Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Esther Elliott, Church of Scotland community and airport chaplain.
Presiding Officer, members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to address you this afternoon.
One of the things that I love about my role in a faith community is that, rather like all of you, I get to work in the world of words. I get to preach, make speeches and speak words of comfort or persuasion to individuals. I get to take part in rituals that have a performative language all of their own. As you all know, working in the world of words is a seductively powerful role. It is a privilege and a responsibility, and a real craft.
Sometimes, however, there is no crafting in the world that will nicely package up the words. Eighteen years ago, my brother murdered someone on Easter day. Words left me, and their absence was isolating. As a Christian minister, I had to rebuild how I understood and communicated the meaning of “resurrection”. Post-traumatic stress means that I still have times of losing words and language. According to theories about trauma, that is perfectly normal. Anyway, trauma has a language of its own. One psychologist calls it
“the language of the unsayable”.
Having to seriously pay attention to the times when language and words run out or are insufficient has given me a whole set of tools for community building, which is the main task of the job that I now do. I know that broadcasting—either a message or an answer—distances people. I know that empathy or anxiety often results in people filling gaps that are better held by silence. I know that weaving together the ways in which different words and understandings connect people takes a lot of hands, not just mine. I know the joy of practical problems solved through people connecting. I know, too, that time sometimes does not heal; it just provides more space to practise growing in healthy ways. I know the peace of the settling down after the right words have been found and spoken.
Last Sunday, Christians celebrated Pentecost, the day the church was born. It is a story of some of the first followers of Jesus powerfully experiencing finding words that they did not know they had to talk about their lived experience of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The people who heard them were bewildered and yet fascinated enough to listen and respond. It is a comforting reminder, for all of us who work with words, that it is often only after the words run out that we find deep, transformative connections with people.
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