FAITH IN ACTION

The thirteenth in a series of features which will offer updates from the Faith Action Programme.

Rev Dr Scott JS Shackleton

Head: Faith Action Staff – Ministries & Mission Support

Happy New Year! May God bless us throughout 2023.

My family lost our much-loved dad last January and it has been a year of grief, adjusting to loss and sharing happy memories. So too the national Church has been adjusting to the loss of well-loved buildings and ministries. Just as we grieve for loved ones, so we must recognise the loss our Church is facing before we talk freely of recovery and growth. In time, we will not feel as we do today, but for now the promise of better times to come, through God’s providence, is enough. Our God is with us; the same God who led the people out of Babylon, back to rebuild Jerusalem.

Dave Kendall

Chief Officer: Office of the Assembly Trustees

I echo Scott’s good wishes to everyone across the Church of Scotland for 2023. Last November marked three years since I took up my role as Chief Officer. While I understood that challenging times were ahead, it is fair to say that we were not prepared for everything that would come our way as we began our journey of reform, following the GA endorsement of the 2019 Special Commission Report on Structural Reform and the stretching targets of the Radical Action Plan. We certainly did not anticipate a global pandemic and its repercussions on our life and ways of working as a Church. Our consistent goal at national level is to ensure that everything we do in the future is focused on supporting, equipping and adding value to local congregations and presbyteries – afocus that will intensify as we all work together on the future plans to reconstruct our Church.

“Our consistent goal at national level is to ensure that everything we do in the future is focused on supporting, equipping and adding value to local congregations and presbyteries.”

Suzi Farrant

Young People and Young Adult’s Development Worker

General Assembly Youth Reps – Who Can You Encourage?

Central to our national activities for young adults is the annual programme for the Youth Reps attending the General Assembly. The programme is designed to enable young adults to engage in the decision-making processes of the national Church, having their voices heard. Youth Reps spend the week together and far from it being a dull week of debate, everyone who goes says it’s one of the best weeks of their year. Having arrived as strangers, with no idea what they’ve let themselves in for, the Youth Reps leave at the end of the week having grown in their faith, stunned at the breadth of the Kirk’s work, enthused by all that is happening across the country, and with new friends for life.

Each presbytery has a Youth Rep place they can fill each year, alongside 10 places allocated nationally. Despite the amazing experience had by all who are part of the programme (Youth Reps and staff team), it has been increasingly difficult in recent years to fill the available spaces. Please don’t let your presbytery place go empty for 2023; nudge any 18-25 year olds you know and encourage them to apply.

For more information contact Suzi: sfarrant@churchofscotland.org.uk

Pam Mellstrom

YAV Programme Coordinator

Young Adult Volunteer Programme – Calling Young People on a Journey

A year of service for a lifetime of change can often appear ‘too good to be true’, but in this instance, there’s an exception to this rule!

The Church of Scotland is partnering with PC(USA) – the Presbyterian Church in the United States, to offer several funded places on the Young Adult Volunteer programme 2023- 2024. Do you know a young person who might be interested? This venture is part of our Faith Action Plan’s missional objectives that have a focus on supporting initiatives with those under 40 and developing young leaders.

“This placement will provide YAVs with valuable work experience and opportunities to build relationships and connections with others that will both enlarge and reshape their own world view.”

The Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) programme is an ecumenical, faith-based year of service for young adults aged 19-30. The programme, hosted by our friends in PC(USA), gives participants an opportunity to travel to the USA, experience new cultures and spend 11 months living in, learning from, working and worshipping alongside a local church and community.

It is an unforgettable experience!

The YAV programme is not new to the Church of Scotland. Over the past seven years we have welcomed YAVs from the USA to work alongside Priority Areas congregations in Glasgow and Dundee. Now we are sending YAVs from Scotland to join other volunteers from the USA in Louisville for a few days’ initial training before heading in small groups to live at one of the USA-based YAV sites for the remainder of their year.

At these sites YAVs are matched with a work placement, normally a local church or partner agency, where they will learn about some of the root causes of poverty, racism and social injustice. This placement will provide YAVs with valuable work experience and opportunities to build relationships and connections with others that will both enlarge and reshape their own world view. YAVs will live together, with a focus on creating a sense of shared community and exploring aspects of their Christian faith as they get to know one another.

This is a volunteer programme but YAVs will have their housing provided and receive a small living allowance for the duration of the programme.

So if you know a young adult who has a passion to learn about social justice issues and ministry in other contexts, who is keen to travel and would be available from summer 2023, then the YAV Programme might just be for them.

Applications are open now, until March 2023. Contact yavscotland@churchofscotland.org.uk for more information.

Dr Robyn Knight

Research Officer

We are now almost a year into the cost of living crisis. Last March, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, along with the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, urged “both the Scottish and UK Governments to set aside political differences and come together in a spirit of pragmatism and compassion to seek effective solutions to this very serious and worsening situation.” It is saddening to see that despite this call, our nation remains bitterly divided and people up and down the country, from all walks of life, are in the midst of navigating a frightening winter. One of the greatest injustices of this cost of living crisis, however, is that its effects are not felt equally across the whole of society. Lump sum Cost of Living Payments offered by the UK Government have been welcomed, however these oneoff payments have not addressed the underlying issue, that benefits payments are not keeping up with inflation.

Our churches are doing wonderful work up and down the country supporting people struggling this winter – from community cafés providing cheap nutritious meals or running food banks, to opening their doors and offering spaces for everybody to keep warm during these cold winter months. This work is commendable, but while these are much-needed emergency responses, they are not truly long-term solutions. Policy changes are the only way that people at the sharp end of poverty will find relief. The collective financial burden of this cost of living crisis should not fall disproportionately on the poorest. The power to make these changes ultimately lies with those who have been elected to government, however that does not mean that we are powerless to effect change. There are a number of things we can all do to advocate for people facing challenges this winter. Write to your MPs and MSPs. Listen to and share stories of struggle alongside stories of success, and counter the prevailing narrative that poverty is the ‘fault’ of those experiencing it. Above all, we can affirm that lived experience has real value in decision-making processes, and that the knowledge and expertise of those who have lived in and alongside poverty must be heard by people in power.

Rev Dr Rory Macleod

Minister Of Strath And Sleat

For our Gaelic readers

Faodaidh e abhith brosnachail nar seasamh aig stairsich na bliadhna ùire: uimhir de thaghadh is chothroman! Aig an aon àm, ’s e àm duilich a th’ ann airson cuid – aig a bheil aithreachas mun àm a dh’fhalbh no iomagain mun àm ri teachd. Ge b’ e dè ar faireachdainnean aig tionndadh na bliadhna, bhiodh e freagarrach is cuideachail làthaireachd, companas is stiùireadh an Tighearna a shireadh. Gheall Dia nach fàgadh ‘s nach trèigeadh e sinn gu bràth. Gu deimhinne, chuir Ìosa an Spiorad Naomh gu bhith còmhla rinn gus an tilleadh e aig deireadh na linne. Carson nach cuireadh sibh ur n-earbsa annsan mar “rùn na bliadhna ùire” agaibh?

For further information visit: www.churchofscotland.org.uk