The Moderator, Lord Wallace, reflects on the importance of the work carried out by CrossReach, the Social Care Council of the Church.

WHEN my nomination as Moderator- Designate was announced in October 2020, a recurring question was: “What will you wear?”

I hope I didn’t disappoint too many people by declining the lace; but little did I think that exactly one year on, I would be standing at a podium at the CrossReach Employee Awards ceremony with a colourful Hawaiian garland round my neck!

The significance related to the theme of the event – “O Hana – Family – no one left behind or forgotten.” It was a warm celebration of the range of CrossReach’s services and the outstanding dedication of its staff.

Indeed, one of the real privileges and pleasures since becoming Moderator last May, has been my engagement with CrossReach and learning more about the valuable work done by the staff and volunteers, up and down the country.

One of my earliest visits, after Covid-19 restrictions started to ease, was to the Walter and Joan Gray Care Home in Scalloway, Shetland. It was good to see the refurbishment which has truly transformed it from the days when I visited as the local MP. It was also an opportunity to learn at first hand the very real challenges faced by care home staff – in Scalloway and CrossReach’s other elderly care homes – during months of pandemic and lockdown and how they coped and rose to the challenge, with a focus always on safety and care, and respecting the dignity of those in their care.

I heard the same again when I visited St Margaret’s House in Polmont, which provides specialist care for people with dementia. That was one of several visits I made during four days with CrossReach, which, as well as Older People Services, gave me an opportunity to see some of the work of the Children and Family Services and Adult Care Services.

With Rosie, we learned about the sympathetic ear and support provided to prisoners’ families at the Visitor Centre at Perth Prison. We saw the remarkable patience and encouragement given to young adults with profound learning disabilities at the Threshold Edinburgh Transition Service. And we met a ‘Little Marvel’ at the Mallard in Glasgow, together with young people with disabilities enjoying activities at the Go2 day care service.

The outstanding and impressive feature of all these services is the one-to-one loving care and attention given by staff and volunteers to each individual, with support appropriately tailored to their individual needs. Just as Jesus did so often in his earthly ministry, they see the potential rather than problem.

I thought it was fitting, therefore, that the Sunday in November when we remembered CrossReach was the last Sunday before Advent, when the Church celebrates Christ the King: the Servant King who came not to be served, but to serve. The Gospel reading often associated with that Sunday is the parable of the judgment when the King separates the sheep from the goats.

When people asked when they saw Jesus hungry or thirsty, as a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, they are told: “‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” These words are familiar, but may I suggest we pause and consider just how momentous they are. It does not say that we do these actions ‘for Jesus’, or ‘because of Jesus’, but we do it “to Jesus”.

„I cannot help but reflect that in undertaking such acts of service, CrossReach staff, and, indeed many others in our Church who regularly support people in need, Jesus is encountered by them every single day.“

I cannot help but reflect that in undertaking such acts of service, CrossReach staff, and, indeed many others in our Church who regularly support people in need, Jesus is encountered by them every single day.

How humbling and how wonderful. 

Lord Jim Wallace of Tankerness is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2021/22.