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On Sunday 17th April, we’ll be hosting an event at which Trevor Wills will tell his story of drug addiction and the hope and new life that enabled him to break free.
On the morning of the same day, our minister, Stephen, will be speaking on the subject: ‘What makes us human?’
All are very welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served following Trevor’s talk in the evening.
See the leaflet below for more info:
Scotland is known for many things: its history, castles, culture, islands, mountains, lochs, authors, humour. But sadly we’re also now known as the drug death capital of Europe. While drug deaths in 2021 fell slightly after rising for seven years in a row, deaths per million still far outstrip rates anywhere else in Europe. The death rate here is more than three-and-a-half times that of England and Wales. The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has increased substantially over the past 20 years and is now almost three times higher than it was a decade ago. Almost two thirds of the deaths were of people aged between 35 and 54, with the average age increasing from 32 to 43 over the past two decades. The gap between deaths in the most deprived and least deprived parts of the country have also widened, with those in the most deprived areas now 18 times more likely to die a drug-related death.
Here in rural South West Scotland, we’re far from exempt from the dependence, despair and death that drugs bring. A couple of years ago a BBC documentary entitled ‘These pills may kill you’ explored the record rise of drug deaths in Dumfries and Galloway. The documentary highlighted the rise in black-market drugs being sold on social media. One former drug addict from Dumfries said that he used to roam the streets for hours to find the drugs he was looking for – whereas ‘Now, go on to Facebook, go on to What’s App, two minutes, sorted. And maybe only 20 minutes later it's delivered’. This has also led to changes in the type of substances that people are using, with drugs in pill form like Xanax rising in popularity.
Nicola Sturgeon has described the issue as ‘shameful’, but fierce debates have raged as to what to do about it. Methadone has been at the heart of drug treatment strategies since the 1980s – when it was introduced to combat the risk of HIV through drug users sharing needles – but its use has been widely criticised by recovering addicts and drugs workers.
In 2019, the SNP backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of drugs, and last year Scotland’s Lord Advocate announced that simple possession of Class A drugs should no longer be treated as a serious criminal offence. Tom Buchan, a former president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, described the move as ‘a surrender – the white flag has come up’. In fact, the Scottish Government would like to go further and introduce so-called shooting galleries (officially sanctioned drug consumption rooms where addicts can inject themselves), but have so far been blocked by Westminster. Meanwhile, drug-related hospital stays as a result of cannabis use reached an all-time high in Scotland last year. In fact, cannabis-related admissions to psychiatric units have increased by 74 per cent since the Class B drug was effectively decriminalised in Scotland six years ago.
But amidst all the darkness, some are finding hope. One of my fellow football chaplains, Stuart Patterson, from Easterhouse in the East End of Glasgow, was interviewed by the BBC a few years ago about his journey from heroin addict to pastor. ‘There is hope’, he says. ‘The love of God in my life has made the difference’. Another testimony of change comes from Stephen McCallum, from the Niddrie estate in Edinburgh, whose story was featured in the Sun. He was an addict and drug-dealer for 19 years, but found hope through his local church. His brother had become a Christian a few years before, and while he was happy for him, Stephen thought ‘people in the church wouldn’t have time for guys like me’. And yet he went along – and not only realised that the people were different from what he expected – but he also found the new life that Jesus offers.
In our own church, we have people with similar stories. In fact, in a few week’s time, my friend Trevor Wills is going to come and tell his story of how the use of recreational drugs became an addiction that he couldn’t get out of. But now he’s left it all behind and is an elder in his church. As he puts it, ‘this is my story of drug use, and the hope and new life that enabled me to break free’. Trevor will be with us at 5:30pm on Sunday 17th April and we would love for many to come, hear his story, and find the hope that he has found.
Related articles
Completing the Tenner (Review of Stuart Patterson’s book)
Methadone programme 'is a black hole', says drug misuse expert (BBC)
Is there an alternative to being parked on methadone? (BBC)
Is Jesus Enough for Drug Addicts? (Mez McConnell)
Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey – An Important Book
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 31 March 2022
The first ordination of a ruling elder in Stranraer for 49 years took place on the 27th of February. Following an elder election the previous month, Dr James Fraser was ordained during the morning service.
Stephen preached on Jesus’ words ‘I am the true vine’ from John 15, gave an account of events leading up to the ordination, explained what ordination is, and then put the vows to James. You can listen to the sermon here. (The sermon series on eldership preached in the lead up to the election can be found here.)
Following his assent to the vows, James was ordained by prayer and the laying on of hands.
This joyful occasion in the life of our congregation was followed by a church lunch where we had further opportunity for fellowship together.
Please pray for James in his new role!
A recent episode of the BBC NI TV programme ‘Hame’ was partly filmed in our church building and featured an interview with our minister and presenter Ruth Sanderson.
The fourth series of the Ulster-Scots documentary series is the first one to be filmed in Scotland. The episode that Stephen featured on also included a segment filmed at the Covenanter martyrs’ memorial in Wigtown.
A write-up about the episode featured in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press:
An episode on an earlier series featured RPCI historian William Roulston speaking about Covenanter preacher Alexander Peden, minister at New Luce and then field preacher, who travelled between Scotland and Ireland:
I’ve just discovered the BBC Radio 2 feature ‘What makes us human?’, hosted by Jeremy Vine on his lunchtime show. Each month a different guest is asked the title question. In the nearly decade-long run of the feature, guests have included Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Judy Murray, David Attenburgh, Val McDermid, the Chief Rabbi and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Last year, a collection of guests’ answers were published with the subtitle ‘130 answers to the big question’.
As Vine points out in his introduction to the book, ‘life is chock-full of mundane questions’. He himself has to confess ‘I have spent more of my spare time repairing a door handle than asking what my life is for’. Why, he asks, don’t we ever ask each other what we are all doing here?
The reason we don’t ask, he concludes, is because we’re scared to. He compares it to his experience as a participant on Strictly Come Dancing. None of the contestants ever considered that they were going to be the ones voted off. And as he puts it: ‘Strictly is like life. Here we are in this magical place – Planet Earth – and we seem to think the dancing will actually go on for ever. What we can never admit is how short time really is. People go missing around us, one by one, and still we dance. We are in denial’.
In fact, Vine concludes that one of the things that marks us as human beings is ‘our inability to stop the world and ask the biggest question of all, for fear that the result will be the end of our beautiful dance’.
Yet he didn’t struggle to get people willing to answer the question for his show. Those answers include the sharing of ideas, art, forgiveness, the ability to ask the big questions, and many more. In fact, every contributor to the book gives a different answer. That diversity perhaps flags up that human beings may not actually the best judges of what it is to be human. As Richard Madeley puts it in his answer, ‘all roads lead to the fundamental question of whether God exists or is simply a necessary fiction to get us through the night’.
If God does exist – and if he created us – then that changes everything. Because then all we would need to do would be to see what answer he gives to the question, rather than relying on stabs in the dark.
As Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, puts it: ‘Even in the age of neuroscience, it’s hard to improve on the Bible’s answer. We are each, regardless of class, colour or culture, made in the image and likeness of God’.
This is very different from the answer of Richard Dawkins, who says that ‘Human beings are apes, specifically African apes’. As he says elsewhere it is a ‘speciesist double standard’ to assume that thousands of suffering children in Africa are more important than the gorillas on the same continent. To give him credit, at least Dawkins takes his beliefs to their logical conclusion. Remove Genesis chapter 1 and you remove what Sacks calls ‘the most important statement there is of the non-negotiable dignity of the human person’.
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? It can’t mean that we physically look like God since he doesn’t have a body. Rather it means that we were made for relationship with God and with other people – and that we were made to reflect what he is like.
Our problem is that we fall far short of that. But as a former Bishop of Liverpool argued in his answer, in Jesus Christ we see what it is to be truly human. And that is because, in the words of the Apostle Paul, he is ‘the image of the invisible God’.
We were placed on this earth as image bearers of the great King. We have each failed in our task. But Jesus came to earth to perfectly represent God. And then he died on the cross, so that we could be forgiven for all the times when we’ve failed as image bearers. Or when we’ve mistreated other people made in his image.
As Vine acknowledges, human beings ‘are responsible for great failings, and, of course, for evil almost beyond imagination’. The Bible’s answer to his question helps us be realistic about those failings – but also tells us how that shattered image can be restored.
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 24 February 2022
