The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office (SCPO) was created in 1999, at the same time as the

devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

Scottish Parliament was established. The office is an ecumenical partnership that works to build good relations between Scottish Churches, the Scottish and UK Parliaments and the Scottish and UK Governments. When first established the SCPO was based at St Columba's by the Castle Episcopal Church in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and later at The Netherbow (the

Scottish Storytelling Centre The Scottish Storytelling Centre, the world's first purpose-built modern centre for live storytelling, is located on the High Street in Edinburgh's Royal Mile, Scotland, United Kingdom. It was formally opened on 1 June 2006 by Patricia Fergus ...

) on

's Royal Mile before moving to Scottish Churches Housing Action in Hanover Street, Edinburgh. SCPO is currently based at the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

's main administration office at 121 George Street, Edinburgh. Many of the churches in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

were strongly supportive of devolution. Before the new

Scottish Parliament building ; sco, Scots Pairlament Biggin , native_name_lang = , former_names = , alternate_names = Holyrood , image = Scottish Parliament building - geograph.org.uk - 2469654.jpg , image_alt = , caption ...

at Holyrood was completed in 2004 the Scottish Parliament met in the

General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland The Assembly Hall is located between Castlehill and Mound Place in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the meeting place of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. History Following the Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843, the emer ...

. The first Scottish Churches Parliamentary Officer (1999–2008) was the Revd Dr Graham Blount, who was formerly joint minister at Falkirk Old and St Modan's Parish Church. The post has since been held by Chloe Clemmons (2009–2019) and Irene Mackinnon (2019–2020). The current Scottish Churches Parliamentary Officer (since 2020) is David Bradwell.

References

External links

* {{Scottish religion 1999 establishments in Scotland Church of Scotland Organisations based in Edinburgh Scottish Parliament