This news story has been reported very widely in Scotland.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland spoke yesterday at a summit on sectarianism convened by the Scottish Executive.  While the Rt. Rev. Alan McDonald’s remarks were brief and straight-forward, one aspect of them was picked up and much more widely publicized than the rest of the speech.  Rev. McDonald had suggested to the Scottish Roman Catholic Cardinal O’Brien that in a show of ecumenical unity they should attend a Rangers Football Club (soccer for the Americans) game together.  It turned out that while the cardinal and the football club were up for it, stadium security and the local police were afraid that it would raise tempers in the stadium.  So the idea was scrapped until Rev. McDonald mentioned it yesterday in the speech and now there seems to be a change of opinion and police now say the two religious leaders could do it and it would not incite the crowd.

The Church of Scotland has posted Rev. McDonald’s comments at the summit and the remarks by Cardinal O’Brien a couple of weeks ago after the release of a report on sectarian incidents.

Selected press coverage of the football controversy from the icLanarkshire and The Herald.