Contents
- Scottish Parliament Wednesday 19 January 2000
- Time for Reflection
- Air Quality Strategy
- Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill
- Decision Time
- Inverclyde (Flooding)
Time for Reflection
We welcome to lead our time for reflection today the Reverend Norman Shanks, leader of the Iona Community.
I appreciate very much the invitation to lead time for reflection today— personally and on behalf of the Iona Community. Many of the community's members have worked towards the creation of this Parliament, and the community's fundamental commitment to the building of a just and peaceful society in which all may flourish, and to responding to people's deepest longings and highest aspirations in new and creative ways, clearly resonates with the exciting challenges and opportunities facing all who are involved here.
This is the week of prayer for Christian unity, but it is a time for affirming also that God's purpose is for the unity, harmony and joy not only of Christians, but of all people within this nation and beyond. We look to our political leaders and representatives to pursue those goals and seek the common good, and in so doing we pray that you will be granted what one of our Iona prayers describes as the gifts of "courage, faith and cheerfulness".
May you be blessed with courage, the readiness to dream and the strength of purpose to turn the visions into reality. May you be blessed with faith—the conviction and sense of values that energise, give direction and subordinate self- interest to concern for the other. May you be blessed with cheerfulness—a spirit of openness, generosity and, above all perhaps, resilience.
Part of the poem for the millennium by the Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri expresses in an inspiring and wonderful way the precious and powerful significance of these times:
We cannot use the word civilisation As long as people die of starvation Those who do are cave dwellers Of the mind . . .
We are functioning below Our potential for love, Justice, and creating a good world.
New worlds wait to be created By free minds that can dream unfettered, Without fear, turning obstacles Into milestones towards luminous glories.
For we are each one of us saviours And co-makers of the world we live in. But we should begin now, here, Among one another, And in solitude.
Never again will we stand On the threshold of a new age We that are here now are touched In some mysterious way With the ability to change
And make the future Those who wake to the wonder Of this magic moment, Who wake to the possibilities Of this charged conjunction, Are the chosen ones who have chosen To act, to free the future, to open it up, To consign prejudices to the past, To open up the magic casement Of the human spirit Onto a more shining world.
As another Iona prayer puts it, O God, you have set before us a great hope that your kingdom will come on earth, and have taught us to pray for its coming: make us ever ready to thank you for the signs of its dawning, and to pray and work for the perfect day when your will shall be done on earth as in heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Finally, a Celtic blessing:
Deep peace of the running wave to you, Deep peace of the flowing air to you, Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, Deep peace of the shining stars to you, Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you. Amen.