THE Catholic Church in Scotland yesterday welcomed the decision by the Kirk to allow congregations to apply for lottery money.
The narrow vote, though carried out with good humour, split the Church of Scotland's General Assembly and led to accusations of compromise on the morality of gambling.
Yesterday, Father Tom Connelly, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said it had no qualms about taking lottery money for community projects.
''We have never been against accepting a donation from the lottery because we are not against the lottery per se. We are against the abuse of it.
''We didn't like the idea of it running a second time through the week and we didn't like the idea of scratch cards, because that could lead to a selfish attitude and to addiction.
''But we have always said that, if there is money going, we will take it. So we welcome the decision by the Church of Scotland,'' he said, adding jokily: ''Though it means less money for the rest of us.''
The Scottish Episcopalian Church said it had no official policy and left decisions up to congregations.
Secretary-general John Stuart said: ''We have never debated it at General Synod. In that sense, there isn't an official policy on the lottery. It is really left to individual congregations themselves to make any applications.''
The Free Church of Scotland opposed the lottery because gambling was involved and it was ''an encouragement to look at things very much materialistically''.
Mr Andrew Fraser, convener of the Free Kirk's public questions, religion, and morals committee, also objected to the source of the money: ''It has been shown by various people that those who can least afford to spend money on the lottery are the ones spending on it, so it is harmful to themselves and their families.''
It is a view shared by the United Free Church of Scotland, whose general secretary, the Rev John Fulton, said: It has been shown in various surveys that the poor are giving a disproportionate amount to the lottery. It is the effect it has on individuals and families that troubles us.''
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 hereComments are closed on this article