Church Launches Vision for Scotland's Future

Wednesday February 26 2014

Senior figures from both sides of the Scottish independence debate praised a vision for Scotland’s future published by the Church of Scotland this morning.

“Imagining Scotland’s Future” has been produced by the Church and Society Council, based on the views of over 900 people who attended 32 community events over the past year.

The priorities identified in the report include building local communities on the principles of fairness, justice and sharing resources; fair access to the criminal justice system, and a welfare state in which everyone has their basic needs met.

Its launch this morning (Wednesday) in John Knox House, Edinburgh, was attended by MSPs Baroness Goldie, representing Better Together, and the SNP’s Roseanna Cunningham.

Baroness Goldie said it had been an ‘innovative’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘brave’ exercise, which raised ‘points of common accord’. “I think in terms of the aspirations for the kind of Scotland we want to see, there is a great deal of agreement… of course, I feel there is a better prospect for many of these values being delivered or achieved if we remain within the family of nations that is the UK.”

Ms Cunningham congratulated the church for conducting the exercise. “One of the things I have said in a lot of conversations is that we have an opportunity that’s very rarely afforded to any nation – to have a conversation about the best future of our nation. This kind of conversation is more often conducted after periods of extreme civil unrest.

“What I read through this report was underlying values that are going to be agreed upon by people from any political party. I believe the best opportunity Scotland has to achieve those values is if we begin to make all our own decisions here in Scotland.”

The launch was also  attended by Dr Alison Elliot, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. She said it had been ‘a great initiative and a very important one’, and that it was ‘important for the authenticity of the outcome’ of the referendum that people have the chance to take part in such debates.

Sally Foster-Fulton, convener of the Church and Society Council, said: “The General Assembly decided, quite wisely, that the Church of Scotland would remain impartial as to the outcome of the referendum, but we wanted to be wholly engaged in the discernment process, so people would have the opportunity to discern not just ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but ‘why’ and what kind of Scotland we want to live in, regardless of outcome.

“I’m very happy, I think the report has a lot of potential to continue to stimulate discussion. Already the ripple effect from those 32 events is huge – people didn’t stop talking, they went home and talked to friends and families, and the conversations continue.

“The Church of Scotland is going to produce resources based on this report to help facilitate hustings-style meetings in communities, and to continue those conversations in very creative ways.”

The referendum on Scottish independence takes place on September 18.

Download Imagining Scotland's Future here.

Comments

There are currently no comments on this post

Add a reply

All fields are required. Email address will not be published.