AN attempt by inmates at Noranside prison to restore the controversial former Church of Scotland minister Helen Percy as a chaplain has failed on a technicality.
The prisoners had submitted a 100-strong petition to the General Assembly on Saturday, but it was held to be incompetent on the grounds that the only person who could argue for Ms Percy's reinstatement was herself.
Ms Percy, 32, resigned as a minister last year after an investigation into allegations of an affair with a married church elder. She is now pursuing an industrial tribunal hearing against the Church.
A plea for the prisoners' petition to be heard by the assembly was led by Penicuik elder John McCulloch. He argued that the Church's ruling body should still hear the grounds on which the petition had been submitted and consider its terms. He added: ''I agree it is incompetent in so far as that it asks this court to restore Ms Percy's status. There are obviously channels for that; only she can initiate this process and the earliest that could happen is next year.''
The move failed after no commissioner appeared to second Mr McCulloch's appeal.
A second petition was also deemed incompetent and failed to reach the debating chamber. It involved a Fife minister who called on the Church to recognise a contentious book, by former elder Thomas Stevenson, which has criticised ministers.
The Rev James McMillan, minister at Christ's Kirk, Glenrothes, had been expected to appeal to the assembly to allow the petition to be aired, but it is understood he left the Assembly Hall before the matter was called.
Unusually, the arguments against the presentation of the petitions to the assembly were outlined in writing in a report from the Committee on Commissions (Bills and Overtures), ruling the documents incompetent, in daily papers circulated to all parties attending the meeting.
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