LETTERS

Manse Energy Concerns

The Kirk Session of New Kilpatrick shares the concerns of Cairns Church expressed in the May issue.

During lockdown we raised the possibility of paying the tax free allowance introduced by the government to alleviate the increased costs incurred by working from home, but, like our brothers and sisters at Cairns, were told that we could not do anything locally, and that the National Church would not be doing so.

Since then we have to recognise that many ministers will be hard hit by rising energy costs as many manses will not be equipped with the most up to date and efficient energy saving systems. We acknowledge that it would be invidious for us to recognise these challenges independently, but call on the National Church to recognise them and take steps to address these unforeseen and additional costs. I am sure we would be willing to contribute to a national solution, and would hope that others might also be able to do so with us.

Alistair Burrow, Session Clerk, Bearsden New Kilpatrick Parish Church of Scotland (see General Assembly reports page 16)

Assembly ceremony

I am one of those who always thinks of what to say after the event or meeting and it was thus after hearing Rev Seòras Orr speak to his motion at the General Assembly on Saturday May 21.

Instruct the Assembly Business Committee… to have discussions with the Lord Lyon, expressing the desire of the General Assembly for overly ceremonial elements to be absent from future meetings of the Assembly. (Not accepted by a small majority (171-209))

As it happens, there was less ceremonial this year because the Lord High Commissioner, Lord Hodge, was unable to attend in person at the beginning, so ‘the throne on high’ wasn’t occupied.

Maybe a nudge from our Lord himself ?! The thrust of the idea was that we should model welcoming everybody on an equal basis; that our ceremonies at General Assembly model the wrong idea of Church to the public.

The Rev Scott Rennie opposed this saying that these occasions enabled us to speak truth to power. It came to my mind (afterwards of course) that St Paul, and Nelson Mandela and others did this much more effectively from their prison cells.

I quite like a bit of ‘visual drama’ from time to time and what better occasion than the General Assembly? But, as Church, who should be the focus of any such ceremony – our Lord Jesus Christ.

How about this? The youth delegates carry a big but simple cross and lead our delegates from overseas and other denominations, the Lord High Commissioner, staff, Moderator’s family and chaplains across the quad and up the steps together in no particular order, possibly singing some praise.

They are welcomed by the Moderator, go into the Assembly Hall together, where commissioners stand to welcome them and join in the singing. They could then be guided to seats all over the auditorium and allowed to talk with ‘neighbours’ for 15 minutes, thus allowing at least some wider mixing before official proceedings started.

Might our Sovereign be encouraged to authenticate her representative and write to her trusty, well-beloved subjects in more succinct 21 stcentury prose?

Just some thoughts! And I declare an interest – Seòras is my minister.

Margaret King DCS, Fochabers, Moray

Listen to God

Many thanks to both John Chalmers and Lesley Taylor for the recent correspondence in June Life and Work. It is wonderful when a passionate response is drawn from a meditation as was Lesley’s from the meditation in the April issue of John Chalmers. Such exchanges help us to think deeply about Christ’s life and what He means for us today.

Lesley is correct to worry about a secular society because secularism is all around us but not, in my experience, in Life and Work!

The life of Jesus is so precious and essential to the future of humankind that we need to be able to inflame others with its glory and lead people to understand His relationship to a glorious Father and to each of us.

Lesley says this passionately in purely religious language and I agree with her beliefs about Christ and God. However, John Chalmers, with courage, is attempting something different and difficult showing, in his meditation, the aspects of Christ’s life which all people can embrace, whatever religion or none.

This is absolutely crucial to do successfully if His love is to reach all of mankind.

John Chalmers mentions Carl Jung who worked all his life in many cultures and at the end, in a TV interview in1959, by John Freeman was able to say: “I do not need to believe in God, I know!”

Modern generations should learn to listen to God speak in wisdom conveyed by our recent thinkers, writers, theologians and scientists and also by those within our own communities.

John Chalmers brings Jesus’ life into a realm to which people of today can relate with all the current suffering and injustices and this relationship can lead to a fuller understanding of the Resurrection and of belief in God.

Both Lesley and John together can be a healing whole.

John Kusel, Cumbernauld