The Church and Society Network met on 8th February 2012.

The Network members discussed the “Future of Scotland” initiative launched by SCVO and noted that ACTS’ Trustees had agreed to support the initiative. John Deighan, Parliamentary Officer of the Roman Catholic Church, and David Bradwell, Scottish Churches’ Parliamentary Officer, encouraged churches to become involved in the debate on independence and to submit responses to the current consultations on independence and the proposed referendum.

Church of Scotland representatives drew attention to the soon to be published Report from the Special Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity which had been set up by the General Assembly. Network members recognised that this would be a Report of considerable significance and decided to invite a speaker from the Church of Scotland to address an afternoon session of the Network on May 2nd. They also decided that an open invitation to attend the afternoon session should be extended to Churches.

Alastair Cameron, Chief Executive of Scottish Churches Housing Action, spoke of the work his organisation had done, in partnership with the Church of Scotland, to establish what progress local authorities had made towards achieving the Homelessness Targets set in 2002. Alastair argued that there was a need for a national homelessness policy to eliminate what he saw as a “postal code lottery” resulting from local council’s differing interpretations of the targets. He asked all Church representatives to argue in their denominations for discussion of homelessness at their Assemblies and Synods in 2012.

The Network noted that Margo Macdonald MSP had decided to attempt to introduce a new Bill on “Assisted Suicide” to the Parliament. Representatives of several denominations indicated that they thought that their Churches would be submitting responses to her initial consultation.

Other topics featured on the agenda of the meeting included human trafficking; the criminalisation of the purchase of sex; asylum seekers; the proposal to use churches to solemnise civil partnerships; the training of teachers to present Religious and Moral Education; bio-ethics; ageing; and issues which might arise for Churches in a post-referendum Scotland.

The Church and Society Network met on August 31st and received presentations from two new Bodies in Association – Scottish Churches’ China Group and Faith in Older People.

Agreed that the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council should identify a nominee to represent ACTS on the Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Church. The nominee will become a member of the Network.

Agreed to give permission to the Anti-Human Trafficking Group to issue a draft letter, encouraging MSPs to support a Private Member’s Bill to criminalise the purchase of sex, to the Churches at an appropriate time.

Received invitations from the Church of Scotland for ecumenical involvement in work on Gaza; Homelessness in Scotland; and the Church of Scotland’s legal position should the Treaty of Union be re-written.

The Network’s next meeting is scheduled to take place on February 8th 2012.

The Church and Society Network met on January 19th in Scottish Churches’ House. Before moving on to the normal agenda of a Network meeting members were addressed by Ms Anne Mulligan, a Health Care Chaplain based in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Ms Mulligan explained to members how chaplains were now employed by Health Boards and had the remit of giving spiritual support to patients in hospitals; to the relatives of the patients; and to the staff of the hospitals.

Ms Mulligan then spoke of the ways in which the chaplains make contact with the three groups and of the ways in which they provide support.
In the questions session which followed Ms Mulligan’s talk members raised their concerns about how patients were referred to chaplains and how patients’ own ministers sometimes found it difficult to find parishioners who had been taken in to hospitals. The meaning of “spiritual care” was also questioned. The view was expressed that possibly a reticence about discussing patients’ religion and personal faith had developed since chaplains’ remit had been defined as “spiritual care”.

During the business session of the meeting members agreed to give their support to the Report on “Just War Criteria and the War in Afghanistan” which had been commissioned by the Network at the request of the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Report will be sent to ACTS’ Member Churches with a request that each should consider accepting its findings and recommendations.

When the Network met on April 28th the items on which information was exchanged included inter alia

i) the uptake of CTBI hustings material for the General Election;
ii) the Alcohol Bill and the Criminal Justice Bill which were before the Scottish Parliament;
iii) Health Care Chaplaincy;
iv) Eco-Congregations;
v) Bio-Ethics;
vi) Afghanistan; and
vii) the Sanctuary Pledge.

The Network agreed to approach the Faith Studies Network to explore the possibility of setting up an ecumenical group to discuss the situation in Afghanistan along with a critique of the “just war” proposition.

The Group, which had taken on the task of planning a Conference on the effects on faith based social agencies of the Concordat between the Scottish Government and the Local Authorities, reported that 26th October had been set as the date for the Conference. A provisional booking of Easter Road Conference Centre had been made and an invitation to speak had been extended to Alex Neil, Minister for Housing and Communities.

A proposal, brought to the Network by the Scottish Churches' Education Group, to hold a one day Conference in the Autumn for members of Spiritual Care Teams in Further Education Colleges was approved. It was noted that it was hoped that one of the outcomes of the Conference might be the setting up of an information network which would support Spiritual Care Teams in their work in Scottish Colleges.