THE Kirk has moved to express regret for its actions before, and 15 years ago made an historic apology over its past role in sectarianism.
The General Assembly of 2002 also took the step of setting up a joint group with the Roman Catholic justice and peace commission to examine the issue afresh to combat bigotry in Scotland.
The Rev Alan McDonald, then convener of the church and nation committee, had recounted some of the worst examples from the church and nation's report to the 1923 assembly entitled: ''The menace of the Irish race to our Scottish nationality."
He said: ''It accused the Irish Roman Catholic population of taking employment from native Scots, of being part of a papist conspiracy to subvert Presbyterian values, and of being the principal cause of drunkenness, crime and financial imprudence.
''It suggested the control of immigration from the Irish Free State, deportation, and preference being given to native-born Scots in public works because 'Scotland was over-gorged with Irishmen'.''
Mr Macdonald had said: ''I am ashamed when I read how badly we got it wrong."
''We have to be honest about the past so that we can move forward.
"Let's be honest but let's move away from the blame culture. It is not their fault, their problem: sectarianism is everybody's problem.''
He added then that it was time to ''consign bigotry to the history books, where it belongs''.
At the time Trevor Reid, an elder from Castle Douglas but who was originally from Belfast, said: ''The future is what is important, the past is the problem.
"I've been blown up, I have had my business blown up. I know what sectarianism can do.''
Rev Roderick Macdonald said: ''Most schoolchildren do not know what it is all about.
"They are told by their parents that they are Prods, that they are Rangers supporters and they do not like Catholics. That's sectarianism."
The Kirk's move at that time followed a similar public admission to the assembly by the former Catholic Cardinal Keith O'Brien - who was later shamed over inappropriate and predatory sexual conduct with junior priests - for the Catholic Church's refusal to respond to ecumenical talks for nearly 400 years.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel