Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Stuart MacQuarrie, the chaplain to the University of Glasgow and to Glasgow Warriors rugby team and formerly chaplain to the 2014 Commonwealth games.
Presiding Officer, I would like to thank you and the former First Minister, Mr Salmond, for inviting me to deliver this reflection. The invitation was extended last summer when the then First Minister visited the Commonwealth games village, and its religion and belief centre at the very heart of the village. There people from all faiths, and those of none, found a place where they could reflect on their successes, their disappointments, their achievements and their challenges.
We used the interfaith model that we have at Glasgow university chaplaincy, where what matters is inclusivity, not mere respect or tolerance but an active appreciation of the wonderfully diverse range of human beings who contribute to our community.
For the first time, the Commonwealth games had a secular humanist chaplain, alongside Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu chaplains. Prior to the start of the games, we held a service in the university chapel with Interfaith Scotland, bringing together the people of Glasgow with those who were here for the games as visitors. Each faith or belief community presented a reflection that was a reading, a song or music.
Our Muslim chaplain, Shoket Aksi, brought a recitation from the holy Qur’an, which he chanted in that wonderful way that I find evocative of Highland churches when people sing the Psalms in Gaelic. Shoket, was followed by Rabbi Rubin, an orthodox Jewish rabbi. As they passed each other, they paused and shook hands. That was at a time when the conflict in Gaza had escalated, and in many ways that handshake represented a key moment in the friendliness and warmth of Glasgow’s Commonwealth games.
Earlier this summer, our nation sadly lost Charles Kennedy, former rector of the university and notable politician. One distinctive aspect that Charles brought to public life was his humanity and his concern for others, expressed in an ethos of public service. In the university we intend, perhaps with your help, to commemorate Charles’s life with a fitting and lasting tribute.
Shortly, you, as members of the Scottish Parliament, begin your parliamentary programme and will start campaigning for re-election of yourself and your party. You offer your political programme and yourselves not only as candidates but as human beings. In doing so, you have an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to public service that is able to see and value each person as a human being and through this Parliament and its work is able to overcome that which divides our communities, able to appreciate what each person can bring to our common life together and able to offer a warm, welcoming handshake, not for what people are or whether they might or might not vote for you but for who they are.
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