Plenary, 03 Dec 2008
Meeting date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. The first item this afternoon is time for reflection. I am sorry to have to inform Parliament that the Rev Kimberly Bohan has, due to the inclement weather, had to withdraw from leading time for reflection today. However, I am very glad to announce that the Rev Graham Blount, who is the Scottish churches parliamentary officer, and who I am sure is familiar to many of you, has agreed to stand in at extremely short notice. On behalf of the Presiding Officers, I thank Graham not only for stepping in today, but for all his support for the Parliament since 1999. I wish him well as he moves on to pastures new in the new year. [Applause.]
The Rev Graham Blount (Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office):
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. As you hinted, I landed the best job in the world 10 years ago: parliamentary officer to a Parliament that did not exist—for a few months, at any rate. As I told people at the time, it felt like being a wee boy let loose in a sweetie shop that was still being built. Ten years on, as I prepare to move on, I naturally reflect on that time. Wee boys who have been let loose in sweetie shops usually wake up feeling sick the morning after.
I will share three thoughts with you. The first is that, over 10 years of helping the churches to engage with Parliament, I have failed: I have failed signally to be a good Presbyterian because I have had a lot of fun over those 10 years, and we're no supposed to.
Secondly, I will repeat to you what I have said to several groups that I have spoken to over the past year—it is my honest view. I have a higher opinion of politicians in 2008 than I had in 1998, and of the commitment, skill and energy that you bring to the task. That is not to say—also from a good Presbyterian point of view—that you are not a bunch of miserable sinners like me, but I do admire hugely the people I have had the privilege of working with these past 10 years.
Thirdly, I will say something about promise and outcome. For the churches, this is the period of Advent, when we reflect on promise: the promise of ages past, when people looked to the coming of a Messiah—a promise that nourished and sustained a hope, which itself nourished the best in God's people. Promises are one thing, but outcomes are another, as some of you know very well.
What is the outcome of the promise of the Messiah? The outcome is a wean in a manger—vulnerable, totally lacking in political clout, or so it seems, born in the wrong place and maybe to the wrong people, and with no prospects. I love the cartoon of the nativity play, where the wise guy in the audience leans over his neighbour and says, "He gets killed in the end, you know." That is the outcome. But it is not the end. In the Christmas outcome, faith and hope and love are bundled together in a manger—and that is an outcome.