Bishop Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, recently took part in a four-way discussion with Scottish religious leaders about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, to mark Scottish Interfaith Week 2020.

The Primus was joined by the Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Most Rev Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and Sheikh Razawi, Chief Imam of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society.

The conversation was chaired by Iain Stewart, executive director of Edinburgh Interfaith Association.

“I had been heading home from retreat in Lindisfarne the weekend before we closed the churches, and as I travelled home I began to think about what the Church might need to do, what can we do to help,” said Bishop Mark as he opened the discussion.

“My diary was rapidly emptying … and then the horror. I tried to explain to people what it felt like to be a faith leader at the point when you are doing the very thing that made no sense, which was closing our churches. [It was] the point at which we would normally be leaping into action and finding ways of putting more on to enable people to come and pray. I felt devasted the night that I had to write a note to say that the churches would be shut.”

The one-hour discussion can be viewed in full on YouTube.