Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Official Report 1013KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. I remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. I ask members to take care to observe the measures, including when entering and exiting the chamber. Please use only the aisles and walkways to access your seats and when moving around the chamber.

The first item of business is time for reflection. Our leader today is the Rev Anna Rodwell, who is the minister for Kelso North and Ednam parish church in the Scottish Borders.

I will start us off in your new session with a little poetry.

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand!”

Who wrote that? It was our other national bard—Sir Walter Scott. I am a Borderer, so what do you expect?

I am deeply honoured and excited to be given the chance to facilitate a time for reflection—four minutes during which we can raise our thoughts above what we can see, touch and smell. It is a moment in which to contemplate the numinous.

As a Christian, I have to stand ready to account for the hope that is within me, so when I was asked to address this esteemed Parliament, I thought, “What can I say that would be useful to the men and women who hold the fate of this glorious country in their hands?” That is when the words of Sir Walter Scott came to me. The passion that is present in Scott’s words is held by so many Scots for this, their land of birth or their adopted homeland, and it tells of a sense of belonging and security.

However, now, at this time, we almost feel a sense of missing peace or piece—it can be spelled either way. There is an angst, a loneliness and a sense of being at sea.

What can we do to help? The church is an organisation that exists to help people outwith its membership. It exists to foster community, to show God’s love in words and action, and to get alongside people and let them know that they are not alone. If we are created to live in a relationship with God and in fellowship with one another, there will always be something missing until we enter into that relationship and fellowship.

I ask you to speak to the faith communities in your constituencies. You will be welcomed, and I believe that you will find a group of people who are willing to respond to human need with loving service. You will find a group of people who are passionate about creation, the earth and how to sustain and nurture life on this planet. You will find a group of people who realise that we are only as great as the least of us, and that while any suffer, we all suffer.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I wish you all the best for your new session. Thank you.