Episode 2 General Assembly

The Church is always to be reformed, semper reformanda -

that's a long-standing principle for Presbyterian churches

and we've certainly seen it in practice here this week.

Last year, the General Assembly

voted for the so-called mixed economy, which allows the induction

and ordination of ministers in same-sex partnerships

by individual Kirk sessions,

while maintaining the traditional Church of Scotland doctrine

and practice on human sexuality.

This year, commissioners heard the legal framework for this

and the doctrinal interpretation of the Bible

which underwrites that mixed economy.

The vote last Assembly created what we have come to call a mixed economy.

Now, that is a situation in which several perspectives exist

respectfully alongside each other.

Today we read Scripture with more than one tradition.

'Some people joked about it'

and they said that this is rather like having a vegetarian restaurant

and saying, "But we also serve steak,"

and so part of the task of the forum which I chaired was to look at

the juxtaposition and to say, "How can we make sense of that?

"Can we make sense of that within Scripture?

"Can we make sense of it within the long, long history

"of theological argument,

"which has characterised the Church of Scotland?"

Because we are an argumentative Church.

We have a long history, we have stood by principles

and we have disagreed with each other about these principles.

And the debate demonstrated that accommodating the diversity

of views that accepting a mixed economy necessitates can be painful.

I feel very strongly in heart and mind

the power of the call here to unity,

and to maintain unity that I find in these sections,

and that, I think, of course,

is because it reflects clearly the teaching of Scripture.

Paul's words in Ephesians make every effort

"to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

I have come to this Assembly with a heavy heart.

And that's because the Church in which I was brought up,

the Church which nurtured me after I came to a personal faith

in Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord at the age of 18,

the Church in which I had my first opportunity to preach,

the Church which has prayed for me

over these probably 30-plus years of my ministry,

and I'm talking about the High Church in Stornoway,

a Church that has provided, er, eight or nine ministers

in the last 30 years for this denomination.

That Church family...

HE VOICE QUIVERS

..is...

..rent asunder.

The larger part of the congregation has gone.

All its elders have gone.

Er, its theology student and a budding preacher has gone.

All but one of its ten deacons have gone.

SOME COUGHING

My younger brother remains as the only office bearer in that church.

VOICE CRACKS: I love those who remain.

But I equally love those who have gone.

And part of my pain here today...

..is that I will never be able to sit again at the Father's table

with that whole family.

The same has happened across the country.

We cannot but mourn.

They have gone, because they no longer trust our ability,

or our willingness, to follow

what they believe the Bible clearly states.

They will be followed by others.

Er, Moderator, a great deal of sorrow has been expressed,

rightly so, for people who feel, in all conscience,

the need to leave the Church. The only comment I would make today

would be that my sorrow goes out

to those who are gay, both colleagues and friends,

still within the Church,

because, no matter how much I appreciate

the words and the wisdom of this forum, the underlying assumption

under this mixed economy model seems to imply that to be gay is wrong.

That the revisionist position does not stand up

equally in relation to that which is called traditional.

Therefore, if we go down this road,

I do feel a sense of apology, if not shame,

to people who are gay within the life of the Church of Scotland

and I hope we can find a surer remedy in the future. Thank you.

I speak of a minister that was ordained

18 years ago later this month.

I stand here, because I love God and I believe God loves the world.

In 2011...

the press arrived at my door.

I'd been cutting the grass. I'd just been stung by wasps.

And they said, "Someone has said that you are in a civil partnership."

The truth was I wasn't.

But the truth is I had come the long painful journey of depression

and mental illness of accepting my sexuality.

My congregation were invaded the Sunday after the press

and, with the help of Dr Chalmers, I have never commented

on any of what was said about me, written about me,

but what I want to do today is tell you the story in respect

of what happened in Stornoway, what happened in Newburgh Abdie in Dunbog.

The Sunday after the press got hold of the story,

and friends and the community were invaded by the press,

a member of our community got on Facebook.

The following Sunday, you could not get a chair in the church,

because the community filled it.

And at the door of the church,

one of the members of the parish went out the door, saying,

"We're here today,

"because you've been there for us when we needed you."

I very much hope that,

having ventilated these differences and having named the differences,

um, we can move to a position in which we can see that it is

an argument within the family, rather than the fact that to be

an honourable user of Scripture, you have to leave the house.

And this is why we use the metaphor,

from discussion between Jews, Christians and Muslims,

that people stand at the door of their tent,

they come outside of their tent, but within sight of the door.

They haven't deserted it.

And then, at the door of their tent, this fragile structure,

they talk to people who've come out of their tents.

Um, I also gave the Assembly yesterday, um,

the notion of the shared overlap between insider and outsider groups

and I suggested to the Assembly that,

if we lack that kind of open space,

my fear is that we become inward-looking,

we have no hope, we have no future,

and the Church has always grown

when it has been able to see that kind of shared overlap.

That's... That is the kind of area

where I believe the Spirit is most active.

The report of the Committee on Chaplains to Her Majesty's Forces

was as warmly received as ever

and the subsequent debate allowed a former moderator

to highlight potential tensions that military chaplains must deal with.

Just after the first Gulf War, I came home,

I went down as the people came home to a military conference,

and I was literally physically seized by a then RAF chaplain.

Fortunately for me, he was rather smaller than I was.

Not unusual, maybe. And, um...but...

He was absolutely beside himself with disappointment in the Church,

because...a lot of publicity had been given to various observations made

by the Church and by, um, certain speeches by the then Moderator

that appeared to suggest that people in the services

were not as acutely confronted with the issues of morality

and the questions that challenge our faith as we were here.

And what he said to me was, "Do they not realise,

"and do YOU not realise, that we are as anxious and as challenged

"by these moral questions as anyone in the General Assembly?"

I would hope that our chaplains here would realise that we do know that.

The Church and Society Council's report covered everything

from climate change to violence against women.

But it prioritised the Kirk's role in tackling poverty,

which - as its convener, Sally Foster-Fulton, spelled out -

is a chronic reality for many people in Scotland

and, for some, one that's getting worse.

I remember, Moderator, in a speech to the General Assembly,

my predecessor, Ian Galloway, expressed his utter dismay

at the appearance of foodbanks. Roll forward just four years,

and foodbanks are part of the landscape, growing in number

and in scale in response to ever-increasing need.

They've made their way into our norm and that is frightening.

Do not misunderstand me, Moderator,

the Church must respond to need whenever it finds it.

But equally, we mustn't fall into the tempting trap

of treating the symptoms and ignoring the causes.

Our research into the work done by congregations in response

to poverty in their areas found that many faith communities provide

vital help, foodbanks, shelters, soup kitchens, debt advice and support.

Fewer, however, feel able to campaign or speak out

against the devastating welfare reform policies,

the zero-hours contracts, the low pay

and the systems that keep people poor.

Last year, the Assembly embraced The Lies We Tell Ourselves:

Comfortable Myths About Poverty, a report which has helped us

identify and effectively challenge the dangerous rhetoric

that blames the poor for their poverty. These are lies.

Skivers and strivers, scammers, choosing a benefits lifestyles.

These are lies and they let us off the hook,

blaming the victims rather than facing up to the uncomfortable truth

that we are all part of an economic model

which systematically disadvantages the weak.

-This report has been...

-But what are the alternatives? Well, here's one.

In 2012, in the Special Commission's report

on the purposes of economic activity,

we heard that it was not the time for business as usual,

but the Church should lead the way

in securing better, more ethical financial options.

Credit unions were identified as particularly important.

Credit unions are a safe, ethical and constructive way to save,

to invest, to borrow. They offer reasonable rates of interest

and they incorporate financial education into their ethos.

In collaboration with the Church of England, the Church of Wales,

the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church,

we, through the Churches' Mutual Credit Union,

will be able to model best practice by offering membership to clergy

and other ordained persons, to anyone employed by the Church

or employed, in fact, by a charity run by the Church,

such as Crossreach. This will, in turn,

create a set of invested advocates for credit unions

and will enable the Church to support the movement more widely.

Credit unions are not the only response to unethical lenders

and extortionate rates of interest.

They're not the only challenge to the status quo business-as-usual models

that really need a shake, but, Moderator,

they are an important tool in our kit

and we have a chance today to sharpen it.

And the Church offers other options. Pat Hanson and her business partner

run a thriving cafe in Burntisland in Fife. She knows from experience

that balancing the books isn't always easy.

I was a single parent, I brought up both my boys on my own.

My husband left when I was pregnant with the youngest child, um...

and when my eldest son was 15, he broke his neck in an accident

and became disabled and I gave up work to look after him,

but we had to move, cos we were in a flat, so we had to move

to a private rental until we could find somewhere suitable.

Big rooms and a son whose disability meant the rooms needed

to be kept warm landed Pat with huge fuel bills and a load of debt.

Friends helped her through it, but she never forgot the experience

and, when she heard about CAP, Christians Against Poverty,

she persuaded her church to work with her

to help others struggling with debt. One of her clients is Linda Stewart.

There was a loan, and moneylenders were coming to the door,

so I took out money from them

and, you know, the interest put on it, um...

I started falling behind on payments, um...

I was in arrears with council tax,

I was getting letters from them coming through the door, um,

and so I phoned this number and they said that they could help me.

Um, all I had to do was list out my debts that I had

and that I would get a visitor from them, um, Christians Against Poverty,

and they would help me with all this debt.

CAP advises clients on how to budget.

'Well, Pat, what she did was she took down all my list of the creditors

'I was due to, my debt, any letters that was there I gave them to her.

'And she wrote them all down and took them to the head office.'

We just need to see...

They need this every year, they have to have new proof of income...

CAP then negotiates with creditors and support clients

as they work their way out of debt by sticking to a plan of repayment.

Have allowances for, you know, food, shopping, television licence,

all the normal expenses we all have, so allowances for all these things.

It's going to have a bit for leisure as well, because

everybody needs to go out and do something that's nice now and again,

so it's all budgeted there for them.

They're working with us for several years,

sometimes it's only a year, sometimes it might be five years,

but during that time, they're learning how to live on that budget

and the nice thing is they're also saving,

every client saves something, so not only are they learning

to live on a budget, but they're realising that,

even on a really small income, you can still save money.

So, if anything goes wrong - fridge breaks down, microwave, whatever -

they've got their own money and they're not having to borrow money.

With a plan and a budget, and the threat

of doorstep moneylenders gone, Linda has a fresh start.

I'm working now, a regular income, I'm off benefits.

'My debt's coming down and I'll have more money as well.

'I save, which has given me'

more confidence and... the future's looking bright.

-Right, thanks.

-'I always had this idea in my head'

that I would like to go and do mission work.

And in my head, that was going to be somewhere lovely and hot,

you know, it might be Africa or it might be South America or Nepal,

somewhere like that, and it ended up being Kirkcaldy,

doing CAP work, which is also... And it lets me go out

and do what's biblical and go out on the streets and help people.

I don't know if I can express enough what a privilege it is

to walk into somebody's home, who's not left the house for six months

because of the shame, and just shine a light in there and give them

a little bit of hope, so, for me, it's like the best job in the world.

The Assembly strengthened its call for national

and local government to address issues surrounding funeral poverty.

Moderator, the issue of funeral poverty across our country is

one that's growing and, in all probability,

will touch every parish in our denomination.

According to a recent report by Sun Life AXA,

the cost of a funeral has ridden...

risen 80% in the last decade, with the average cost in 2013

of being almost £3,500. As the report mentions,

local authorities have increasing costs for burial and cremation

in a way that seems to be out of control in many cases.

In my own local authority area, South Lanarkshire,

which has one of the highest set of fees in Scotland, the cost

for a burial plot, and to have it opened for the first time, is...

£1,883.

This is an eye-wateringly high rise

of around 345% in the last five years,

according to figures obtained by the Church and Society Council.

I've been ordained for 18 months or so and have already conducted

somewhere in the region of 80 funerals,

two of which have been what some call environmental funerals,

known in the past as pauper's funerals -

a burial of someone who has no family to claim their body.

On one such occasion,

I had literally said the amen of my benediction

when three young people hurried toward

what turned out to be the graveside of their mother,

with whom they had no longer spoke for one reason or another.

But the reason they did not come forward and claim their mother,

who had died in October, and this was now December,

was because they could not afford any form or funeral and

thought that, if they kept silent, then someone would handle things.

I'm not telling you this in search of your opinion on how you thought

these three young people handled the situation.

I'm telling you this because,

despite not speaking to their mother,

they were denied an opportunity to give tribute to her,

to have been known and consulted.

The only thing I had to say about this lady's life,

who had passed away at the age of 55,

was that a neighbour noticed that she loved models of angels.

But because of the fear of not being able to afford a funeral,

and being afraid to come forward to ask for help

in case they claimed responsibility as a consequence,

they were robbed of this right.

As you said in your support of credit unions, Moderator,

it is the poorest who always offer the most.

Moderator, with situations like this in mind, I am delighted

that the Assembly has accepted Mr Kerr's amendment in the hope

that it paves way to such painful events one day coming to an end.

Assisted dying is a live and very sensitive issue

and the Assembly felt that the recommendation to maintain

the status quo and oppose any suggested change in the law

didn't go far enough. Instead, it supported an amendment which calls

for theological reflection on the issues surrounding assisted dying.

Polls consistently show

that the vast majority of people in the UK are in favour

of a change in the law to permit assisted dying in some form.

Moreover, Professor Linda Woodhead from Lancaster University's

recent large project investigating social attitudes among faith groups

also show that a vast majority of people in faith groups

support change, with the exception of Muslims and Baptists.

So there is a pressing need for theological resources

to promote improved decision-making on this sensitive issue,

for our Church and indeed ecumenically.

So again, for the avoidance of doubt, Moderator,

I am not expecting the report I am calling for

to propose a change in the Church's thinking, but of course, it may.

I'm aware that there are some guidance to congregations,

but it frames the division in terms of

secular motivations to change the law

against Christian responses against it, and that's simply misleading.

There are many Christian voices who support a change,

which is why I'm specifically asking the reporters to take account,

not agree with, but to take account of those voices.

Moderator, five years ago,

I knew exactly where I stood on the issue of assisted suicide.

I would have supported a simple restatement of the Church's stance.

But now, I don't know where I stand

and I would love for better theological minds than mine to offer

an up-to-date considered reflection on all aspects of the debate.

And that's because, five years ago,

my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and, 18 months ago, he died.

For the last two months of his life, I was privileged

to have been released from my parish to nurse him at home

and, in the last days of his life,

his blood oxygen level dropped so low

that he became agitated and delirious.

And during a brief few hours' visit to A&E, he was given antibiotics and

given a sedative and, at midnight, my mum and I took him home to die.

The doctor gave me sleeping pills

to give to my dad once we got home to help him sleep.

And once home and settled, I gave Dad the pills,

telling him that the doctor said they would help him sleep,

and he took them and he slept.

When Dad awoke a few hours later, he looked me in the eye and said...

"The goodbye pills haven't worked."

Dad was never lucid again, dying very peacefully four days later.

I am still in the process of trying to understand my dad's last words.

What did it mean when he thought that I was giving him suicide pills?

What did it mean when he took them willingly?

And what did it mean that he was disappointed when, to quote him,

they "hadn't worked"?

And all of that means I no longer know

where I stand on the issue of assisted suicide

and I long for a dialogue in this area

to hear the theological arguments on all sides,

because such a theological discussion

would be helpful for me and for others whose minds,

like mine, are in a guddle in this whole area.

And so, I would support this additional motion. Thank you.

I think what the Church was trying to do this week

was clear a space to focus on other things and maybe the...

the measures internally that we've been dealing with could be

coming to a pause, at the very least, while we refocus on

some of the things that, um, are more important than internal division.

I think we need to go away and think about how we make sure that,

when we spend a lot of time in preparation and debate,

that the most important things are taken first.

-What are the most important things?

-Well, I think they're...

They're first of all to do with

how we build up the life of the local church

and how we affirm what those in ministry of all kinds are doing

and that needs to be profiled, it needs to be,

um, in the shop window and we need to spend a lot of time

thinking about it, so ministry and mission is terribly important.

And then, closely behind that, is the way in which

we make an impression, er, on the...

the values and the ethics of our common life, um, and again,

sometimes that gets buried in debate, rather than showcased upfront.

We read scary headlines about the state of the Kirk.

Is the Church of Scotland healthy?

I think it's in a state of change at the moment, er,

and that's always healthy. It's difficult, but it's healthy.

I think we used to have our position in Scotland,

because it was our position,

but we've got a Scottish Parliament now, we've got, um,

to rethink how we relate to the other institutions in our nations

and we need to assert that we have a place at the table,

because we deserve it, because we've worked for it,

because we're respected and I think that, over the last couple of years,

and certainly this week, that's what we've been trying to do.

We don't want to be there because we're privileged, but because we're useful.

Some would say the quality of debate in this hall

is superior to that in other nearby halls.

I couldn't possibly comment, but, er, I've always said that the quality

of debate at the General Assembly is as good as it gets.

Um, I think the people that are commissioners year-on-year

are some of our smartest people in Scotland

and they're people who have, um, possibly, in many cases,

given up the opportunity of other important high-profile positions,

because they want to serve the Church and want to serve God in this way,

er, and their talent shows when they come here.

# ..and in God's house forevermore

# My dwelling place shall be. #