Partners in focus: Election highlights work of SCPO

May 5, 2021

At Scottish Parliament election time, we take the opportunity to highlight the Scottish Episcopal Church’s long-standing relationship with the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office.

Every year, the Church in Society Committee of the SEC invites grant applications from organisations working on a variety of issues in Scottish society, and includes projects from the local, such as providing school uniforms for a local primary school, to the national, such as a third sector coalition combating climate change.

The SEC’s monthly magazine Inspires Online is focusing on one of the award recipients every month, to highlight their award and the work that the SEC’s support allows them to pursue. The series has begun with a look at the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office – frequently referred to as SCPO – and the Inspires Online article is reproduced here.

The SCPO was set up in 1999 as a response to the opening of the Scottish Parliament, with the vision of building a fruitful relationship between the Churches in Scotland and the new Parliament, and helping them to relate and respond effectively in the political process.

Twenty-two years later, some of those objectives are achieved through activities such as the annual Church Leaders’ meeting with the First Minister, and projects such as ‘Meet your MSP/MP’, which are both SCPO initiatives. The SCPO also provides a place for different churches to come together to discuss their shared approach to government work, such as responding to consultations or bills.

If the Churches want more information on a particular topic, the SCPO can arrange briefings on particular topics with the civil service or members of the Government. For example, in 2019 a small group from SCPO was able to meet civil servants involved in rolling out new Social Security payments to discuss how faith communities could help with spreading information and awareness about the new payments, as well as feeding back any issues that had been raised locally.

The Scottish Episcopal Church is a founding member of the SCPO, which is one of our strategic partners and as such receives core funding. Last year, Church in Society and the SEC Standing Committee took the decision to make a significant increase in SEC funding, and the SCPO is now the largest of our grant recipients and one of our longest and most established partnerships.

In common with many organisations, the SCPO experienced significant disruption during 2020, and after a review, work began to re-establish some activities and functions of the SCPO. There was little time to spare as the Scottish Parliamentary elections on 6 May drew ever closer, and the SCPO quickly made resources available under the ‘Issues for Scottish Churches’ banner including

• A Just and Green Future Beyond Covid-19
• Adult Social Care
• Alcohol, Drugs and Substance Abuse
• Constitution and Independence Referendum

Information and advice was also made available for churches looking to host and arrange hustings meetings for candidates.

“It is imperative that the work of the SCPO continues to be a sign of ecumenical commitment and to enable ecumenical co-operation,” says David Bradwell, who was appointed Scottish Churches Parliamentary Officer last year. “This is both an essential characteristic of the Churches’ life and work together, as well as being a more effective way to relate to decision-makers.

“The work of the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office should underline the Churches’ commitment to the common good, the role of churches and congregations in communities, prayer and pastoral support for Parliamentarians, and the Churches’ multiple roles as a prophetic voice, as a candid friend, and as a promoter of respectful dialogue and informed debate on national political issues.”

The SCPO aims to achieve the objectives of its post-review vision through building effective relationships between Church leaders and politicians, civil servants and parliamentary figures, to allow the exchange of ideas; facilitating and enabling Church representation on legislation and political developments; and by providing strong communication through the sharing of news of parliamentary and political developments with the key people in all Churches. To those ends, a new monthly meeting has been set up for church staff and volunteers in Scotland working on Holyrood issues to meet and exchange ideas and information.

“I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Scottish Episcopal Church and other denominations in this new role,” said David.

(The new edition of Inspires Online can be read here.)