If you fail to bite bullets and leave them lying around in a room in which things get heated, don't be surprised if eventually some of them go off or are aimed at people. That's one way of describing what has been going on in the Church of Scotland recently, and it has come to a head at the 1998 General Assembly which begins in Edinburgh today. Don't be surprised if some people get the bullet by the end of the week (metaphorically speaking, of course).
A quick look at this week's agenda will confirm the bilious and bruising nature of the week that lies ahead. Even the items which are unlikely to make it on to the floor of the Assembly, like the two petitions which are likely to be refused on grounds of competence (see front page story) are indicative of the bitter taste which this week is likely to leave.
First there is the nagging question of the lottery. To take the tainted money or to protest and remain pure? A commission is recommending that, by its refusal to accept any lottery grants, the Kirk is cutting off its nose to spite its face and wants to soften its stance. The Board of Social Responsibility sees any compromise as bowing the knee to Baal, and so bang goes consensus.
Another explosion is liable to be caused by the move by Dumbarton presbytery (through a retired teacher) to persuade the Kirk to take a lead in condemning denominational schools as outmoded and divisive. This particular bang is of the unexploded-bomb variety which has lain undisturbed owing to a reluctance to reopen old sectarian divides. The irony is that the Kirk is also likely to adopt a report committing it to seeking further union with the other reformed Churches and this zeal to scratch out dividing lines is liable to touch a raw nerve with the RC hierarchy, whose adherence to denominational schools has come to resemble an article of faith.
As if not content with entering that minefield, Church and Nation will join forces with World Mission on Wednesday morning to air the issue of Israel. In the presence of the Israeli ambassador in the gallery, they will present reports which talk about ''the reasonable aspirations of the Palestinian people'' and ''bringing pressure to bear on Israel'' and ''injustices practised on Christian and Muslim Palestinians by the state of Israel''. Rarely do foreign dignitaries get such home truths from the Kirk.Yet another instance of the fractious atmosphere in the air.
The board of World Mission are themselves not free of this atmosphere. In two separate reports this past year they have been castigated for their treatment of employees and have been forced to express their regret for errors in their report. Another area of internal strife has been the Assembly Council, originally set up to be a cross between a think tank and an executive committee and ending up as a paper tiger which got tanked. It decided to swallow the bitter pill and selected hemlock, voting itself out of existence. Attempts will be made to put it on a life support system, but the likelihood is that the council will go out on this sour note.
However, by far the greatest amount of bad blood will be generated by the Board of Communication, which includes significant media sectors. All but two of the 30 staff have signed a petition protesting against the way they have been treated by the board (now a svelte body of 12 which is even more svelte since three members resigned in solidarity with the staff). As if that is not enough, I hear that moves are afoot to block the reappointment of the convener in the Nominations Committee report on the final day (usually a totally uncontentious slate of names in which outgoing conveners ''fix'' who their successors are going to be and seldom receives the spotlight it ought to).
To complete this litany of mean passions and moans, the Guild are complaining that their new-look organisation is being unfairly treated by some Kirk Sessions and Glasgow Presbytery are complaining that some less well-off congregations are paying too much to boost ministers' wages.
It is natural that a body as widely representative of Scottish society, and as broad in its politics, different in its theology, and idiosyncratic in its ways, should prove to be divided over important issues. In that there is nothing new, nor anything threatening. Quite the reverse, if that debate resolves and clarifies issues and establishes consensus. But I sense something different his week about the Kirk. It is as if the haemorrhages in membership in recent years have sapped some of its resilience to bounce back, the indifference of society has brought a desperate note into its voice and a rise in the number of sad, mad, and bad boys and girls in the ministry have stolen its good name.
It is probably too late to bite some of those bullets but not too late to avoid turning them in on itself.
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