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Archbishop addresses Glasgow Presbytery

10 October, 2006

In a history-making speech, Archbishop Mario Conti became the first Roman Catholic bishop to address the Church of Scotland's Glasgow Presbytery. The gathering of more than 200 ministers and elders from Kirks across the Glasgow area took place at New Govan Church. In his speech, the Archbishop recalled the words of Pope John Paul II during his visit to Glasgow in 1982, urging Christians of all traditions to make their journey through life "together, hand in hand."

The full text of the address follows on this page, and can also be downloaded as a pdf.

'We are only pilgrims on this earth...'

Moderator, Members of the Presbytery, colleagues and friends.

I am most grateful for the invitation to attend your presbytery meeting and honoured to address you.

I consider this meeting to be a significant milestone in our ongoing pilgrimage as Christians in Glasgow.

When the late Pope John Paul visited this city in the summer of 1982, he delivered a stirring address to the Catholic community at Bellahouston Park.  But it is perhaps the final section of that address which is best remembered, and that was the section addressed to the Christians of other traditions. To all who shared “the privilege of being Scots” as he put it.

“We are only pilgrims on this earth,” he said,  “making our way towards that heavenly Kingdom promised to us as God’s children.”

“Beloved Brethren in Christ, for the future, can we not make that pilgrimage together, hand in hand …”

At that point the spontaneous applause of the crowd interrupted the Pope and cheering lasted for several minutes.

In our meeting tonight we can acknowledge the progress which has been made in the last 24 years since that speech was made.  Far have we travelled together, and few would deny that the sense which animates our conversations and dialogues is that of “fellow pilgrims”.

Since coming to the Archdiocese I have been very keen to put ecumenical affairs at the top of my agenda. I noted early on that in a city known too often for bigotry and intolerance, the Christian communities had a special responsibility to work together and give a more authentic witness to what the apostle Peter refers to as “the hope that is in us.”

In recent years the Archdiocese has established a fully operational ecumenical commission and we are in the process of nominating parish ecumenical contacts to ensure that the appetite for dialogue and the instinct for working together permeate all levels of church life.

I have also sought to provide in the week of Prayer for Christian Unity an occasion for a leader of another Christian community to address us - “preserving the unity of the Spirit that binds us together,” as St Paul exhorts the Ephesians to do.

In such ways I should like to see us develop a new identity as Glasgow Christians. It is often cited as an example of Scots’ egalitarian spirit the saying: “we are all Jock Thamson’s bairns”.  Perhaps as Christians in Glasgow we can adapt that and consider ourselves “all Mungo’s children.”

I do not intend to rehearse the painful memories which have kept us apart over four centuries and more.  Instead I should like to look forward to our coming together, more fully, in years to come, through a shared prayer, public witness, commitment to inter-faith dialogue and common social action.

When I came to Glasgow I was struck by the contrast between the fine work of regeneration which we see all around us, expressed architecturally and in a cultural renaissance and the continuing, perhaps worsening cultural and spiritual poverty of our fellow citizens.

You know as well as I do the scenario … too many lives lived in a penombra of poverty, addiction, idleness, family breakdown, lawlessness, poor health and despair.  That is the landscape in which an alarming number of our fellow citizens live.

As Christians we are called to combat such evils and to bind up such broken lives … “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly,” Jesus tells us.  That task is ours also as disciples of the Lord.

Already there are signs of hope:

• I think of the splendid “Faith in Community” event organised recently at the RSAMD and which I was privileged to attend, indeed I met some of you there.

• I think of the great work done by Rev John Matthews in setting up the Glasgow Churches Social Action Alliance – an initiative which we have been happy to support.

• I want to make you aware of a very significant conference to be held in the city on 20 February next, hosted by the City of Glasgow in the City Chambers and under the auspices of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

As a member, I suggested to the Royal Society a day long conference on Urban Poverty, bringing together experts from a range of disciplines, including a former Moderator of the General Assembly Very Rev John Miller from Castlemilk to examine what we have called the “transcending poverties” in the life of the city.

I think that conference will be an excellent opportunity to reflect together on how we as Christians can co-operate with other agencies in opening the horizons of our fellow “children of Mungo” so that they may truly “have life and have it in abundance”.

I believe that it is in ventures like this that the Archdiocese and the Presbytery of Glasgow will grow closer and bear much fruit.

Both our institutions have so much to offer … an enormous network of clergy, committed laypersons, facilities, ecclesiastical plant and most importantly of all, a deep reservoir of faith, hope and charity.

I believe if we can work together at a local level, we can harness the skills and enthusiasm of our congregations to work for the good of others, and in doing so, draw closer in Christian fellowship.

I started with a recollection of that discourse delivered by Pope John Paul 24 years ago at Bellahouston.  As I said it was interrupted so dramatically and at such length that the Pope’s subsequent words were completely drowned out.

Yet it is interesting to read now the section of his speech which was never reported (because it was never heard amid all the din!). 

I quote in full his sentence: “We are only pilgrims on this earth, making our way towards that heavenly Kingdom promised to us as God’s children. Beloved brethren in Christ, for the future, can we not make that pilgrimage together hand-in-hand, “bearing with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience,” doing all we can “to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds us together”? (Eph. 4, 2-3) This would surely bring down upon us the blessing of God our Father on our pilgrim way.”

Thank you for the privilege of addressing you.