SRT Milestone

Lynne McNeil

THE Anthemic ‘Spirit in the Sky’ by Norman Greenbaum topped the charts when the Church of Scotland’s Society, Religion and Technology Project was launched on May 1 1970.

The 1960s had brought an acceleration in the pace of change of innovation, coupled with the first walk in space and then the first moon landing in July 1969.

There was huge interest in science and innovation and it was at a Church of Scotland conference in 1968 that the seeds of a science and technology project were first sown. Following a deliverance from the Home Board at the 1969 General Assembly, it was agreed that a director for an innovative groundbreaking project on ‘Technology and Religion’ be sought and an advertisement appeared the following autumn in New Scientist.

Dr John Francis, a nuclear physicist, was appointed as the church’s first ‘technologist’ on May 1 and his appointment was announced within the pages of Life and Work in June 1970 under the headline: ‘A Step Into The Future: Church appoints technologist’.

Such was the magnitude of the appointment that the Scottish Council (Development and Industry) – an independent group involving senior leaders and representatives of Scotland’s economy offered gratitude and thanks for the appointment. Expressing the gratitude of industry for the Church’s move, Dr W S Robertson said: “Since technological invention really began to get under way – and that is quite a short period of time – changes in the human situation of a fundamental kind have begun to take place. People now have a great many choices to make among things they would like. They also have to make choices of a kind they would rather do without – about wars and pollution and individual freedom in a world of growing organisation and complexity.

‘A number of Christian people in industry believe that these choices should be influenced by a Christian view of the purposes to which industrial power should be put. Because of the speed of events, they see this as a matter of urgency.’

It did not take long for the Project to make an impact within the pages of Life and Work – and the wider Church. The November 1970 issue of Life and Work featured a focus on the newly-appointed director by Chris Baur of The Scotsman.

The article praised the Church for the appointment but showed Dr Francis was clear that he was ‘looking for a way of stimulating theologians into taking which is already apparent in the scientific and technological sphere – with its great mass of problems – and introducing some sort of perspective capable of putting back into people’s lives a sense of purpose.’

His ultimate aim, he said was for the Church to help people find ‘an appreciation of the meaning of life’ adding: ‘It is a meaning which has changed from age to age, and has never changed faster than it is changing now in the Age of Technology.’

Reflecting on those early years, Dr Francis said: “The work took offin June 1972 when I was nominated by the World Council of Churches to attend the first UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm. This was a defining moment as heads of government, diplomats and their advisors flocked to this venue to debate for the first time the recorded risks and threats to the global climate. A significant book by Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos Only One Earth was published at the conference and attracted a great deal of attention from the global press and reporting media. Suddenly the world was seen to be waking up to the scale of the environmental threats and the need for concerted actions to be taken by all members of the international community. It was notable that a full Chinese delegation appeared for the first time at this conference. The Swedish Government led by Prime Minister Olaf Palme and others, including the British Government, proposed and supported the establishment of the first UN agency in a developing country, namely, the UN Environment Programme based in Nairobi, Kenya.”

He added: “I look back on the SRTP with a certain sense of achievement from 1970 onwards as the work has covered a wide spectrum of themes and ideas. As a former nuclear scientist I did not ever expect to find myself in the midst of such an enterprise that has engaged and continues to explore so many fields of situation ethics as new technologies emerge and evolve.”

The commitment to the SRT Project, which was initially funded for three years was strengthened by the Church with the passage of time as it started to tackle issues over the impact of North Sea oil discoveries, the subsequent energy debate, nuclear power and a move into understanding the need to consider a greener more sustainable approach to life, amid major advances in medicine and science in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nuclear power was a hot topic of debate. The then director, Dr Colin Pritchard, a chemical engineer who succeeded Dr Francis in 1975, used nuclear energy as the focus of an article in the January 1978 issue of Life and Work and urged readers to save energy but also raised a now prophetic question about alternative energy sources. He wrote: ‘There is certainly no quick solution to our energy dilemma, either by abandoning nuclear energy entirely or by devising fool-proof means to control it. But the retention of nuclear power as one component of our energy supply should in no way diminish the search for alternative, long-term safer forms of energy.’

The lifespan of the project was extended and it became a permanent part of church life, reporting through different committees and boards to the General Assembly.

To date, the work has been headed by seven people: Dr Francis (1970 – 75), Dr Pritchard (1975 – 1978), Dr Iain Macdonald, agriculturalist (1978 – 1982); Dr Howard Davis, social scientist (1982 – 1985); Dr David Pullinger, information technologist (1986 – 1992), Dr Donald Bruce, chemist (1992 – 2007) and Dr Murdo Macdonald, molecular biologist (2008 – present)

The importance of the project was highlighted in 1995 when a book, Technology at the Crossroads, written by Life and Work’s own Ron Ferguson, celebrating this milestone was published.

Perhaps one of its highest profile media moments came in 1997 when news broke that the world’s first cloned sheep, Dolly, had been born at the Roslin Instute, near Edinburgh. Dr Donald Bruce, the then director of the SRT Project, was one of the few people available to provide a unique blend of ethical and scientific comment to a global media, fascinated by the success and the future possibilities.

In 2010 the 40th anniversary of the project was marked with a special conference and the publication of a booklet detailing some of the history of the project.

Today, the pace of change in scientific innovation has accelerated even more quickly than in the 1960s and 1970s and the SRT Project continues to look into the future and help the church grapple with the scientific and ethical issues that lie ahead. From genetic engineering, global warming and questions about energy conservation and alternative fuels to synthetic biology, the project has continued to pioneer over the last 50 years.

Looking back on the breadth of work covered, Caro Cowan, Convener of the SRT Project said: “It is rather awe-inspiring to look back over the work SRT has done in its 50 years and see the range of issues it has addressed. In many instances the work the project has done has been at the cutting edge of science and in particular the interplay of science, theology and ethical concerns. The range of issues is also incredible, everything from human cloning to end of life care – quite literally birth, if of a controversial sort, to death.”

“I look back on the SRTP with a certain sense of achievement from 1970 onwards as the work has covered a wide spectrum of themes and ideas.

She added: “SRT has been and I hope will continue to be a prophetic voice on issues of our time, or perhaps, more accurately in identifying the issues of our time, and providing a lens through which to frame often difficult, complex and controversial issues. The Church of Scotland is looked at with envy by many churches in having such a project enabling the Church to get to grips with these issues and helping frame responses and understanding impacts. Whilst SRT will clearly have an important voice on the known issues, especially things such as climate, AI and health and wellbeing, I hope that it will continue to identify those things that society isn’t yet fully engaged with and lead the debates in a credible and accessible fashion.”