Let your light shine

CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 2 May 2024

Image courtesy YouVersion

Friends in Christ, I am happily back from a week's annual leave, which was very refreshing. I have also enjoyed hearing Charlie Skrine's preaching and teaching at the EFAC conference. Thank you for your prayers. 

You may not be much interested in politics in Scotland, but bear with me for a moment.

Kate Forbes (BBC profile here) is a member of the Scottish National Party (which expresses a social democratic tradition also desiring Scottish independence in the UK). She narrowly lost a ballot to be its leader a few years back, largely because she was an evangelical member of the Free Church of Scotland. This is even though she took the politically liberal position of not seeking to impose her personal views (on sex or sanctity of life) into the public law of the land. Today she is being vilified by much of the progressive media in Scotland, as she is again considered as a fresh candidate to lead her party. But that's all background...

I was moved to tears while reading this testimony from The Indian Council of Scotland and the United Kingdom. See what you think!

Statement:
It is with increased discomfort we view the unseemly language being used to denigrate Kate Forbes MSP – a potential candidate for the office of First Minister.

Let me be very clear; I am not a Scottish nationalist and do not support the fragmenting of the United Kingdom. But that does not prevent me, nor the Indian Councils of Scotland and the United Kingdom, from expressing our collective disgust at the language used to mis-characterise a young, Scottish Protestant, Kate Forbes.

She is in our view, doing her utmost as a devout Christian, to adhere to the teachings of her Saviour.

I have never met Ms Forbes – but I understand her family distinguished themselves in India. Her father worked as an accountant managing the finances of a group of Christian mission hospitals which ensured people living in poverty were able to access free health care. For that alone, the Indian Councils of Scotland and the United Kingdom, salute the Forbes family. As a child in India – we know Ms Forbes will have been imbued with a deep love and affection for the people of India, their traditions, religions, and varying social and economic circumstances.

Are some members of her own party and the extremists of the Green party really saying a young Highland lady, and a follower of Jesus Christ, is not fit to hold the highest office in devolved Scotland? If every other faith was subjected to the scrutiny and opprobrium Ms Forbes and her Church is subjected to – few would be deemed fit for office by the secular ‘religious police’.

Religious intolerance blights our society - and what has been said and written about Ms Forbes, shames us all. I am not from her religious tradition, but I commend her honesty and the uncomplicated simplicity of her Christian faith. Her mother and father laboured as devout Scottish Christians in India. Sadly, it appears, their talented daughter is not allowed to express her faith in her native land.

I’ll finish this note with a quote from Kate Forbes, speaking on the BBC, she said:
“I believe in the person of Jesus Christ, I believe He died for me, He saved me and that my calling is to serve and to love Him and to serve and love my neighbours with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. So that, for me, is essential to my being. Politics will pass. I was a person before I was a politician, and that person will continue to believe that I am made in the image of God.”

Neil Lal
Chairman and President
The Indian Council of Scotland and United Kingdom

Notice the way of thinking that may be more common in many Eastern cultures... Because the family is honourable, we can assume the current family member probably should be honoured too!

And be encouraged. Christians are seeking to serve the Lord Jesus faithfully in a variety of contexts, even in politics. Notice Ms Forbes is totally open about the content of her faith, even if it costs her politically. 

We won't all vote the same way. But we should all pray for Christians in politics to work hard at being biblical in conviction, character and conduct. 

Be further encouraged... Even when traditional Christian belief seems unpopular, there will be people who respond warmly to our faithful witness. What Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount contains an implied promise, as well as the command! 

"Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

Warmly in Christ,

Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney

P.S. May is National Domestic Violence Remembrance Month, and we have been reminded again how sadly we need this. In this post on our public Facebook page, I share just a few parts of Scripture that help form a Christian response to this awful reality. You do not need a Facebook account to view the post.