Princess Royal honours Scottish churches

Scotland's Churches Scheme will celebrate the country's Year of Homecoming by holding its annual gathering in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

Scotland's Churches Scheme encourages and assists more than 1,200 churches to open their doors, tell their own stories and to focus on their ecclesiastical heritage. It gives practical help to congregations on visitor welcome, security, promotion and interpretation.

2009, meanwhile, marks Scotland's Year of Homecoming, a yearlong programme of events celebrating Scotland's unique contributions to the world.

The event will be hosted by the Parliament’s Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson and will be attended by the scheme’s patron, the Princess Royal.

Over 200 visitors will gather in the Parliament building, from churches and organisations across Scotland. They will receive an update on current activities and be addressed by the Princess Royal.

Princess Anne succeeded her late grandmother as patron of the scheme and at this gathering she will receive copies of the scheme’s guidebooks recently published by Saint Andrew Press - Sacred South West Scotland, Sacred Edinburgh and Midlothian and Sacred Fife & Forth Valley.

The scheme aims to inspire a greater awareness among communities of all buildings designed for worship and active as living churches. A musical initiative, awarding grants, encourages the playing of organs in churches and promotes their greater use, while a wide range of literature is available to participating congregations.

From small beginnings in East Lothian the Scheme has grown over fifteen years to cover the whole of Scotland and now has an active network of two dozen voluntary local representatives.

The scheme’s new series of regional guidebooks, published by Saint Andrew Press contain information on abbeys, cathedrals and tiny churches in villages, towns and hamlets from Shetland to Stranraer.