Thursday May 22 2025
The Lord High Commissioner, Lady Elish Angiolini, and Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Rosie Frew, at the traditional 'clapping out' after the end of the Assembly.
As this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland drew to a close, the Moderator, the Rt Rev Rosie Frew, urged the Church to ‘remember that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine’.
In her closing address, Mrs Frew told the Assembly that the past week has been challenging, but also inspiring.
She said: “All of us - whatever the age and stage - have a shared vocation… And sometimes it can feel really hard. For most of us in this room, our whole Christian life has been lived out against the backdrop of decline. That line on the graph that’s due to hit zero all too soon. The whole of my ministry, year on year. It can feel so dispiriting. And we see the reality of it as we look around our congregations and we’re still one of the young ones…”
But she said there had been encouragement: “Having (Lady) Elish (Angiolini) as our Lord High Commissioner – such a positive message of unity and friendship…
“The involvement of our youth delegates. Young adults involved and invested and excited.
“The singing, the sharing of bread and wine, the conversations enjoyed, the friendships made.
“The contributions of so many people – honest, raw, questioning, encouraging.
“And the good news stories. And there are so many of them. So often people have said to me they’ve left this Assembly knowing so much more being so encouraged by what they’ve heard and seen.”
In her closing speech, Lady Angiolini spoke of visits to Stirling, Dundee, the Central Mosque in Edinburgh and the Free Church of Scotland’s General Assembly. She had taken part in services at St Giles’ Cathedral and St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Glasgow on the same day, which was a first for the Lord High Commissioner.
She told the Assembly: “I have genuinely loved witnessing your sincere and informed debates and engagement, peppered with good humour.
“When my two sons were little and we were on holiday and experienced an amazing sight or view, I would encourage them to “put this in your memory box, boys.” Moderator, I can assure you that this week’s proceedings are firmly locked in my memory box for the future.”
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The convener of the Safeguarding committee has warned the Church of Scotland not to be complacent on issues of safeguarding.
The Rev Dr Sonia Blakesley told the General Assembly that while the Kirk’s Presbyterian structure meant that it was less vulnerable to the ’failures of leadership and lack of accountability’ that contributed to the John Smyth abuse scandal in the Church of England (and which led to the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury), ‘we can get better at this’.
And she warned that people must be aware of their duty to report concerns: “Too often priests and ministers and others are allowed to continue in abusive relationships because people do not want to believe that a church leader, a colleague, even a friend, would do the unthinkable…
“Over the last year, the Recruitment Subcommittee has dealt with issues of child sexual abuse through chat room exploitation of a minor; financial abuse and abuse of power through inappropriate mis-use of a congregant’s property over a period of years; inappropriate touching of a sexual nature of an adult female congregant, and mental ill-health. These have been by our own ministers and individuals at different stages of training and service within our church.”
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Earlier in the week, the Assembly Trustees agreed to the establishment of a working group which would review the relationships and dynamics between the Trustees and the other committees, presbyteries and congregations of the Church; and to ‘consider how the policies, priorities and strategic objectives of the General Assembly should be resourced in accordance with the financial strategy of the Assembly Trustees.
The group is to be made up of four Trustees and four representatives from the wider church, who were named this morning by the Selection Committee as the Very Rev Dr Derek Browning, the Very Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, the Rev Jim Stewart and Professor Nancy Loucks.
General Assembly 2025 - full coverage
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