Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Official Report 711KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. First of all, we have time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Dr Daniel Frank, minister of the Wallacewell community fellowship of the Church of Scotland.

Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for this invitation.

“What we know matters but who we are matters more.”

That is the quote that is written on the learning centre wall of the oasis project at the Wallacewell community fellowship. Brené Brown, its author, captures the essence of what people want more than anything else from their leaders.

Great men and women down through history were men and women of character. All of them had flaws, and many of them were far from perfect, but who they were and how they lived their lives in caring for, supporting and loving the people they led meant that history remembers, respects and honours their contributions to society—Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, David Livingstone and women such as Jane Mathison Haining, a Scottish farmer’s daughter, a missionary and matron of the Jewish mission girls home in Budapest during world war two.

When war broke out she was on leave in Scotland, but she put herself in great danger by travelling back to Hungary to care for the children. When Germany invaded Hungary, she remained to defend the children in her charge, was arrested by the Gestapo and was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. She died as a result of her immense compassion and courage.

Today, as the face of the United Kingdom is changing, its leaders will be called upon to give insight and to lead the people with wisdom and grace into the 21st century, where the impact that we have can make a difference for all of society.

Leadership is based on who we are, our character and ethics. Those will be what are remembered over time and what will make the greatest impact for Scotland and the world. It is not what we know that matters; who we are matters more.

Ultimately, that is what Jesus Christ modelled. He is, for Christians, the single greatest leader, who demonstrated the kingdom of heaven on this earth. He lived a moral and ethical lifestyle in which, historically, no one has ever been able to find fault.

The reality is that people did not follow Jesus for what he said or even for what he knew; they followed and follow him for who he is. He attracts the poor and the lost, the lonely and the addicted, and it is because he lived the fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control—that fault cannot be found.

What we know matters, but who we are matters more.