What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Scottish Episcopal Church News for February 2015

    The following news can be reproduced on other websites and in church magazines. Sign up to have news like this delivered each month by email here: http://thurible.net/follow-blog/

    Lent Appeals

    The Scottish Episcopal Church is having a co-ordinated Lent Appeal in each of its dioceses this year in aid of the Scottish Episcopal Institute. The Institute is a relatively new training body which was formed last year following an inspection of its predecessor, TISEC – the Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church. (The inspectors indicated that they had no confidence in several aspects of TISEC including its ability to engage in formation with candidates for ministry). Unlike the Train a Priest fund in England, this appeal appears to be to support the institution rather than aiding candidates for ministry directly with grants. A leaflet has been published and it being customised for each diocese – the Brechin one is available online here: http://www.thedioceseofbrechin.org/media/resources/Brechin_Lent_Appeal.pdf

    Liturdi Albannach 1982 (Gaelic Liturgy 1982)

    A new online resource has been made available by The Gaelic Society of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It consists of a parallel English-Gaelic text of the 1982 liturgy and sound recordings to help Gaelic learners. The texts and recordings can be found on the website of the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles.

    People

    Tribute to Ivor Guild

    The Rt Rev Ted Luscombe, retired Bishop of Brechin has published a tribute to the late Ivor Guild CBE:

    Ivor Guild was in the long line of distinguished Scottish lawyers who have given devoted service to the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was a faithful and devoted communicant member of St Paul’s Cathedral, Dundee, where he was brought up, and then for the rest of his life “an eight o’clock man” at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh.

    Despite holding a number of high profile public offices – Procurator Fiscal of the Lyon Court; Bailie of the Palace of Holyrood House and Chairman of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland amongst them – he was essentially a very private person.

    He gave an immense amount of his time, his legal expertise and his common sense to the Councils of the Church. For forty years he was Registrar of the Episcopal Synod where his wisdom was implicitly relied on by successive holders of the office of Primus. He served as Chancellor of the Diocese of Edinburgh for ten years and as Chancellor of St Andrews for thirteen years. For the last thirty-odd years he was a Director of Scottish Episcopal Church Nominees where his wide experience of Investment Trusts was invaluable and he was one of the five Trustees of the Episcopal Church. He was regarded – and rightly regarded – as one of the Elder Statesmen of Episcopacy.”

    Murals at St John’s Church in Edinburgh

    At the end of last year a mural was painted outside St John’s Church in Edinburgh. Like many of the previous murals, this one was controversial enough to cause some considerable comment. (A typical example of the outrage being on “Archbishop Cranmer”‘s blog.

    The Rector of St John’s, the Rev Markus Dünzkofer has now published a reflection about the various murals that have occupied the spot.

    Thirty years ago the murals were created as a response to this prophetic tradition. Not unlike Hosea and Nathan they are at times rather uncomfortable and at other times really affirming. Most of the times they are somewhere in between. And sometimes they miss the target. It all depends on the subject matter and on one’s particular viewpoint. But all the time the murals strive to set a question mark amongst the indifference and the fears of our world. And at times these question marks have to be most powerful. This is why the murals are appreciated by many.

    The full reflection can be found here: http://churchofstjohn.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/murals-and-free-speech.html

    Response of College of Bishops to letter regarding their Guidelines

    The College of Bishops has responded to a letter of concern from over 50 clergy and lay readers in response to guidelines regarding changed to marriage law published by the College in December 2014.

    Writing on behalf of the College, the Primus, The Most Rev David Chillingworth has said:

    As bishops, we are acutely aware that the issues which are part of the wider discussion of human sexuality and are touched on in the Guidance issued by the College are not abstract matters of policy. They affect deeply the lives and relationships of members of our church, both clergy and laity. It is regrettable, therefore, that some have been upset by the style and tone of our Guidance
    document; this was not our intention. We are aware that what we say should be expressed in a way which is compassionate and which honours the depth of the feelings involved.

    The full letter can be read here: http://www.changingattitudescotland.org.uk/response-college-bishops-letter-concern-50-clergy-lay-readers/

    Around the Church

    New Year Message from Bishop Gregor Duncan

    The Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway has published (on 26 January 2015) a new year message from Bishop Gregor. It can be found here: http://glasgow.anglican.org/index.php/news/entry/bishop_gregors_new_year_message/

    Moray Diocesan Anniversary Banner

    The year 2014 marked the 900th anniversary of the Diocese of Moray and the 150th anniversary of the uniting of the Diocese of Moray, Ross and Caithness. A banner has been produced to mark this event and a booklet published containing details of the banner. More here: http://moray.anglican.org/diocesan-anniversary-banner/

    New Congregation formed in Fife

    A new congregation has been formed in Fife incorporating the congregations of Aberdour, Burntisland and Inverkeithing. It meets in Inverkeithing High School.  More details here: http://www.standrews.anglican.org/news/entry/launch-of-new-congregation-at-all-souls-fife

    Vacancies

    The congregation of St John’s, Forfar seeks a Rector – closing date 6 February 2015. Full details on the Scottish Episcopal Church website: http://www.scotland.anglican.org/who-we-are/organisation/vacancies/

     

     

     

8 responses to “Assisted Dying – Why I’ve changed my mind”

  1. BobS Avatar
    BobS

    You lucidly illustrated an example of a family seeking to pressurise someone to influence the process of death. But what was possibly missing was the voice of the person nearing death. Where was their perspective, their reasoning? Assisted Dying starts and driven by the person dying. They are the ones who, with mental capacity, take those steps, if necessary, to expedite death at that final stage. They, together with medical experts, make those decisions.
    The examples cited refer to a family desperate for a skiing holiday and your concern of funeral directors making money through direct cremations.
    I fully agree with your desire for a better palliative care system. Having witnessed their work it is amazing. But that is another argument. To conflate the two dismisses the voice of those seeking assisted dying.
    Your concern over assisted dying seems to be interwoven by a call for improved palliative care and a demise in direct cremations.

    Reply
    1. Rev Owain Jones Avatar
      Rev Owain Jones

      Respectfully, Bob S, I think you’re overlooking the one thing that struck me very forcefully from this incident. I’ve always felt profoundly uneasy at the likelihood – I’d say ‘moral certainty’ – that the voice of the dying will in some cases be influenced, even swayed, by the dying person’s assumptions, inferences or intuitions (correct or not) about the needs of those closest to them, and even their desires. These desires might not be articulated, or even correctly guessed – but they might, and as soon as the dying person is subject to them, they are, by definition, influenced in their decision. At that point, Assisted Dying can no longer be said “to start and driven by the person dying.” I’ve been there for a long time – but what I suddenly realized reading Kelvin Holdsworth’s post, was that there’s a much darker issue here, and it relates to a fundamental principle to which I’ve always adhered. Please bear with me, and entertain for a moment an analogy which you might consider to be extreme, and which I’d be appalled to hear deployed by the religiously fanatical opponents of Assisted Dying. It’s this. I have always been opposed to the death penalty for a number of reasons, but very prominent among them is that it takes to an extreme the testing of a fundamental principle of justice (which I know I’m modifyng here to make the analogy a better fit, and of course, you’re free to take issue with that): “It is better that a hundred guilty men go free than that one innocent person be punished unjustly.” I’m aware that there’s a very significant separation between that and this, but I don’t believe it amounts to ‘clear blue water’. Let me try and articulate my conviction in a reasonable way, for you to consider, even if you reject it. I think that there’s a huge danger inscribed in legislation which will, of a moral certainty, permit circumstances in which unwilling dying individuals give assent under pressure to the active premature termination of their lives. This holds true even if a hundred times as many individuals assent freely, and even actively seek, such termination. One of the things that always made me uneasy about the Vulcans was the assertion that “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. There seems to me to be no way in any legislation to protect the needs and rights of the few in this issue. At the very least, I think that needs to be acknowledged openly by proponents of Assisted Dying. If we’re about to be taken across a Rubicon, I believe that everyone, on both sides of the decision, need to acknowledge that. (Incidentally, I completely agree with Kevin Holdsworth’s horror (I hope I’m expressing that fairly) at ‘Direct Cremations’ and the way they’re advertised. They seem to me to be open profiteering from the death-phobic culture in which we’re immersed. I fear that the impulses behind Assisted Dying as currently advocated may be a good-faith manifestation of the inability of society to look at the full actuality of human mortality and the relationship between life and death. I may be deluding myself, but I think I’d say that even if I were an atheist.

      Reply
      1. BobS Avatar
        BobS

        Rev Owain, thank you for your response. I fear your analogy was stretched to fit your argument, and, apologies if my education lacked in this quarter, where the reference to Vulcans was applicable.
        If we are concerned that a very small percentage will be wronged, then many practices today should be stopped. The statistical error you describe will always be possible, albeit minimised as much as possible.
        The proposed law tries to cater for such concerns. What appears to be the argument against assisted dying is that it is not error proof.
        If a person who is deemed to have mental capacity with less than six months to live, with suitable medical provision, seeks to alleviate their suffering, and is capable of themselves administering the medication to ultimately ease that pain, then their voice has been heard.
        I also would hope that palliative care continues to improve but that is a separate argument, as are direct cremations, and now the cost of the funeral to families. These arguments are all used to conflate the underlying issue of assisted dying.

        Reply
    2. Val Dobson Avatar
      Val Dobson

      You are wrong to connect funeral companies’ promotion of Direct Cremation with the push for assisted dying. Nowadays, many families simply cannot afford a “proper” funeral / cremation, and funeral grants come nowhere to covering the the costs. The funeral companies are simply responding to customer needs.

      Reply
      1. Kelvin Avatar
        Kelvin

        I’m happy to speak out about funerals being too expensive. However, it is manifestly not the case taht funeral companies are simply responding to customer needs. If they did they would promote these as being about price. They don’t – they promote them as being about not causing a fuss, which is the point I’m making here.

        Reply
  2. Nigel Kenny Avatar
    Nigel Kenny

    Thank you for your wise and persuasive words – may they influence MSPs to vote against the Bill.

    Reply
  3. Chriatine McIntosh Avatar
    Chriatine McIntosh

    Thanks for this, Kelvin – I’ve been thinking more about this as contemporaries begin to vanish from this life.

    Reply
  4. Helen Leslie Avatar
    Helen Leslie

    Thank you Kelvin. I am someone who has spent the majority of my working life caring for people at the end of their lives. You said exactly what I would want to.

    Reply

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