A successful appeal to save Scottish Churches House, the infamous heart of Scotland’s ecumenical movement, has saved the centre in Dunblane from closure.
The public appeal for £120,000 was highly successful with pledges from around 360 people amounting to £109,000, and a further one from a trust for £20,000 to make up the shortfall, all gathered within 6 weeks.
Scottish Churches House has for some time been in severe financial crisis, with an annual deficit of 50 per cent of its income. The House blamed churches for the financial crisis by not using the accommodation.
The appeal, headed by Alison Elliot, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Convener of the Scottish Churches Forum, was called to allow the House a two-year breathing space to sort out the finances and turn the ailing fortunes of the centre around. The long-term future for the retreat and conference centre remains uncertain, however.
Ms Elliot said of the appeal: “It has bought us time, not much more, but time to try to think more clearly what role Scottish Churches House might play in the twenty-first century.”A management group is also due to be set up in order “to try to turn things around”, said Ms Elliot.
Episcopal Church, who has described the Churches House as “one of the great places in Scotland’s spiritual and social life”, said the successful appeal was “great news for Scotland”.
Scottish Church House was founded in 1960 as a place of common ground where churches from across the
Richard Holloway, the former Primus of the Scottish denominational spectrum could come to develop their ministry and mission together.
