10 September 2025

Even before Enoch Powell and his sixties politics, we have the example of Nazi Germany and the Fuhrer’s   extraordinary quest for national purity. It was a vision which could never be fulfilled. But that didn’t stop Hitler from purging the nation of its Jews and others.

We look at the situation in Gaza and we cannot believe our eyes. Israel is clearly destroying not only the infrastructure of the Palestinian homeland but the people too. The casualties include enormous numbers of women and children. Somehow there is no room in this ancient land for two peoples to live in harmony.

It is also true in our own nation. Although Scotland needs migrants to harvest its land and staff its care homes and wait on its tables, it doesn’t stop people in Falkirk and Perth making protest about the housing of asylum seekers. To what end?

There is no nation where the people are pure in any sense of the word. Our identities are not secure. We are a mixture of races originating on the African continent. Our privileged climate, environment, economy, education and health service should inspire generosity not greed.

But human nature can readily turn in on itself. I see it in the negotiations which have unfolded in our Presbytery Mission Plan. Somehow the desire to share resources with a uniting congregation or seek unity across parish boundaries eludes people. The arguments are petty and pitiful.

Jesus tells us that the unity of the Church is an instrument of mission. It’s only through our unity that the world may believe. The fractured state of the Church is Scotland has played its part in the fragmentation of our nation and, indeed,  the inhospitable attitudes towards the stranger which are ungodly.