Reclaimed seats to be turned into furniture for Church of Scotland's Assembly

Published on Tuesday 1 March 2011 10:22

IT may be the centrepiece for the Church of Scotland's most powerful governing body, but the new Moderator's table at the General Assembly will come from humble, and environmentally-friendly, beginnings.

The order for the new furniture, which will also include two lecterns, is part of a major refurbishment of the Kirk's Assembly Hall and is being met by members of the Greyfriars Recycling of Wood (GRoW) social enterprise.

The initiative works with the city's homeless and vulnerable residents to make furniture out of recycled church pews.

The project was started four years ago after a discussion between current workshop manager Tommy Steel, and Greyfriars Kirk Minister Reverend Dr Richard Frazer.

Mr Steel, who is a former joiner and also a qualified social worker, said Dr Frazer had been collecting church pews for years and had noted that they were made from very high-quality timber.

"He asked me 'with your background in woodwork and working with vulnerable people, could we pilot a project to see if we could teach homeless people woodwork?' We started off running it one day a week and developed it since then.

"All the timber's donated, we get it from churches that are closing down or refurbishing. We teach woodwork, but it's not just about that. You develop confidence and motivation so people are able to move on in their lives a bit easier, become more employable."

Mr Steel said work on the two lecterns was almost complete but the bigger piece, the moderator's table, had only been started this week.

"We're also using some timber from the original woodwork that was taken out of the General Assembly for refurbishment," he added.

General Assembly principal clerk Reverend John Chalmers said the Assembly decided to commission the new furniture to better suit the modernisation of the hall.

"We're trying to modernise the hall so it's more commercially viable for use by other people throughout the year, and needed furniture that would be of use to other (corporate] users.

"We would not have considered making this furniture from new timber, it had to be either very functional stuff like office furnishings, or we had to use recycled timber because of the environmental issue.

"But we wanted to use the project for more reasons than that, because the project doesn't only recycle timber, it recycles people too."