Plenary, 09 Jan 2008

Meeting date: Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Official Report 450KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon, and welcome back after what I hope has been a peaceful break for you all.

The first item of business this year is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Albert Bogle from St Andrew's parish church in Bo'ness. Among many other things, he is the founder of the Vine Trust and currently he chairs the church without walls project.

Thank you for the privilege that has been given to me of coming to the Parliament and sharing in this time for reflection.

Perhaps I am here simply because I am a parish minister, or perhaps it is because of my interest in the church without walls project. It might even be because of my work, through the Vine Trust, with children in Peru. Next week, I will probably be standing in a shanty town, touching some of the poorest and saddest children that you will ever come across. Because of that, I thought that we would focus today on the child.

If the truth be told, we are all just children at heart. We may have important job titles and we may have complicated and challenging decisions to make; we may have expensive clothes and an air of authority; we may have grown older and tougher and even become hardened by the knocks of political life, but deep down inside us all there is a child still waiting to reach its full potential. A child that was never allowed to be just a child. A child with a name—perhaps a name that is never spoken out loud anymore. A child lost. A child disappointed. A child full of dreams. A child remembering a put-down. A child that was once loved. A child longing to be recognised. A child angry. A child always alone. A child afraid. A child as stubborn as we are today. A child that could once play and laugh and even, dare I say, trust. A child that could fuss and fight and then make up and be a friend.

Somewhere along the way we lose ourselves, we take upon ourselves other people's personas, we play to the gallery of life and we discover the tricks that make people want us on their team. However, we have all lost something. There is a part within us that is empty.

We are in search of the child who could never be, so we seek to live through, and even project our childhood experience on to, the lives of today's children—sometimes for better and sometimes just for ourselves.

Searching to be a grown-up has become a struggle to survive. And what has grown up is not always what makes grown-ups. We never meant to become the schemer, the bully or—dare I say—the doctor of spin. Perhaps we need to reconnect with that child again and take care of the unfinished business that we have buried deep inside ourselves.

Jesus once said, "Unless you become like a little child you will never enter the kingdom of God."

Perhaps we could say a prayer, but with our eyes open. I am a great one for having the eyes open during prayer. I cannot be bothered with closed eyes. When your eyes are open, you see the need; when your eyes are closed, you hide.

Lord!
Your Kingdom?
It sounds a bit upside down.
People before process,
Wisdom before knowledge,
Integrity before politics,
A child before an adult.

Lord,
A Kingdom like that
Could inspire a nation like Scotland.

Lord,
Help me make a start again.
Perhaps be born again?
Just like a little child.
In a new year,
With a new beginning,
As a new person.