‘Have the boldness to become involved,’ Kate Forbes tells Scotland’s Christians

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister has sought to reassure Christians that there’s a role for them to play in helping the country address its challenges.

Speaking at an event on the Scottish Parliament hosted by the Evangelical Alliance, Kate Forbes encouraged Christians to be confident in looking for to serve the nation and their communities in love.

“We know the massive changes which have been delivered over generations on this country due to the work of Christians within the country,” said Forbes, who’s a committed Christian.

“And now we have a alternative at once as as to if that may proceed to be the case. And I would like to be a part of it, and I hope you do too.”

The event was held on Wednesday to mark the publication of the Evangelical Alliance’s recent report, What Kind of Nation?, which sets out numerous priority areas for Christian engagement, including the economy, education, drug addiction, depopulation, and poverty reduction. 

Commending the report, Forbes said: “I often talk over with people and there is a component of fear, there’s a component of worry, there are questions of whether we must always become involved or not, and my response is to have that confidence to become involved.

“Because we all know that the necessity is great, and as a church, as faith communities, there may be a possibility for us to do something that demonstrates that love.” 

What Kind of Nation? has been published 10 years on from the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. It says more attention must be paid to the challenges of depopulation, and calls on the Scottish government to make improvements to how faith is taught in schools. The report also features examples of the work that Evangelical Alliance member organisations are already doing in these areas.

Addressing Wednesday’s report launch at Holyrood, Conservative MSP Jeremy Balfour said: “Many of us have experience of what the churches, what the religion communities are doing, the impact that they’ve on vulnerable people across our society, but in addition other sectors as well.

“I often say to people, it could be interesting if all of us went on strike for 48 hours. What would Scotland appear like? And

“I believe that is an actual challenge for us as politicians, to take the work that is finished seriously and to recognise the importance of it and the necessity to give you the option to fund it and to support it in other ways.”

Lynne Paterson, head of the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland, asked policymakers to concentrate to the work the church is doing.

“We need to encourage policymakers that the church has got something really essential to contribute and to encourage churches to be that excellent news inside their communities,” she said. 

“The member organisations which are featured within the report, represent only a fraction of the worth that Christians are contributing to Scotland, and so they’re all involved on this liberating excellent news mission.

“They’re motivated by God’s love and God’s mercy, they’ve experienced it themselves and so they want to provide it out. And they’re compelled by the sort of vision that Jesus got here to proclaim, that we examine within the Bible, the vision that he had for a special sort of society.”