News / Law forces ex-minister onto education committee
A CHURCH of Scotland minister plus two other religious representatives are to be appointed as voting members of Shetland Islands Council’s eleven-strong education committee.
The move was described as “a step back to the 17th century” and “wholly offensive to democracy” by Lerwick South councillor Jonathan Wills.
Other members, including council convener Sandy Cluness, also expressed some discomfort with the move, but were told that the appointments were required under Scottish law.
Shetland Islands Council has been the only local authority in Scotland without a church minister on its education committee.
The issue of non-representation was first raised by the Church of Scotland in summer last year.
On Thursday, the committee agreed to recommend the appointment of retired minister of Shetland’s west parishes, the Reverend Tom Macintyre.
They also approved that head of legal Jan Riise should continue his discussion with the Shetland Churches Council Trust and the Shetland Interfaith Group to appoint two further religious representatives to the committee.
Councillor Wills left the meeting after his amendment to block the appointment and negotiate an alternative with religious groups was deemed incompetent and illegal under Scottish law.
Earlier at the same meeting he had tried to convince his fellow councillors that appointing ministers as voting members to a council committee was in breach of the human rights act, and in contravention of European law on discrimination on religious grounds.
“If implemented here it will lead to a breach of European law, because it will give the Church of Scotland a local privilege that other Christian sects and other religions do not have,” he said.
But providing legal advice to the meeting, Mr Riise said that following the recent council re-organisation a dedicated education committee had been formed and religious groups had the right to be represented on it.
Prior to the re-organisation, an education forum incorporating religious representation should have fed its views into the then services committee. However, that consultative forum only met once or twice over the years.
Committee chairwoman Betty Fullerton declared at the start of the debate that she was a member of the Church of Scotland.
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