The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Sarah Brown, from St Machar’s cathedral in Aberdeen.
Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, Saturday sees the beginning of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in a week when we will meet to make decisions about our future. It is an annual meeting of a unique kind that brings together island and mainland representatives, overseas missionaries, delegates from partner churches, and ministers, deacons, elders and youth with a breadth of age and experience.
Like the Scottish Parliament, the assembly is a place where voices from local communities can be raised so that they can be heard by those in power. Those of you who have been elected to your roles will know the weight of responsibility that comes from the power that you hold, and the way in which you can change lives for ill or for good. Unlike members of the Scottish Parliament, general assembly commissioners come together from congregations to be the power and then disperse after our week of meetings, in which we aim to discern the will of God in how our church moves forward towards the ever-changing challenges that are before us. Then we have a shared responsibility for implementing those decisions across the Kirk.
As our church changes shape and responds to the challenges of decline, we look for God’s presence in new ways that are before us. Reconciling the number of churches with the decreasing number of ministers is not an easy task, nor is it happening at an easy time of transition. It comes at a painful time as we still wrestle with Covid and the grief that surrounds many people following the past two years in which we have had a different way of life.
Jesus, in his humanity, knows and understands grief and loss, which are perhaps the most powerful experiences that we can travel through in life. He knows that the answer is love, but that even with love all around us we will still experience anxiety, overwhelmingness and pain when we encounter death and change. His words in John’s gospel were:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
A deep breath is what we are gifted. It is a moment of stillness; a bit of calm in the waves that can wash us under; a reminder that where we are in any moment of change and loss is not where we will stay; and a space where the presence of God can dwell, which reminds us that we never travel this world alone. Today, I pass that peace on to you. Be brave.
Air adhart
Topical Question Time