From The Editor

EDITORIAL

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WHO could have predicted the year that was 2020? As the Lenten journey to Easter started at this time last year, who could have imagined that our churches would be empty on Easter Day as we locked down to prevent the spread of a potentially lethal virus? And who could have predicted its rapid spread around the world to become a global pandemic? Or that it would become one of the key issues in the bitter US presidential elections which took place in November last year.

Who would have thought that wearing a face mask – or not – would become a political issue? As the President-Elect Joe Biden prepared to take up offi ce last month, what was abundantly clear was the need for healing across one of the world’s most powerful nations.

A record number of voters either turned out or exercised their franchise via a postal vote in one of the most contentious and bitter presidential elections in recent history.

Whatever happened during the campaign and after the votes were polled, it is clear America was a nation deeply divided.

This month we off er the views of some of our US-born ministers and staff on the way forward. It is clear deep divisions will have to be healed in the weeks and months ahead to bring together people deeply divided by deep-seated political diff erence.

Yet there is hope. Talking in shared communities can reveal shared values and goals and much more in common than divides.

There is much work for the new administration to tackle in bridging the gap and bringing people together in a shared and unifi ed vision for the future.

”We are at a crossroads where the global pandemic has created opportunity and accelerated, in some cases, change.

Equally the same lessons can apply to the Church. We are at a crossroads where the global pandemic has created opportunity and accelerated, in some cases, change.

As in the US, some work will need to be set aside and left as we move forward.

But a place for healing and respect for issues which continue to divide should not be forgotten.

Thanks should be given for work which has necessarily stopped, or been set aside or paused to acknowledge the part played in the journey before a new path is forged for the future amid a mass vaccination programme.

Whilst this will involve healing deep divisions in the US, in the Church of Scotland it will mean moving forward into new territory, laying down some of the burdens of the past and journeying on a new path in uncharted territory, guided by the still silent voice of the God who leads us all – even on the most challenging paths. Lynne McNeil Editor

This article appears in the February 2021 Issue of Life and Work

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