Plenary, 30 Nov 2005
Meeting date: Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. Our first item of business is time for reflection, and our leader today is the Rev Alastair Symington of Troon old parish church.
The Rev Alastair Symington (Troon Old Parish Church):
I wonder why we have Andrew as our patron saint. Today is his day in Scotland, so I suppose we ought at least to ask about him. Christians first hear about him in the New Testament alongside the other disciples of Jesus. He was one of the main ones, although not quite up alongside Peter, James and John. In fact, he got left behind when those three went off to do various things with Jesus. He was up there with the top ones, but not always taken along.
So, okay, that suits us. We can see where that fits in. Every one of us in Scotland knows that we should be at the top table—from our football and rugby heroes to you people here in this great Parliament building. But others like to think that they are better. Well, let them. Andrew is our patron saint and we know that we are top dogs.
The next thing about Andrew is that he was able to be shut out at times by the other three without being envious. That is a great gift and one that we Scotsmen and women might have to think about. For perhaps at our worst moments we feel a wee bit green about what other people get and achieve and about how they are perceived. I do not think that we need to. Andrew, our patron saint, did not need to—reflective, I hope, of what is best in us. We have enormous gifts and we have given the world so much. Who needs to be envious of anyone?
Then, next, Andrew was a man who saw the work to be done rather than the place given to the worker. Lots of people are not like that. If they are not top dog, they cannot be bothered. James and John had a fight about who would be first in the kingdom of heaven, and Peter was always to the fore, too. But Andrew got on with it, and that is also pretty true of us Scots at our best.
I can think of other folk in this world who have to be the officer rather than the foot soldier. But the best Scottish people I have met in 34 years of working with the public have come from all walks of life and have been uniquely marked out as men and women who were doers. If that is so, it is another mark in us of our patron saint.
Finally, then, as a thought, Andrew was a man who found it easy to feel comfortable with his God. I hope that that is true still for us in this country of ours. We have a rich diversity in Scotland now, but in that diversity we all have a soul. As a minister of one of the faith groups in this land, I would pray that every one of us would allow that soul to respond in some way to God. Andrew did it—top man, no need to be envious, ready to get on with his work. He sounds like a Scotsman to me. So thank God that he is our patron saint.