Annual General Meeting and Public Talk

Over 50 people attended the annual public talk this year which was given by Reverend Dr Kathy Galloway and focussed on ‘Faith in Gender Justice’. Kathy Galloway is a practical theologian, activist and writer. She was ordained as a minister of the Church of Scotland in 1977, and was Head of Christian Aid Scotland between 2009 and 2016.

Kathy was formerly Warden of Iona Abbey, and Leader of the Iona Community from 2002 to 2009, the first woman to be elected to the post. She has also worked for Church Action on Poverty as their Link worker for Scotland. She is the author of a dozen books on justice issues, spirituality and poetry and her writings have been widely anthologised. Kathy was one of 1000 women worldwide who were collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, and she has an honorary doctorate from Glasgow University. It was an honour for

Interfaith Scotland to have Kathy come and give our annual lecture. The topic was very hard hitting as Kathy shared with us statistics and stories from around the world of the hardships and discrimination that many women, in fact too many women, face. Kathy challenged the diverse faith communities present to support gender justice and live up to the positive messages within their traditions that support equality. After the presentation there was an opportunity for everyone present to dialogue on the topic. The AGM took place after the annual lecture. Larry Blance from the Buddhist community was thanked for his service as Chair of Interfaith Scotland for the last three years and Alan Kay from the Jewish Community was welcomed as the new Chair of the Board. Jeremy Fox, who represented the Baha’i Community on the Board, and Marlene Finlayson, who represented local interfaith groups, were also thanked for their services to the Board.