31 mins
‘A mood of action’
ASSEMBLY
I think the church needs to really embrace science – and I’ll volunteer to be cloned ffirst – because basically there is no way I can possibly get around all the fringe events that I really want to go to with only one of me on the job…
It’s a source of constant frustration to me that it’s almost as if the various events are in competition, such are the time constraints on the lunchtime meetings.
But needs must so I made my selections and I snaffled the free lunches and listened with great interest to the wealth of speakers and opinions on offer this year.
On Monday I went to the meeting held by the Church’s World Mission Council and listened to their speakers speak about how their countries deal with the same kfind of issues that we do here.
Emmanuel Kwame Tettey, a Ghanian visitor to the Assembly, highlighted the mounting tensions in a previously relatively accepting society. “The main target for the Islamic fundamentalists were the Sufi Muslims, considered by the other Muslim sects as heretics,” he explained. “Recently though due to a large extent in the very negative broadcasts from elsewhere in the world, tensions are rising and people are becoming more wary of the Muslim neighbours.”
The Church in Finland is feeling the pinch as well. “We’ve dropped from around 85% to just over 70% now,” Rev Dr Elina Hellqvist told the meeting. “We are also having to come to grips with issues such as, ‘is it even ok to baptise a baby without their permission’? Working together with other churches we’ve been able to have our voices heard.”
The third speaker, the Rev Keron Khellawan, from the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago, expressed his delight in coming from a very blended religious community. “We have to figure out how to get on with each other,” he said. “After all we’re an island and there’s nowhere else to go!”
Prompted by one of the commissioners present, he was urged to sing his National Anthem, as its words spoke to the embracing of all in the island. He refused to sing his anthem sfitting down so we all stood to listen to it. I reckoned that was at least one of the sandwiches worked off with all that exercise! Sadly I don’t have one of these smart watches, so I don’t know how many calories I used up…
In the evening a fabulous event was held showcasing some of the young people in the church. So much life. So much energy. So exhausting!!!
Tuesday saw me make my way to the Priority Areas in association with Go For It presentation. I never cease to be amazed at the amount of good work going on in nooks and crannies, housing schemes and rural parishes all over Scotland, and these projects in some of the most financially challenged areas were no exception and how imaginative the uses to which the Go For It grants are put.
I listened while one speaker talked about the bees, the hens and the raised vegetable beds that are part of life for one inner-city congregation in Glasgow, while another group talked about having created real community space in a run down area of Edinburgh and yet another talked about how their successful hiring of the various halls out and their connections with the local community had been, that they were hoping soon to be able to set up as an findependent charity.
If the Lord works in mysterious ways, I have to say there are some places He works gey hard!
While we’re talking about gey hard work, the Guild held their all-ticket ‘Big Sing’ in the evening and as always it was a feast for the eyes and the ears and I’m fairly sure the joists of the roof at New College were rattling a bit during some of the more popular choruses. Raising close to £800,000 for their chosen causes over the last three years, they show no sign whatsoever, in slowing down. And may it always be so!
Wednesday caught me striding athletically down the long and wfinding staircase to St Columba’s By The Castle to see what CrossReach have been doing when it comes to the problem with stigmatisation and children in care.
Professor Andrew Kendrick of Strathclyde has been working with them to tackle the various types of stigma faced by many, many children, but especially and at a really base level, those who have come from care.
“There can be many reasons for someone to have been in care,” he said. “Children can have been in care because of offending behaviours, being victims of abuse and even just because they are disabled.
“Stigma is a sticky label – once you have been given it, it’s hard to get rid of.”
Images: Assembly Fringe 2018
Hard, but not impossible, and if CrossReach have your back you are in with more than a fighting chance.
Following along from the theme of The Year of Young People, I went to the ‘Investing in Young People’ event held by the Church and Society Council.
A panel of young people told a rapt audience how they were actually changing things in their own communities and how the rest of the Church can help them flourish.
After their presentation, they came round the tables and talked to groups findividually. People who had come the length and breadth of the country talked with the youngsters, trying to ffind solutions to the issues they were having in their own communities with attracting young people to come and worship with them. If ever there was a physical demonstration of what young people could contribute to the mainstream of the church, then that lunchtime presentation was it. Young and old, Sunday worshippers and Thursday evening youth clubbers were all exchanging ideas and experiences to the benefit of everyone.
All in all, it was a good fringe. There were interesting guests aplenty, intelligent questions from an interested and wellinvested audience and ffirst class sandwiches, mini sausages and even cakes on occasion!
The topics covered were varied and the projects featured were exciting and showed that, with all the difficulties of an ‘aging’ church, we are moving forward in interesting and challenging ways.
I could mention the TV close up of the commissioner snoozing away on a particularly warm after-lunch session but that would be cruel, and the week was positive, generous and embracing.
The mood of action in the Hall spfilled out into the Fringe and action was the unofficial theme – action here, at home and in the communities we all came from.
This article appears in the July 2018 Issue of Life and Work
If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive
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