Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection, and our leader today is Reverend Calum Macdonald, minister of the Park Church in Giffnock.
Good afternoon to you. It is a pleasure for me to be here and I thank you for the opportunity.
This time last year I was in Gulu, in northern Uganda. I visited an old friend who has been working as a missionary with those who live in the most extreme poverty, in a nation that is recovering from a horrendous period of civil war. While there, I had the honour of preaching to some 300 inmates at Gulu men’s prison. Here I am a year later in these hallowed halls, speaking to those who sit at the heart of the Scottish political scene. I stand before you unclear as to which has been the greater privilege of the two.
What could this wee boy from Maryhill in Glasgow share today? The same wee boy who, as he grew up, recognised for himself the importance and relevance of Christian faith for daily life, and who later on followed what he felt was the call of God to enter the ordained ministry of the Church of Scotland, serving as one of its parish ministers—what could he possibly offer for reflection this day?
One thing I could suggest is the axiom that was passed to me by a minister whom I worked with. He used to say, “Learn to agree to disagree without being disagreeable.” I have used that as a maxim to live by in the life and worship of the church. I believe that it is a principle that ironically has held the Church of Scotland in unity, particularly in recent times. I believe that it is also a principle that applies to the political world of democratic debate and practice, all the more so as we move forward from a referendum to a national election. Some will of course say that that is naive, for the world of politics is a dirty business. That may be so in some instances, but although agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable is a goal that perhaps just exceeds our grasp, it remains a precious ideal to aspire to. Anything outside that ideal is really a haven for discrimination.
The late Rev Peter Marshall, a Scot who emigrated and eventually became chaplain to the US Senate, said, in one of his great prayers to the leaders of the nation:
“So may we together seek happiness for all our citizens in the name of Him who created us all equal in His sight”.
I read the words of the apostle Paul in that statement, who when writing to the Romans wrote:
“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbours for their good, to build them up.”
Agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable—a maxim that we could all take on board.
May God bless the decisions and deliberations that are made and the debates that take place this week.
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Business Motion