sisters in Christ, citizens and partners in announcing the kingdom of God in our land’.

Speaking on behalf of the ecumenical guests, the Most Rev Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, said it was ‘wonderful’ to see a Scottish Catholic in the Lord High Commissioner’s seat, and praised the ‘growing fellowship among Scotland’s churches seen in all corners of this land’.

Earlier, Mrs Frew said she accepted the nomination as Moderator with ‘excitement and trepidation in equal measure’, adding: “Since the announcement of my nomination I have been quite overwhelmed by messages of affirmation and support, I’ve felt surrounded by love and assurances of prayer, for which I thank you.”

She said: “As I look around this hall I see the General Assembly of 2025. We will worship together. We will work hard together as we turn our attention to the business before us, some quite difficult and emotive business. We will laugh and doubtless we will cry. We will enjoy friendship and fellowship. In all we do, we will remember the extravagant love of Christ. Christ who loves us with a love that is wide and long and high and deep. We are to know that love. We are to show that love.”

The outgoing Moderator, the Very Rev Dr Shaw Paterson, said that during his year he had seen much to be positive about, from the work of the local churches to that of the Church of Scotland social care arm, CrossReach, and the response to his appeal for solar powered lights for students in Malawi.

He said: “We hear so much negativity about the church - and these are challenging times - but there are so many good news stories out there. There is mourning and grief over well-loved buildings,and that needs to be acknowledged, but I have seen so much to encourage and enthuse me from congregations who are worshipping, serving Christ and reaching out into their communities. This we must celebrate and shout from the rooftops.

“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to walk alongside you, worship with you, listen to your stories, and witness the countless ways in which God is at work through the Church of Scotland.”

Talking on behalf of overseas visitors, the Rev Dr George Marchinkowsi, of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, said that while many of the western churches are facing decline, they must not isolate themselves but instead face the challenges of the world together. “Perhaps we are being pushed to the margins, but remember that that was where we began in the early church. So perhaps the margins are where we should be.”

In the first vote of the General Assembly, a proposal from the Rev Robert Allan which would have meant the proposers of a motion close a debate – instead of the convener of the relevant committee – was defeated.

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