LETTERS

Uphold the Church

I have found my eyes glued to the television all weekend to follow the events since the death of our Queen. I found most interesting the Council of Privy Councillors which signed the documents or witnessed the ones required to be signed by the new King Charles III. The most interesting part was his document in which he vowed to defend the position of the Church of Scotland.

It seems that candidates are not taught much about the law of the church and probably like myself when I was young and immature filed it in the back of my mind, only to become relevant much later. I think it is time that we stood up to this and recognised our responsibilities in respecting the Royal vow. We are so concerned with re-arranging the deckchairs and making sure our ministers are liked by their jeans, sports jackets, and open-neck shirts in order to make them more attractive to congregations.

What their efforts should be focused on is finding a way of preaching which so many independent churches have successfully done and found great growth.

We must learn to respect our position as ministers and the high position of Elders in upholding the church which our Monarch has vowed to maintain.

Dr W Graham Monteith (Rev), Edinburgh

Advertising comment

I wonder what conclusions might be drawn from the August issue of Life and Work and the outside back cover advert being followed by that for the September issue.

In August, readers were told that ‘As the cost of living soars across the UK, God is calling on the Church to… respond to UK poverty.’

In September, readers were invited to buy a limited number edition, illustrated and bound in calfskin leather, of the King James Bible for £675.

(Note: I make no comment on or criticism of Life and Work’s policy about accepting advertising. In my view, both adverts are perfectly acceptable.)

C GDilworth, Pitlochry, Perthshire

Following Jesus

I’ve just enjoyed the current edition of Life and Work (September). My favourite text is Psalm 23: ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ As a student at Edinburgh University I had to pay my way. This I did as a potato inspector. This gave me an interest in farming/agriculture through the length and breadth of Scotland and my only charge as a paid minister in rural Angus.

Did Jesus actually make that statement ‘I am the way – the truth and the life’ (John 14)? I doubt it very much. John’s Gospel was written 60 years, a generation after Jesus’ ministry.

John’s Gospel is ‘pure theology’ – awriting of Christian Scripture. John’s gospel states quite clearly that Jesus is God’s ‘chosen servant’ for all humanity regardless of colour, class, creed, gender! We are all God’s children by creation and grace.

The Good Life, the Godly Life, is to take Jesus and his example, teachings and follow him as best we can to the best of our ability in every area of life.

Ian L Forrester (Rev), Kirkcaldy, Fife

Royal Thanksgiving Note

The Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Her Majesty the Queen, held in the High Kirk of St Giles, was a fitting tribute to her.

The glory of the architecture was combined with the solemnity of the occasion, the beauty of the music, the eloquent words of the minister and the Moderator and the appropriateness of the Scriptural passages. My only disappointment was in the omission of verse 5 of St John, chapter 14.

What the congregation and the viewers heard of that uplifting passage by the Evangelist included Jesus’s famous reply: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ But what we did not hear was the all important question posed to our Lord by Thomas which in the King James Version reads: ‘Lord we know not wither thou goest and how can we know the way?’ Omission of the verse made the Gospel passage chosen far less effective. There is always a danger that if a verse is taken out of a famous passage, as was the case at the Service, the whole reading loses the dynamism that it deserves.

C JNickless, Chatham, Kent

Inclusiveness

I appreciated the words written by John Chalmers about inclusiveness in your August issue. He was writing about “How to include those, who in the past, we have excluded”. He was writing about discrimination within the church, and about people with Down’s Syndrome, and about his sister June.

I appreciated it because June was my friend. June was everyone’s friend, and she made sure everyone knew it. Every time she called me “darling” I loved it. If you heard her say grace at a family meal you knew how firmly she belonged within the family of God.

When I had the privilege (and that is the right word) of conducting June’s funeral service, I remembered two things her family had said. Her brother told me: “She never told a lie in her whole life”. And her niece told me: “She taught us all tenderness”.

Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Dr Andrew R CMcLellan (Very Rev), Dunfermline, Fife

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