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Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament

Joe Higgins is the Policy and Campaigns Officer for Humanist Society Scotland (HSS). Since 1989, HSS has been the national organisation representing humanists in Scotland. As well as campaigning on behalf of humanists, and for human rights and individual autonomy, HSS is Scotland’s original and most trusted provider of humanist wedding, funeral, and naming ceremonies.

Every Tuesday afternoon before the start of business, a speaker is invited to the Holyrood debating chamber to give a short address to Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). During this segment, known as ‘Time for Reflection’, individuals representing a range of faith, belief, and civic backgrounds share their thoughts and insights on the issues of the day. 

Time for Reflection (TfR) was introduced soon after the establishment of the devolved parliament in 1999. It came about as a compromise. While MSPs on the whole wanted to reject the discriminatory and archaic Westminster system of daily prayers, there was considerable pressure from Christian conservatives in Scotland to replicate the Westminster approach in the newly devolved legislature.

History

Reflecting the eagerness of MSPs to define the values of their new Scottish Parliament, the very first motion debated by Parliament concerned whether the business bulletin should make time for prayer. The full motion read: 

That this Parliament agrees in principle for Prayers to be held on a non-denominational basis, at the start of each plenary session of the Parliament, and remits to the Parliamentary Bureau to make arrangements therefore and to come forward to the Parliament with recommendations speedily.

The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh. Bernt Rostad, CC BY 2.0

Sir Alex Fergusson, the Conservative MSP who brought forward the debate, saw the merits of daily prayer in the UK Parliament and felt it should be emulated in some form at Holyrood. The custom – reportedly dating back to 1558 – has been criticised for giving primacy to the views of Christian MPs and peers over all others.

In line with the Scottish Parliament’s founding principles of openness, accountability, and equal opportunities, the debate revealed a broad consensus for a more inclusive approach. Recalling her own experience in the House of Commons, nationalist MSP Winnie Ewing spoke of the practical advantage that precursory prayers gave to Christian MPs. She pointed to the fact that ‘if I wanted a seat, I had to pray. That was not a very dignified situation, but there were not enough seats to go around.’ Liberal Democrat MSP Donald Gorrie, another former MP, described daily prayers as ‘awful’, ‘exclusive’, and ‘ritual of the worst sort’.

In contrast to the ‘Westminster model’, MSPs spoke about ensuring the new parliament reflected the ‘multiplicity of faiths and beliefs that encompass Scottish life.’ In practice, many felt that any time reserved for prayer or contemplation should welcome representatives from all of Scotland’s faith and belief groups, including non-religious communities. Gorrie even advocated for a system of ‘proportional praying’ that would see time allocated to each religion based on its number of adherents. In one contribution from the Labour MSP for Dundee East, John McAllion, he referred to humanism directly: 

Of course, there are not just Protestants and Catholics; there are also humanists. I know that some people will say that that is not possible in Scotland—that they are either Protestant humanists or Catholic humanists—but humanists’ beliefs and traditions must be kept in mind…  They have every right to hold that principle and to have their views respected.

Sir Fergusson’s motion passed by 67 votes to 37, with 15 abstentions. Those who spoke against simply replicating the Westminster model included First Minister Donald Dewar, who was himself non-religious and mindful of the diversity of religious and non-religious Scots who were to be represented by the new Scottish Parliament.

First Minister of Scotland Donald Dewar MSP (left) with Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David Steel MSP (right) during the celebrations to mark the Opening of the Scottish Parliament, 1 July 1999. The Scottish Parliament, CC BY 2.0

Later that year, a more detailed cross-party resolution was presented to MSPs by the Minister for Parliament Tom McCabe. It proposed that ‘Time for Reflection’ should be held weekly before the start of chamber business. It would be held in public and address all of the people in Scotland. And the programme of speakers would follow a pattern based on the national balance of beliefs. A proposed amendment from Conservative MSP Phil Gallie, which sought to remove the multi-faith element and have the programme follow ‘the traditional Christian culture and faith of Scotland’, was soundly defeated by 99 votes to 9. MSPs agreed to the original resolution and the first TfR, led by the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Officer Rev. Graham Blount, was held a few weeks later on 27 October 1999.

Yet, fast forward to 2024, and we can see that Phil Gallie needn’t have worried about the sidelining of Christian tradition at Holyrood. Despite early aspirations for a more open, inclusive and diverse model, TfR has never come close to accurately reflecting the beliefs of the people of Scotland. Analysis from Humanist Society Scotland in 2021 found that across the first five sessions of the Scottish Parliament (1999-2021), an average of 74% of contributions were made by Christians. The same figure for humanist and ‘non-faith’ contributors stood at just 12%. 

This disparity has become more noticeable in the 25 years since devolution, as Scotland has become steadily less religious. Between 2001 and 2022, the number of people identifying as Christian in the Scottish Census fell by 26 percentage points to under 40%, with a majority (51%) now saying they have no religion. Since 2001, one million fewer people report belonging to the Church of Scotland alone. 

Influence

The Scottish Parliament’s example contrasts with the Senedd (Welsh Assembly, later Welsh Parliament), established in the same year, which never instituted or considered the adoption of daily prayers. Nevertheless, ‘Time for Reflection’ has been influential in other jurisdictions. In British Columbia, humanists successfully used the Scottish example to move the British Columbia Parliament away from a system of prayers. Meanwhile, Humanists UK has campaigned for inclusive time for reflection to replace Anglican-led prayers in the Westminster Parliament.

In 2024, the Scottish Parliament marks its 25th anniversary, coinciding with the publication of Scottish Census results showing that 51% of Scots have ‘no religion’.  Scotland’s rapid demographic change in 25 years has underlined the task facing future Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament to devise truly ‘proportional prayers’ for a modern, secular country.

Read more

Holyrood at 25: the foundations of a humanist parliament | Humanist Society Scotland

Main image by Graeme Maclean. Licensed CC BY 2.0.

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