COMMENT
THE only songs which are usually heard at the General Assembly are metrical psalms. This week I cannot help but hum alternatives.
''They sent him homeward, to think again,'' must surely be ringing in the ears of the Mullah of Mull, the Rev Alan Taylor, who saw his carefully-crafted plans for the introduction of part-time ministries and flexible contracts for parish
re-appraisal which have earned him a year's extension of his convener's contract, put in ruins by the intervention of the Laird of Penicuik, elder John McCulloch.
Perhaps it was Mr Taylor's claim that his committee knew better than presbyteries which was his undoing, always a dangerous strategy in a body packed with perennial presbyters.
If it comes to a theme song for the board of communication and its employees, it is unlikely to be a Bing Crosby duet, since Grace, True Love and Lamour have been conspicuously absent from the much-publicised tiff between the board and its employees.
Perhaps a Sinatra song might be more appropriate for the issue which will dominate this morning's business. For some months now, the sound of Strangers in the Night . . . exchanging insults has been emanating from the board, resulting in today's petition from staff which asks for a commission of inquiry to be set up. Or will the director of communication (Brian McGlynn) be caught singing new words to the tune of My Way - I did for Path-way or will the convener (the Rev David MacLeod) be giving us a rousing rendition of Keep Spreading the News - I'm leaving today.
At first sight, the staff's petition for a commission and the board's offer of mediation seem to be reaching out to one another for a compromise. One former moderator yesterday told me how saddened he was that people he respected on both sides now had so little respect for one another.
The staff are not without their champions among the ex-mods. The Very Rev James Simpson is rumoured to be standing by to take up the cudgels. But my tip is that the assembly may opt for another motion: noting the conflicting arguments printed on their papers and remitting the whole issue to a commission without washing any more dirty linen in public.
As Nancy Sinatra used to sing, these boots were made for walking - not for kicking hell out of one another.
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