Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Official Report 1165KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good morning. The first item of business this morning is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is the Rev Dr Angus Kerr, clerk of the presbytery of Glasgow, Church of Scotland.

Presiding Officer, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting me to the Parliament. I bring you the greetings and good wishes of the moderator of the presbytery of Glasgow and the members of that court.

The two boys had been good friends but a movement of the earth now kept them apart and a huge void divided the two communities that once had been one. All depended on where you were when the movement happened.

The two lads had been good friends and now could only wave to each other across the great void. Then someone had a plan. They put stepping stones into the water to fill the void and soon the two boys were able to meet in the middle, shake hands and even go into each other’s areas. The two became one again and community was created.

The church and the government—is there a great void between them? Sometimes, perhaps, we stay on our own side of the void. Yet stepping stones are there to be used, and getting close to one another and working for a common purpose are what it is all about.

In the presbytery of Glasgow, we have found that city, church and denominations are stepping closer. Voids are being overcome. We are finding ways of working together and, oddly enough, we are sometimes finding common ground.

In government, there are issues of housing, unemployment, care for the elderly and oppressed and social injustice. You as our elected members have to deal with all those concerns. Strangely enough, the church has the same concerns. However, the void of church and state sometimes keeps us apart.

But do not forget those stepping stones that you representing government and I representing church can utilise.

We can meet again; we can share common concerns; we can meet in the middle or even cross into one another’s areas; or we can just stand back. What you and I have in common is a love for this nation, a concern for our communities and a burning desire to see to the needs of our people. That is what community is all about.

The stones are there to be used. Someone—our forefathers and forerunners in government and church—had the insight and the initiative to put them there, and we stand on their shoulders now.

And what about meeting? Like those two boys, you and I share a desire for the common good and have similar concerns. What did the two boys do about it? They met and shook hands. However, that was only the beginning of the re-establishing of their relationship and of their playing together, their working together, their growing up together and their talking and planning together.

One of the greatest preachers was a man of the Methodist Church, Charles Wesley, who one day said to a group of social activists he had gathered together:

“Is your heart as my heart? Then give me your hand!”

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you exactly the same question this morning. Good morning.