To lead our time for reflection today, we welcome the Right Reverend Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell.

Rt Rev Joseph Devine (Bishop of Motherwell):

I was privileged to be here, at the invitation of Sir David Steel, on the Friday following the death of the First Minister, Donald Dewar, to hear such moving tributes that were paid to him by all who spoke on that sad day. What I heard that afternoon has concentrated my mind on what I want to share with you today. I heard very powerful words and phrases: words such as honesty, integrity, loyalty and sincerity, as well as phrases such as "the father of the Parliament", "a Scot for all seasons", "someone whom we will miss terribly", and "the loss of one of our own". For once at least, the press covered what was said with great accuracy the following day.

Behind those generous words and phrases, I was hearing a key phrase and concept from the Jewish and Christian scriptures. That concept is wrapped up in one word: vision. The key phrase is: "without a vision, the people die". I want to explore the significance of those words for all of you.

You entered your chosen career as politicians in the light of the vision that was yours, following an impulse to serve the areas that you represent with a vision of how best to serve them. You did so through the political parties that are represented in this Parliament and because you thought that you could make a difference. That was an honourable thought. Despite all the differences between the parties that are represented here, your vision led you to think that you had something important to contribute to what is called the common good of society.

The promotion of the common good is still the best description of the chief business of politics and democracy. It was first given voice in ancient Greece and was bettered in the final words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address. The words of the Our Father, with which I will end this time for reflection, number no more than 52. By contrast, the European Community's regulation on the packaging of jams and preservatives runs to more than 280,000 words. Lincoln's Gettysburg address ran to 180 words, and I quote the final words of that address, which were offered as a kind of prayer:

"government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

That is your chief task in this Parliament. In meeting such a task, I ask you to have a care for yourselves. The demands on each of you are great. In the words of the Old Testament, the Lord bids us to tend our vineyards lest we be unable to attend the vineyards of those given into our care. That means that you have to have a care for yourselves. Despite your responsibilities as members of this Parliament, have a care for your health, as perhaps the late First Minister may have neglected his. There is a deeper meaning to that message, which was well articulated by Sir David Steel in his speech on 13 October, when he listed those who have died long before their time; some of them decades before their time. I ask you to have a care for each other.

In the cut and thrust of politics, there has to be conflict and confrontation. However, there has also to be a gentler way that is rooted in the awareness that all power is given from above, entrusted to all in leadership roles as stewards of the source and origin of all power—the Lord, who is the true guardian of the walls of the nation, to whom I pray in the great words of Jesus:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Amen.