The Church of Scotland’s Listening Project has released its initial results, with detailed analysis to follow in May.

Mission Development Worker Steve Aisthorpe said: “Everyone seems to agree that it is important, vital even, to reflect and learn from the season of the Covid-19 pandemic. We can all do that individually, but wouldn’t it be amazing to hear the perspectives of lots of others? How much richer would our understanding be if we could listen to a wide range of people? Imagine if we could gather insights from different age groups and compare perceptions from small villages and big cities. How, for example, has the impact of the pandemic been for ministers or for people without access to online technology? How has this crisis been experienced differently by the Church’s young people or some of its most elderly? “Last autumn the Assembly Trustees initiated a ‘listening project’. From November 2020 to February 2021 people from throughout the Church were invited to reflect on their experiences of faith and church during the pandemic. They were then asked to share in their own words what, for them, were the most important things and what the Church (local and national) had been, or should be, learning.

“The Listening Project enabled 225 people to share their contributions and we now have the opportunity to ‘hear’ voices from every generation and from a broad sample of people in terms of their involvement in the Church. In March the ‘headlines’ of the project were released. These are the most prominent themes and can be found on the Church’s website. A more comprehensive and detailed analysis of findings will be released later this month (May).

“It is a privilege to read the accounts of contributors as they share their personal experiences of loss and of blessing. Many reported that this has been a time of growth and deepening; others explained how their faith had faltered. One wrote: ‘I am (while aware of the suffering and difficulties and heartbreak) thankful to God for 2020. It’s been a significant time of growth in my walk with Jesus.’ Another explained: ‘My faith has wavered during the pandemic.’

“So the picture is far from simple, but the project has collected insights that will encourage, challenge and inform all of us. As part of the ‘body of Christ’, in which ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it’ (1 Corinthians 12:26), the Listening Project enables us to consider the experiences of many others as we reflect on our own and discern what we should be learning together.”