On the Sunday after the General Election (7 July) the Rev Dr Maggie McTernan, the Rev Canon Oliver Brewer-Lennon and the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth led worship from St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship programme.

The service, which was titled “God Always With Us”, featured the St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, directed by Frikki Walker and accompanied by Steven McIntyre.

During the sermon, the Provost, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, reflected on elections and the political process.

“Our procedures for choosing leaders, using stubby pencils to mark slips of paper seem a long way away from David being chosen as King of Israel by the acclaim of the people. But there’s things to learn even from that account.

“David and the people entered into a covenant with one another. And that word, Covenant is laden with meaning as it echoes the various times that the bible speaks of a covenant being made between God and the people.

“Speaking of the relationship between leaders and those looking for leadership as a covenant relationship is to speak of the trust between them as being nothing other than sacred.”

Provost Holdsworth went on to discuss the readings, noting that: “many of the biblical writers are, at best, ambivalent about the powerful, but passionate in proclaiming that God’s love is particularly poured out on the powerless and the weak.

“In one of the readings that we heard this morning and which will be read in many churches today (Mark 6.1-13), we hear of Jesus feeling powerless himself and then starting to send out his disciples to proclaim his message – a message of repentance, a manifesto for changing everything.

“Repentance means nothing other than changing everything and turning yourself around to face a new direction.”

Later in the service, prayer was offered “that we see more clearly the things we have in common, that understanding and empathy may increase among us, fostering cooperation and goodwill.”

You can listen again to the broadcast, and find a full transcript of the service, at this link.