Church 'Cannot Stay Out of Politics'

Thursday February 19

The new secretary of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council has defended the right of churches to be involved in politics.

Following a week in which the Church of England was criticised for its letter urging congregations to vote in May’s General Election, the Rev Martin Johnstone said that ‘the church cannot stay out of politics’.

Mr Johnstone, who took up his post this week, said: “I don’t think the church can ever be party political but it must never shy away from saying hard things to power.

“If the church’s decision is to take sides with the poorest in our society, of course we must do that on an individual basis but we must also do it on a societal basis.”

Mr Johnstone has moved from the Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas team, where he was Secretary for 15 years. “The work I have done in Priority Areas has been about the work of social justice and enabling the Church to make real its concern for the poorest in our society, and I think this job is really about doing the same,” he says.

“It’s about encouraging the Church always to think that unless we can stand alongside the poor, much of our reason for being the Church doesn’t exist.”

Top of his immediate agenda will be a conference, to be held in Glasgow on February 28, looking at moving beyond foodbanks as a way of dealing with food poverty in Scotland.

Beyond that, he says he hopes to work with Church and Society to take a long-term view of certain key issues. He said: “In our society much of what goes on gets caught between the cycles of elections, whether that’s at local authority, Scottish, UK or European level. The church is one of those bodies that can genuinely take a long-term view about what it wants to do.

“Within Priority Areas we developed in effect a 20-year strategy to look at how we enable and support the church in our poorest communities, and in 2010 the General Assembly approved a seven-year Priority Areas Action Plan. It’s that sort of long-term planning I hope I can support the council with over the next number of years.

“There will be immediate things that will come across our desks that we need to respond to, but for me the bigger question is how do we make Scotland a fairer and more equal nation in a fairer and more equal world in 10 years’ time and what can the Church of Scotland do to make that happen.”

Post Tags: church and society, martin johnstone

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Comments

Brian - Friday, February 20th, 2015

“Great quotes - and of course totally sincere, because I know Martin from way back. This is the kind of statement we ought to be reading in national newspapers/ news bulletins. Sadly, it seems to be neglected these days.”

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