Kirk’s General Assembly gets under way
Former Moray minister sworn in as new moderator of Edinburgh gathering
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THE Church of Scotland’s annual General Assembly began in Edinburgh yesterday.
Scores of ministers and elders from across the country and further afield gathered in the Kirk’s Assembly Hall for what is effectively its annual general meeting.
The Rev David Lunan, 63, a former minister in Moray, was officially sworn in as the new moderator.
For the next 12 months he will be the public face of the Kirk at home and abroad and will chair the assembly until Wednesday.
Mr Lunan, who was the minister at St Andrews-Lhanbryd Church in Moray for 12 years until 1989, succeeds the Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting, the first woman minister to hold the prestigious honorary post.
He was welcomed to the chamber, the site of the Scottish Parliament before it moved to Holyrood, by former SNP politician George Reid, who is continuing the 450-year link between the Church of Scotland and the monarchy by becoming lord high commissioner.
Mr Reid, former presiding officer at the Scottish Parliament and the first Nationalist to hold the post, told Mr Lunan: “Her Majesty the Queen has commanded me to assure you of her great sense of your steady and firm zeal for her service and her resolution to maintain Presbyterian church government in Scotland.
“You bring to the moderatorship wide experience of pastoral work in the countryside, in the city of Glasgow and in international outreach.
“It is a pleasure for me that your first charge, St Andrews Church in Lhanbryde in Moray is where many of my forebears on my mother’s side were baptised, married and buried.”
Mr Lunan thanked Mr Reid, who will visit Kirk-led projects and churches across Scotland over the next week, for his “kind words and inspiring address”.
The General Assembly, made up of delegates, known as commissioners, heard from speakers on a variety of subjects including how much money churches allocate to the central Kirk each year.
They were told that the amount to be contributed by congregations across Scotland last year was reduced by £1million following a freeze in 2006.
The Kirk’s Council of Assembly is proposing a “slight increase” of £400,000 or just under 1%.
Convener Helen McLeod said: “This means that the amount to be contributed by congregations in 2009 is still less than it was in 2006.
“It also means that the local church as a whole will retain approximately 82% of the anticipated increase in income next year.”
Ms McLeod said that for the first time budget proposals “reach a point” where over half of the total general income will be available for local expenditure after mission and ministries renewal contributions have been made.
