As part of her ongoing tour of the Presbytery of Dumfries & Kirkcudbright, the Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, will deliver the annual Jane Haining Memorial Lecture at Crichton Campus, Dumfries, on Tuesday 23 October.
The Moderator will ask believers to think about what it means to be a Christian today in an increasingly multi-faith society.
She will reflect upon the situation of the Jewish community which for the most of the last 2000 years has felt reviled as ‘God killers’ and that of Islam which, with a growing number of followers in the UK, suffers from ‘islamophobia’.
The Moderator will go on to welcome the recent publication of A Common Word Between Us and You statement by 138 Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals who unaminously came together to declare common ground between Christianity and Islam. The statement is addressed to Christian leaders and is a follow up to an open letter sent to the Pope last year.
Ms Kesting will continue by calling on believers to appreciate the urgency for the need for peace and that the future of the planet depends on people of different faiths coming together and understanding each other to promote a bright and peaceful future.
Jane Haining was born in Dunscore, Dumfries and Galloway, and educated at Dumfries Academy after which she worked in a threadmaker’s in Paisley.
After attending a meeting about the Jewish Mission she declared “I have found my life work” and took charge of a childrens home in Budapest.
She was arrested on suspicion of espionage against Germany and was most likely gassed along with a batch of Hungarian women in August 1944.
Two stained glass windows in Queen’s Park Church, Glasgow honour her memory as well as a plaque at Dunscore Kirk.
