On the Sunday after the General Election (7 July) the Rev Dr Maggie McTernan, the Rev Canon Oliver Brewer-Lennon and the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth led worship from St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service, which was titled “God Always With Us”, featured the St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, directed by Frikki Walker and accompanied by Steven McIntyre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the sermon, the Provost, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, reflected on elections and the political process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our procedures for choosing leaders, using stubby pencils to mark slips of paper seem a long way away from David being chosen as King of Israel by the acclaim of the people. But there\u2019s things to learn even from that account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“David and the people entered into a covenant with one another. And that word, Covenant is laden with meaning as it echoes the various times that the bible speaks of a covenant being made between God and the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Speaking of the relationship between leaders and those looking for leadership as a covenant relationship is to speak of the trust between them as being nothing other than sacred.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Provost Holdsworth went on to discuss the readings, noting that: “many of the biblical writers are, at best, ambivalent about the powerful, but passionate in proclaiming that God\u2019s love is particularly poured out on the powerless and the weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In one of the readings that we heard this morning and which will be read in many churches today (Mark 6.1-13<\/em>), we hear of Jesus feeling powerless himself and then starting to send out his disciples to proclaim his message \u2013 a message of repentance, a manifesto for changing everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Repentance means nothing other than changing everything and turning yourself around to face a new direction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in the service, prayer was offered “that we see more clearly the things we have in common, that understanding and empathy may increase among us, fostering cooperation and goodwill.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n