Message from Rev. Peter Donald, Our Interim Moderator. Dear Friends

www.kiltarlityandkirkhill.org.uk Kiltarlity and Wardlaw Churches Message from Rev. Peter Donald, our Interim Moderator. Dear friends, With summer well upon us and the holiday period approaching, newspapers regularly ask various people what they recommend as holiday reading. I’m conscious these suggestions as regularly pass me by ! Nevertheless I want to share with you something I have been reading recently. You may or may not be interested to read his book, but let me pick out just a little of what Jonathan Sacks has written in The Great Partnership: God, science and the search for meaning. Here’s how he starts: “If the new atheists are right, you would have to be sad, bad or mad to believe in God and to practise a religious faith. We know that is not so. Religion has inspired individuals to moral greatness, consecrated their love and helped them to build communities where individuals are cherished and great works of loving kindness are performed.” ( p.1 ) And so Jonathan Sacks, now retired from being the Chief Rabbi, carefully picks his way through the various attacks on belief in the 21st century to defend the truth and beauty of trusting in God. “When a society loses its soul, it is about to lose its future” ( p.2 ). Here is a Jew writing in the very best tradition of that ancient faith, witnessing to the one God of us all and showing how ancient Scriptures speak nowadays as powerfully as ever. Science is the search for explanation. Religion is the search for meaning. Because we are meaning-seeking animals, science alone is not enough. I have not yet finished the book ( for limits of time ! though I’m also wanting to savour its riches ), so here’s just another tiny taster from a chapter he writes about “Relationships.” God, he insists, above all takes us into thinking about and living through good relationships. The Bible from the start takes up the theme, about husbands and wives, parents and children, rivalry between siblings and so on. The faith story emerging is that as God is love – utterly loyal, committed to share in our lives, redeeming our solitude – so also society is built most solidly on the basis of love, the love of neighbour and stranger as well as of family. Alas the nightmare is where, because faith is seen not to matter, we have sex without love, promiscuity without limits, love without commitment, fatherhood without responsibility, children paying the price of relationships being unstable. For the notion of God being a caring father ( or, in late Isaiah, also a comforting mother ), and faith an entering into a marriage with God where God makes promises and invites us also to offer constancy, for better, for worse, takes us somewhere quite different. Jonathan Sacks is most certainly not naive about the complexities of modern life, or about historical failures in the name of religion; but he is upholding the prophetic witness. “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain.” (Psalm 127:1) With best wishes, Peter The Parishioner Newsletter Issue 77 – July 2014 Page 1 of 22 www.kiltarlityandkirkhill.org.uk Turning down the volume and keeping a perspective in the referendum debate June has not been a good month for those of us who promote Scotland’s referendum debate as a ‘respectful dialogue’ – indeed the many days have heard the siren voices of disrespect dominate the headlines. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held an extremely successful public dialogue on the independence question which I, as Moderator, chaired. I have found this public profile comes at a cost. If you take twitter feeds or you have an accessible email address and people somehow think you might be influential – then you’ll get messages that you would rather not receive. This is particularly true as the day of the referendum vote draws ever closer. Apart from the distasteful remarks aimed at these who have donated big money to each of the campaigns, there are also other determined characters using dubious tactics to pressurise, rather than persuade people over to their point of view. I’ve been the recipient of such messages - they have come from both sides of the campaign – and if I was at all a sensitive chiel I would think I was being bullied. Sometimes the writer purports to respect the fact that the Church of Scotland has declared its neutrality in the campaign, but they offer some other reason why it would be morally or theologically indefensible for me to maintain silence on one or another aspect of the public debate. I will not yield to their pressure and I have sincere hopes that no one else bows to such offensive approaches. Of course, we have to put the influence of the cyber bullies into perspective. Modern communication methods are giving these people both a cloak of anonymity to hide behind and a profile far greater than they merit. They are a tiny minority of people and if they really cared about Scotland’s future they would know that Scotland will never let such attitudes prevail. The outcome of the referendum will not turn on their contribution to the discussion. The words on the Mace in the Scottish Parliament - Wisdom, Justice, Compassion and Integrity will still be the words on the Mace whether we are an independent nation or still part of the United Kingdom and those who are tempted to use underhand tactics in this debate would do well to pause and measure themselves against these words. The fact of the matter is that for the most part the public debate is being conducted at a very high standard. I would be deeply distressed to find a ‘dirty tricks’ section at the heart of either campaign and while one or two individuals in the heat of the passions that are running high may have gone too far, I believe that both sides are trying to win the argument on principle and on substance. With less than a hundred days to go, however, it is a good time to turn down the volume on the rhetoric and refocus on the substance. Trading in personal insults will not win votes, bullies are no part of Scotland’s future so we don’t need to encourage them now and since we have to live with one another whatever the outcome we need to treat each other with respect now. I urge both sides of this debate to remember that “facts are chiels that winna ding" and facts are what we have to trade in from now until September 18th. On the 19th September there will be no ’them and us’, only ‘us’ so, now is the time to keep the dialogue respectful. Rt Rev John Chalmers, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The Parishioner Newsletter Issue 77 – July 2014 Page 2 of 22 www.kiltarlityandkirkhill.org.uk Last month, The Parishioner received its second written adverse observation in the six and half years since its first publication. The abridged version of the observation is : ‘Firstly I’d like to emphasise that this feedback is given on the basic premise that I find it a really useful vehicle for receiving church news, both local and from the broader church. It is my personal opinion but I have also had some feedback ( unsolicited and informal ) recently from people within the church and outside of it. I am concerned that there are a growing number of pages which seem to have stories which are irrelevant and in some cases potentially offensive. In particular I am referring to both the ‘blonde jokes’ and the ‘Irish jokes’ included in the June edition. I really feel that a church newsletter should reflect the Christian ethos which is one of openness and inclusivity. These jokes seem to go completely against these values. The newsletter is quite long so it wouldn’t suffer from a decrease in the number of pages and therefore there wouldn’t be the need to have such fillers as these kinds of jokes which can be taken the wrong way.’ Firstly I wish, as sole Editor for the last twelve editions, to offer my most sincere apologies if anyone has been offended by any of the content in any edition of this publication. It certainly is not my intention to be offensive to any one person or group at any time in the past or in the future. From the first edition in 2008, Rosemary and I asked for relevant, timely, meaningful feedback and suggestions for improvements. This is still as true today as it was six years ago. Good feedback should always offer suggestions of how the recipient ( the Editor ) can do better in the future. Feedback which just points out somebody’s mistakes is no use if no help towards improvement is offered. Over the life of The Parishioner we have received the majority of our feedback in a verbal format from many sources, from within and out with the Church. Some has been acted upon and some has been discussed with the reader, and not progressed. I welcome all feedback, whether written or verbal, good or bad. On one of the specific points raised above, I would like all readers to know that all the jokes used in The Parishioner are sourced from Church members, or from other Church newsletters / magazines. Not everyone’s sense of humour is the same, so jokes will be printed that some individuals may find difficult to accept or find funny for whatever reason.

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