The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will lead congregants in the celebration of the arts when she leads the traditional service at the Edinburgh International Festival this Sunday.

Thousands of theatre lovers head to Edinburgh each year for three weeks of picking and mixing their way through amateur to professional level classical music, theatre, opera and dance productions.

Festival 07 kicked off last Friday and will run until 2 September.

At this Sunday's special service at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, the Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting will share the uniqueness of the Festival as well as its potential to make people look more closely at the world.

"The arts-drama, music, dance, literature ....they reveal the hidden depths of beauty. They draw from us laughter and tears. They lift our spirits so that our hearts burst with praise," Rev Kesting will tell the congregation.

"They shock us, stop us in our tracks, confront us with the horrors of human suffering, the dehumanising effects of violence, the degradation of poverty as though we had never seen them before."

Rev Kesting will touch on issues of trade justice, climate change, poverty and migration while celebrating the gift of God in allowing festivalgoers to dream of a different world where "creativity transforms people and communities into models of generosity, hospitality and fulfilment".