It’s doesn’t feel like a May long weekend. Surely, today should involve a lake, bare legs, maybe the first mosquitoes and at very least a barbecue Instead, I’m holed up in the Media Room at General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, surrounded by desks, computers, and (instant) coffee drinking journalists. It is a good place to be (other than that non-coffee aroma.) There’s an excited buzz about the place – but it doesn’t feel like Victoria Day.
Yesterday was a little more like it. After our morning service, we headed to the park for Heart and Soul, a festival of the larger Church of Scotland. It was a misty Edinburgh day, but no rain, and plenty of high spirits. Last year at Heart and Soul, we more-or-less kept to the kids’ programme agenda, but this year we took time to wander through more of the tents. Different organisations and projects throughout the Church hosted tents – including congregations and presbyteries hoping to lure ministers to apply for their vacancies. Our kids found that there were craft options all over the place. Blue enjoyed making a coracle for St Columba out of bits from the recycling box. Beangirl made one, too, and also a “joy poster” which she covered with a golden snowstorm because that’s the sort of thing that brings joy. Why not? 
We also spent some time in front of the big stage, singing and dancing along with Fischy Music. Great stuff – and yes, we bought the cd. How do you take your kids to a concert and not get persuaded by the merch table?
But fun and games were for yesterday, I’m afraid, and there’s real work to be done today. The discussion at Assembly today concerns the ordination of ministers in same-sex relationships. Or as one former moderator said “single-sex orientation.” I’ll be writing more about this for an upcoming print issue of the Record, so I’ll leave the debate to settle for a while instead of chatting your ear off here. Because, as you can imagine, there are strong views on either side of this conversation.
Instead, I want to share with you the start of my day. We began with worship and communion, which was, I thought, a remarkably solid and inspired way to start a difficult day of debate. It gave us a chance to be rooted together as a worshipping community before any conversations officially started. But, as one wearing the yellow lanyard of the press, I really had to talk my way into the Assembly Hall to attend the service. There was concern that I was smuggling in a camera. I assured all that it was only a baby-on-the-way. Only, right? Because three trimesters in, the risk of disruptions caused by the foot cramps, urgent washroom visits, and general squirminess of preggers me are perhaps not quite in balance with the potential disruptive risks of a camera flash. Ah well, it all sorted out.I promised no cameras and they let me in. Even gave me a seat, which helped immensely.
The baby loved listening to the sheer force of the singing. It’s always so powerful to sing hymns with so many people. Baby thought it was Palm Sunday all over again – and behaved (thrashingly) appropriately…
Then came the quiet of prayer and the scripture reading. John 13: 21-35 – the story of Judas’ betrayal. You could feel the awkwardness in the hall. I wasn’t the only squirmy one.
After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’
It felt a little too pointed. Betrayal? Really? Is this how to begin a contentious day? But when the Moderator Very Reverend Lorna Hood began to preach the sermon, it all fell into place. She reminded us that the sacrament of communion came from the context of human brokenness. Whenever we celebrate communion, we remember that it was instituted on the night when Christ was betrayed. The night of Judas. The night of Peter’s denial. It was not a celebration of a united or marvellously saintly people. It was born from the context of division and weakness. And into this context, Jesus also spoke these words.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
The Reverend Hood presented these words this morning as a rallying cry that would lead us into the debate ahead. She told us that we are to be a Church that is identified by love. Which is an excellent call for any General Assembly. An excellent call for any and every church. It is a call to take seriously the loving example of Christ and our own work of love.
This week, please remember the larger Church in your prayers and know that we farflung followers are also praying with you.
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News-stand photo by Michael Munnik
