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The Last Word

In 2010 we mark the 450th anniversary of the Reformation, an event which left an indelible legacy in Scottish society. In the final programme of Scotland at Prayer The Last Word , Billy Kay reaffirms the cultural legacy of the Reformation,
explores the shared identity of Christians in an increasingly secular society and looks to the future of the churches.

The positive cultural legacies of the Scottish Reformation are still with us.....the democratic principles, the social welfare, the precocious ideal of mass educational provision, community singing, community identity through local parishes etc etc.
One of the unforeseen negative impacts however stemmed from the availability in the early days of an English rather than a full Scots translation of the bible and the native Scots tongue is still neglected.

Another negative aspect that has improved dramatically in recent times is hostility between the major denominations. More and more, Scottish Christians are realising that the enemies of their faith are those who profess aggressive secularism rather than those who adhere to other denominations. Evangelical Protestants here stress their admiration for the moral stance of the Roman Catholic church for example. Unlike the comparative unity of the Catholic Church, however, Presbyterians have had a history of schism, and we hear that there is a grave danger of that in the near future because of issues like the acceptance of homosexual clergy.

Despite its numerical decline, several commentators highlight the continued importance and relevance of the national church - Harry Reid points out that the Kirk has something like 40,000 elders, and suggests that all the political parties in Scotland would dearly love to have such a huge number of committed members.

We contrast the decline of the Kirk in Scotland and all of the churches in Western Europe with the thriving Presbyterian church in far flung places like Africa and Korea, and we hear the moving sound of the 100th Psalm sung in the Tumbuka language by the congregation of the Presbyterian kirk at Ekwendeni in Malawi -an event remembered fondly by Billy.

There the profound faith of the people was striking and the series ends with people from different churches expressing their own deep sense of faith and its meaning to them and their families. Some of them ask if nowadays we need to re-evangelise Scotland and create a second Reformation?

An Odyssey Production for Radio Scotland.