In love, faith and hope

Dana McQuater, the last Moderator of the Church of Scotland’s National Youth Assembly in its current form reflects on some of the highlights of her year in office.

HI to Life and Work readers. I hope this finds you staying safe and well.

My year as Moderator of the National Youth Assembly has been a quick one and a very blessed one, even considering how it has ended with the Coronavirus Covid-19.

It has been a journey, not just in the sense of being all over Scotland and as far as Portsmouth and Zambia, but also in the journeying of faith and actually seeing God’s work and love in action.

Zambia (where I visited a project for teenage mothers supported by the Church of Scotland Guild’s Journeying Together Project and Faith Impact Forum), was an experience of very differing emotions for me: seeing their way of life and seeing how their faith carries the girls and their families in their daily lives – totally different to how we live in Scotland, with our technology and comfort. Over there, comfort is faith and genuine love for each other and their communities, I was very blessed to have been a witness to this. To journey with a group of wonderful people across the world and the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Colin Sinclair and his wife Ruth too was a wonderful experience for me.

Then, to come home and to go and witness the work with the Royal Navy was another humbling experience and a total eye opener for me personally, but again a very blessed time. I’m totally in awe of what the Navy and Armed Forces do for us as a nation, and I have so many stories to tell about it (sorry this article will not do these two trips full justice).

It has been a journey, not just in the sense of being all over Scotland and as far as Portsmouth and Zambia, but also in the journeying of faith and actually seeing God’s work and love in action.

Colin and Ruth have been a huge part of this journey and have been such a joy to journey with this last year, as has Suzi Farrant, the Church’s young people’s development worker, who has been our guide and mentor in all that the National Youth Assembly has achieved over the last few years. Yes we are very saddened by the decision for this to stop but look forward to the next stage of the journey, we have given thanks and had many discussions about the future and we pray that a way forward will be found for us, the young people of the Church -watch this space. 

I have spoken at Guilds, taken part in worship, attended meetings and training, slept out in the cold, enjoyed ceilidhs and time out together, attended the General Assembly and our Youth Meetings, but most of all I have just enjoyed the time and the honour of being the Moderator this year, met many new friends, and also lost some too which has been hard. The love and friendship I will carry with me and knowing you all has meant the world to me.

I ask God’s blessings upon you all in love, faith and hope. 

This article appears in the June 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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