Assembly 2025
Thomas Baldwin casts an eye over some of the reports to this month’s General Assembly.
All photos credit: Andrew O’Brien for the Church of Scotland
ASSEMBLY BUSINESS COMMITTEE
The Business Committee brings proposals that the General Assembly should become a four-day event, from Friday to Monday, from next year. The proposed model includes a shortened opening ceremony and incorporates Holy Communion into closing worship on Monday afternoon. The Guild’s Big Sing would take place on Saturday night, and the Moderator’s Reception, Beating Retreat and Holyrood Palace reception on Sunday.
The committee predicts that the shortened Assembly will result in financial savings (estimated at £111,000 in 2026) as well as being easier to attend for elders of working age and Commissioners with family commitments.
The former Moderator’s flat at Rothesay Terrace has now been sold. Its replacement, a furlough flat at Inverleith Row, is reported to have been ‘suitable accommodation for the Moderator’s needs’, but is not fully accessible for someone with mobility issues, so the committee says this will be kept under review.
Also under review is the future of the Assembly Hall itself, which is not bringing in enough income to pay for ongoing maintenance costs, and also requires expensive modernisation work. The report says that conversations are ongoing with a party interested in a long-term lease, ‘which would relieve the Church of its financial responsibilities for repair and maintenance and enable the Assembly Hall to be refurbished, whilst ensuring that both the title and the right to use it for the General Assembly are retained’.