In brief
THE ''injustices and anomalies'' of the land tenure system in Scotland were attacked by the assembly which called for urgent reforms. The assembly backed moves towards community ownership and the setting up of a Scottish Land Convention.
q STAFF and volunteers of Shelter, the Scottish Campaign for Homeless People, yesterday handed out leaflets outside the Assembly Hall as the assembly debated homelessness. Inside the hall, the assembly backed the Kirk's church and nation committee in its call for the Government to recognise that homelessness could be solved. It also supported a move to encourage local authorities to continue to develop strategies and partnerships to address it.
q AN investigation by the Office of Fair Trading into business practices within the funeral industry was welcomed yesterday at the assembly. The launch of the inquiry was highlighted during a debate on the church and nation committee report which moved successfully that all involved in the undertaking profession should be encouraged to help relatives and friends in avoiding needless expenditure which might lead to debt. The assembly also supported a call for a reduction in the ''awful'' gap of several hundred pounds between the cost of a burial, which could be #1200, and the money made available to those eligible for benefits payments.
q A call to oppose the homosexual lobby's promotion of its way of life was made at the General Assembly of the Free Church in Edinburgh yesterday. Mr Andrew Fraser, convener of the public questions committee, said: ''We must uphold God's good way for the expression of our human sexuality at every opportunity as a counter to homosexuality. But we must not sinfully hate''.
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