The Moderator’s visit to the USA and Canada

LATER this month Donald Trump will take the oath of office and be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America.

If his election last November defied the opinion polls, it also came at the end of one of the ugliest and most divisive Presidential election campaigns in living memory.

And it so happens that the first of my overseas visits as Moderator was to the United States and Canada at the beginning of last November.

From a family holiday at Disney World in Florida when our children were young, to a summer working at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain range of North Carolina, I have visited the United States on many occasions.

My doctorate is from Princeton Theological Seminary, a college with deep Scottish roots.

So having visited, worked and studied in the United States I thought I knew the country well, its culture and its people.

Last November’s visit was different however.

Last November the mood was tense and you could almost smell and touch and taste the public anxiety.

And although we were treated with nothing but kindness, helpfulness and hospitality, as polling day approached I felt much more of a stranger in a foreign land. For many years the Church of Scotland has enjoyed a close working partnership with the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) as well as the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) and the United Church in Canada (UCC)

Margaret and I were joined by the Rev Iain Cunningham, Convener of the World Mission Council, and the Rev Ian Alexander, the Council’s General Secretary.

Our visit began in Louisville, Kentucky, at the headquarters of the PCUSA, where we had a series of meetings with the church’s leadership on a whole variety of topics including mission, social justice, and investment ethics.

Given my interest in homelessness, when we travelled from Louisville to New York we visited several of the projects run by the church to support people who are homeless.

From New York we flew to Toronto where we held another round of meetings with the leadership teams of the PCC and the UCC and also saw some of the excellent work the PCC is doing in the area of homelessness.

Alongside these meetings with church leaders, there were visits to the theological seminaries in Louisville, New York and Princeton where we discussed issues of vocation, ministerial formation, theological education, and explored the opportunity for students and ministers to study and work in Scotland.

I was also the guest preacher at Riverside Presbyterian, Jacksonville, Brick Presbyterian, New York, and St Mark’s Presbyterian, Toronto.

As you can see it was a very full programme and one which gave me the opportunity to engage with a wide cross section of people.

And the common thread was anxiety, anxiety about the tone and conduct of the Presidential election, anxiety about the rifts it was revealing in American society, and anxiety about what the future held for a country so deeply divided.

However abhorrent I found some of Donald Trump’s attitudes and views, the American people have spoken and we need to respect their choice.

The Christian calling is to be a good neighbour.

So as a New Year, and a new Presidency, begins let me encourage you to keep faith in the God who is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, to pray for all who are in positions of leadership and authority, and to trust that beyond the principalities and powers of the present times, we are embraced in the radical grace, hospitality and love revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. §