Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Pastor Oli Higham from the Rock community church.
Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, may I offer you an invitation: an invitation to pause and reflect before you take on today’s business, and to be reminded of the incredible people whom you are representing today.
I am from one of Scotland’s most impoverished communities. I live in a Scottish index of multiple deprivation data zone that is in the bottom 2 per cent of Scotland. Around the corner is the Phoenix, which is a community centre offering a wide range of activities and opportunities that our church runs.
We aim to primarily serve three communities in the west end of Dumbarton: Castlehill, Brucehill and Westcliff. If we represented those areas statistically, it would be bleak reading, with stark and uncomfortable levels of poverty, educational attainment, unemployment and the same addictions that blight many of our communities. However, these are also communities full of incredible individuals. We believe that we are a richer people for their presence and their God-given talents.
You will make decisions today that affect our nation. Can I encourage you today not to consider Scotland as a series of data points but as the remarkable individuals whom you know in your own communities, from every strata of society, who carry the beautiful talents and giftings that God has bestowed on them.
As a means to help you reflect, let me name some amazing people from my own community. They include Fiona from Brucehill, who volunteers at our youth club and helps us to provide free breakfasts to our community; Naomi from Castlehill, who is part of the leadership team for our church community and brings joy wherever she goes; Lottie from Westcliff, who delivers a range of arts activities for our community and beyond; David and Gemma from Castlehill, who run taekwondo classes, providing physical and mental health support; Janice from Brucehill, who helps to bring our community together; Cathy from Westcliff, who helps us to provide a range of activities for babies, toddlers and their parents; and Iain from Castlehill, who volunteers, giving drum lessons to local kids and free haircuts to our community.
I could name many, many more, but time does not allow it. So, let me finish, as I started, with an invitation: as you make decisions in this chamber today, may you see not just data and statistics, but the faces of the remarkable people who make up this nation.
May God’s peace be with you today.
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