The church, called Inverness St Columba New Charge, meets in a special needs school and has seen its congregation increase in size by more than 230% since its inception nine years ago, having 30 people when they started and around 100 now. 

Over half of the attendees are under 40, thirty of them are under 18 and a couple of people are in their 80s.

The church was founded after St Columba High Church, also in Inverness, closed.

Minister, Rev Scott McRoberts, 36, thinks the congregation will continue to grow, saying: “We are born from the sale of an old church in the city centre because what was needed was a church in a new community housing estate.

“The form of gathering and worship is very modern and relaxed in style. We don’t have an organ, we have a modern praise band instead. It is a very different image of the Church of Scotland from what a lot of people who live in the parish might remember from their childhood.”

He added: “A lot of the sermons are focused on knowing and loving Jesus and how he shapes our families, workplaces and the culture around us.

“It is stuff that connects with the day-to-day lives of the folks in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are raising kids and working in professions.

“We’re interested in God’s answers to today’s identity questions, and our church’s vision is we are people discovering and sharing that life in…

Having attended the Scottish Parliament on Saturday to mark its 20th anniversary celebrations, the Queen joined the service for around an hour, before speaking with some members of the congregation inside.

Reverend Neil Gardner walked with the Queen as she departed the Kirk just after midday.

The visit to Scotland is part of a week-long programme of engagements, meeting Scots from across the country.

Speaking at Holyrood on Saturday, the Queen, accompanied by Prince Charles – who is known in Scotland as the Duke of Rothesay – said that she had “watched Scotland grow and prosper” over the last two decades.

 

Current and former MSPs were present for the speech, along with some of the Scots who were born on July 1 1999 – the day the Scottish Parliament was officially opened.

In her speech, the Queen said: “As we look to the future, it is my sincere hope that this Parliament, and all those who come to serve in it, will use the power of this chamber to celebrate those invisible pillars of our communities, and follow their example by working tirelessly to improve people’s lives, and strengthen the bonds of friendship and partnership both at home and abroad.”

 

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Just a few months after the release of Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman on death row, and several other cases of Christians having fled the country or trying to be free of similar blasphemy charges – the politician has denied that it is a trend. 

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on his two-day visit to Brussels that accounts of Christians being violently treated were “individual incidents” no different to minorities being killed by knife crime in the UK or other minorities being mistreated in the rest of Europe. 

He said: “I can assure you that Christians are very welcome. The Christian community in Pakistan is very positive and a very responsible community…We respect them and we want them to be there. We will do everything possible to protect them and we are.”

“I can quote you examples of how knife crime has gone up in Britain that is a clear reflection of an increased intolerance within a society which has been so tolerant, so accommodating. So there are examples over here, and there could be some examples over there,” he said. 

There are an estimated 3.9 million Christians in Pakistan in a country of 200.8 million, meaning they make up about two per cent of the population.

Their blasphemy laws prohibit speaking negatively of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the Christian religious freedom charity Open Doors put Pakistan 5th on their list of countries…