The article on the saddening news that St George's Tron is to leave the Church of Scotland does not mention the economic and practical effect of this move on the church's work nationally and internationally ("Church in split to be taken to court", June 16).
As the national church we have a distinctive call and duty to bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry.
The majority of the Church of Scotland's income is from the donations of members. Each congregation pays a proportion of its income to central funds which are used to provide ministry in the widest sense across the country and beyond, the rich supporting the poor.
Small rural congregations, priority areas and a multitude of projects ranging from work with addicts, asylum seekers and elderly services to youth work and education all depend on the generosity of congregations.
It is ironic that some of the church's ongoing work in counselling and with addictions was begun by Rev Tom Allan, a much-respected former minister of St George's Tron.
In separating themselves from the Church of Scotland, the minister and elders of this well-off congregation are choosing to ignore not only their ordination vows but the needs across this country at a time of financial crisis.
I wonder how the minister and elders can claim the moral high ground on biblical authority when Jesus had much more to say about the use of money and possessions than he ever did about marriage and sexual matters.
Rev Catherine EE Collins,
Broughty Ferry New Kirk,
25 Ballinard Gardens, Broughty Ferry.
When passing St George's Tron Church I noticed a large display board just inside the door which proclaimed: "Everyone welcome". The phrase "but not if you're gay" should perhaps have been added.
Sandra Malcolm,
34 Randolph Gate,
Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article