Plenary, 24 Apr 2002

Meeting date: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Official Report 615KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

To lead our time for reflection today I welcome the Rev John Butler, who is a minister of the Congregational Federation in Scotland.

Since I retired I have been trying to reduce the size of my library—it is like drawing teeth. One book that I am keeping was given to me by my Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas in 1950, which seems like an awful long time ago, but there we are. It is called simply, "Prayer", and was written by a Norwegian theologian. One of the chapters has as its title "Prayer as Work".

I still recall kneeling with my Grandma at her bedside in the morning when I was nine or 10. Before she made breakfast, before she began the work of the day, she knelt in prayer for a world that was moving quickly towards war—it was 1938—for her friends, for her family and for me. For her, prayer was as much work as was boiling the kettle.

I am grateful for the opportunity this afternoon to share in the work that you do in this way; that before you begin the meeting, we do the work of prayer, asking for wisdom, guidance and clarity of thought in what we do on behalf of the nation.

In that chapter, "Prayer as Work", the author speaks of the building of a church in Oslo. Each day, as he hurried to work, a businessman would pause at the scaffolding, remove his hat, and spend a time in prayer for the architects, the builders and the workmen. I hope that that encourages you to remember that, all over Scotland, there are Christian people who today pause and stand with you in prayer. Their work with you and for you is a vital ingredient in the activity of this chamber.

I want to use a prayer of Peter Marshall's, the celebrated American preacher who was sometime chaplain to the American Senate in the 1940s. You may wish to meditate on it as I read it.

"O God of truth, who alone can lead men into the truth that is freedom and joy, be our Teacher as we seek to find the way of life in times that bewilder and challenge.

Be with your servants in this place, in all things great and small, so that small things become great and great things become possible. Father of mercies, bless their loved ones and their families, and make their homes places of peace and love, where they may find spiritual resources for the strain and pressures of their duties here.

Give us now your Spirit to guide and direct our thinking, that when the day's work is over we may merit your ‘well done'. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."