Plenary, 05 Oct 2005

Meeting date: Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Official Report 388KB pdf

---

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is the Rev Dr Norman Maciver, the minister of Newhills Parish Church in Bucksburn, Aberdeen.

Feasgar math dhuibh—good afternoon to you. My native tongue is Gaelic, which was part of the environment of my early home in a Glasgow tenement. The Gaelic community of Scotland owes the Parliament a debt because, this year, you have adopted the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 and so all Gaels have to be extremely grateful to you.

Not all Parliaments under which we have lived have been as supportive of the Gaelic language. Many would say that the language has never really recovered from the effects of the Education Act 1616, which abolished and removed Gaelic as a language. The language would not have survived at all were it not for its prominence in the life of the church of the day. You have gone a considerable way towards encouraging ordinary people to learn and communicate in their native language. Communication is of the essence of any purposeful life because at the heart of fruitful, healthy communication is the need to understand our context, as well as the freedom to say what we believe.

Communication is at the centre of meaningful relationships, so there is an onus on communicators to use the channels that are available to us to communicate clearly so that the context of our relationships is open and free. That context today in Scotland is increasingly multicultural, and with such diversity come creative opportunities for understanding others as well as ourselves. However, at the same time, there is the danger of misunderstanding and, therefore, disharmony. The fact is that in Scotland we have a head start in offering models of creative diversity of culture—it is not new to us. I have lived in three different cultures in this one nation: the centre of Glasgow, the Western Isles and, for the past 30 years, the north-east of Scotland. Each has a decidedly different culture—indeed, dare I say it, language—and yet each is a proud bearer of our one uniting nationality, which has created channels of harmonious relationships.

In your genuine attempts to ensure the freedom of all peoples of this nation to contribute their rich heritage to our increasingly diverse society, remembering that freedom is fundamental to our ability to communicate with one another, you need to make absolutely sure that no particular section of our nation is restrained in its ability to say what it honestly believes to be the truth.

I stand here as a follower of Jesus Christ, who said:

"the truth shall set you free".

Let us defend truth for, in so doing, we will ensure freedom and therefore continue Scotland's history of multiculturalism, whatever our language. Móran taing agus gum beannnaicheadh an Tighearna ur deasbadan—my warmest thanks and may the Lord bless your discussions.