A New Year message from the Most Rev Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church

“The house is now tidy, new gifts put into new places, the kitchen cupboard sorted and Jane has been sowing her onion seeds,” writes Bishop Mark Strange. “These are all signs in the Primus’s home that the beginning of a New Year is upon us.

“Once again we reach the point where we take a look back just as we begin to move forward. We are aware of the changes, joys and pains that 2025 brought as we begin to consider the year ahead.

“We will all have good memories and difficult memories from the past 12 months, but now is the time to offer hopes and prayers for the year ahead. We know for sure that 2026 will bring change, because things always change. There are forthcoming elections for the Scottish Parliament in the months ahead, at a time of turmoil in UK politics. There will be further need for reconcilers and peacekeepers across the world as we continue to witness the destruction of communities in Palestine, the pain of the war in Ukraine and the complexities of international brinksmanship bringing the fear of an escalation of conflict worldwide.

“The crisis in our climate is still growing. And the exclusion of those who appear different has developed in our own communities, in places where we thought distrust of others had been defeated.

“Yet we have a message of love and joy to proclaim and we must not allow the darkness to overcome that mission. We must be prepared to call out the purveyors of hatred and greed in our world but we cannot do that by becoming as negative as they are.

“I try every day to love those I meet, to offer that love to all who cannot see it themselves and to those who feel separated from God by the conflict they hold. That doesn’t mean we condone or ignore what needs to be confronted but it does mean that we offer ourselves into that space as people who are first and foremost people of faith and from that faith we become people of love.

“May you all have a joyful New Year and be ready to challenge the world by offering the love of God to all.”