Plenary, 06 Jun 2001
Meeting date: Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
It is always a pleasure to welcome one of our neighbours to lead time for reflection. Professor William Storrar of New College is here to do that today.
Professor William Storrar (Director, Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Edinburgh):
Over the years, I have made occasional appearances in the sheriff court—in a pastoral capacity. Once, I was asked by an elderly parishioner to accompany him to a hearing before the local sheriff. His son suffered from severe mental illness and, at that time, the only way in which the son could be admitted to hospital against his will was to seek a court order. The Scottish mental health act of the time required that. The stress of seeing his son being questioned in court by the sheriff caused the elderly man to collapse. The court was cleared and a doctor was called. I found myself standing in the corridor with the son's consultant psychiatrist. The psychiatrist was furious: "It's bad legislation that may have killed that old man", he snorted. The old man recovered and the son received the hospital care he needed, but I have never forgotten the consultant's words: "It's bad legislation that may have killed that old man." Bad laws destroy lives.
That was brought home to me again in a recent visit to South Africa. A former African National Congress prisoner showed me round Nelson Mandela's cell block on Robben Island. There, as I looked into the tiny cell where that other old man spent long years in captivity, I could see that the destructive power of the apartheid laws lingers on, long after Mandela's release. Wicked laws devastate nations.
However, good laws can protect lives and renew nations. Good laws ensure justice among competing claims, protection for the weak and accountability of the powerful. Thousands of years ago, in ancient Israel, the prophet Micah declared the eternal purpose of all legislation and the eternal calling of all law-makers. Micah, chapter 6, verse 8, says:
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
So many of us, for so many generations, have longed for the day when there would be a law-making Parliament again in Edinburgh. Now that it is here, I, your neighbour on the Mound, have only one request to ask of you, our Scottish law-makers, before you leave us. When the new Parliament building is complete, you will move from the Mound down the hill to Holyrood. When you first walk into the legislative chamber, where Scotland's laws will be framed, for good or ill, in the 21st century, take off your shoes, for you walk on holy ground.