Plenary, 27 Feb 2008
Meeting date: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Dr Martin Fair, from St Andrew's church in Arbroath.
The Rev Dr Martin Fair (St Andrew's Church, Arbroath):
As a 16-year-old growing up on the south side of Glasgow, I was so left-wing, politically speaking, that there would have been no room for me here, even over there at the far end of the chamber. At that time, for me, it was all about changing the world, as I reckoned that so much of what I saw going on around me was not fair. Twenty-seven years on, I still want to change the world, but my tactics have changed. Now, my approach is one person at a time.
The congregation that I lead in Arbroath runs a ministry service that we call Havilah. There is a prize for any of you who know the origin of that word, and a topic for your researchers for those of you who do not. Havilah is a four-times-a-week open door, designed primarily for those who usually find that doors are shut to them. Recently, we have been welcoming something like 20 to 30 men and women into that open space, all of whom are suffering in one way or another. Most of them have serious alcohol or drug addictions, many have mental health issues and some are registered as homeless. All of them, without fail, are lost, lonely and living without the one thing that makes life liveable—hope. But there is hope.
The good folks of my church who run Havilah give tirelessly of themselves, without thought of reward or recognition. None of them are experts in any sense of that word. None of them are trained counsellors or addiction specialists. They do not have a diploma or a degree between them, but they have time and they are willing to give it; they have compassion and they are ready to listen with their hearts. Their faith has given them a love for people that would bowl you over—a love for the kind of people who most of us try our hardest to avoid.
A young man in his late 20s comes to Havilah—I will call him Jim. He had known nothing apart from heroin for as long as he could remember, until he walked through the door of Havilah. At first, he just sat in the corner, silent, and hiding in his hood. Now he is bright and more alive than at any time since he was a child. By coincidence, today he is going into long-term, in-depth rehab and he cannot wait to get started because he wants to start a new life. He has glimpsed something of what that new life might be, because he has hope.
Cynics will tell me that it will take more time than I have to change the world one person at a time. But if I could change one person's world—that is what gets me up every morning. Here's to the next 27 years of giving hope.