Plenary,
Meeting date: Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Our first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. We welcome today the convener of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, Sister Maire Gallagher.
Sister Maire Gallagher (Action of Churches Together in Scotland):
The manner of my introduction is one of the good-news items I should like to offer for reflection today. Although I am a Roman Catholic sister of Notre Dame, I am also convener of the council of the eight churches working together ecumenically in Scotland.
Sectarianism surfaces in our country in both predictable and unexpected ways, and its ugliness brings an urgency to our prayers and discussions together about how to tackle it. Politicians, sporting authorities and many people of good will join the churches in rejecting bigotry. It is more than time to move on from the past.
There is no doubt that the hopes kindled when this Parliament opened in 1999 have built a confidence among Christians that now is a time for prayer and action together to make Scotland a more tolerant place for all.
In Ecclesiastes, the book of wisdom, we read:
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die ... a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up ... a time to keep silence and a time to speak."
A time to speak came in this very place in 1995 when the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland invited Archbishop Winning to address the General Assembly. Cardinal Winning spoke about the assembly seeking the well-being of the nation, not just the Church of Scotland, and added:
"My vision looks to the day when the entire Christian family in Scotland will gather together in Assembly such as this ... All Scottish Christians and all people of goodwill ... for a new beginning together."
I have another item of good news. This September just such an assembly of the churches and all our partners in the nation will gather in Edinburgh. Our theme is breaking new ground, and our hope is that it will be a time for showing that Christians are breaking down barriers and looking to a better future together.
Let us pray.
Lord bless all the women and men of this
Scottish Parliament as they strive to make Scotland a better place for all its people.
Bless all those who will participate in the first Scottish ecumenical assembly and grant that it may be a time for healing and for building a renewed church in a renewed nation for a new century.