There's been quite a lot of dreaming going on this week. Yesterday Pope Francis published what is called an apostolic exhortation. It's title is The Joy of the Gospel and it's being heralded as the Pope's dream for the Church, a Church founded on mercy, justice and dialogue.  The Pope says he wants to encourage a culture of encounter which is music to my ears and I'm sure I'll be returning to this theme at a later time.

The other dream going on this week has been the white paper on the future of Scotland. It sets out what an independent Scotland might look like if the people of Scotland vote yes in the referendum next year.  This vision for Scotland is a political paper and no doubt it will have its critics.  No matter what the decision next year or people's opinions about the economic facts of independence this moment in our history has given us an opportunity to think about the kind of Scotland we want to live in.  I cannot think of another country in the world that has had this kind of reflection in peace time.  Many conversations have taken place on the topic already. I've previously blogged about Postcards from Scotland and Interfaith Scotland has used Visions and Values for Scotland as the focus of its dialogues this year and the theme of Scottish Interfaith Week which is still underway.

I was privileged to speak about this at the national celebration of Interfaith Week in Kirkcaldy on Tuesday evening.  For me Scotland can do no better than live up to the four values engraved on the Scottish Mace, values that Donald Dewar, the first First Minister said the new Scotland was built. This was at the time of the establishment of the Parliament in 1999 and perhaps it's time to revisit them.  So I would want for the citizens of Scotland

an integrity which would meant honesty and transparency in its public, religious, private and voluntary institutions

a wisdom that would ensure a listening ear and discerning spirit so that greed, self-interest, power will not dictate how we live but that all who live within the borders of Scotland will seek the common good. A common good that allows the human flourishing of all, remembering that human rights must always be accompanied by human responsibilities.

justice that will work to give everyone a living wage, make sure all can live in safety and that the homeless, the marginalised, the poor, the stranger, the abused and uncared for are looked after.

compassion that will help us realise we are brothers and sisters, interrelated members of the same human family, citizens of a world that cries out for healing, wholeness and peace.  A compassion that will welcome the stranger, rejoice in diversity, walk the earth with reverence and respect and reach out in support and friendship to other countries and other nations. 

Is this too idealistic?  Our time has given  us people  like Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi whose ideals have been lived out in their lives and who have become ikons of the best of human nature.  Can Scotland live up to these ideals?  We can but try but as we do so these four values engraved on the  mace that sits before our parliamentarians is a  constant reminder of the ideals to which they and we all aspire and to which they and we can be called to account.

Sunday 24th November begins Scottish Interfaith Week.  This takes place every year in the week in which St Andrew's Day falls. This is a national holiday in Scotland so holding interfaith week at this time is to showcase Scotland as a multi-faith, multi-cultural society in which all can enjoy a civic identity in spite of differences in culture, nationality, religion and philosophical outlook.  

There will be a wide variety of events from interfaith services, panels of speakers, art competition, discussions on social issues, book launches, lectures, conversations, coffee mornings, film shows.

The theme for the week is  ‘Values and Visions for Scotland’. With the Scottish Referendum approaching in 2014, this provides an opportunity for interfaith groups across Scotland to think about the kind of Scotland they would like to see now and in the future, regardless of the political outcome. This is a unique moment for Scotland.  There can't be many small countries in the world that, in peacetime, have  the opportunity to think about the kind of society they would like to live in.  There are many such conversations going on in Scotland at the moment and Interfaith Week encourages faith communities to engage with them. 

One of the topics for conversation has been the place of religion in a secular state and how important it is that all religious and philosophical beliefs are allowed their space. A recent meeting of the religious leaders of Scotland at the Parliament brought this out. In an introduction to the conversation the Moderator of the Church of Scotland pointed out that recently the Guide Movement in Britain has dropped God from the Guide Promise. This, no doubt, has been done in the interests of inclusion but in fact it excludes religious guides of whom there are many.  The  Scout Movement has gone about things differently.  It allows for different kinds of promises so is truly inclusive.  We all speak different languages, and it's important to allow  beliefs to speak their own language, and even more important  perhaps to understand the other's  language and even find out the reality behind the words is closer than we think.

Within religion virtue is described as a middle way.  Although compassion is at the heart of Buddhism there is such a thing as idiot compassion. Thomas Aquinas following on from Aristotle saw the moral virtues as a mean between excess and defect; thus courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness, and liberality is a mean between stinginess and prodigality. As far as equality is concerned excess can in fact lead to inequality and deficiency can mean injustice.

To find the middle way with which all can live dialogue is necessary .  A good agenda for this interfaith week.

I attended an interesting seminar this weekend. It was organised by the Conforti Institute in Coatbridge, Scotland and brought together religious believers and humanists to engage in conversation about values and ethics. The atmosphere was warm and congenial and it was obvious that everyone there was full of good will and eager to make contact with one another.  This doesn't mean the conversation wasn't challenging.

On so many occasions it seemed that those who labelled themselves atheist, secularist or humanist had rejected religion because of bad experiences with the Church.  As always this is a source of shame and sadness for those of us who have stayed.  So often people seem to identify God with the institution and reject the transcendent because of the failings of people who are, like all of us, sinful, incomplete, damaged and struggling to make sense of life.  Whoever and whatever God is, God is not the Church or any religious institution. Religious institutions are meant to provide guidance and offer a practice that helps members live a good life.  This is more important than any dogmatic teaching which excludes or rejects people who are different or think differently. All religions have liberating and oppressive aspects and I often think that those of us who have stayed in religion have experienced its liberating aspects while those who have only experienced the oppressive are right to leave.

One of the key speakers of the weekend was Christ Stedman whose book Faitheist encourages a dialogue between atheists and religious people.  Chris is an interesting person.  He is the humanist chaplain at Harvard University but has two degrees in religion and has done a course on spiritual direction with the Jesuits at Loyola University in Chicago. While he describes himself as an atheist he has a feel for religion and is totally committed to an interfaith dialogue that includes humanists and secularists. This is important if believers and non-believers are to live together and work together for social justice.  There are plenty of issues that we can all work on but as someone remarked at the seminar religious people should be aware that while humanists are working with them on issues of justice they are also working to rid the world of religion.  I don't think there can be much dialogue if this is the case.  Fundamentalists and exclusivists of whatever persuasion don't normally make good subjects for interfaith dialogue.  Believers and non-believers alike need to respect one another's position and their right to hold it, to learn to understand one another's language, to discern the reality behind the words, to find common ground.  The starting point needs to be conversation with an openness to mutual understanding.

This approach would hold no problems for Chris Stedman. I hope it can also be accepted by others.

A friend recently lent me the DVD of the film 'The Lady'.  it is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle for democracy in Burma or Myanmar as it's now called. 

The film focusses on the great sacrifice she had to make in being separated from her husband and two sons while under house arrest.  Even when her husband was dying of cancer she refused to visit him in Oxford as she knew she wouldn't be able to return to work for democracy in her homeland if she did so.  Here was a strong and courageous woman dedicated to a cause that was greater than family and friends and supported by them.  They too sacrificed a lot for freedom and democracy.  Aung San Suu Kyi has become an iconic figure, a figure of a gentle  strength and dedication that refused to  be overpowered by fear or oppression, who stood up for truth and justice in the face of violence and injustice. 

For me her real greatness was her demeanour when she was released from house arrest. She was strong in her convictions but gentle in her approach, calling for dialogue and cooperation with the military government. Her long years of house arrest had not embittered her but given her a dignity and wisdom that might only come as a result of suffering. in this she was like Nelson Mandela whose years of imprisonment left him with an open and forgiving heart that sought truth, forgiveness and reconciliation. 

Someone once remarked to me that it was a privilege to live in the same age as Nelson Mandela and i would say the same for Aung Saan Suu Kyi.  I'm not suggesting they are saints but their nobility of spirit has, I think, changed the human condition. Just as Roger Bannister, the first person to run the four minute mile, opened up possibilities for other athletes to transcend what now seems rather a slow time,  people such and Mandela and Suu Kyi show us human possibilites in the work for justice and peace and have  cleared the way for our doing likewise.  It seems to me that this is what the great religious founders  did.  The Buddha by his enlightenment made it possible for us to become enlightened, Jesus by his total love for others, especially the poor and marginalised made it possible for us to transcend selfishness and live in solidarity with others.  These are indeed saviour figures and even from a purely human perspective have offered a way of salvation to humanity.  Of course there are others like Hitler who have done the very opposite and diminished humanity by their hatred and evil ways.   It is up to us to choose which way is ours.