Scotland Forever!

This past Sunday morning I mentioned that I had been corresponding with a Church of Scotland minister who attended worship at Bridge St. UC back in May. At the end of her email she asked for prayers as the citizens of Scotland voted on independence. Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for over 200 years but the polls suggest that this will be a close vote. For the longest time it seemed that Britain was almost indifferent about the referendum, perhaps convinced that there wasn't a chance that Scots would choose succession. Now there is strange mixture of dire warnings about the economic consequences of leaving and "don't go, we love you and will give you whatever you want!" Come to think of it, it sounds a lot like the Quebec referendums, doesn't it?

We Canadians have strong Scottish ties to be sure. I mean, we have a province called New Scotland (Nova Scotia.) We lived there for a time and it felt like all Scotland, all the time. Honestly, just about every wedding I performed had a piper.

Canadians also have strong Presbyterians roots, even in our United Church of Canada. I have served two St. Andrew's congregations during my ministry, a reminder that they were Presbyhooligan at the time of union. In one of them the gospel lesson was in Gaelic every St. Andrew's day, read by a guy in a kilt. I even married the daughter of a Presbyterian moderator! Many of the classic hymns of our faith came out of the Scottish psalter, and I'm partial to them. There are lots of reasons to care about the outcome of this vote.

I realize that I'm conservative in this regard. I'm open to change in a lot of things, and we know that scores of countries have gained dependence from the former British Empire. Somehow I'm partial to the U.K., but I might feel differently if I were a Scot, or Welsh, or Irish.

Have you formed an opinion on this one? Should the Scottish people pull a William Wallace/Braveheart and choose independence or death? Should Mel Gibson be permanently barred from Scotland? Let's pray for the outcome.