Murdoch and Anne MacKenzie
  • In Memoriam Murdoch MacKenzie
  • Funeral, Thanksgiving, Family Reflections & Obituaries
    • The Funeral Service
    • The Thanksgiving Service
    • Family Reflections
    • Scotsman Obituary
    • Guardian Obituary
    • Peter Millar Obituary
    • Related Obituary Websites
  • Murdoch's Ancestral Grave
  • Introduction to the Website
  • St Andrew's Bicentenary
  • Bossey (Switzerland)
    • Bossey Students' Projects
    • Images of Student Life
    • Leaving Bossey
  • Christmas & Advent Letters
    • Advent Letter 2014
    • Christmas Letter 2012
    • Christmas Letter 2011
    • Christmas Letter 2010
    • Christmas Letter 2009
    • Christmas Letter 2007
    • Christmas Letter 2006
    • Christmas Letter 2005
  • India
    • Kirkspire Articles Chennai >
      • Village Project in India
      • How it All Began
      • What Happened Next
      • Our Social Worker
      • Independence Day
      • Rural Development
      • Some Setbacks 1976
      • Up-Beat Assessment
      • Rural Project Visit
      • Integrated Development
      • Caledonian Chair
      • Symbols as Signs
      • Stargazers
      • Symbols and the Kirk
      • The Eagle Lectern
      • The Pulpit
      • The Baptismal Font
      • Newbigin Centenary
      • Love Nature as Yourself
    • The Riber Memorial Centre >
      • The Origins
      • The Official Opening
      • The Rev Harold N Riber
    • Rev Roy Manson: An Appreciation
    • Rev Roy Newell: A Tribute
    • A Gift of a Chalice
    • Acorns into Oaks
    • The God of Small Things
    • A Week in the Life of a Missionary Family
    • Bishop Lesslie Newbigin
    • Video of Bishop Newbigin
    • Christmas Letter 2010
    • New Year in Chennai
    • Pilgrimage to India
    • Images of St Andrew's Kirk
  • Lectures
    • People not Paper
    • Methodist Synod Lecture
    • Christianity Must Change
    • Maitland Memorial 2004
  • Macdonald Collection
    • Video of the Collection
    • Murdoch's Inventory
    • The Macdonald Sisters
  • Meditations
    • Roots and Fruits
    • St Colm's Reunion 2006
  • Moderator's Letters
    • 1998 >
      • Home Thoughts from Abroad
    • 2001 >
      • Creation & Environment
      • Evangelism
      • Unjust Structures
      • Christian Aid
      • A Roundtable
      • Unjust Debt
      • Christian Normality
      • Partnership for Mission
      • Remembrance
      • Christmas
    • 2002 >
      • Vocation
      • Prayer
      • Organic Unity
      • Christian Aid
      • Venerable David Goldie
      • Personal Covenant
      • Christian Declaration
      • Book that Reads Me
      • Terrorism
      • Palestine
    • 2003 >
      • Yuppies
  • Oban FM Broadcasts
    • Thought for the Day >
      • 2010 May 2
      • 2010 August 1
      • 2010 December 19
      • 2011 March 13
      • 2012 May 1
      • 2012 June 9
      • 2012 September 9
    • Sunday Broadcasts >
      • 2011 July 17
      • 2011 August 28
      • 2011 November 27
      • 2012 November 11
      • 2013 January 27
      • 2013 March 3
      • 2013 June 9
  • Occasional Papers
    • Coracle Summer 2014
    • On Being an Elephant
    • Meaning of 'Naturally'
    • Expedition to Wales
    • Four in a Boat
    • Trotternish Thesis
  • Photo Galleries
    • Golden Wedding 2014
    • The Ascent of Ben Nevis
    • The MacKenzie Family
    • The Road to the Isles
    • Images of St Andrew's Kirk
    • Family Tree
  • Poetry
    • Under Hallwood
    • Tennyson Travels
    • Father's Day Hymn
  • Reflections
    • Appin and Lismore 2007
    • Hugh Drummond
    • United Nationas Day 2012
    • Fair's Fair
    • Advent 2012
    • St Colm's College 1965
    • Trick Or Treat
    • Leipzig Group 2012
    • Bishop Lesslie Newbigin
    • The Iraq War
    • Good Friday Meditation
    • Christingles
  • Reports
    • Justice and Diversity
  • Reviews
    • From Crisis to Creation
    • Every Blessed Thing
    • Seeing the Good
    • Christian Faith Today
    • Finding Hope Again
    • Mission in the 21st Century
    • Pentecostalism South India
    • Axis of Peace
    • Living Spirituality
    • Mission Partnership
  • Sermons
    • Oban Cathedral >
      • Oban: Good Friday 2003
      • Oban: Good Friday 2005
      • Oban: Good Friday 2009
      • Oban: Good Friday 2010
      • Oban: Good Friday 2012
      • Oban: Good Friday 2013
    • Milton Keynes Farewell
    • St Oran's May 2013
    • St Oran's Maundy Thursday
    • Orchy & Bridge of Orchy
    • Muckairn Church 2013
    • St Cuthbert's Edinburgh
    • About Prayer
    • Trinity Sunday 2005
    • Trinity Sunday 2012
    • Taynuilt October 2012
    • Racial Justice 2002
    • Racial Justice 2004
    • Iona Abbey 2006
    • New Year in Chennai
  • Travels
    • Madras to Edinburgh
    • Children's Journey to the UK
  • Useful Links
  • Copyright
This Collection of his Writings and Photographs is a Memorial
​to the Life and Work of Murdoch MacKenzie              

CORACLE (Iona Community) Summer 2014 

An Article by Murdoch MacKenzie

Born in Glasgow and now living in Edinburgh, Murdoch MacKenzie has worked ecumenically and internationally all his life. Entering the European Youth Campaign in 1957, he joined the Iona Community in 1965, was licensed as a minister by the Church of Scotland, ordained in the ecumenical Church of South India in 1967, worked ecumenically in Runcorn and Birmingham, became Ecumenical Moderator of the churches and inter-faith movement in Milton Keynes  and more recently led the Fairtrade Movement in Argyll. Here he makes the case for nationalism of any kind to be understood as fundamentally opposed to the boundary-crossing love and unity as lived by Jesus.

IN DEPENDENCE

I am writing this at Pentecost, which this year coincides with the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and 100 days before the Scottish Referendum. Thus I am reminded of the fundamentals which have moulded who I am. At Pentecost they were all together in one place and understood (stood under) each other as they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. There was no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; all were one in Christ Jesus. In the upper room Jesus prayed that ‘they may all be one…so that the world may believe’.

Having lived through the Second World War, some years later while still at school in 1957, I wrote an essay on European Unity, winning a prize which was presented to me in Bruges in the College of Europe via which, with a dozen other young Europeans, I travelled throughout West Germany including the ruins of East and West Berlin. For many years as a member of the European Youth Campaign I worked for European Unity with my European friends with some of whom I am still closely in touch. I then studied at Hertford College in Oxford where in 1583 John Donne had studied and who, in 1624, wrote the famous words: ‘'No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee....”

I was reminded of these words recently when Anne and I were travelling by train in India and sharing the night accommodation with a family from Orissa. After an animated conversation about everything under the sun, a young woman in the family said: ‘In the end there is only one thing that matters. We are all human beings!’ That young woman was right! I also remember the late and much-lamented Rabbi Hugo Gryn saying that people in the world could be divided into two groups – ‘the harmonisers and the polarisers’. Personally I have always preferred to be a harmoniser and have more or less given my life to this, especially in ecumenical and interfaith work.

Not long ago we had Naim Ateek, one of the most distinguished Palestinians staying with us on his way to Iona. We had a long conversation about Internationalism as he asked me questions about Scottish nationalism. He declared himself to be an internationalist. Later I wrote and asked him to tell me as a Palestinian what he meant by internationalism. This was his reply:
‘Dear Murdoch,

Sorry I could not get back to you quickly.  I was busy with an interfaith program between Muslim and Christian clergy which we conducted in Galilee last weekend.

On the question of internationalism, I have always felt that the world should slowly shed the narrow concept of nationalism and move towards a new world order where we adopt international concepts. I was very happy when the European Union was formed.  It is still struggling but I believe the world should be moving in that direction.  I believe the concept behind it is sound and has many advantages where we become more inter-dependent on each other and reduce the level of nationalist tensions that led people to war.

I have written about this topic briefly in my last book when I discuss the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.  In fact, I always say that we must not be satisfied with two states, Israel and Palestine, living alongside each other, we must either create a confederation of states between them or even a federation of states by inviting Jordan and Lebanon to join.

Obviously, I am not talking as a politician but as a person of faith that is concerned about building healthy communities that can address the problems that are dividing and killing us.’ 
Personally, I was brought up to believe that nationalism and patriotism were pernicious and usually led to war and conflict. In recent years nationalism rears its ugly head once again, with the True Finns, President Putin being praised for his patriotic nationalism, nationalist struggles in Crimea and Ukraine, not to mention  Nuers and Dinkas in Sudan, Hindu Nationalism in India and Scottish Nationalism in the UK. I am Scottish to the core, a Glaswegian by birth, with deep roots in the Isle of Skye and in Torridon as well as in Aberdeen, and family trees stretching back over 200 years. In 1979 I voted YES to a Scottish Parliament and believe in further devolution towards a federation of states between Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. Since retiring back to Scotland in 2003 I have always voted for the SNP solely because of Trident.

In my 76 years I have lived 2 years in France and Switzerland, 12 years in India, 29 in Scotland and 33 in England. As far as poverty is concerned or, for that matter, the siting of nuclear weapons, I am just as much concerned for people living in India and England as in Scotland. Those suffering from the bedroom tax and other right-wing policies in inner city Birmingham, or the housing estates of Milton Keynes and Runcorn where I used to work, are still as dear to me as those in Glenrothes, Glasgow or Argyll. I am in daily contact with work at the grassroots in India. In a fragile world with many tensions Scottish nationalism simply encourages disintegration and negativism. Jesus said: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. Our neighbours are the English, the Irish and the Welsh. If the saintly and deeply Christian Naim Ateek, who was born in sight of the Sea of Galilee, can contemplate a Federation including Jordan and Lebanon surely we Scottish people can love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Otherwise what is the Gospel all about?

So let us ‘think again’ and with the Good Samaritan cross boundaries and become harmonisers and not polarisers. Let us live in dependence on and with our neighbours. We cannot ever be independent because as John Donne so clearly said: ‘No person is an island.’ In my 2014 Housmans Peace Diary the entry for 18th September says: ‘On 18th September 1924 Mahatma Gandhi began a 21 day fast in a Muslim home, for Hindu-Muslim unity in India.’ On 18th September this year let us vote and pray for unity in the UK and in Europe and throughout the whole wide world and not tear the world apart.

Rabbie Burns summed all this up very well when he wrote in the last verse of A Man's a Man for A' That:
Then let us pray that come it may

(As come it will for a' that),

That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's comin yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.        

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.